Plan Ahead to attend the entire evening next Wednesday, August 30
Don Tran's rehearsal summary:
We’re nearing the last week the Jazz Colony!!
We revised and went over our original tune “Blume Bossa”, a mashup of “Song for My Father” and “Blue Bossa”. We went over what notes we can play and avoid on certain changes, but also how it shouldn’t limit us on our improv ideas. The rhythm section emphasized the importance of groove, and how complexity may sacrifice that groove, especially in the context of our song’s style.
I will post a iReal format sheet for anyone who still needs the written changes to practice over.
All of us keep sounding better and better on “Sandu”, I think the transcription and listening homework were been a big help.
I suggest going over “Take the A Train” again in case we don’t meet our time limit for our final performance.
Joel Steinke summary:
Not much to report as we approach the final concert. For those who were not present at this week's meeting, we spent some time learning how to make use of a metronome in our practice.
Instead of having the metronome click quarter notes, setting the beep and feeling it as "1" for every bar, or every other bar provides a much greater challenge and can inform us if our individual time is uneven, rushing, or dragging. There is the additional benefit that with the metronome only, you must begin to hear the harmony in your head as you outline the form. Much better than using modern play-alongs, in my experience. Please consider making use of the metronome! Stefan offered us an advanced exercise as well; place the beat of the metronome to an offbeat! For example, instead of hearing the beep as landing on 1, attempt to hear it on the and of 1, or the and of 4, etc. Not easy! But as Stefan mentioned, it can help instantiate rhythmic forms you would not otherwise be hearing or feeling. This is just the surface of metronomic practice, please incorporate some of this into your personal practice! And buy a metronome if you don’t already own one. Often times they are sold as a metronome/tuner combo.
We combined these metronomic exercises with our triadic workouts over Three Flowers. Playing the triads in various permutations with the metronome is essential for gaining the upper hand in soloing over any song.
We will spend next week running down our set front to back, and solidifying some backgrounds for solo sections. I hope everyone can be present for our last meeting!
Liam Salas's summary
This week, we played through our tunes again, and worked on putting together harmony parts for Little Sunflower. We spent a lot of time soloing, and Milo gave our drummer some great advice, which was relevant to everyone! Milo spoke to the importance of being convincing when you play and stressing the importance of actually playing at the tempo that we count the tune off to. Connor also let the horn players know that it is also our responsibility not to drag.
Another big development for this week is that we started working on background figures for Little Sunflower and possibly the blues. Instead of writing out "formal" backgrounds, we are practicing improvising them during the solo. We spent a lot of time working on this. Connor made it clear that the best way to do it is a little musical idea that is easily played in the background... shorter than a bar.
Dig combo summary
We spent the first half of the session on Sweet Georgia Brown/Dig, ending with us working out the arrangement for next week. The plan is to:
-play Dig as the head
-solos
-soli
-Dig or Sweet Georgia Brown out
While practicing the two melodies and chord changes (particularly the second half of the changes where the pattern deviates from the initial series of dominants), we discussed some of the differences between the written melody and what we transcribed and noted that we knew the melody to This I Dig of You (which we transcribed together in its entirety) better than Dig (which we transcribed with the help of written versions). Transcribing by ear always cements a tune in the memory better than reading one and trying to memorize it off the page. The second half of the tune gave us trouble, so we looped it to get used to the different pattern.
Andrew played an example of a more "vertical" chord based solo as found in early jazz styles. This is a perfectly valid way to improvise, but is distinct to the pre-bop era. This wasn't discussed on Tuesday, but something Andrew thought of later: approaches can be divided into:
-vertical, harmonic approach based on arpeggios (Coleman Hawkins) -> early jazz, swing 1920s-1940s
-horizontal, melodic approach based on scales and common tones (Lester Young) -> bop, West Coast jazz, etc 1950+
Of course, both approaches are important and appear in all periods. Consider the verticality of Coltrane's solo in Giant Steps...
Bebop is complex! Starting with basic chord tones is more manageable. Plus, it sounds good. Eventually you'll start exploring more intricate and dissonant structures. Or, if you like that 1920's sound, you could always just stay put.
Andrew mentioned two kinds of practice: playing a tune with a metronome (imagining the chord changes) and freely playing without a metronome. The metronome helps to develop time feel, diagnose time and rhythmic problems, and simulate the urgency of playing with a group. On the other hand, freely playing over changes without the time constraint imposed by the metronome allows us to "compose" slowly, to develop the ability to create purposive and logical improvisations. Improvising is like fast composition.
For the second half we worked on This I Dig of You. We took solos, and traded 4s. That unresolved 2-5 to B in the first half is tricky! Most of us don't often play in Db minor, Eb minor, or Bb minor depending on transposition, so it's worth looking at those two bars. Working something out that can be repeated down a half step is a good idea. The break can also be tricky. We all took turns playing over the break, where time feel counts for more than notes. We're more comfortable over these changes than Sweet Georgia Brown: lots of nice breaks and material lifted from the recording!
Other themes for the night:
- learning tunes takes time. The more you learn, the faster it will get, but at first it can go slowly. Learn tunes you like. Learn tunes in multiple keys. Many tunes are very similar.
- time feel is more important than lots of notes
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