I have been scouring the internet for the last few weeks for drumloops. I have become so fascinated with how changing the drums in a song changes the entire character.

I have this one song called "Ice" where I was struggling to make it more funky. I applied Hip-Hop, Custom, and R&B style drums to the track, but I couldn't make it funky. Then I ran across this one drum loop, and magic. The track is now funky. Let me know if the funk is justified, take a listen to the track below.

Anyone know where free drumloops can be obtained let me know.

This is hypothetical, but I can imagine taking any traditional jazz song (acoustic bass, piano, sax, drums, etc.) and replacing them with synthesizer sounds and you'd wind up with electronic jazz.

I love traditional jazz, but I get bored of it quickly. That's why I find creating and listening to electronic jazz so fascinating. I'm not bound by my choice of instruments to listen or use. With Electronic Jazz I have not only have infinite notes to play with, but an infinite combination of instruments at my disposable. Thus, every song could potential sound totally different. Of course you do need some skill as well and a mastery of some techniques to play jazz.

I was talking with a friend of mine and he happened to mention that people don't care how fast you can play. Most people yes - I agree - could care less. However, if I were playing music for most people, I'd probably simplify my style, especially if I made my living in music. I don't know how traditional jazz artist (in America) make a living.

Nobody cares about the painstaking hours it took to master an instrument. Which is kind of sad. People really should appreciate the diligence that went into playing an instrument, especially one that is played well.

I guess that's why "smooth jazz" was created. To give talented musicians a genre where they could actually earn a living.

I received this e-mail from Tom Kiebzak of Beyond Bop on November 9th. I must preface this by saying at the time I did not have any CDs, I was distributing my material digitally. So I thought, get some CDs made.

"Greetings Ty,

To submit your piece for consideration, send your CD(s) to:

Tom Kiebzak

W4885 Valley Heights Drive

Fredonia, WI 53021

Today I received this e-mail:

"Greetings Ty,

Yes I got your CD's. They are produced and recorded very well unfortunaltely the genre doesn't fit the format for our station.

Keep up the chops!

Tom"

I swear, if I ever run into this guy - POW!!!!

What kind of Bullshit is this? First of all, I could have sent that CD to someone who actually listened to my music. It's evident, that this guy must have sent me a spam message, so musicians beware.

Also, the postage cost and time. I could have been creating music instead of sending this jerk a CD.

I've visited some of the jazz music blogs, and for the most part I've been disappointed. Most are out of date or mostly only cover traditional jazz, even though there are various deviations such as electronic, smooth, chill, fusion, jazz rock, etc.

This discovery came on the heels of trying to find bloggers to review and/or recommend my music. If I could write a little better and had a little extra time, writing a jazz blog would definitely be on my priority list.

I'm sure I've not been to every jazz blog, so I can only speak to those I've visited from doing a search. There may be some quality blogs that I just don't know about. I'll continue my search and hope to stumble upon one.

Now that I have all this music, how do I get it heard. Well, my first thought was to find a music aggregate like INgrooves, but since that didn't work out, my next option was to contact radio stations myself.

Doing a search on jazz radio and downtempo radio stations I was able to find sites that provided handy listing, complete with links to the station's website. From there I either searched for music submission guidelines or sent the music director an email.

The good news is that I got responses. The bad news is that for every 10 emails I sent, I only received 1-2 responses (and that was 3 days ago).

The next option is, if they don't respond, find the station address and send a CD to the station's Programming Director.

The emails that I have received were all positive and got me excited about the potential. I have mailed 7 CD samplers so far.

I just knew once I sent a professional looking package to INgrooves, they would jump all over me (sign me up for distribution). I haven't heard anything from them - at least tell me to go fuck off or something. A better response would be no you're not what we're looking for and here's why.

Why do people do that - tell you to send your material with no intention of listening to it or signing you. Very frustrating. In my younger quick tempered days, these people would have been cursed out or fucked up. How time and wisdom mellows you.

I'm also beginning to understand why artist - once they make it big - treat everyone like shit. There is just no downhill courtesy. Perhaps if there was common courtesy, people would be more willing to help each other.

Sure I know there are quite a few people who like Jazz Music, but just about any music that can't be categorized is thrown into jazz. Some people who have defined their version of jazz to me I can't say I agree with.

For past 3 weeks I've been working on 6 compilations simultaneously (about 60+ songs), and I'm not sure I fit the Jazz Music category. I have 1 or 2 songs that fit the traditional jazz genre, but when trying to come up with what artist I compare to, I draw a blank. Over the past month I've been compared to "Joe Sample", "Atlantic Starr" and "Yanni". Quite a diverse comparison and I don't think I sound like any of these people. Hopefully it will all wash out.

This weekend I'm dedicated to finishing up the 6 compilations I've been working on, and getting them mailed to radio stations. Will keep you posted on where I'm getting played.

I love mixes that have deep bass, balanced mid-ranges, and sparkling highs. The problem I've been experiencing in mixing my own music is getting that balance to sound good on various devices (car, clock radio, expensive stereo, boombox, etc). After much trial and error, I think I have created a cookie cutter formula - with slight modifications during mix-down to make this happen. These are the steps I perform in the final mix down in Sonar:

Place string or pluck type instruments in a group and use the "Bring Acoustic" setting of Sonar's HF Exciter

Place bells, cymbals, triangles and the like into another group and use the "Sparkling High" setting of Sonar's HF Exciter

Add compression to bass drum of 12:1 ratio, 4:1 rate and a volume boost of 8-10 decibels

Add compression to bass guitar of 24:1 ratio, 4:1 rate and a volume boost of 4-10 decibels

Apply "Band Stop" of 250Hz to bass and bass drum, then overall mix using Vintage EQ

Boost 4-6 kHz by 2.9 decibels of instruments I want to have presence, e.g., pianos, synthesizers, electric guitars (I listen and look at the EQ band to see what looks and sounds right 4 kHz may be perfect or 6 kHz - depends)


One thing I have not figured out is how to make my bass playing sit in the pocket and at the same time dominate the song as the main melody. Still working on that one.