Glad to have these swanky new shirts with logo design by Nick Loyd.
Every Jazz Colony Student would benefit by studying the blues. Here's a recording which is recommended for all to listen to and choose a favorite chorus or 2.
Miles Davis - Straight No Chaser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooS2i65-vk8
Mr. B posted a progress chart in the class to help students that need a goal for their personal practice during the summer. Here's a photo of the physical chart ...
Across the top are a few items which could be addressed each week. Students that accomplish the tasks will earn points for their ensemble (and themselves). Most importantly, you'll notice improvement if you have a systematic approach. Some items which are listed include:
- transcribing
- intentional listening (to jazz)
- attending a jam session (like Sea Jazz or Romeo's)
- practicing independently and logging your progress in a notebook (or phone)
- memorizing a melody
- playing any lick in all 12 keys
- attending a live performance
- working on any audition material
- taking a real live lesson in person
- sight reading (alone or with a buddy)
- playing scales and arpeggios (or rudiments)
- optional area of interest
Take a moment to fill out this google form instead of using the chart in the band room?
Here are the rehearsal summaries:
Solar Combo: Today we worked on transcribing Miles Davis' solo on Now's the Time. We learned the melody and learned the first two bars of Miles' solo that starts at 1:44. We decided a good practice goal would be to learn the first chorus of his solo. Singing first, then noodling, then playing in rhythm in small chunks seems to work best! We worked on Solar, writing out the chord tones on each chord and practicing a guide tone melody. Practice goal this week: improvise on Solar with two techniques - improvising off the guide tone line (keep coming back to the guide tone!) and then improvise using the melody to guide the solo. Decide what technique you are going to use before you play. Also this week - memorize the melody of Equinox. ~ Christine H
Hi-Fly Combo - Homework for this week:
Take every note in any scale and stack the 7th chord and number each chord with its value. This is called Diatonic 7th chords. We will be playing High Fly and Straight No Chaser so I would recommend going through this process with those tunes as well. ~ Cedar
This week in the Stars Fell on Alabama combo, we started by listening to Roy Hargrove, and went around the room and identified our favorite parts of the music, which include Roy's unique and beautiful tone on the trumpet, the excellent comping and time feel in the rhythm section, and the joyful feeling of the band. Here it is if you want to listen again:
Then, we worked on soloing over the twelve bar blues, and specifically honed in on keeping the form over minimal hits in the rhythm section that we lifted from the recording of Sonnymoon for Two. We continued to work on non-verbal contact, and tried to pass solos and comunicate with each other through eye contact as we played. Finally, we transcribed the first 8 bars of Miles Davis' Solar by listening, collaborating, and recognizing patterns in the melody. Everyone is encouraged to learn the rest of the melody by next week, as well as work on transcribing Miles' solo on Now's the Time. - Jack Hillman
Here is the Star Eyes Combo blog summary:
This week we worked on the tune “Star Eyes.” We listened to versions by Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, and Roy Hargrove. Our combo learned the melody and started talking about playing over chord changes. Focus was on learning the major, minor, and diminished triads at the base of each chord. We played an exercise outlining the triad for each chord as it went by during the tune, and then tried soloing using only notes from each triad.
It is difficult to play with only these select notes, but when we put restraints on our solos it trains us to internalize the tune in a new way. And, exercising like this can spark creativity in our playing.
Afterwards, we briefly reviewed “Now’s The Time,” focusing on soloing with thematic development: taking one idea and playing it repeatedly with variations over a chorus of solo. Mr. B came in and reminded us to use proper airspeed and create more tone on our instruments while we play. Our tone is our “musical handshake.” Call and response exercise ensued, with a focus on creating more tone. This made a big difference.
Homework:
-review Star eyes melody and listen to a version you like
-practice the triads to the Stay eyes changes along with a backing track/recording
-practice playing with more TONE, do scale warm ups and long tones while focusing on the tone you create in your instrument.
Nice job this week! It’s great to see everyone progressing. Thanks for the good work.
-Brandt
Virgo (Horace Silver)
Practice the head (horns) and familiarize yourselves with the figures (rhythm section). When playing fast, think slow. This means feeling larger subdivisions of the beats and generalizing harmonic concepts while blowing. If you try to cram everything you know into each ii-V, it's going to sound like just that. Time and a light, gliding swing feel are of the essence.
recordings for reference:
Skylark (Hoagy Carmichael)
Check out the changes, they are heavily reharmonized. The theme of the week continues to be the family of Sus chords and how to effectively improvise over them. While this largely depends on context, we are trying out the use of 1-2-3-4-5 shapes in Natural Minor one whole step above the root of each sus chord (e.g., B sus13= C# Minor, Ab sus13= Bb Minor).
recording for reference:
This is for Albert (Wayne Shorter)
We haven't spent a great deal of time on this, but it would be good to familiarize ourselves with the tune. This is, of course, a dedication to Albert II, who was the first mammal to go into space.
Horns: Follow along with the recording and figure out your parts in the divisi sections (trumpet plays top line, tenor plays middle line, and I'll play the bottom).
Rhythm: Check out those pedals and breaks, some happen in the blowing, some don't. Some only happen sometimes. Also, I love what Art Blakey is doing on the hi-hat/rim clicks at the top of the form. Maybe we can lift that?
recording for reference:
Conner Eisenmenger
Denis Wick Artist
Chamber Colony got rolling with 2 groups finally. Thanks to Steve for the fun outdoor rehearsal/lesson.
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