-
About Jon
-
I'm a guitarist and writer, dividing my professional time between these two pursuits. I've published five books in the Dummies series, as well as other books and magazine articles on guitar, audio, and music.
-
Category Archives: Music
It’s All in the . . . Timing
There’s an old joke about a comedian convention where the celebrity comics are scheduled to tell jokes at the event’s big banquet. Everyone in the audience knows all the jokes already because the jokes have been catalogued for the convention. To save time, the speakers decide to just say the joke’s number instead of telling the whole joke. The first speaker is a star, a legend in the business. “Forty-seven!” he calls out to laughter all around. “One-hundred and sixty-two!” The audience explodes with deep belly laughs and leaps to its feet in an ovation.
In the Waiting Game, Technology Always Wins
As Ben Franklin famously opined, “Only three things in life are certain: death, taxes, and a new Apple model announced in the spring.” Okay, he obviously didn’t contribute the last bit (he was more of a Linux guy), but it might as well be added to that short list of life’s inevitabilities. Industry watchers and consumers fearing a seasonal bout of buyer’s remorse dread the early part of every new year, because the rumors start flying about what you would have gotten if you had only waited. Sure, there will always be something new on the horizon, but it doesn’t mean you can’t demonstrate bad timing in your purchasing.
Blues Guitar for Dummies on sale December 18, 2006
My latest entry into the Dummies juggernaut is Blues Guitar for Dummies. This 384-page book includes a CD-ROM of all the musical examples that appear in the book (over 140 of them). The book provides tips on buying guitars, lists must-have recordings, gives a history of the blues and its key guitarists, and includes lots and lots of instruction and music examples. Everything from fingerstyle (Delta, Piedmont, ragtime, country) to electric (Chicago, blues-rock) to slide (standard and open tunings) is explored in depth. Blues Guitar for Dummies is perhaps a little easier than Rock Guitar for Dummies, and a good next step after Guitar for Dummies.
