Saturday, October 31, 2009

Melodic Ryan Kisor trumpet solo on the tune Candy

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/xrWYT)
Ryan Kisor in the studio.I really enjoy listening to Ryan Kisor take solos on the trumpet. His trumpet solo on the tune Candy from The Sidewinder album is very melodic sounding and fun to sing or hum along with.

Ryan Kisor nails all the changes in this Candy trumpet solo and there are a quite a few Jazz licks to take advantage of as well.

Candy is a basic rhythm changes tune where the bridge of the tune progresses in fourths. I love tunes like these because they are what most Jazz standards use.

I would love to hear what you think of Ryan Kisor's solo.

Feel free to comment on this post.







Candy Trumpet Solo - Ryan Kisor

Friday, October 30, 2009

How to align Chikita ads better on your Wordpress blog

(My Original Blog Post: http://mywebmastertips.com/align-chikita-ads-better-on-wordpress-blog/)
Chikita Sphere ad network.Chikita ads aren't going to look out of alignment on every Wordpress blog, but some blogs, due to their style sheet, will make the Chikita Wordpress plugin look a little bit out of alignment. If this is the case for you, don't worry, it's an easy css fix depending on your needs.

Whether you place the Chikita ad on the top or bottom of your post. You might want to center it, or give the Chikita ad just a little bit more padding on the bottom.

Here's what you gotta do. Log into your Wordpress blog back office. Go to Plugins, then click on Editor. Next find the Chikita Premium plugin. You are going to what to edit the premium.php file. Look for this code (it is the settings for the javascript).

$PREMIUM_DEFAULTS['template'] ='<!-- Chitika|Premium - WordPress Plugin --><div class="chitika-adspace {%placement%}"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
ch_client = {%client%};
ch_type = "mpu";
ch_width = {%width%};
ch_height = {%height%};
ch_color_bg = {%background%};
ch_color_title = {%titlecolor%};
ch_color_site_link = {%titlecolor%};
ch_color_text = {%textcolor%};
ch_non_contextual = 4;
ch_vertical = "premium";
ch_font_title = {%font%};
ch_font_text = {%font%};
ch_sid = {%channel%};
var ch_queries = new Array( );
var ch_selected=Math.floor((Math.random()*ch_queries.length));
if ( ch_selected < ch_queries.length ) { ch_query = ch_queries[ch_selected]; } //--></script>
<script src="http://scripts.chitika.net/eminimalls/amm.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>';


Now, simply add these to commands to the div, (you can add more commands if you'd like to).

style="padding-bottom:8px;" align="center"

Now the div's commands will look something like this depending on your needs.

<div class="chitika-adspace {%placement%}" style="padding-bottom:8px;" align="center">

That's pretty much it. Unfortunately, when an upgrade comes along, you will have to make these changes again.

Are Text Ad Exchanges the next sign up bonus fad?

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/HYn6P)
Online targeted advertising with an arrow through a dollar bill.I usually don't group sign up bonus sites together like this because I like to write a little bit about what makes the free sign up bonus site unique. In this case, I've seen so many Text Ad Exchanges pop up that are offering $5.00 sign up bonuses that I seriously don't have the time and patience to write individually about them.

If you take a close look at all these Text Ad Exchanges, you'll notice they are all pretty much the same. What would be the point of writing about each one individually when they clearly aren't individual and or unique by any means?

This could either be a good thing or a bad thing. It kind of reminds me of Bux sites. I remember those popping up all over the place a little over a year ago. Now you don't see too many new ones because people figured out that a bunch of amateur hacks were running the Bux sites.

Are these Text Ad Exchanges the new fad when it comes to ripping people off? I don't know. I only write about these sites to let you know there is some free money for signing up, but I highly recommend that you definitely do not invest too much time or any money in the sites. You have to do your own due diligence.

I ran into these new sign up bonus sites over the past month. (You have to request the bonus by contacting each site's admin individually.)

Total = $35.00

I'm also not too impressed with the design of these sites. They all look very unprofessional in my opinion with the exception of a few of them. Maybe all these web designers/entrepreneurs just simply don't have a sense of design.

I'm going to repeat this one more time. Don't invest any money or serious time in these sites, they seem to have the potential to be rip offs. I would however take advantage of the free advertising credits you will receive for signing up and participating in e-mail ad credits.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

ii V7 I Jazz lick that starts off as bebop and finishes as diminished

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/n1NQS)
I got this ii V7 I Jazz lick from David Baker's How to Play Bebop - Volume 1 book. Lots of great bebop licks in that book, highly recommended, you won't be disappointed in all the nice Jazz licks you'll learn from it. Anyway, this ii V7 I lick starts off with the bebop scale and finishes with a diminished pattern landing on the tonic of the I chord.

ii V7 I bebop lick that turns into a diminished lick.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:


How to memorize this ii V7 I lick in 12 keys:


Just know that it starts on the tonic of the bebop scale you will be playing, or you can just think tonic of the key you are in on the ii V7 I Jazz lick. The lick goes up to the 3rd of the bebop scale you are currently on, then goes down the bebop scale until you land on the 5th. Next, you'll switch to a diminished stacked 3rd approach. In the above example it starts on C#.


What is a minor 3rd above C#? That's right, E. What is a minor 3rd below C#? That's right, Bb or A#, however you want to memorize it. Do you see the pattern here? The lick simply finishes off going down stacked minor thirds until you land on the tonic (1st position) of the I chord.


In my experience, some keys are easier than others. But this is a nice Jazz lick to have in your back pocket whenever you see the need for it.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Terence Blanchard jam session solo on Morning Sunrise changes

(My Original Blog Post: http://jazztrumpetlicks.com/2009/10/terence-blanchard-jam-session-solo-morning-sunrise-changes/)
It's always cool to hear a famous Jazz trumpet player like Terence Blanchard at a jam session. I've never got to hear him really play without a whole bunch of bends  in his trumpet solo until I watched this Jazz video clip of him at the 2007 Vitoria Jazz Festival. I'm not 100% sure of the chord changes, I think it is from the tune Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise.


Notice how Terence Blanchard uses a whole bunch of chromatic Jazz licks as his style of trumpet playing which is cool. Even though Terence Blanchard is jamming, he maintains his own unique style on the trumpet. He really doesn't use a whole lot of breaks though. Instead he goes hard core pretty much all the way until the end of his jam session Jazz solo.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Sign up bonus plus proof of payment from Nocturnalemail

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/pDsc5)
Nocturnal Email.I just received my first payment from Nocturnal Email for winning a  silly referral contest. The funny thing is, I didn't even know that there was a referral contest going on because I'm involved with so many other sites keeping track of them all is pretty hard to do. The fact that Nocturnal Email paid me without any issues shows me that they can be put on my "A" list of websites that actually pay their members.

You can also get a $1.00 sign up bonus just for joining. Unfortunately, all the money you'll earn with Nocturnal Email can only be used for advertising. Unless you win a referral contest or some other promotion. I personally think that stinks, but you will get some quality paid to click advertising if you purchase any from them.






Finger pointing at a payment proof.

A Paypal payment I received from Nocturnalemail for $2.00.



Another thing I like about Nocturnal Email is that they currently pay $1.00 for every active referral you bring in. I think that is a little high on their part, but good for me and you.

The final good thing I'll go ahead and mention about Nocturnal Email is that they don't delete your account for not being active. For a paid to read email site, this sets the standard pretty high in my opinion. I hate sites that simply delete your account for not being active. It's now wonder why the sites that do this usually have less than 1,000 members because they can't retain them once they sign up.

Visit the main sign up bonus list for more free sign up bonuses from advertising websites.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

How to fix Ping.fm Wordpress plugin if it doesn't add triggers

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/1MOTZ)
Ping.fm logo.I love the Ping.fm Wordpress plugin. It works great on two of my other blogs, but on my latest blog, "this one", it decided not to work. I mean it installed properly and everything. But I was unable to add new custom triggers. After searching the web for a solution, I found none, so this is why I decided to write this post.

After taking a close look at my 2 other blogs, I was able to find out the Pingpressfm Wordpress plugin wasn't working due to the database not being updated properly. Until the developer of the Pingpress plugin fixes the problem, I found an easy fix that will get you up and running in no time by manually updating the database yourself.

First off, you will have to go to your hosting provider and log into your mysqladmin database. Once logged into your blog's database, go to wp-options, then hit the browse button and search for these rows of data.

ppfm_keyVerified
ppfm_reverifyKey
ppfm_deleteOldSettings
ppfm_firstTime
ppfm_optionsUpdated
ppfm_apiDev
ppfm_apiUser
ppfm_ellipse


All you need to do is simply change no to yes for all the above. To do this, just hit the edit icon, update it, and click on go for each row of data.

Now find this row of data:

ppfm_triggers


Do not change no to yes for this row. This is what makes PingPressFM only ping out your post the first time instead of every time you make an update to it.

Replace the what is currently in that row with this data: (make a back up of the current row's data first)

active=B(true) label=S(m) type=S(m) both=B(false) description=S(Microblog: 140 Characters Max, No HTML) categories=A() tags=A() format=S([Blog] $subject: $body $slink)
active=B(true) label=S(s) type=S(s) both=B(false) description=S(Status Update: 200 Characters Max, No HTML) categories=A() tags=A() format=S([Blog] $subject: $body $slink)
active=B(true) label=S(b) type=S(b) both=B(false) description=S(Blog Entry: Unlimited Length, HTML Preserved) categories=A() tags=A() format=S((My Original Blog Post: <a href="$link">$link</a>)\n$body)


Now head over to your Wordpress back office. Then go to your PingPressFM plugin settings. You should now see 3 triggers set up. You can now update these triggers to fit your desired needs.

Note: Very important to make a back up copy of what was previously in your wp-options tables just in case it doesn't work for you. These are Ping.fm's standard triggers, so they should work perfectly as long as you have them set up in your Ping.fm account.

Testing Pingpressfm

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/j1UOy)
This is only a test.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Earn a cash back sign up bonus with Amazon at Points2Shop

(My Original Blog Post: http://www.signupandmakemoney.com/blog/2009/10/earn-cash-back-sign-up-bonus-amazon-points2shop/)
Points2Shop - Earn points for free rewards.Points2Shop is free to join and gives you 250 shopping points for joining. I know what you're thinking, points don't exactly equal cash, but in the case of Points2Cash they do. 1 point equals 1 cent worth of shopping money at Amazon.

I would like to personally thank Mike,  an affiliate of Signupandmakemoney for introducing this sign up bonus site. Because of this, his referral link is being used on the main site and in this blog post.

Points2Shop looks like yet another site where you can get paid to do various tasks and earn off of other people you refer. Nothing too amazing about that, but since Points2Cash doesn't cost you anything to join, it doesn't hurt to give it a try to see if it works better than other paid to do tasks opportunities.

It looks like you get $1.00  and 15% for every free referral you bring in. This looks like a doable program that will not screw the Company or the affiliate.

Over 463,000 members says something. Points2Shop has been around a couple of years, 400,000 + members in only two years is a pretty good job to me, what do you think?

I don't know what kind of offers they have and if they look like they are worth the time to earn. This will have to be up to you and your good judgment.

I have never really been big into shopping opportunities because I don't buy a lot of stuff, online or offline. That's just me. I'm the exact opposite of a pack rat. If I don't use it, it usually ends up going out the door. You may be different. If you do enjoy shopping, than Paid2Cash is for you.

Take a look at some other cash back shopping sign up bonuses and let me know what you think.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Turnaround Jazz lick that uses the b9 on V7 chords

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/2pYFv)
Here's a neat sounding turnaround Jazz lick that leans on the b9 when it's on the V7 chord. The b9 is what makes the lick sound really cool because it makes the pattern want to go towards the next chord change.

Turnaround Jazz lick that uses b9 over V7 chords.

Here is a sound sample on trumpet:



How to memorize this turnaround in 12 keys:

First know that it is a iii VI ii V7 I turnaround (3, 6, 2, 5, 1). In other words, it's a ii V7 up a whole step, then a ii V7 I pattern in the tonic key. Very easy to get used to and it used in a whole lot of Jazz charts. If you've already worked a lot on various ii V7 I patterns, this Jazz lick will be very easy for you to get down.

Here is my take on it in a snap shot, starts on the 5th of the iii chord and is a minor arpeggio to the 3rd of the VI chord, up to the b9 and down the scale to the minor 3rd of ii chord, then do a turn on the b7th to the 3rd of the V7 chord up to the b9 and down the scale to the III of the I chord.

You're obviously not going to think about all of this while playing the lick. You'll mainly just want to mess around with your ii V7 I Jazz patterns and you'll be able to come up with some really nice turnarounds on your own.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Improving Signupandmakemoney - recently added functionality

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/kEaO5)
Website construction on a .com.I just wanted to give all the members of Signupandmakemoney a quick update on the recent improvements I've made to Signupandmakemoney.com.

I've been working all weekend to get the site to have a little bit more functionality. There are still tons of things I want to do to the site to make it better for everyone, but at least I was able to get these recent improvements made to the site. One of the reasons I decided to write this blog post was to make myself stop working on the site.

Recent improvements to the site:

Google Translate added


I ran into another site that was using Google Translate on their site and I thought it would be a great addition to this site. This is considering a majority of the traffic comes from China and India. Google Translate works good in every browser except for Safari, I don't know why, but I think it's a cool tool.

Comment count added to blog

I added a comment counter to the Blog so you could see how many comments have been approved at the site. Though Sign Up and Make Money has gotten over 50,000 comments, a majority of them are unfortunately spam.

Can now search Google within Signupandmakemoney

I added Google Custom Search so you can search Google in my site. I only added it to the blog and main sign up bonus site. I will add it to the forum at a later date.

Updated sign up bonus header

I put a lot of thought into how I could make the header look better at the main index of the site, but I'm still not happy with it. I hope it suites everyone though.

Updated FAQ page using jQuery

I made the frequently asked question page a little bit cooler by adding jQuery to it. Instead of the crappy javascript I had before, now the FAQ page looks more like Digg.com with animation included.

Added tool tip pop up

Making use of jQuery again, I added a neat little tool tip pop up to alert new visitors of which sign up bonus sites have actually paid me. I'm not very active in a lot of the sign up bonus websites. I mainly just like to build websites, but to see that sites actually pay someone who doesn't actively promote them shows a lot.

Cool RSS pic at home page

I found a really neat RSS picture using Google Image Search. I just had to use it at the sign up bonus site.

Forum navigation css modified

Now when you hover your mouse over the navigation bar at the forum, the link will change color. It wasn't a big deal, but I just like the hover effect.

I also added a few more sign up bonus sites, I will write about them at a future date.

Updates yet to come to Signupandmakemoney.com:

  • Ad manager - you'll be able to purchase and track advertising at the site.

  • Referrals at the affiliate program will be automatic instead of manually approved.

  • New navigation bar at the sign up bonus page using jQuery will be added.

  • Google Search form will eventually be added to the forum.


As always, I would love your opinions of this sign up bonus site. There is a thread in the forum where you can comment on needed improvements to the site.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Get paid to do various tasks at Microworkers

(My Original Blog Post: http://www.signupandmakemoney.com/blog/2009/10/get-paid-to-do-various-tasks-at-microworkers/)
Microworkers - Work and earn or offer a micro job.I ran into a site called Microworkers today. As usual, when I first took a look at what they had to offer, I was a little bit confused. After taking a closer look into Microworkers, I realize they have a good thing going on. Of course, I'm writing about them because they give a $1.00 sign up bonus just for joining and are 100% free to join. That's just something I always do.

I like Microworkers because you can get paid to do various tasks for website owners. I never seen a site so flexible in their earning options. Some of the tasks are pretty easy if you have some time to kill and want to make some extra money online.

Here are some "micro job" examples:

  • Comment on some one's blog.

  • Post in forums.

  • Write a short article.

  • Post ads on Craiglist.

  • Write a blog on a particular product.

  • Follow someone on Twitter.

  • Digg a website.

  • Complete a survey.

  • Sign up under some one's referral link.

  • Link to some one's site.

  • There is no limit on what a task could be.


If you own a website, Microworkers can help you get traffic to your site at a pretty inexpensive rate.

Anyway, as with anything, nothing is ever perfect. It looks like the $1.00 sign up bonus is supposed to be used towards advertising. This isn't a complete waste, since being a website owner, I spend a good junk of change on advertising online. You don't have to own a site to promote something though.

I tried using my sign up bonus to do a quick comment task. I had to do at least 25 positions. I thought this sucked because I was hoping to try their services out before actually putting any real money into Microworkers.

One last downside is that they claim you can earn $1.00 per referral, but in order to get the $1.00 for referring someone, the person needs to earn at least $25.00 in commissions either by  completing tasks or by referring others themselves.

This makes the earning potential go down just a little bit, but overall, I think Microworkers is a pretty unique site with a distinct name for themselves. What do you think?

Take a look at some more sign up bonuses that pay you for doing things and let me know what you think.