songwriting

Songwriters’ Exchange with Jason & Jess – Replay from June 18, 2024

Leave a Comment / Banjo, Chicago, Goals and Education, Guitar, Harmonica, Instruments, Jason's Journal Entries, Literary Arts, Mental | Physical | Spiritual, Musical Arts, New Mexico, Places, Process, Songwriting, Visual Arts /

Jess Baldissero is not only a good friend, she is one of my favorite songwriters. I was honored that she sat with me earlier in the week to discuss the discoveries and accidents of the creative process. We shared some laughs, talked about good times and hard times and we each played a few songs.     Audio and Video Audio Only Getting to Know Trees knowingtrees.com · Songwriters' Exchange with Jason McInnes and Jess Baldissero Three tracks from The Hermit, my debut solo album are streaming during the pre-order period. The full album will be released June 28, 2024 on Bandcamp. http://joybird.bandcamp.comPick up Jess’s music, featuring her band Joybird, at Bandcamp also. 

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The Hermit – June 28 Release Day

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“The Hermit chronicles a journey. These instrumentals, played on acoustic guitar, banjo and other acoustic instruments, combined with poetry and accompanying artwork expresses a stepping away from an established, but unstable and consumptive, life path onto the ultimately more stable, yet unknowable trail of accepted impermanence.” Read more about the album and listen to preview tracks now at jasonmcinnes.bandcamp.com.    

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Virtual Songwriter’s Exchange with Jess and Jason

Join Jess and Jason for an intrepid discussion about the accidents, discoveries, breaking apart and gluing together involved in the creative process and songwriting in particular. Registration is free, but is required.Register at https://www.knowingtrees.com/storeYou’ll receive an email with the Zoom link for the discussion. Find Jess’ music at https://joybirdmusic.bandcamp.com/ Find Jason’s music at https://jasonmcinnes.bandcamp.com/

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Don’t Know What to Play? Put Your Worry Away and Try Dreaming

Leave a Comment / Essays, Goals and Education, Guitar, Instruments, Jason's Journal Entries, Mental | Physical | Spiritual, Musical Arts, Process, Self-Guided Lessons, Uncategorized /

Musical Dreaming – it’s a practice that I took part in, but had never really considered until some great chats with my old friend John Donahue. I think about John and his musical dreaming a lot when I meet with frustrated students.  https://vimeo.com/949795666?share=copy Dreaming with Your Guitar .pdf They wanted to play more. They’re just too busy. They’re frustrated with the pace of their progress. They’re overwhelmed and don’t know what to practice. I get it. I feel that way about music all the time. Thankfully, I’ve developed some strategies to get me out of such a funk and this is one of them. Next time you don’t know what to play, or are bored or frustrated with the same old songs, try some dreaming.  The video is the best description I can make of this process.  I’ve also made a .pdf that has some drawings that can be useful, but there’s very little instruction on it. I hope you find this useful.

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“Let’s start something loud! Can you hear it?” – Cherishing the Music We Made with It’s a Girl

Leave a Comment / All Offerings, Chicago, Essays, Jason's Journal Entries, Musical Arts, Process, Songwriting /

. . . standing backstage at our album release show and hearing the sold-out crowd stomping and chanting,

“It’s a Gril! It’s a Girl! It’s a Girl!”

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Still frame from the interview

Jonas Friddle Discusses the Music and Memories behind his New Album, Jug Band Happy Hour (Interview)

Leave a Comment / All Offerings, Chicago, Musical Arts, Songwriting /

“It’s funny to think of myself as a person who is old enough to reflect on some good times.”  Jonas Friddle Jonas Friddle joins Getting to Know Trees to talk with Jason about how the good times of the past inspired his new collection of songs, Jug Band Happy Hour. Visit jonasfriddle.com to pick up the recording and to learn about his album release show, Feb. 5, 2023 at Space in Evanston.

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Present Time! – new piece by Elijah Kim

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One of my music students, Elijah, has offered some music inspired by this time of giving and receiving. Present Time! is Elijah’s musical take on the excitement of opening Christmas presents. Enjoy! Elijah is in the 7th grade, and has been playing guitar for 4 years. He likes seals and loves to go ziplining. He has been writing songs with his guitar for 3 years and has been composing with standard notation for one month.

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The Sticker Method: Creating a Habit of Practice

Leave a Comment / 'Ukulele, Banjo, Commerce, Goals and Education, Guitar, Harmonica, Instruments, Literary Arts, Mental | Physical | Spiritual, Musical Arts, Self-Guided Lessons, Skateboarding, Songwriting, Sports, Visual Arts, Workouts, Zines /

This fall I published my latest zine, The Sticker Method: Creating a Habit of Practice (available in the store). This is a method for taking a lot of the stress that can come with being a learner/do-er out of our lives. I’ve developed the method over my lifetime as both a teacher and a student I am a user of The Sticker Method and one of my favorite aspects of it is that the method can be used for anything. If you’ve heard my music, seen my drawings, watched my skateboard videos, or if we’ve talked about developing a habit of going to the gym, then you’ve seen The Sticker Method in action. What are you going to practice? I’d love to know. 

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