Scales

On a scale of one to ten, my musical knowledge is perhaps two. I play guitar, and sometimes pretty well, but I’m mostly a self-taught amateur who has a decent ear for chords. My only real foray into serious playing is that I like to learn new scales. I learn by rote. I’ve tried figuring them out in some technical way, but that eludes me. That’s okay, because I rarely play in front of anyone and never for money. I illustrate funny pictures for money. Like all guitarists schooled in rock and roll, I’m mostly in a minor pentatonic scale. That means five notes (penta) per octave. There it is, the full extent of my musical knowledge and why I confidently gave my self a two on a scale of one to ten. Beyond that I do a blues scale, and from time to time the two exotic sounding scales: Dorian and Mixolydian modes. Don’t ask: I’ve no idea what they mean unless I google them. I only know they sound kind of jazzy or bluesy. 

Jazz

I like Jazz. I’ve no real understanding of Jazz, I just like it  But I don’t like stuff that’s too esoteric. I like to be able to tap my foot and feel that the tune is going somewhere. I like the art of Jazz, it reminds me of painting: colorful, warm or cool, textured, sometimes sharp, sometimes fuzzy. In fact, I really like the album and poster art that comes with Jazz. I like creating my own Jazz art style. When I do a series of Jazz musician pieces, I rarely ever do a concept drawing or rough sketch. I know my way around the “canvas”, so I just start drawing, innovating, playing, and see where it winds up. Last week it wound up we these six images. I searched quotes that I thought would fit each piece. I posted these on FB and Instagram, but I wanted to see them all in one place, in some kind of poster layout, so there they are.