Ask Fatjack

[fatjack]

i'm not fatjack, but i learned major scale and pentatonic. if you know the major you know all you need to know. you just gotta learn how to use it from there. unfortunately i haven't gotten that far yet

[i am sam2]

ok i have one. im interested in doing some music-related stuff in college, but while id like to take more than just a class or just lessons offered thru the school, i dont want to major in music because i dont want music to be my job, i want it to be what i do for fun, my hobbie. anyway, is it realistic/managable to be a music minor? im not even sure that there is such a thing, but im curious to see if you know. i realize it might vary depending on the school, but im not lookin at music schools so anything but that. thanks.

also...do you find that knowing a lot of theory gears your playing toward using theory? that is something im afraid of a little - spending so much time learning theory and essentially using it as opposed to creativity

[fatjack]

ok i have one. im interested in doing some music-related stuff in college, but while id like to take more than just a class or just lessons offered thru the school, i dont want to major in music because i dont want music to be my job, i want it to be what i do for fun, my hobbie. anyway, is it realistic/managable to be a music minor? im not even sure that there is such a thing, but im curious to see if you know. i realize it might vary depending on the school, but im not lookin at music schools so anything but that. thanks.

also...do you find that knowing a lot of theory gears your playing toward using theory? that is something im afraid of a little - spending so much time learning theory and essentially using it as opposed to creativity

it depends on what school you go to. my school offers a minor program in music, but the its really not many requirements less than the general music degree. regardless of whether or not you are a music minor or major, you will still have to devote a good bit of time to it.

and yet again someone completely views theory the wrong way. i dont understand why everyone thinks that knowing theory will stifle creativity i've said it before and i will say it again: theory is used to explain, NOT to dictate. creativity is either there or it isn't, knowing or not knowing theory isn't going to change that. if anything, knowing theory will enhance you creative ability. after all, you have to know the "rules" before you know how to break them effectively.

[Cor]

I know you are a music major. This is the path I am going to follow in college. Some schools I have been looking at are Eastman School of Music (NY), North Texas, Berklee, and Northern Illinois, as well as a few instate colleges (Wayne State, Central, Michigan State). Have you heard anything about any of these schools? I am leaning towards texas but was wondering on another opinion.

What do you plan to use your degree in Jazz studies for? Studio musician? performer?

How many hours a day do you practice during college? Right now I try to practice a structured 2-4 hours a day with sight-reading, chord building, general theory, and jazz improv.

Music is my passion, and as I said, it will definately be the path I follow in college. Hopefully with your experience you can advise me on what's to come.

Thanks,
Cory

[fatjack]

I know you are a music major. This is the path I am going to follow in college. Some schools I have been looking at are Eastman School of Music (NY), North Texas, Berklee, and Northern Illinois, as well as a few instate colleges (Wayne State, Central, Michigan State). Have you heard anything about any of these schools? I am leaning towards texas but was wondering on another opinion.

What do you plan to use your degree in Jazz studies for? Studio musician? performer?

How many hours a day do you practice during college? Right now I try to practice a structured 2-4 hours a day with sight-reading, chord building, general theory, and jazz improv.

Music is my passion, and as I said, it will definately be the path I follow in college. Hopefully with your experience you can advise me on what's to come.

Thanks,
Cory

i dont know about any of those schools, but i do know university of texas austin has a good jazz program

i dont plan to use my jazz studies degree, but unfortunately they wont let you get a masters degree unless you have a bachelor's degree. i was forced to choose jazz studies because its the only choice i have as a guitar major at my school. i like playing jazz, but its a difficult major and i will rather be taking classes that are geared towards studio production (which fortunately my particualr program has a few of, but i wont actually have a degree in it). i will either get a masters in guitar and be a professor, or (if i ever get any ambition) i will get a master's in studio production and produce music as a career

2-4 hours a day huh? i should probably start doing that by the way... i've never been able to establish a structured practice schedule. scheduling practice just makes it not fun for me. i just practice whenever i feel the urge though. chances are though, that this will probably change come next year if i plan to actually get this degree

experience? what experience? i've played for four years and i finished the first year of music school (which is possible for anyone who isn't a total dumbass)... i dont have any experience

[Cor]

I know you are a music major. This is the path I am going to follow in college. Some schools I have been looking at are Eastman School of Music (NY), North Texas, Berklee, and Northern Illinois, as well as a few instate colleges (Wayne State, Central, Michigan State). Have you heard anything about any of these schools? I am leaning towards texas but was wondering on another opinion.

What do you plan to use your degree in Jazz studies for? Studio musician? performer?

How many hours a day do you practice during college? Right now I try to practice a structured 2-4 hours a day with sight-reading, chord building, general theory, and jazz improv.

Music is my passion, and as I said, it will definately be the path I follow in college. Hopefully with your experience you can advise me on what's to come.

Thanks,
Cory

i dont know about any of those schools, but i do know university of texas austin has a good jazz program

i dont plan to use my jazz studies degree, but unfortunately they wont let you get a masters degree unless you have a bachelor's degree. i was forced to choose jazz studies because its the only choice i have as a guitar major at my school. i like playing jazz, but its a difficult major and i will rather be taking classes that are geared towards studio production (which fortunately my particualr program has a few of, but i wont actually have a degree in it). i will either get a masters in guitar and be a professor, or (if i ever get any ambition) i will get a master's in studio production and produce music as a career

2-4 hours a day huh? i should probably start doing that by the way... i've never been able to establish a structured practice schedule. scheduling practice just makes it not fun for me. i just practice whenever i feel the urge though. chances are though, that this will probably change come next year if i plan to actually get this degree

experience? what experience? i've played for four years and i finished the first year of music school (which is possible for anyone who isn't a total dumbass)... i dont have any experience

I only started that recently. Money is the issue- In order to go to any college I pretty much have to get some fat scholarships. And the only way I'm going to do that is bust my ass. Sometimes it's not the best, but a day's break usually gets me back in the playing mood if I get bored or discouraged or whatever.

For some reason, I thought you have played a lot longer than me or at least the same amount of time. I've been playing about 5 and 1/2 years.

Most of the colleges I am looking at have been reccomended by some sources, and some I have just found on my own. This North Texas U looks pretty sweet and affordable, but I like the Professional music major offered at Berklee, where you can pretty much design your own major, I'd like to take enough performance credits to get my technique to where I can play anything I need to get my point across, as well as some songwriting, music bussiness, and music tech (recording etc) credits. I don't want to be in a strict performance major. But then again, Berklee's price is just ridiculous. So many factors, with so little time left...

[Brock]

UT does have a good jazz program, and North Texas does have a great music program, and the Denton music scene is pretty good too, despite the city being small. Lots of good bands have come straight out of North Texas.

[fatjack]

I know you are a music major. This is the path I am going to follow in college. Some schools I have been looking at are Eastman School of Music (NY), North Texas, Berklee, and Northern Illinois, as well as a few instate colleges (Wayne State, Central, Michigan State). Have you heard anything about any of these schools? I am leaning towards texas but was wondering on another opinion.

What do you plan to use your degree in Jazz studies for? Studio musician? performer?

How many hours a day do you practice during college? Right now I try to practice a structured 2-4 hours a day with sight-reading, chord building, general theory, and jazz improv.

Music is my passion, and as I said, it will definately be the path I follow in college. Hopefully with your experience you can advise me on what's to come.

Thanks,
Cory

i dont know about any of those schools, but i do know university of texas austin has a good jazz program

i dont plan to use my jazz studies degree, but unfortunately they wont let you get a masters degree unless you have a bachelor's degree. i was forced to choose jazz studies because its the only choice i have as a guitar major at my school. i like playing jazz, but its a difficult major and i will rather be taking classes that are geared towards studio production (which fortunately my particualr program has a few of, but i wont actually have a degree in it). i will either get a masters in guitar and be a professor, or (if i ever get any ambition) i will get a master's in studio production and produce music as a career

2-4 hours a day huh? i should probably start doing that by the way... i've never been able to establish a structured practice schedule. scheduling practice just makes it not fun for me. i just practice whenever i feel the urge though. chances are though, that this will probably change come next year if i plan to actually get this degree

experience? what experience? i've played for four years and i finished the first year of music school (which is possible for anyone who isn't a total dumbass)... i dont have any experience

I only started that recently. Money is the issue- In order to go to any college I pretty much have to get some fat scholarships. And the only way I'm going to do that is bust my ass. Sometimes it's not the best, but a day's break usually gets me back in the playing mood if I get bored or discouraged or whatever.

For some reason, I thought you have played a lot longer than me or at least the same amount of time. I've been playing about 5 and 1/2 years.

Most of the colleges I am looking at have been reccomended by some sources, and some I have just found on my own. This North Texas U looks pretty sweet and affordable, but I like the Professional music major offered at Berklee, where you can pretty much design your own major, I'd like to take enough performance credits to get my technique to where I can play anything I need to get my point across, as well as some songwriting, music bussiness, and music tech (recording etc) credits. I don't want to be in a strict performance major. But then again, Berklee's price is just ridiculous. So many factors, with so little time left...

you might as well forget Berklee man. you aren't going to get a scholarship there unless you are a savant. and even if you did, its next to nothing

i think you should be busting your ass to get academic scholarships instead, they are much easier to get AND they are usually a lot more than music scholarships. I think i may be the only person in my class who doesn't have a music scholarship, but i still have more money than anyone else who does have one

[Cor]

I know you are a music major. This is the path I am going to follow in college. Some schools I have been looking at are Eastman School of Music (NY), North Texas, Berklee, and Northern Illinois, as well as a few instate colleges (Wayne State, Central, Michigan State). Have you heard anything about any of these schools? I am leaning towards texas but was wondering on another opinion.

What do you plan to use your degree in Jazz studies for? Studio musician? performer?

How many hours a day do you practice during college? Right now I try to practice a structured 2-4 hours a day with sight-reading, chord building, general theory, and jazz improv.

Music is my passion, and as I said, it will definately be the path I follow in college. Hopefully with your experience you can advise me on what's to come.

Thanks,
Cory

i dont know about any of those schools, but i do know university of texas austin has a good jazz program

i dont plan to use my jazz studies degree, but unfortunately they wont let you get a masters degree unless you have a bachelor's degree. i was forced to choose jazz studies because its the only choice i have as a guitar major at my school. i like playing jazz, but its a difficult major and i will rather be taking classes that are geared towards studio production (which fortunately my particualr program has a few of, but i wont actually have a degree in it). i will either get a masters in guitar and be a professor, or (if i ever get any ambition) i will get a master's in studio production and produce music as a career

2-4 hours a day huh? i should probably start doing that by the way... i've never been able to establish a structured practice schedule. scheduling practice just makes it not fun for me. i just practice whenever i feel the urge though. chances are though, that this will probably change come next year if i plan to actually get this degree

experience? what experience? i've played for four years and i finished the first year of music school (which is possible for anyone who isn't a total dumbass)... i dont have any experience

I only started that recently. Money is the issue- In order to go to any college I pretty much have to get some fat scholarships. And the only way I'm going to do that is bust my ass. Sometimes it's not the best, but a day's break usually gets me back in the playing mood if I get bored or discouraged or whatever.

For some reason, I thought you have played a lot longer than me or at least the same amount of time. I've been playing about 5 and 1/2 years.

Most of the colleges I am looking at have been reccomended by some sources, and some I have just found on my own. This North Texas U looks pretty sweet and affordable, but I like the Professional music major offered at Berklee, where you can pretty much design your own major, I'd like to take enough performance credits to get my technique to where I can play anything I need to get my point across, as well as some songwriting, music bussiness, and music tech (recording etc) credits. I don't want to be in a strict performance major. But then again, Berklee's price is just ridiculous. So many factors, with so little time left...

you might as well forget Berklee man. you aren't going to get a scholarship there unless you are a savant. and even if you did, its next to nothing

i think you should be busting your ass to get academic scholarships instead, they are much easier to get AND they are usually a lot more than music scholarships. I think i may be the only person in my class who doesn't have a music scholarship, but i still have more money than anyone else who does have one

I have a decent GPA (3.8), so it's not like I'm going to try only for music scholarships. Even if the odds are stacked against me for Berklee, I still want to try. I'm just going in with a realistic attitude- "there are only 4 full rides offered...4". Chances aren't bad for just me, but they are bad for everyone.

This is why I'm looking at some middle/tier colleges (Michigan's Wayne State in Detroit, Central Mich.) High chance of fat scholarships, from what my guitar teacher has told me (He had a full ride to wayne on a Jazz studies degree.)

[JamminStevo]

chord names for gravedgger... Verse..chorus...etc.???

[JamminStevo]

i play piano btw...not guitar

[fatjack]

i play piano btw...not guitar

that doesn't make a difference...

[MWR]

What kind of picks should I use if I want to sound gooder?

[Machtimus]

What kind of picks should I use if I want to sound gooder?

FINGHURS

[fatjack]

What kind of picks should I use if I want to sound gooder?

DUH!!! THE SAME ONES AS DAVE YOU DOOFIE IDIOT!!!!!! LOLOLOLOLOLOL