Digital Pill – working musicians talk about their lives

Dave Evans explains the uses of the accordion bellows shake. In this video, Dave describes the uses of the double and triple bellows shake in jazz, zydeco and cabaret music. He includes detailed instructions about how to perform the shake as well as techniques for adding accents to play with the rhythmic aspects of accordion. [...]

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Mark Hannaford piano, Sam Anning double bass and Allan Browne drums playing ‘Darn that dream’ at Bennetts Lane jazz Club Check out their latest CD Shreveport Stomp

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Fran Swinn’s composition – Inform – for Jazz quartet and acrobat, featuring Eugene Ball – trumpet, Fran Swinn – guitar, Tamara Murphy – double bass, Ben Hendry – drums and Rockie Stone – acrobatics/aerials. Inform is a collection of short pieces written with the rhythm and form of the various circus apparatus in mind and [...]

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David Bridie sings The Centre Cannot Hold from the Fiasco album by My Friend the Chocolate Cake. David says of this song – From the W B yeats poem..”things fall apart, the centre cannot hold”..a war reflection..pretty simple tune, just blocked piano and droning strings … listened to Robert Wyatt’s “stalingrad” off “nothing can stop [...]

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Dean explains how to slide effortlessly into the altissimo register of the sax in one long continuously ascending note. Click > HERE < to download a pdf of the lesson Listen to Dean’s music here The Pearly Shells Zydeco Jump The Vanguards

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Paul Williamson explains the uses of bebop scales in jazz improvisation. In this video, Paul’s first post for Digital Pill, he describes the construction of bebop scales, jazz articulation, the use of a metronome and how bebop scales place the chord tones firmly ON the beat to create an “inside” sound in improvisation. The video [...]

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Doug DeVries shares some ideas on how to add harmonic and rhythmic variation to a piece of music. In this lesson he uses one of his own compositions – Astoria – as an example of voice leading in harmony as well as examples of how to increase interest by varying the rhythm. Visit Doug on [...]

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Ray discusses using a combination of tone and slap sounds on the djembe to produce rolls of various lengths and their use in contemporary percussion soloing. More information about Ray’s classes, projects and recording can be found at raypereira.com

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In part 2 of a series Doug DeVries shares some ideas on how to add rhythmic variation to a piece of music. In this lesson he demonstrates how to increase interest by varying the rhythm. Visit Doug on these links His website dougdevries.com Doug’s albums on iTunes

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