Listen to Learn - Learn to
Listen!!!
Summary of July 5, 2016
Big Thanks to the Hearn Family for the amazing meal afterwards :)
Also thanks to Lynne Behrendt for keeping us organized. Thanks to Mr. Bennett for video recording the sessions!
Session 2 began with our first "Faculty Presents" session. These sessions serve several purposes:
· have kids hear adults
live (some don't get out to hear live music)
· start the session with
ART (instead of talking)
· motivate the adults to
keep viewing themselves as learners and performers
· demonstrate the strengths
of our amazing guests and staff
· have a reference which
you might want to touch back on during your 20 minute lesson
· help motivate the kids to
learn new and different tunes
· help students see how the
adults communicate before and during the performance .... etc.
Mr. Bergevin (vocal), Anton Schwartz (tenor) and Tim Carey (electric bass)
"I'm Through with Love" Kahn/Malneck/Livingston
Anton presented a great session on the psychology of practice called Better Practice.
Here's the video of the lecture ... thanks to Pete!
COMBO REVIEWS - revisit these notes
MOTIAN
SICKNESS worked
on "Hackensack" by Thelonious Monk, Sandu and On the Sunny Side of
the Street. We focused on maintaining a steady groove in the rhythm section
(feeling two and four and locking in with different subdivisions). We also
focused on getting the rhythm section to interact with the soloist (and vice
versa). Let's remember to keep our ears open while we are soloing or accompanying
a soloist.
The
homework for next time is:
1. Bring in a recording(s) of the tune you suggested we would work on this summer.
1. Bring in a recording(s) of the tune you suggested we would work on this summer.
2.
Start learning the tune by ear (or locate sheet music)
3.
Have an idea of the direction you might want to take the music
4.
Learn Autumn Leaves... (gmin? or emin?)
Here
are some links to some recording to check out but you (the student) should
consider listening to other versions as well.
Hackensack
(Monk):
Every recording he plays it different...
Here is the one we listened to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Ga1W_yGho
Here is the one we listened to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Ga1W_yGho
Check
out this rare recording of Stan Getz and Trane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuIos1mRwyo
If I
Were a Bell:
Classic
Miles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36wafFjFdYs
Gerald
Clayton version (different key): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9FJx0VqXSM
There
is No Greater Love:
Classic
Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tnEV2IDx6g
Central
Park West:
Naima:
Classic
Trane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTMqes6HDqU
Karrin
Allyson (Nebee, start lifting): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MxYxz4ZPO0
Hot
House:
Notes
from Anton Schwartz (see handout as well):
·
We
are bad judges at how effective our practicing is. You can't judge it right
after your session. Consider judging it two days later.
·
the
most valuable and long lasting thing we can do is to take something we kind of
know and revive it in our mind (re-learn it) and reshape it into something we
can do. Ex: learning a tune in a different key
·
work
on a lot of things in one session instead of one thing.
·
try
the spacing method: learn a little bit, take a break, learn some more, wait....
and try to sleep in between
Thanks,
Max
Bennett
Attachments
area
STRAIGHT
LIFE
This
week we listened to several songs our combo would like to try to perform! Those
songs included:
•Autumn Leaves (as recorded by Cannonball Adderly/Miles Davis)
•Ladybird (Dexter Gordon, also Chet Baker)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0vhqDCy9eQ
•Invitation (Roy Hargrove)
•But Not For Me (Chet Baker)
•Driftin' (Herbie Hancock)
•Hallelujah (Michael League, Hildegunn Gjedrem)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgIB0h0mcp0
Of these recordings, we played through Autumn Leaves, Ladybird, and Invitation. For Autumn Leaves, we tried to emulate the Cannonball recording, focusing on trying to reproduce the arrangement we heard on that recording (I.e. The intro/outro). In Invitation we are thinking about doing it as a more up tempo arrangement (in RH's style, instead of the traditional slower tempo). We're still tossing around ideas for an arrangement of Ladybird.
For next week, we'd like those students that didn't bring in recordings to bring in a couple recordings of their own. Also for next week, we would like to have sheet music for the other tunes we listened to but weren't able to read through. By the end of our session next week, we would like to have a solid set list to focus on for the Aug. 3 gig.
submitted by
Nathan James
•Autumn Leaves (as recorded by Cannonball Adderly/Miles Davis)
•Ladybird (Dexter Gordon, also Chet Baker)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0vhqDCy9eQ
•Invitation (Roy Hargrove)
•But Not For Me (Chet Baker)
•Driftin' (Herbie Hancock)
•Hallelujah (Michael League, Hildegunn Gjedrem)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgIB0h0mcp0
Of these recordings, we played through Autumn Leaves, Ladybird, and Invitation. For Autumn Leaves, we tried to emulate the Cannonball recording, focusing on trying to reproduce the arrangement we heard on that recording (I.e. The intro/outro). In Invitation we are thinking about doing it as a more up tempo arrangement (in RH's style, instead of the traditional slower tempo). We're still tossing around ideas for an arrangement of Ladybird.
For next week, we'd like those students that didn't bring in recordings to bring in a couple recordings of their own. Also for next week, we would like to have sheet music for the other tunes we listened to but weren't able to read through. By the end of our session next week, we would like to have a solid set list to focus on for the Aug. 3 gig.
submitted by
Nathan James
FULL
HOUSE
worked on "Full House" by Wes Montgomery. The group learned the head and listened to the recording a few times for stylistic concerns especially the intro. Anton introduced the idea of diminished whole tone scales for use in minor keys. Brandon (bass) was away.
The
group also worked on "Mamacita" by Joe Henderson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcKK8P-v59M
Players were encouraged to practice, listen and memorize. Anton worked on
slow motion eighth note lines with soloists.
CARNIVAL
COMBO
Assignment:
- Find
2 recordings of Autumn Leaves
- Instrumental version - learn the melody in that key
- Vocal Version - learn the lyrics
Hour
1:
Played
Sonny Moon
-
Practiced soloing
- Worked on simple phrases, major & minor pentatonic scales,
hitting the changes with the "blue note"
- Worked on quarter note swing feel, comping in rhythm section
Played
Little Sunflower
-
Worked on Bossa groove (root to 5th bassline), comping patterns between piano
and guitar
-
Melody
-
Keeping form
(I
personally really enjoyed Anton's talk, really cool hearing about the
psychology of practicing and information processing/retention)
Played
Autumn Leaves
- Play
melody
-
Chord tones with horns (background lines)
Larger
concepts:
"
Ask a drummer" what do you look for in a bassist?
Taryn
discussed things she likes about bass players she plays with
-
Simplicity, some filling
-
Solid groove & time
Talked
about how lyrics help melodic memory, and associate music (standards) with
emotional concepts instead of just notes
Alex
Dyring <dyringbass@gmail.com>
HIGH
LIFE
Worked
on our Art Blakey Tune - One by One. Tightening the A section and bringing in
some texture/dynamics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSo2qaAnit0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSo2qaAnit0
Listening:
Josh N brought some early Trombone Shorty. Audrey T some Gerry Mulligan.
Horn
section worked on blend with some masterful coaching/exercises from Tim. Man
they were sounding good by the end of rehearsal.
Submitted by Dan Chappelle
We
are shedding Autumn Leaves this week to have ready for next Tues.
NEXT
WEEK: STEVE MOSTOVOY and Autumn Leaves check up
Here are Jory's comments .... One By One - Wayne Shorter/Art Blakey - Did a lot of listening to a couple of different recordings from different eras of the Jazz Messengers. After getting a general idea of what dynamics and stylistic ideas are prevalent throughout the tune we marked everything in in an effort to emulate the recording as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteThis brought to light the topic relating to a very specific Art Blakey style: In general songs like this in the Art Blakey repertoire have very drastic changes in dynamics and feel from section to section. For example; in "One By One" the "A" sections are clearly divided up into a lighter feel with softer dynamics (first 4 bars), and a heavier (more rockus) and much louder dynamics (second 4 bars). This is a very common theme for a lot of Jazz Messengers songs and is a prime example of approaching many tunes from the Hard Bop era.
In addition to covering the underlying stylistic tendencies and contrasting approach to dynamics and heavy swing feel, we also covered the idea of Harmonic Generalization which is an entry level approach to improvising over chord changes that share similar chord tones and leading tones. "One By One" looks a little bit intimidating at first because there are a lot of chord changes, most of the time the harmonic rhythm is in half notes (or every two beats a chord changes). Approaching improvisation from a perspective of generalizing all of the chords to a one or two chord-scales is much more palatable.
We also focused on "Blues By Five" which is coming together nicely as one of the charts we would like to perform.
Part of our homework assignment last week was to have each student bring in a list of five songs that they might be interested in playing during the camp. These lists included "Take Five" by Paul Desmond (performed by the Dave Brubeck Quartet), Trombone Shorty's "Second Line" which we listened to and analyzed as a group.
Our assignment this week is to be able to arpeggiate the chord tones (according to the chord helper) of the first four bars of "Autumn Leaves".