In this blog post, Brian Jump explores the common failures of audience/performer interactions. He covers courtesies musicians owe audiences and ones that audiences owe musicians. To assuage this occasionally dysfunctional relationship, Jump offers a list of eight commandments to be observed while giving, watching, or paying for musical performances.
In this post, Brian Jump speculates about the direction and future of music. He explores the impact that artificial intelligence might have on composition and consumption, and he considers the possibility that the music of the future might be fundamentally different from the music of the present.
This blog post explores the topic of improvisation. It analyzes a chord-centered method for composing on the fly, and it introduces a strategy for organizing the guitar fret-board known as the CAGED system.
Audio Blog: Introduction Self-doubt, like an invasive plant species, has the habit of taking over the wilderness of one's thoughts. This is especially true when considering professional choices. For this month's blog post, I imagined a conversation between two versions of myself: Me and Other Me. In the post, "we" take turns telling autobiographical stories about doubt... Continue Reading →
This month’s blog post features a conversation I had with my friend Brett Staggs. In our talk, we discussed emotional musicianship versus academic musicianship by asking each other a series of questions. We documented our interaction in two ways: a written exchange we did via email, and an unscripted conversation we filmed with our iPhones. Also included... Continue Reading →
Talent, like everything else in the known universe, seems to arise from prior causes. Namely, genetically-guided brain physiology, and environmentally-guided thoughts and intentions. Talent, therefore, comes in part from the genes that give us life and in part from the life that our genes must navigate. Busy maximizing their own survival, our genes perpetuate themselves indefinitely by... Continue Reading →
Chasing the Chords 