Mike Stern interview + lesson coming up

Masters in Mechanics
#1

The interview we did with Mike Stern way back when, with the original camera, has a ton of great Stern ideas in it. It’s been on our list to get it up and Soundslice enabled on the platform, and we should have it ready by next week.

We also put together a few notes on how to reproduce Mike’s awesome phrygian dominant arpeggio line from his solo in Miles Davis’ “Fat Time”, which we discuss in the interview. A digest of a few of those chapters up on the YT now. A few more chapters, plus some Soundslice examples, coming to the platform along with the interview:

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#2

Effin yeah! (can I say that?)

That man can play some seriously juicy lines, looking forward to the feature!

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#3

Really enjoyed this video, not just the cool musical idea but also the thought process on practicing it and how to add it to your toolset as it were. Great stuff!

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#4

Fantastic!!! Can’t wait for this.

By the way, @Troy, I love your rock tone that you have while playing those jazz licks. It makes them sound a lot cooler to me.

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#5

Really looking forward to seeing this! It was great how the rhythmic component of this phrase was discussed alongside the technical/harmonic analysis. To me, that’s the biggest part of what makes this lick sound as great as it does.

Totally digging the look of the new studio too!

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#7

Just watched. The idea of decoupling rhythm and mechanics to learn the latter is pure gold (e.g. play 3s on a 4-note pattern to make the accents fall in different places). Thanks for sharing!

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#8

This is going to be so great. Consistent quality content, always.

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#9

This looks fantastic, and LOVE the new studio! Looks amazing. Does this mean all the old interviews will eventually make it to the new platform?

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#10

One early piece of feedback is that the lighting setup of the new studio footage is causing some funky stuff to happen with shadows at times, especially the shadow of the magnet itself, that can make make it difficult to clearly see the strings in the magnet view.

Looking forward to this interview in any case.

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#11

@Troy, just a quick note that I’d like to mention here - I like how you’ve used a pick that’s colour is completely different from your pickguard. If you had of used a red Jazz III XL with the red pickguard, it would have caused problems IMO. This is a little detail, but something that you may or may not consider when filming these lessons.

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#12

Really interesting sounds & nice playing Troy.

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#13

Am I the only on who thinks the dimmed light effect looks cool? :sweat_smile:

I think it’s intentional, but you’re right @Frylock about the magnet view.

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#14

Thanks guys, we’ll take a look at the lighting setup. “Magnet shadow” was a thing in the old space as well. You might not have realized this, since a lot of the example clips are filmed separately, in a more light-facing position. But for play-and-talk lessons like some of the Eric Johnson Primer stuff, I did indeed need to do the periodic “Ikea swivel” for the playing examples.

A lot of the Pickslanting Primer stuff was done on this guitar with the red pick and I think (?) the contrast was pretty good. We’ll need to test again in the new space. I like red because doesn’t blow out (overexpose) like white does, but is still bright enough to be seen. It might be the ideal instructional pick color. Black being the worst.

We’ll try and add some more fill so the overall ambience is brighter and the shadows are less problematic.

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#15

You’re right - I went back and had a look at the Pickslanting Primer and you seem to have used a Jazz III XL and the contrast is fine IMO. The Jazz III XL is a good bit brighter than the pickguard.

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#16

Is there an equivalent of the Rembrandt triangle for plectrum lighting?

As I said on youtube, +1 on revisiting those interviews with new perspective. Cheers!

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#17

Instead of a hair light, we need a pick light. If there’s a way to keep the film noir though, awesome. :slight_smile:

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#18

Most instructional stuff uses completely flat studio lighting, where there are no shadows. It’s boring but it’s highly functional when you need to see everything. We’ve always gone for something a little more inspiring, because we want our stuff to visually reflect the excitement of learning. I would run that damn haze machine all day if I thought it wouldn’t give me COPD by the time I’m 50!

But it poses challenges in getting everything visible. We’ll add in a little more overall light level and I think it’ll be fine.

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#19

Most instructional stuff uses completely flat studio lighting, where there are no shadows.

Yep. Little tiny spotlight on the hand for the win? And it will increase that hand of the gods thing too with the contrast. :wink:

Happy thanksgiving Troy. Best, D

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#20

We’ve done that!

It’s a bit of a hassle and can create some weird shadows of its own. We also got the color wrong in this example. We’ll test a few different things.

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#21

\m/ \m/ I’ve total faith. :slight_smile:

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