Black Eyed Peas Meat and Greet in Milwaukee
Hello Wisconsin!
The John Lennon Education Tour Bus
Other places The John Lennon Songwriting Contest
Blog
March 09, 2010
We’ve got great seats for The Black Eyed Peas show in Auburn Hills, MI!
Check it out!
March 08, 2010
Music by Prudence
Congratulations to Roger Ross Williams, director of “Music by Prudence”, this years winner of the Oscar category “Documentary Short”. The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus had the amazing opportunity this past year to tour with Liyana as they came to the United States for their very first U.S. visit. Liyana is an amazing band composed of musicians that met at school in Zimbabwe. All band members share the reality of living with a disability and the idea of overcoming these disabilities through their music. Without a doubt they are one of the most inspiring groups I have worked with while on board the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus. While touring with Liyana they not only performed at Macworld but also wrote an original song and made a music video with students from the San Francisco School of the Arts. Check out “Diversity” here!
March 05, 2010
The Ballad of Seamus and Guitar Lessons
Learning to play the guitar is a fun and challenging experience, but don’t let simple frustrations get in the way of learning to pump out your favorite tunes. Now with Gibson’s new Learn and Master Guitar iPhone application you can take the tools you need with you on the go. Need a tuner? No problem. Having trouble staying on the beat? Not anymore. Can’t remember that chord? Now you can. Need a quick lesson? Now you got it. Check out this video to see how much it helped me.
March 05, 2010
The Lennon Bus and The Fernando Pullum High School Of Performing Arts
Hey All, In January at the NAMM show we hosted a press event on our stage and were joined by many special guests such as Yoko Ono, Quincy Jones, Jackson Browne and Students from The Fernando Pullum Performing Arts High School. They played an awesome medley comprised of some of John Lennon’s hits. These students are talented, humble, respectful and full of energy. I really enjoyed having them. Below you can watch their performance. After the show was over the Lennon Bus went to the school to set up 12 Apple Laptops equipped with Logic Pro 9 to get the students certified Logic users by the end of the year. This gives them a chance to list that on resumes, learn something new, create their own music and have fun at the same time. I was lucky enough to spend the first three days there getting to know the students, teach them the basics of Logic, and get the ball rolling for the rest of the year. They have a challenge in front of them to pass an Apple Certification Exam before becoming Logic certified, but after meeting them, I’m nothing but confident. Let me tell you the school is truly amazing. As soon as you walk in you’re surrounded by dancing, music, creativity and laughter. You feel the vibes as soon as you step foot in the door. Fernando Pullum started his performing arts school in a local church in the heart of South Central, LA dedicated to giving the …
March 01, 2010
Black Eyed Peas Tour Report
BEP Tour Report - 2/28 Yesterday was an off day for the tour. The band spent most of the day working hard in the studio. Drummer Keith Harris and musical director Printz Board, burned the midnight oil, pumping out some great tracks with guitar player George Pajon. Tonight the band will perform at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY to round out another exciting day on the Black Eyed Peas tour.
February 26, 2010
Understanding Trimming In Final Cut Pro
The concept of trimming edit points of clips in Final Cut Pro is essential to effective editing. When you trim an edit point, where an in/out point is located in that clip, you are lengthening or shortening the clip either at the beginning or end of the clip. For example here are 3 steps to trim using the selection tool by mousing over the edit point at the tail and dragging to the left to shorten it. I select the edit point by clicking it: Here I drag by holding the mouse on an edit point while dragging to the left to shorten the clip. * Notice the yellow tool tip box showing me how much I’m trimming and the new duration of the trimmed clip. By dragging the out point to an earlier point in time, I shorten the clips duration. This is the simplest form of trimming in FCP and can be done with the Selection tool (a on the keyboard). There are four more trimming tools in Final Cut that making editing fun and easy…. stay tuned.
February 24, 2010
Working WIth Chromatte By Reflecmedia - A Simpler Green Screen
Hey All, For those of you who use a green screen and know what a hassle it can be when lighting and keying I want to discuss what we use on board the bus. Its called Chromatte Fabric by Reflecmedia. Its a gray fabric with millions of tiny green and blue reflective particles that will reflect green and blue light sources creating an easily key-able green and blue screen without having to light the background. All you have to do is light your subject or talent in front of the material and your in business. Here are the products needed: 1. Lite Ring Adapter: Place this LED lite ring adapter on your camera lens to send blue or green light to be reflected off the background thus giving the Chromatte fabric a key-able color. 2. Lite Ring Controller - Controls the intensity of the Lite Ring. 3. Chromatte Fabric - Background Green/Blue Screen. Here is the basic 1 person setup: 1. Position your talent a minimum of 10f from you camera. The talent should be a distance of 3 to 4ft from the Chromatte fabric background. 2. Light your talent and not the Chromatte. Large amounts of spill light on to the Chromatte will create hard shadows and can cause the blue/green from the LiteRing to be bleached out. 3. White balance the camera before turning the LiteRing on. 4. Turn on the LiteRing until the Chromatte appears as an evenly coloured blue or green. Increase the intensity of the LiteRing …
February 23, 2010
The Creative Process Part 2
On my way to Rome I’ve learned a number of things. Like if there is a fork in the road…take it. Bad joke? Sure. Good Advice? Sure. Seriously, when you’re working on a track you’ll often come upon these “forks”. And your artistic decision on which way to go will define your personal style. It will define your art. Art is really a reflection of which way you took your fork. As albums unfold you begin to hear the patterns of decisions that artist and producers made on their way to Rome. For example, lately in popular music when artist have come to the infamous fork in the road “Auto-tune turn left, No Auto-tune turn right” Lots of people have been hanging lefts. So much so that it as actually become a decision made prior to even recording. It is no longer a fork. More so the dinner plan. Back to the forks though… I suggest this: Next time you come to a fork in your songwriting process go both ways. That’s right, venture a little down the left then bring it back and maybe go a little down the right. The beauty of digital media production is that you don’t have to worry about wasting time or tape. The digital process has allowed us to quicken our workflow by an unforeseeable amount so take advantage of it. Use the time you have saved by investing it in your fork. Use the time to experiment down the left and down the …
Recent Posts
- Black Eyed Peas Meat and Greet in Milwaukee Hello Wisconsin! read more
- We’ve got great seats for The Black Eyed Peas show in Auburn Hills, MI! Check it out! read more
- Music by Prudence Congratulations to Roger Ross Williams, director of “Music by Prudence”, this years winner of the Oscar category “Documentary Short”. The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus had the amazing opportunity this past year to tour with Liyana as they came to the United States for their very first U.S. visit. Liyana …
- The Ballad of Seamus and Guitar Lessons Learning to play the guitar is a fun and challenging experience, but don’t let simple frustrations get in the way of learning to pump out your favorite tunes. Now with Gibson’s new Learn and Master Guitar iPhone application you can take the tools you need with you on the go. …
- The Lennon Bus and The Fernando Pullum High School Of Performing Arts Hey All, In January at the NAMM show we hosted a press event on our stage and were joined by many special guests such as Yoko Ono, Quincy Jones, Jackson Browne and Students from The Fernando Pullum Performing Arts High School. They played an awesome medley comprised of some of …
- the lennonbus stops in philadelphia for the BEP show! hello from philly! read more
- Black Eyed Peas Tour Report BEP Tour Report - 2/28 Yesterday was an off day for the tour. The band spent most of the day working hard in the studio. Drummer Keith Harris and musical director Printz Board, burned the midnight oil, pumping out some great tracks with guitar player George Pajon. Tonight the band …
- Understanding Trimming In Final Cut Pro The concept of trimming edit points of clips in Final Cut Pro is essential to effective editing. When you trim an edit point, where an in/out point is located in that clip, you are lengthening or shortening the clip either at the beginning or end of the clip. For example …
- Working WIth Chromatte By Reflecmedia - A Simpler Green Screen Hey All, For those of you who use a green screen and know what a hassle it can be when lighting and keying I want to discuss what we use on board the bus. Its called Chromatte Fabric by Reflecmedia. Its a gray fabric with millions of tiny green and …
- The Creative Process Part 2 On my way to Rome I’ve learned a number of things. Like if there is a fork in the road…take it. Bad joke? Sure. Good Advice? Sure. Seriously, when you’re working on a track you’ll often come upon these “forks”. And your artistic decision on which way to go will …