Ibanez Guitars' Jemsite

Last week I was asked by the Awesome Ava of Ibanez Guitars' Jemsite to write a posting for their Jemsite guitar forum. I was honored. The Jem Guitar was personally designed for Ibanez by legendary guitarist Steve Vai. I had the chance to hear Vai play years ago when he toured with Frank Zappa and The Mother's of Invention (as a "stunt guitarist", according to his MySpace page). Awesome.

My thanks to Awesome Ava for finding my humble blog all the way from beautiful Tel Aviv, and asking me to write for them. I hope to add more in the future. I also hope you'll take time to look at their forum, whose readers I'm guessing are a lot younger then I.

Here's a direct link to my post:
http://www.jemsite.com/blog/43-general/763-tips-from-a-guitar-vet.html

My kinda livin'.

Music on Deaf Ears

"Evelyn Glennie is simply a phenomenon of a performer."
— New York Times

Can a deaf person be a musician? In my searches through the web for good music-related stuff (so you won't have to) I came across a video of Evelyn Glennie that I had to share with you. Glennie, a Grammy winning percussionist has been profoundly deaf since age 12. She regularly plays barefoot for both live performances and studio recordings, to better "feel" the music, and says to have "taught herself to hear with parts of her body other than her ears".

Glennie has recorded with, among others, Bjork, Sting, Bobby McFerrin, Emmanuel Ax, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. She won Grammies for her recording of Bela Bartok's "Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion" and also for collaborative work with Bela Fleck. Amazing.

Here's a youtube recording of her playing Scott Joplin's classic Maple Leaf Rag.



Unsurprisingly, Glennie has become a much-sought motivational speaker. If you really want to hear something amazing, see (and hear!) her "How to Listen to Music with Your Whole Body".