I posted my first video on YouTube back last June. I didn’t take it seriously at all, I just wanted to see what would happen. So I made up a goofy user name and threw up a version of Lush Life, which is what I was working on at the time.
Back then there were relatively few people posting jazz piano videos, and the YouTube audience was heavily skewed toward young people (who mainly could care less about jazz). But in less than a year, my videos (54 of them as I write this) have been viewed 100,000 times. I can’t say for sure, but even when I was gigging, I doubt I could reach that many people in the same one year’s time. And now that I’m not playing in public, it’s amazing to think of an audience of that size and reach.
So to everyone that found something they enjoyed, thank you for watching, and for those who didn’t, sorry. For everyone who left comments, good or bad, thanks–I read them all. And special thanks for those who took the time to subscribe. It makes it worthwhile.
I was reading about soukous, coupé décaler, and makossa today and I found this page on the BBC site that is a sort of glossary of African pop music terms. It also encompasses Caribbean and some Latin American music. Very interesting reading.
It seems like an interesting mashup would be to take this glossary and build a set of YouTube API queries so you could click on a term to get some examples. (Does that make me a geek for thinking of that?) If you want to see something like that, leave a comment and let me know.
Another devastating loss for the world of music. Brecker was more like a force of nature than a saxophone player. I’m thankful at least that I did get to see him perform live once, and even to briefly speak with him after the performance.
Today was sad because of the passing of a great one. Jay McShann was one of the players from the days when Kansas City was known all over for jazz. I met him and even played on a gig with him.
http://www.jaymcshann.com/inmemory.htm
Now he can jam with Bird again.
Today will mark the 40,000th view of my videos on Youtube.
Of course, it’s not defined anywhere how they’re counted. So maybe 39,965 people each watched the first 10 seconds (likely) before clicking furiously away. Who can say.
I’m pretty wrapped up right now reading a book I just got my hands on: Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation by David Huron. I have plans for a full review by my initial impression is that this is a really useful book for those of us interested in how music affects people.
There’s a bunch of Professor Huron’s writing on the web, but the book is fairly recent and looks very promising.
Please stop whatever you’re doing right now and go watch this guy’s videos on Youtube. Because he is the best piano player posting his own videos up there. I’m learning a ton from watching him.
Here’s the real secret–when I give a musical “secret” away, I don’t lose it. In fact I’m pretty convinced that you don’t really know something until you teach it to someone else. Then it’s really yours.
