This also makes me reflect on Joe Pass, a jazz guitarist of cosmic grandeur, and Ella Fitzgerald, a jazz vocal icon.  They had a jazz guitar/vocal duo together.  The way Joe played guitar, dancing around Ella’s rich melodic vocals and giving her all the support akin a big band was stunning.  Ella and Joe are artists of the highest caliber, and not only have they internalized countless jazz classics, but more significantly, they found their own voices and interpreted them in a unique and sincere manner.  Their recordings and performances influenced all vocalists and guitarists in that genre.  They possessed the gift of spontaneity, and playfulness and you can sense that magic in the air.  

Art has an amazing power to draw people together.  Film makers, event organizers, visual artists and musicians are striving for their individual best, but during this process something separate is also taking place:  the building of relationships between people that otherwise might not cross paths. Two weeks ago, I played at the Iowa City FilmScene where 3 very short films premiered about efforts to foster solidarity in Iowa City neighborhoods.  Topics included soccer for youth, people gathering in dialogue about neighborhood issues and implementing art/murals to beautify residences.  The annual Longfellow Front Porch Music Festival, which happens in my neck of the woods, was also featured.  To my surprise, for a brief moment on the screen, there was a shot of my son watching me perform with my new band  in our garden!  That event bore much fruit including our debut, reconnecting with local musicians and picking up new guitar students who live within walking distance.  

Music is comprised of many different elements akin to a field of wild flowers.   All these components blend into a big picture and yet at the same time allow for zooming in.  With practice, you can listen attentively to the melodic, lyric, rhythmic, harmonic and textural parts that are present.  

As we head into the New Year I hope you can look back at 2023 and celebrate your accomplishments.  Whether you have started learning an instrument or upped your practice routine, found musicians to play with or opened your musical palette to new genres, we are all a work in progress, and celebrating and acknowledging growth is healthy.  

Playing in a cover band is a true growing experience.  Let’s explore the benefits and fun of working with a group of musicians learning songs that topped the charts.  Included in this list are bettering one’s ability to understand and memorize songs composed by other people, making use of new apps to speed up that process, creating a repertoire as a group, exploring new sonic possibilities on the guitar and broadening one’s understanding of popular music history.  For many musicians, myself included, it is normal to start out playing top 40 cover tunes, and this can help the move to creating original material.  Most folks don’t come out of the womb with a stack of songs ready to go!  I am delighted to find myself again in the position of learning songs that resonate with entire generations around the globe.  I am going about it with a new perspective and appreciation.