This Month's Topic: Care of Instruments and Equipment

Hey kids, it's been a while since my last newsletter. It has been a very hectic tour season but now that things are slowing down we can get back on the regular schedule. Since the last newsletter you have started school again and I hope that you are all enjoying be back and seeing all your friends you did not get to see over the summer vacation. During my times on the road I thought about things that I could talk about and I came up with a few things.

I will start out with things to try in your practicing. I know sometimes you find that when you are trying to play a certain passage or scale you get stuck and have trouble remembering it. I find that if I challenge myself to play a scale or lick 10 times in a row it helps. Now, the tricky thing is that everytime you make a mistake you have to start again from the beginning again starting at one. Yes, that can get crazy but it works, you will find that once you can play it ten times in a row it is now in your memory bank and you can call on it when you need it. Another thing to try is to take a lick and turn it inside out. In other words, try starting it from a different part of the scale or lick and try to play it in all the positions you can. Also. don't just play the lick or scale as it is, try playing it inside a song and in different keys. You see, a scale or lick is just that unless you can apply iy to something you are playing other than that it is just an exercise. Scales you can use to your playing advantage if you use them the right way,. You can play all kinds of scales inside your solos - it depends on how you go about it. The approach should be to not make it sound like you are playing do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. You can make it a much more musical sounding thing inside your solo if you just try. So, try it!

Before I go I want to say to you all, remember being a musician is a good thing but I need you to get that education and study hard and keep those grades up. You can do it. I know you are saying right now man, there he goes with that again, yeah, I do kind of harp on this only because it will be so important to your future whether in music or whatever you choose as profession. I envy you. So like I said before...Enjoy this time of being a kid, you owe to yourself.

So, Halloween is coming and I will talk to you again right afterwards but until then take care and be careful.

Nobody Loves You More Than Me! Well maybe your parents and siblings but I am right in there.

Peace, Nico

P.S. CHECK OUT THE NEW WEBSITE www.nickcolionne.com

P.S. Forward this newsletter to your friends or sign them up yourself by sending an email to jazz@nickcolionne.com. You can also sign up on line at my website, www.nickcolionne.com or on my MySpace page, www.myspace.com/nickcolionne. Adults welcome, too.