|| STUDENT || "Some Other Blues" (featuring Ethan Feldman)
“Some Other Blues” - John Coltrane
Personnel:
Ethan Feldman, guitar
Branden Nguyen, guitar
Ethan Feldman has been my student for three and one-half years. We started out with basic guitar fundamentals, dabbling a little bit in classical music and folk-style playing. From the beginning, he had a natural ability to perform, singing Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty at his first ever recital. After playing for a couple years, Ethan started to develop his own identity as a musician, finding inspiration in the blues. Over one summer, he taught himself to play the slide guitar, and recently, he has taken an interest in jazz. It is the current focus of our lessons, so I thought it would be fitting for us to perform a jazzy blues song written by John Coltrane. This song showcases Ethan’s personality as a musician, and it gives insight into the musical path that he is headed down.
JOHN COLTRANE
About the video: A blues song is the perfect way to highlight Ethan’s strengths as a musician. This video shows how his skillset is nearing mine, and how he utilizes all the learned techniques and theory in a seamless way. As a teacher, I am impressed with how he effortlessly maintains a balance with my playing. This was actually our second attempt at recording this song using a device that allows me to connect recording microphones to my phone/camera. After our first recording session, I assembled and edited our footage, but I realized that the mic input level had been set too sensitive. The recording device was constantly overdriving the microphones, and the resulting sound quality was subpar. I made the decision to re-record the video, with more optimal settings. In addition, I brought along a friend to help coordinate the cameras, resulting in better footage overall. The lighting was also more favorable this time around, and I am very happy with how the video came out.
Links:
—- B