Click here to join the celebration and update your bookmarks… there will be champagne.

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And don’t sweat it when you abandon a blog because every moment is new.

Stay in touch on Facebook, Twitter, or subscribe by email.

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I’ll keep the blog up but this site will have a new purpose shortly. Let the suspense build.

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I mentioned buying some Etyomotic Music Pros after demoing them at NAMM 2013. I thought it was fitting that I saw a link to this infographic today.

On day 1 of NAMM I had my hearing tested and faired well. My hearing isn’t perfect from years of standing to the right of loud drummers. But I’m within a healthy range for a guy my age, maybe even a guy 12 to 16 months younger. Nostalgia for pre-teen hearing aside, I would probably be in a lot worse shape if I never used earplugs.

The main point I want to make is this: Bandheads like me are regularly putting their ears in danger and need protection.

In addition to the hearing loss infographic, check out Etyomtic’s interactive slide rule, hearing protection brochure, and app. The daily exposure limit of a 115 dB marching band is under 30 seconds!

Most parents have no idea. They need to have the talk about protection. Spread the word.

Hearing Loss and Musicians

The post Attention Musicians: Comfortably Avoid Hearing Loss With Custom Fitted Earplugs appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

First, here’s some of what I’ve been up to.

• I completed my Songwriting Master Certificate with Berklee College of Music!
• I laid down some jazz/funk keys on Field Trip‘s album, There’s Shag On Jupiter.
• I redesigned Logic Studio Training.
• I launched a new site, Stomp Box Guru.
• I toured Sweden with Field Trip. Wow!
• I got not one, but two Boston Terriers, Miles and Ella.

I also spent more time than Kim Kardashian’s marriage updating the code on this blog.

The next list will only be interesting to the web geeks out there.

• The blog is now HTML5. I started with HTML5 Boilerplate and used Blueprint CSS for the framework. I used Blueprint CSS for the previous design too. I’m not 100% HTML5, I’m not using article or section tags, but those are simple upgrades. I learned a ton during the process. The boilerplate is a great resource.
• I replaced all background images with CSS and fallback images for people who aren’t Browser Happy. I’m even using a cutting edge radial gradient in the header.
  
• I’ve socialized it more extensively with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Google+.
• I removed a bunch of wasteful features and code to improve page speed.
• I made the text larger. I didn’t go quite as large as is recommended, but I split the difference and recognize now that it was entirely too small at 12px.
• I switched from Feedblitz to Aweber for email blog subscriptions.
• I added a Gigs calendar page using GigPress.
• There’s a lot of credit to go around here. Buttons, Gradients, Typography, I could go on and on. If you’re curious how I did something, please ask in the comments.

I’ll be importing my Feedblitz subscribers into Aweber so be on the lookout for a confirmation email with the subject: Please confirm your email address with Graham English.

I’m excited for what’s to come. I’ve got tunes, transcriptions, reviews, tutorials on songwriting, musicianship, and the mac, contests, and a lot more planned for the new year!

If you’re not currently subscribed, now would be a good time.

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In the mean time, here’s a few links I’ve been meaning to share.

New Brain Machine Improves Musical Creativity. Any tool that can help me clear the way for great music to happen is a friend of mine.

Cosmovox is an iPhone app, a music theory-infused theremin.

Korg is coming out with some really sweet compact USB-MIDI controllers. I’ll be first in line for the nanoKEY.

From Digg: Study: Musicians Use Both Sides Of Brain More Than Others. My favorite comment: “they can force their brains to do unnatural things in the pursuit of ass. hats off to all of you!”

Have a great weekend.

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This video made the top peak performance articles of 2006. There’s no doubt why.

The post Oscar Peterson Is Dead appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

By far the most popular and most controversial post of 2007 was The Zen Of Attraction. I’m surprised at the attention it received because I wrote it as an aside. Some people loved it and some people hated it. But what was most interesting for me was how many people hated not the article, but me. I mean these were just simple ideas that are totally debatable. This post led me to define some comment rules that include no personal attacks. I’m willing to debate ideas but not whether I’m a good person or not. It was a very interesting experience!

The second most popular post was iQuickTwitter – My Quicksilver + Twitter + iChat + Growl Hack. This little app got some serious link love from TUAW, Ars Technica, and many other fantastic blogs. And a big reason why I didn’t blog as much as I did in 2006 was because of Twitter. If I ever had something short and simple to say, rather than try to develop it into at least 250 words, which I previously believed warranted a blog post, I would just post it to Twitter, which has a limit of 140 characters. I think my strategy will change some in 2008. My new Lifestream category will probably see a lot more action whenever I find that 140 characters is not enough. The most significant change is that I won’t keep such a tightly controlled niche blog. The only thing tying this blog together is that I am writing it, not the subject matter. So if I feel like saying something, this blog will take priority.

Along similar lines as iQuickTwitter were my many posts on automation. Some of them were conceptual, like Automation As Part Of An Integral Life Practice and Automating The Quality Of Your Attention. While others were specific and geeky, like IM Status: Update Your Skype, iChat, Or Adium Status With Quicksilver, Top 5 AppleScript Productivity Hacks for WordPress Bloggers and Podcasters, and Blogging With Quicksilver And AppleScript. I’ve really grown to see automation as an important part of life that I need to revisit again and again.

Some of my favorite songwriting articles were Applying The 80-20 Rule To Your Songwriting, my Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast, The Secret Alchemy Of Songwriting, 5 Sure Fire Ways To Kick-Start The Songwriting Habit, Rewriting Song Titles For Practice And Inspiration, and What Makes a Good Song? My biggest disappointment of 2007 was the small amount of completed songs. I finished only about half a dozen songs and published just one of them, which I’m quite proud of, “When The Wall Falls Down.”

I also didn’t write about ear training or music theory nearly as much as I did in 2006. But I have a few favorites, such as How To Use Tension And Release In Your Melodies, my Absolute Pitch Ear Training Podcast, Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale, and Ear Training or Listening Practice?

Two great moments of 2007 were getting my new MacBook Pro and iPhone. The new Mac inspired a whole new series of podcasts called Graham English Talks and introduced my own videos, like The Best Of Dwight Schrute Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. The iPhone inspired Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies For Your iPhone and made my tech life much more streamlined.

2007 was definitely a year of social networking. Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, Stumbleupon, and many other social networks occupied a large part of my time online. And there were many benefits like making new friends, reconnecting with old friends, finding a larger reach for my articles and music, and discovering new forms of self-expression. It confirms how important relationships truly are.

Which leads me to the very best of 2007, You! My life wouldn’t be nearly as fulfilling without the special presence of you. The support of my readers and listeners has made the tough times easier and the good times even better. I sincerely hope that we stay connected through 2008. Thanks for sticking with me through 2007. w00t!

The post The Best Of Graham English 2007 appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

Around 11 p.m., Katie and I heard sirens directly outside our house and we discovered the beginnings of a massive fire right outside our back door.

The good news is that the fire victims are reported to be recovering. As I write this, the house is being demolished while firefighters continue to spray water on the burning embers.

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