#5 - Paul Gabrielson - Practice

Thanks to Paul Gabrielson for the great session on practice.

1.        JC Session #5 – Paul Gabrielson part 1:  https://youtu.be/plKdqjy_g2A

2.        JC Session #5 – Paul Gabrielson part 2:  https://youtu.be/ltzSqxzeYAA

3.        JC Session #5 – Paul Gabrielson Song with Marina, Milo and Dan:    https://youtu.be/aLDq63ZbDP8

Here is this week's transcription challenge ...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzoGR9KaGamTRUx2dHZEdFZFdkVaV0F6akJjOHB4MzNpeXBv/view?usp=sharing

Rehearsal notes from Rimmy

Rehearsal Summary: 
worked on time feel and increasing the tempo on After You’ve Gone as well as the bridge on When Lights Are Low. 

Notes: 
internalizing time is just as important if not, more important than knowing the changes and form to a tune. 
Though nobody has perfect time, everyone can swing if they really feel what they’re playing and be confident with their own time.

Exercises:
(For time feel) Come up with a lick and stick with it throughout the tune and try to start it on different parts of the beat and worry only about your time and feel throughout the tune.

(For learning the form of a tune) play the triads of each chord on one two, and three, then when you are comfortable, play a different inversion, and then when you’re comfortable with that, play multiple versions throughout the form in a specific rotation so that you’re forced to think.

This from King

Today we took how high the moon and reviewed Tims lesson on side stepping, and closures. We also did excersises using the flat 9 in the chords of how high the moon in four note patterns. We then took the chart Sandu and talked about the minor and major blues scales. We broke the two scales down realzing they werent really scales at all just notes that could be used when making a blues line. All other notes including individual homework assignments will be on Tims google drive. 

Rodney's notes from Greenblatt group

Week 5 

• Practice chord tones from the root up
• Then Switch the order of the way you play the chord tones.
• The hippest pick up is on the and of 3
• You can do a lot with chord tones if you don’t start at the bottom. You do a lot more with chord tones if you don’t play then the same way every time. 
• Leaps of sixths and sevenths are hip and occur a lot
• You can play chord tones in any order and also you can leave them out. 
• Playing Good unison is hard but extremely crucial to sound mature. It is also quiet difficult without like instruments. Especially rhythm and horns
• Write notes into your parts that you like. You should write it in especially if you have blowing changes
• Pay attention to the chord changes and the changing notes. Chords changes a progression and they have leading tones and things like that. 
• Learn turn around for both horn players and rhythm players. If someone gets lost, then they will be able to hear where they are through turn around and chord changes. 
• Teaching is about the student and not about the teaching musician. 
• Virtuoso playing and virtuoso playing is completely different. You can be an amazing musician but not an amazing teacher. that does not mean you can’t be both 
• Devote 5 minutes to only vocabulary. Learning it and developing how much vocabulary you have.
• Practice the process of transcription

#4 - Milo Petersen - cross rhythm patterns

WEEK #4 Challenge!

Next week's transcription assignment is Bluesville by Sonny Red with solo by Jimmy Heath - email your recordings to Mr. Greenblatt

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzoGR9KaGamTUURBQkVNekNxaWYwajBwcDdmWEFmMUUzZFB3/view?usp=sharing

Next week's tune to learn is Yardbird Suite by Charlie Parker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmroWIcCNUI

Send your videos to Dylan Alrud-Faltisco da.faltisco@icloud.com 

Here are the Milo Petersen videos from July 17th, 2018

Part 1:  https://youtu.be/9G90_aM-bqY

Part 2:  https://youtu.be/gCaWTscUAms

Here's the link to the worksheet mentioned in the videos

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0vys76rp3kqRHM2ZHplZWZyUE9NSE5hNjM4OUpwZ1BlMVY0/view?usp=sharing

Summary of Combo Rehearsals

This from Jansen Leggett for the Michael Glynn group ...

Jeep’s Blues notes

Ending on bar 11 beat 2 

Everyone prepare to solo on this tune.

After You’ve Gone

Natalie took the melody and sounded great. 

The group is still struggling with the form of this tune, I think they could fix that by just listening to the tune. 

Find ways to simplify the chords

Bb- to Eb7, leave some space beforehand to prepare yourself. Look ahead, knowing where you are going is more important than where you are.

Vibes and guitar, practice physically taking breaths as if you are a horn player. When transcribing horn players, breath when they breath. 

When Lights Are Low

Listen to Miles recording. He didn’t even play the bridge. Bridge is 2-5-1s in Ab, B, and D. 2 measures each, then turn around into F (really just a stretched out 2-5 into F)

First 3 1/2 bars of each A, you can just hang out in F.

The Things We Did Last Summer

Keep straight 8ths and swing separate, even though bass has triplets. Solo sections are split in half. 

Trumpet pick up notes into 147 are 3 half notes in the new tempo.

Hunter set the new tempo perfectly in the rehearsal

July 17th summary; Milo Peterson group - submitted by Joel Steinke

Sarah and Anthony were able to make this colony, so we worked on our two tunes, My Little Suede Shoes, and Solar. 

Similar to last time, we worked on deepening our understanding of the chord changes with our patterns and talked shop on various grooves (Rumba and Son Claves). Both Sarah and Anthony had to leave early, so Jai, Joel, and Milo talked about the lesser-known Harmonic Major scale and its applicable uses for the last hour of Colony. 

(Tim Carey out) - 7/17
Dylan Allrud-Faltisco & King Dawidalle w Jack Roben 


Tim Carey called out sick so King and I led the combo with help from guitarist Jack Roben (alum of EW and University of North Texas) and some later guidance from Mr. B. 

We rehearsed Tim Carey’s arrangements but spent our time mainly on comprehending the chord progressions of the songs. The benefit to vertical lines - 1 3 5 7 9 in different orders - as opposed to scale lines, is the better way to outline each harmony in the changes for the benefits of learning the harmonies, building lines and running those lines in different orders (aka permutations), and as we go forward, collecting this knowledge to start designing well-informed and longer lines over several bars/changes. We started focusing on the latter skill a couple weeks ago when we drilled chord tones over major and minor ii V I ’s. 

Jordu - Clifford Brown and Max Roach - https://youtu.be/GslhRUBgXNI

How Hight the Moon 
Sonny Stitt - https://youtu.be/A_D1kdI9j3k
Sonny Criss - https://youtu.be/nyzREChIcYs

Summertime - Miles Davis and Gil Evans - https://youtu.be/pCp4Yb8NaxA - Dylan AF

#3 - Tim Carey - chord symbols simplified - scroll down for week #4 challenge

Here is the link for the week #3 Greenblatt transcription challenge!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lnNOA05llGd8l_TKUOdiHkfU_a6TTnCw/view?usp=sharing

Tune of the week to learn the head on is Recorda-me
Another great excuse to work on your minor scales!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwRbcb4ADjY

Send your videos to Jack Hillman
hillmjoh001@gmail.com

Try to learn it by ear without the leadsheet!

Tim Carey gave a great short summary on how to understand chords ... here's the handout. Study it and there may be quiz this week for prizes?

Here is the lecture and demonstration performance featuring Tim and Marina Albero!

JC Session #3 – Tim Carey – “Cord Symbols Simplified.” --- https://youtu.be/ItzVlNccDto

JC Session #3 – Tim Carey and Marina Albero – Song. -- https://youtu.be/zqFymiMsV0c

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzoGR9KaGamTNDRlY3lUQkpKUGJHeFhLVXA2dVh2MWItb0Vn/view?usp=sharing


Email me with questions.

Older Jazz Colony posts are still excellent ... take a look and listen if you need inspiration.

Week 3 - Rodney's summary of Greenblatt Combo "Ariel Boundaries"

• approach chord tones from a half step away
• Bessie’s Blues
• Alternate chordal instruments when comping 
• chord tones, repetition, rhythmic authority. 
• Colonial Uprising
• The turn around sets up the next set of chords so we need to do a “pirouette” in terms of chords. 
• Horn players should practice turn around to be able to play through quick changes
• Ultimate is last, pen ultimate is before last and antipenultimate is the before the before last. Preantipenultimate is the measure before the before the before the last measure.
• Having a goal helps you be disciplined, and consistent. Play music till your 80 and think about who you want to play with in 5 years and where you want to be musically. 
• Drum and bass’s connection was really good but the piano and guitar need to connect with them more, so that the rhythm section can sparkle 
• instead of starting on the root, start on the upper extensions of the chord and come down instead. 
• Clowns in intalian is clowny for plural and for singular it’s clowno
• Piano and guitar needs to get better at deciding who is comping while playing. Work as a team

Joel Steinke summary of the progress in Milo Peterson Combo - "Extension Experience"

Week 1:

Milo Peterson group: Our group song is solar. The first meeting began with Milo discussing and then demonstrating the origins of "jazz" rhythm. We talked about the concept of learning by rote, and he then had us play various parts of the groove by clapping. Milo stressed the importance of the 3 against 4 that makes the music we play "swing". We then moved on to playing some commonly known tunes among us to get comfortable and in the colony mindset. C Jam Blues (Duke's Place), and Straight No Chaser, respectively. These 12 bar blues' led nicely into our group song, solar, another 12 bar tune, but NOT a blues. Joel, Jai, King, and Anthony played solar for the class to hear. Milo again shared great stories about the origins of the song, the true composer (not Miles Davis!) and the significance of the C- maj7 quality of the first chord. We then practiced two scales as a group. C melodic minor, and C harmonic minor. Ending our first session we learned the full head to Solar by ear. Milo left us to go home and find a lead sheet of solar and listen to a recording.

Week 2:

Because we missed our trumpet, drummer, and bass player dearly, Milo worked with the three of us there and had a small lesson. We worked out how to play through changes with patterns like 1 2 3 5, and 1 3 5 7 (these numbers represent notes on any given scale and are interchangeable). Milo asked that we practice each one (and perhaps our own patterns) over the changes of Solar to gain some familiarity and comfort when soloing. 

Week 3:

Yet another week without bass and drums (and trumpet). It was brought to Milo's attention that we will need two songs for our concert; we ended up deciding to play My Little Suede Shoes, a wonderfully melodic tune written by Bird. We spent half of the class learning this melody by rote too as we did Solar. We then spent the remaining time using our chord patterns (1 2 3 5 and 1 3 5 7 and 1 2 3 b7) over the A and B sections. At the end of rehearsal, a lead sheet was given to those present. Milo challenged us to continue to explore patterns as a device to learn the tune. 

Nebee's summary for Paul Gabrielson group - "Shred Shed"

We received two new charts, “One by One” by Wayne Shorter and “Mama Cita” by Joe Henderson. We ran through both tunes in addition to rehearsing “Stolen Moments” by Oliver Nelson. On Stolen Moments, we broke down soloing over minor changes. For instance, since the tune is in C minor, we approached soloing over the changes from its parallel major, that being Eb major. This week’s jam of the week is “Recordame” by Joe Henderson. We ran through it at the end of our last rehearsal and may run through it again next week. 

Hit the shed!

Dippin' Dudes summary from Max ....

The Marina Albero combo split up into sectionals for last Tuesday's session. The horns worked on Bobplicity and tried to emulate some of the phrasing. We listened a lot to the recording. We also experimented on harmonizing the melody to maiden voyage. We also spent a little time talking about the dorian sound and the minor 6/9 sound. 

When we finally came together we played through Recorda-me and Moose the Mooch. Marina encouraged us to work on hitting the chord tones on the ii-V-Is and the I-vi-ii-V-Is. She suggested we arppegiate every chord (1,3,5,7 or 1,2,3,5). 

Bonus homework was to check out Miles Davis's "Serpent's tooth" and try to transcribe some of the notes.

WEEK #4 Challenge!

Next week's transcription assignment is Bluesville by Sonny Red with solo by Jimmy Heath - email your recordings to Mr. Greenblatt

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzoGR9KaGamTUURBQkVNekNxaWYwajBwcDdmWEFmMUUzZFB3/view?usp=sharing

Next week's tune to learn is Yardbird Suite by Charlie Parker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmroWIcCNUI

Send your videos to Dylan Alrud-Faltisco da.faltisco@icloud.com 

#2 - Dan Greenblatt - minor is MAJOR

Colony is off to a great start. For those that missed session #2 or would like to see/hear it again.  Here are the links to the sessions. There is a ton of information here.  Take it in chunks and really work with it.

Here are the files for Greenblatt Transcription challenge. Email him your videos. dlgreenblatt@hotmail.com

4 phrases by JS Bach

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0vys76rp3kqN1Y0MHpyX29aTjlDeEpISUEtQXJqSVZVNGtz/view?usp=sharing

1.        Greenblatt Minor is Major Presentation:   https://youtu.be/FFmFL0dWOEk

2.        Greenblatt performance of "It Could Happen to You/Fried Green Bananas":    https://youtu.be/kk4pLcQbR7Q

Minor is Major - summary
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0vys76rp3kqMUI0Z2thUmRkYkRhODhtZHBsSGdtbW84VFFB/view?usp=sharing

Practicing Harmonic Minor 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0vys76rp3kqanpOSVZqci13NWZ2Ylp4SjE0bEpZaGRCb2ZR/view?usp=sharing

Broken Thirds Handout
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0vys76rp3kqTlh4VERkQUdPVng5dnEwbjZIOXhGNTdfUlFn/view?usp=sharing

It Could Happen to You - Concert Lead Sheet - pdf
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0vys76rp3kqNEg0MUt1c29LRzNHN1p6MDBuV0x1S0lLc0xV/view?usp=sharing

Here are the files for Greenblatt Transcription challenge. Email him your videos. dlgreenblatt@hotmail.com

4 phrases by JS Bach

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0vys76rp3kqN1Y0MHpyX29aTjlDeEpISUEtQXJqSVZVNGtz/view?usp=sharing

This week's "Hang 10" repertoire challenge is "These Foolish Things" and videos should be mailed to Brandt Fisher (intern) at fisherbrandt5@gmail.com

Here is one beautiful rendition .... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy6fTf5Ywoc

Combo summaries:

The Marina Albero group worked on Recorda-me for the majority of the session. We talked about how the melody of the tune can give hints about the types of modalities to imply. We decided that the two minor chords in the beginning imply a Dorian mode. We played though those scales. We also talked about the last two chords. The F major has a Lydian sound and the E7#9 has a harmonic minor sound. This brought up a larger lecture on exploring different scales and modes. Marina inspired us to explore how different scales can be implied over chords. But the main idea she was trying to convey was that for certain songs or certain sections of songs you can just play “licks”. You have to have scales and melodies to draw from in order to make things interesting. For example, a good place to start is trying to “tweak” different notes of a scale to fit the chord or to create tension.  These ideas were important for the students to “chew on” as they go forward in learning modal tunes such as the beginning of Recorda-me and especially in learning Maiden Voyage. 

We concluded the night by playing through maiden voyage and listening through Bobplicity, which Marina transcribed.

The homework was to memorize Recorda -me. And listen and practice bobplicity. 

Max Bennett


We tried out the arrangement of "I Should Care”. We focused on playing the head to “ Billie’s Bounce” at various tempos and ddi a lot of soloing on the changes at various tempos.  We also altered our trading with our illustrious drummer E.J. from 12’s to 8’s to 4’s too 6’s and 3’s until we all lost our spot in the song.  Everyone had fun with this.  We also listened and transcribed the changes and melody to “These Foolish Things” without music or writing it down.  This proved to be quite productive and the assignment for Tuesday was to learn the melody in Eb and C (concert) They have two recordings to listen to: Nat King Cole in C major and Lester Young’s recording in Eb major.  There is also a Ella Fitzgerald recording in Ab major that is beautiful and deserves a listen.  I would like us to rehearse “Stolen Moments” but maybe not the arrangement we have but the original Oliver Nelson arrangement  ( I will put this together)

Best,

Paul G

When the theory behind the changes to a tune you are learning is too complicated, use voice leading to help you develop a solo. Often a sigh of good voice leading is when you choose pitches either a half step or a whole step away from each other. 

Knowing the relationship of a chord change to the home key is very important because a Cmaj7 over and tune in C Major is different from a Cmaj7 over a tune in G Major. Knowing each chords relationship tot the home key will also reveal which scale will most accurately cover the chord change. Furthermore, when you have the correct scale for that change, the pathway to the next change will be much more obvious to you.

Rehearsal summary: worked up the tempo on the band parts for Sonny Stitt’s arrangement of After You’ve Gone. Also discussed possible strategies identifying simplifying the changes through complicated chord movements.

Read through Jeep’s Blues and discussed the importance of being able to play over a slow blues.

Ran through “the things we did last summer” and discussed tough spots to work on.

After You’ve Gone:

Band Arrangement - https://youtu.be/EQihvHFBr1s

Melody - https://youtu.be/BTkv1sWugO0

submitted by Rimmy Le

This from Rodney regarding Greenblatt Combo

Week 2

• whole tone scale is a good way to play over the second chord of take the a train
• Whole tone scale is a scale with whole steps
• Sounds cool and out
• Billy Strayhorn came from a family that wasn’t musically inclined
• Joe Henderson take the a train whole tone scale example
• AABA 
• Play chord tones and you’ll always play good notes
• How to make music with those notes and transcribe notes and licks
• Right notes with good rhythms make music
• We are learning how to speak in a new language when we solo
• Have rhythms in mind that encompass the jazz style 
• Charlie Parker liked chicken so much that people called him yardbird. Yard for short or bird
• Have a rhythm in mind a repeat it. Rhythm first and play it stanky and Swanging
• Have a booklet of rhythms
• Learn how to follow the rules before you break em. Follow the chord tones then learn how to go around them
• minor blues scale learn it
• Improvisation is a combination of execution and composition
• If your gonna be a good soloist you have to be equally as good at composition as execution