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Steve's Blog: Solo Bass & Beyond

Entries Tagged as 'Musing on Music'

Fame, Fame, Fatal Fame - Michael Jackson And The Death of Global Super-Stardom

June 27th, 2009 · 21 Comments

The death of Michael Jackson - like so many celebrity deaths - has brought with it a swathe of responses, both from the public and in the media.
Anyone who ever met him gets dragged out to talk about ‘their relationship’, and anyone remotely famous who might have a connection (be it sharing the pop-charts [...]

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Tags: Musing on Music · Rant - Politics, Spirituality, etc. · obituaries · tips for musicians

The Earnestness of Being Important

June 3rd, 2009 · 7 Comments

…AKA, What’s Important about your Music… To You?

Following on from the discussion about ‘what makes you interesting?’, I’ve been thinking about the other ‘value metrics’ for what we do as musicians, and the directions they flow in.
Interestingness is one bi-directional value:

What you think is interesting, or find interesting about what you do
What your audience [...]

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Tags: Musing on Music · the future of music · tips for musicians

Guest Post II - Jennifer Moore on ‘Interestingness’

June 2nd, 2009 · No Comments

[This post was originally posted as a comment on my "What Makes Your Music Interesting?", but was far too wonderful, and involved, to leave as a comment. So please do read the other post first, and Jennifer's earlier comments. Jennifer Moore is, as I said in the comments there, the first person I ever saw [...]

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Tags: Managing Information Streams · Musing on Music · the future of music · tips for musicians

More Music Video - New Public Beta experiments + Duo with Theo Travis

May 12th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Here are the latest couple of videos I’ve put up. The first is another of the experimental ideas I’m working on for the new album - this time I wanted to try something a little more solidly rhythmic, just to see how the replace functions interact with a percussive track. (the part is played by [...]

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Tags: Music News · Musing on Music · looping

Open Letter to the UK Jazz Community Pt 1 - You’re Special!

April 13th, 2009 · 7 Comments

photo of Lawson/Dodds/Wood live at the Vortex by Richard KabyI’ve been meaning to write this for ages, but the inspiration today came from trying to find a link to send out to Asaf Sirkis And The Inner Noise’s album ‘The Song Within’. I couldn’t find anything but 30 sec clips, and lots of links to buy it.

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Tags: Musing on Music · the future of music · tips for musicians

More new music - Youtube video of a brand new tune.

April 12th, 2009 · 17 Comments

photo of the bed of the thames, taken from a pothole in a boat near Tower BridgeAfter the new tune I posted on Audioboo a few days ago, I’ve got the bug for uploading new tunes. Hopefully it’ll finally kick me into action to make some decisions about the kind of record (or whatever passes for a ‘record’ these days :) ) I want to make.

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Tags: Gig stuff · Music News · Musing on Music · bass ideas · looping

10 great drum-grooves (guest-post by Anders Faerch)

February 19th, 2009 · 6 Comments

After he commented on the 10 great basslines post, I asked my Danish drummer friend, Anders Faerch, to list 10 great drum grooves to check out - here’s his list. Some great stuff in there!
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Inspired by Steves 10 great bass lines here is my take on 10 great drum grooves.
I love making these kind of [...]

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Tags: Musing on Music

10 great basslines.

February 14th, 2009 · 22 Comments

10 great basslines from Bass Guitar Magazine

A few months back, I was asked to put together a list of 10 of my favourite basslines by Bass Guitar Magazine. I sent them a list of 10, and a little note about each one, but the article is now out without the little blurb. So here’s the blurb. They also numbered them, as though there’s an order to them, which there clearly isn’t. Music doesn’t work like that. and If I wrote the list again today, it’d be different.

But anyway, here’s the list, with links where possible, and a little bit about each one…

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Tags: Musing on Music · bass ideas · journalism

The problem of time. The eternal crisis of music-based social networks.

February 2nd, 2009 · 6 Comments

TOO MUCH CHOICE! Photo of Lobelia in Mother's health food store, Costa Mesa, California, by steve lawsonSo, context: I’m on Myspace, ReverbNation, Last.fm, Facebook and Twitter. Oh, and Youtube, Vimeo, Seesmic, Phreadz…etc. etc.

All of them are social networks. On all of them, not surprisingly, I get followed/added/friended by a lot of musicians and bands.

Which is all well and good, except that I can’t listen to them. Not ‘won’t‘, ‘can’t‘ - the numbers don’t add up. Even if we ignore the 8000 myspace friends I deleted before christmas, we’re still looking and thousands of interactions. Even if I only listened to one song from each, that’s upwards of 4000 minutes of listening time, just to grant each of them a cursory ear. And given that a handful of them will really catch my imagination, I’ll probably end up listening to them a lot over time.

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Tags: Musing on Music · the future of music · tips for musicians

Top Twitter Tips for Musicians.

December 29th, 2008 · 33 Comments

Twitter Win Fail at stevelawson.net I’ve been getting WAY too many ‘follows’ on Twitter of late from musicians who really don’t get it. So here’s my Top Tips For Musicians On Twitter. You may want to start with my Best Practices In Social Media post, or just jump straight in here.

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Tags: Geek · Managing Information Streams · Musing on Music · the future of music · tips for musicians