Why I switched to the Apple iPad for Sheet Music: The Pros and Cons.

I have to be honest; I am very old school in many of my approaches to music. I use vintage style equipment - Victoria amps, various vintage style guitars, and some real vintage stuff. However, I do like to involve modern technology when I can. Enter the Apple iPad.

A couple of weeks ago I was on tour with an Elvis impersonator named Ben Portsmouth (check him out on the David Letterman show - LINK HERE). We were performing at an outdoor concert and Ben likes to change the set-list often. I was reading a lot of notes on the charts because it was the first gig of the tour. I had a plastic screen over my charts to stop them blowing away. At one point Ben wanted to jump back a few charts so I had to scramble through the pile. Just as I was doing this a big gust of wind came through and blew the page to the side of the stage. Unfortunate for me I was supposed to start this tune. It was at that moment that I decided to buy an iPad for my charts.

I have had the iPad for a little over a week. Here are some good and bad points to consider:

Good Points:

1. The iPad has a built in light!
2. You can store literally thousands of charts in a small package.
3. It is very easy to find and catalogue charts.
4. Set-lists are easily made, changed and recalled.
5. No more taping charts together!
6. Using forScore it is very easy to share charts with others - simply email.
7. Backing up is easy: make a copy and leave that in your dropbox folder (*Make sure you do this!).
8. The iPad is extremely light-weight. Carrying charts for long distances can be a major problem. The Rodger Fox Big Band pack has about 300+ charts. That is a lot of paper to carry and you will have a dead arm by the time you get to the gig if parking is bad and you have to walk a long way.
9. Wind is no longer a problem. I have had many charts blow off the music stand over the years. Pegs and plastic sheets help but you still have to remove these to change charts.
10. You can use the iPad for other functions too e.g Drum machines, synths, controlling equipment and much more.

Negatives:

1. I can no longer leave my charts on stage during set breaks and before the gig etc, as someone might try to steal the iPad.
2. iPads screens can be broken. This means you need to watch carefully when people walk past you. They only have to be careless and bump the iPad off the stand and disaster could strike.
3. The iPad is a computer and can crash and freeze up etc. This is less of problem these days, as iPads are super grunty and charts are really small files requiring very little processing power but worth considering.
4. I have found that while the rest of the band is sorting out their charts I have nothing to do. This means I have an extra 10-20 minutes to kill before the gig. Usually that just means I practise or play games on the iPad!
5. Turning pages is a real hassle. There are pedal turners (e.g. AirTurn), but this is still not the easiest or most reliable system yet.
6. The screen size is slightly smaller than an A4 page. This is not a problem for me, but for someone with poor eye sight it could be a problem when reading from a distance. However, if you crop the sides of the chart, the notes end up being almost the same size as on an A4 page. I recently did a rehearsal with classical pianist Michael Houstoun and he used an iPad for the rehearsal. He used it landscape to make the notes bigger. He also used an AirTurn. Also, rumours are there is a new iPad on the way - rumour is it will be called an iPad pro and have a bigger screen.
7. The iPad won't work for all musicians. e.g drummers... who can not change the page with their foot or hand while playing. Or harp players; they need the charts far enough away so they can play their instrument and that would mean the charts are too far away to read.

I do not think the iPad will totally replace paper charts, just the same as computers have not negated the use of paper. I work with orchestras often and they will have printed charts for me to read at the rehearsals and gigs. Also, there is many times where PDF's just wont be available and it might be more hassle than it is worth to put the charts in the iPad.

I can see the iPad being a big improvement and won't be going back to paper anytime soon when its practical to use. Imagine it like sending letters, who does that these days? Everyone emails, right?

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What to try when uninspired to practise.

Photo by Ben McNicoll

We all feel a lack of motivation to practise from time to time. This can happen for many reasons. Sometimes it is just we have lots of other things occupying our time and energy. Sometimes it is just tiredness, sometimes it can be a lack of knowing what to practise. There can be many reasons for this but I find it best not to focus on these, rather to focus on finding ways to work around them.

Here is a few things to try when you feel uninspired:

1. Go to www.YouTube.com and search for new artists.  I do this by searching for people I already know and like and then look at the suggested videos. Often YouTube will suggest artists who are similar in style to what you are viewing and if I see someone I have heard of, or who has a big view count, I will check out their video. Occasionally I just watch videos that look interesting. As a general rule I give each video a minute of my time and if it has not grabbed me by then, it probably won't. If I hear something I like then I check out further videos of this artist. What often happens as a result is my own playing is lead in new directions.

2. Listen to a favourite CD / MP3 that you have not listened to in a while but that you remember being a source of inspiration at some point.  This can lead to concepts that you might have lost sight of. A few that consistently work for me are - Pat Metheny: Question and Answer, John Scofield: Meant To Be and Wes Montgomery: Willow Weap for Me.

3. Try playing a different instrument. I find every instrument makes me play differently - for example if I reach for my 12 string guitar I am going to play differently that my electric guitars. Nylon string acoustic guitar often inspires different musical output.

Photo during Penny Black movie sessions

4. Take a long walk and evaluate what is important to you. I often find life gets in the way of what really matters. You know, doing stuff we have to do rather than whats really important towards reaching our potential e.g. emails etc. Leave the lawns for another day and grab that guitar and work on something that will make you better. I find just getting some time to myself can be really important and is something I need to schedule into my days.

5. Attend a jam night. There is no substitute for playing with other musicians. Good or bad, jam nights can inspire practise. I have attended a few jam and open mic nights where I have played terribly and it has been a wake up call. I have also attended others where for any number of reasons the playing has reached another level and I've really felt inspired to practise for a weeks afterwards. Both can have a positive effect if you think about it in this way.

6. The other alternative is to give up music. Thats right, give up. If you give up there is nothing to feel bad about. Ha.

All the best for your musical journey. I hope this has been useful.

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Keeping it simple - the 'Grease' setup.

I am often intrigued by the complex things in music; gear, harmony, rhythms etc but find I am constantly reminded that simple is usually best. Simple does not necessarily mean easy.

For the last three weeks I have been playing guitar on the theatre show 'Grease'. This is a light-hearted, fun theatre show and in many ways challenging; not least to play the rock 'n roll style authentically, to play consistently night after night and to play the parts super tight among other desirable goals. Rock 'n roll is simple music and I have found many jazz musicians struggle with this e.g. playing 7th and 9th chords when it should just be a triad etc. Luckily I have a background in playing rock 'n roll, blues and rock which has been invaluable in my working career as a musician.

Last night before the show there was a few minutes of free time in the theatre. So I recorded a quick loop of my guitar using my delay pedal and went out the front into the theatre to have a listen. I got the sound guy to crank my guitar up loud in the system. I was amazed at how big the guitar sounded yet the setup I am using is very simple.

In the past I have used big amps, lots of pedals, many guitars etc. For this show I used just one guitar, a small amp and a small pedal board. This is the first time I have listened out front on one of these shows and I was very happy with the tone that was filling the large theatre (1500 seat capacity). [Note: The acoustic guitar in the picture is being used by Conway Jeune who is playing guitar 2.]

My guitar is an Ibanez AR420 Artist (with coil-taps engaged the whole time). I really like this guitar for these gigs as I can get the sound of a Les Paul, a tele and more just by adjusting the settings. Does it sound exactly like a tele? ... no. Nor a Les Paul - but thats not the point. It sounds really good to my ear and is super versatile so any subtlety is not an issue here.

I have a big pedal collection but in recent years have been stripping it back to just the basics - a few drive pedals (Cusack screamer and BB preamp), a delay pedal (line 6 DL4), a tremolo (Empress), an octave (Boss OC2 my one guilty pleasure!) and utility stuff (tuner - Korg, volume pedal - Ernie Ball, Pickup booster - Seymour Duncan, reverb - Chicklet).  I power these using a BBE supercharger which is excellent. It is quiet, reliable and has switchable voltage so can be used anywhere in the world. I use a pedal train board in a soft case (it is the size of a laptop case).

The amp I am using is a Victoria 20112, their reproduction of the classic 1959 Fender tweed Deluxe. This amp is 15 watts with a 1 x 12 inch speaker. It is mic'ed up. Main thing I need from the amp is to produce the tone I want and as a monitor. Easy. Does the job extremely well, and is super reliable - which is hugely important on these gigs.

There is a lot of truth in the concept of it being better to have a small amp cranked up than to have a big amp on a low volume. I set the amp at the point of breakup aka Larry Carlton's concept. Also, the band area is tight (as usual) and a big amp would be in everybody's way.

Someone asked me the other day what they have to do to get these gigs. Hard question as things are definitely different these days than they were when I was starting out. However, I think being recommended for the gig is still the most likely way in. Thats how it happened for me and is likely how it will happen for others (I recommended the 2nd guitar player for this gig - now he is in there and likely to get future work). So, the only way someone is going to recommend you is if they know you can do the job e.g Do you have your rig together? Can you play the styles necessary? Are you RELIABLE? Can you read music? Is your timing good? Are you good to work with? etc.

One of the key skill necessary is reading music. Many guitar players I know read poorly. It is not necessarily their fault (laziness in some cases maybe?) but the fault of their teachers who likely did not read very well either and is not typical of how people learn the guitar unlike say violin, or other instruments. In saying this, guitar players will never read on the equivalent level of great sax players, trumpet players and keys players because the guitar is much tougher instrument in terms of reading - so do not beat yourself up if you are working hard at your reading and not of the level of other musicians.

Here is a sample of the first pages of two charts from Grease. I had to transcribe the chord changes to Grease Is The Word because it was totally wrong - same with Hopelessly Devoted. This is unusual, so ignore that for now, but this is pretty much what show charts look like - a combination of lines, chords, hits etc, etc.

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Guitar Lesson: The Robben Ford Scale by Nick Granville

In this lesson I cover a scale I call the Robben Ford Scale. Some call it the dorian pentatonic or minor 6 pentatonic. I'm not a big fan of either of those names because they both imply that the scale belongs to a minor tonality. Sure, it is a minor scale, but I use it over dominant 7th chords primarily.

The way in which Robben uses this scale is to play over the I chord and the IV chord in a blues or similar progression - essentially to blanket. On the I chord it clearly spells a 13#9 chord and on the IV chord it spells a Dominant 9th chord e.g Bb13#9 to Eb9 if in the key of Bb.

Feel free to fire any questions you might have about this?

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Why the majority of people don't like Jazz.

I can understand why average punters do not like jazz. Often the music and performance can be boring.  Jazz in many ways has become academic. You know what I'm talking about - people with great chops and knowledge but no musicality, who just run scales and don't have anything to say. Don't get me wrong, I am not referring to every jazz musician - just some. Here are a few things I think the general music audience don't like about jazz:

1. Walking Bass Lines - some in the audience simply can not hear the harmony when bass players walk so get bored.
2. Ride Cymbal Swing Beat - some in the audience can't feel the beat and lose interest.
3. The Tunes - jazz musicians often play tunes they like rather than what the audience wants to hear. Some tunes called standards are anything but standard.
4. The complexity of the music - Some jazz musicians are more interested in playing clever than music that feels good.
5. Chord Scale Relationship - jazz has been too much about playing scales over chords in my opinion. Jazz education is to blame for this, but thats a different topic beyond the scope of this blog.
6. Poor Presentation - Many jazz musicians put little or no effort into their presentation. I saw a gig recently at a club and the guitar player (who was leading the band) did not say one word to the audience all night. He set up, played, the packed up. What is up with that!
7. Out There Soloists - some soloists are incredibly difficult to follow. Some play all kinds of out lines that do not relate to the melody (which the audience wasn't familiar with in the first place) and wonder why the audience is not digging the gig.

This is just the beginning of what could be a long list ...

For these reasons and more - I hate the term jazz. Many people have had bad experiences of jazz music and I do not want my music to be included in that. The term 'jazz' implies music that my grandfather was listening to - music of a foregone era if you will. One time I even had a students father say that to me 'my son listens to music his grandfather would have loved'. Ha, awesome!

I really believe jazz music can be fresh again. I believe that jazz music at it's best in incredibly exciting, uplifting and relevant. Sadly, the vast majority of people will never hear jazz at it's best and have already made up their mind about what the music is going to be, long before we start. Therefore, it is our responsibility as jazz (for lack of a better term) musicians to win people over and to win the audiences back to the music.

What I think is missing:

1. Fun! Music and jazz was never meant to be super serious. I am not suggesting for one second that people get up and 'take the piss' or don't play well in performances. Rather, I'm saying you have to take care of business, but have fun in doing so, and the audience will like it. They want to see you having fun.

2. Play tunes that people understand and know. The tunes that are now considered jazz standards were once the pop tunes of the day. Some standards have become museum pieces. Play the new stuff - please! However, there is nothing worse that people playing the most recent stuff in a way that is so obscure that no one will recognise the source. This achieves nothing. Some musicians think, I will play this MJ tune, reharmonise it, play it in 7/8 and modulate into a new key for the bridge - then people will love my music and think I am clever. Wrong! Those who like MJ, won't get it, and will hate it. Those who like jazz will think you are doing silly stuff for not playing something they can understand. No one wins.


3. The dance element. Jazz is not an academic sport. It was conceived as dance music. Make the music feel good and you stand a chance - 'it don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing'. Right?

I think The Bad Plus has it right in so many ways. What a great concept they have hit upon. I would love to see this happen more often. Oz Noy has a great saying when describing his music - 'It's jazz. It just doesn't sound like it'.

Keep in touch:

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If you have an opinion about this let me know? I am curious to know what people think of jazz and what can we all do to lift our game as jazz musicians.

The best gigs / concerts I have attended and what I learnt from them.

Matt Penman, Joe Lovano, Matt Wilson, me and John Scofield

As a professional musician I am often asked by punters about concerts I have enjoyed. People assume I get to attend many concerts and gigs; unfortunately I do not - I am often too busy doing my own. This has lead me to do a lot of thinking lately (yes, I know it must have hurt, right) about what it is that makes certain musical performances special and others not so much. The same band from night to night can fire one night and fizzle the next; for any number of reasons. How do we as musicians make it so we fire on all cylinders every time we play?

The best gig I have ever seen was the John Scofield & Joe Lovano Quartet at Skycity Casino in Auckland, New Zealand. I was fortunate to get on this tour as the person who looked after the band and I got to see both the Auckland and Wellington concerts; and I would have seen the Christchurch concert if it had gone ahead, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to lack of ticket sales - come on people, go to the gigs or it is likely the artists won't come back!

For some reason the Auckland concert was on fire. Maybe it was because bassist Matt Penman is originally from Auckland (now residing in New York) and felt a bit of pride about playing with these heavy players in front of a home crowd? Maybe these guys came with the approach to play their hearts out? Maybe the sound was amazing on stage (it was!) and they were responding to a nice acoustic space? It is highly plausible it it was a combination of all the elements and more.

Don't get me wrong, the Wellington concert was good, amazingly in fact, but it lacked the same spark that the Auckland gig had the night prior. Maybe it was me! Maybe by the second night I had made up my mind about the gig, and was not as open minded going into the performance?

I can not help but think the attitude and general willingness of the musicians has a lot to do with why some gigs are great and other not so much. One of the best concerts I have been to was Chucho Valdes and the Afro-Cuban Messengers at the Wellington Jazz Festival. Chucho had a young band who were clearly 'amped' about playing. That energy made this performance special - you could feel it in the air. These guys had decided to smash it out of the park that night and thats exactly what they did.

Two other performances that have stood out for me over the years were the Pat Metheny Trio and the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (EST). Pat is one of my heroes and it was awesome to see and hear him play. I would have traveled a long way to attend this gig. Christian McBride was the bass player and Antonio Sanchez the drummer. Antonio blew my mind. He is the complete drummer - great groove, chops, knowledge, tone etc.

Roger Waters, The Wall. Photo shows an example of the
projected images on the wall. Incredible. 

I think the reason EST stands out for me is that it was totally unexpected. I was given free tickets for their gig as Ben Monder (New York based jazz guitarist) was opening for EST and he was using my Mesa Boogie amp. I heard EST and was completely blown away. They are one of the most original concept groups I have ever heard. Also the sound guy absolutely nailed the gig; incredible.

The best 'show' I have seen is undoubtedly Roger Waters The Wall at Vector Arena, Auckland. The sound was amazing (surround sound), the band 'nailed it' and the visuals can only be described at epic. Stunning concert.

I am convinced what makes a great performance is partly attitude of the performers, partly the acoustics, partly audience participation and open-mindess, the visuals and partly some kind of X factor -  that something just happens. When all these things combine, magic happens and it sure did at these performances I have mentioned. I keep all these points in mind when I am putting together my own shows.

The interesting thing is, in the case of most of these concerts, I wasn't supposed to have gone to the performances, but for a number of reasons things lined up or people made it happen for me. These days try to attend as many gigs and concerts as I can, because one never knows what might end up being a life changing experience.

                             Visit www.nickgranville.com for lessons, free music, videos, news and more ...

Los Angeles: Alive and Vibrant Music Scene or Dead?

Recently I took a trip to Los Angeles to have a look around the music scene, catch up with friends and generally soak up some musical inspiration. I spend two weeks in LA with a few days in San Francisco. I often hear people say there are few gigs in LA these days. While I am not familiar with the LA scene of the past what I experienced was a healthy scene with lots of great music, much of which was free or a reasonable price (usually $20 at the most).

During my time in LA I heard the Oz Noy Trio at Catalina's (feat. James Genus and Dave Weckl for $20!), Bruce Forman's group Cowbop at Viva Cantina and at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, Ben Shepherd's group upstairs at Vitello's, the Pete Myers Big Band at Jazz at the Cap, Katisse at the Baked Potato, the Kenny Burrell Big Band at UCLA, Poncho Sanchez at Spaghettini's and Tech Support at the Blue Whale. In addition to these performances I attended jam nights at The Falls in Downtown LA, the Cafe Cordial Pro Jam Session and the Baked Potato Monday Night Jam.

I was very fortunate as my friend Jon Papenbrook, who I stayed with for the first week, plays in lots of groups and I was invited to come listen to these groups rehearse. The two groups I heard were at the Burbank Music Academy and the Steve Sleagle (spelling?) Big Band rehearsing at the union building. The Burbank group I subbed for the guitar player who was away on tour with Natalie Cole. Both bands played well and were made up of well known players, with the Jon playing lead trumpet on the both bands. On the Burbank band the second trumpet player is in Earth, Wind and Fire and the trombone player played with MJ; so lots of very good players in these bands.

One highlight of this trip in addition to the music / hang was meeting guitarist Lee Ritenour at Vitello's. I have listened to Lee extensively and he is definitely one the big time Los Angeles studio players. He was super nice to me and we chatted about music mostly and New Zealand a little.

Also, a highlight was jamming with my friend Ben Shepherd and his flatmate Eric Valentine at their place. Eric is a well known drummer in LA, and he informed me that he had been to NZ to play with Steve Luthather and Steve Vai on the G3 tour!! It was awesome to play with these great musicians partly because after hearing all this great music I was hanging out to play, but also because I felt these guys played so well together and we would make a great trio if we did some gigs round LA.

I had always wanted to drive the coast from San Francisco to LA via the pacific coast highway so on this trip I decided to make the most of this opportunity. I drove up to San Francisco via the freeways then returned to LA via the pacific coast highway. This coast is some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. I absolutely loved Big Sur. Stunning, to say the least. I hope to go back there soon to have a holiday. It's a long drive (it took me 11 hours but was worth it). It was a little foggy the day the I did this trip but that added to the excitement!

In San Francisco I heard the Tommy Igoe Big Band at Yoshi's (what a terrific venue!), and the Jose Simione Blues Band at the Saloon (not so terrific venue, but cool gig nonetheless) and an unknown band at the Tonga Room. All of which were high quality and only a 6 hours drive from LA to San Francisco (via the freeways). I have to say, San Francisco is a beautiful city. Busy, scenic and exciting.

I couldn't fit in Vegas on this trip but that is even closer to LA than San Francisco is.

All in all, I would say LA is alive and vibrant as a music city. There are some amazing musicians (as good or better than you will hear anywhere). I have many friends in this town who are awesome people. I hope to make it back there soon and I plan to book some gigs.

(many thanks to Bruce Forman and Jon Papenbrook for accommodating me and taking me to gigs)

                                                                             Keep in touch:

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