I still suck at ear training. Best I can get is 64% right. Usually, I'm in the 40% area. In fact, I think I'm getting worse. I noticed I can't even detect octaves half the time now. That's really bad.
I watched the Arturo Sandoval story, "For Love or Country", starring Andy Garcia. It was pretty good.
Spent two and a half hours today on my jazz theory class homework. It was all about harmonic minor scales and 13th chords, two more weak areas for me, and man, it was a lot of work. So when I can't play anything in the band tomorrow, I'll tell the director (who also teaches the jazz theory class) that I had too much homework. We'll see how that goes.
I've been listening to a lot of Dizzy Gillespie lately. Sometimes, you just forget how good some of these musicians are when you haven't listened to them for a while, and then when you do, you just can't put them away because they sound so fresh all of a sudden. I can honestly say, only jazz music does that to me. Or so it seems.
And it finally stopped raining in Alabama. I got some sunlight vitamin D today and it felt great!
I put out an ad online looking for a free piano. No surprise that one hasn't shown up yet. I may have to break down and spend some money on one. I should do it soon, too.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Something worth reading
Today is the 54th anniversary of Erroll Garner's wonderful work, "Concert by the Sea". So, rather than write about it, I'll just direct my readers to help themselves to this wonderful Wall Street Journal article about Garner and that recording. I'm also going to pull down my own CD and have a listen later. Y'all might want to do the same.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
My hypothesis about jazz theory
Although my failing and unfortunate efforts to improve my ears have been well documented in this space, I feel it is time to look on the bright side. Namely, my jazz theory course appears that it is going to have a profound effect on my ability to understand jazz. Although we've only had two classes, I have one clear example.
Last week we covered the modes of the scale. Now, I learned about these from my piano instructor in something like my third lesson, but I never much paid attention to them, because I didn't really understand how they were (or could be) applied. It all just seemed a lot of excessive, unapproachable, forced idiom and jargon meant to discourage the uninitiated. Which in fact, it is. I mean, the chances are really good you'll never hear a jazz musician go, "Okay, man, this is A-flat mixolydian, so let that sax solo rip!" Musicians, and especially jazz musicians are supposed to infer what notes will work and what notes won't when they hear the tune. How uncool it would be to have to actually analyze jazz before you could play it, right?
But how much easier it is if you can decipher the tune and know in your own brain that A-flat mixolydian is correct and B-flat Ionian or whatever is not, because then if you know what A-flat mixolydian is, you automatically know what notes to play.
And the 1-3-5-7 notes of the mode define the ii-V-I progression, and so, if you know the mode you know the notes, and if you know the notes you know the chords, and if you know the chords you can play a song, any song, correctly, and guess what? You're suddenly a real jazz musician! So now I'm in the process of forcing myself to learn all the modes more or less by heart, or to at least be able to figure them out in a couple of seconds so I can use them on tunes right away. I completed our class homework assignment, but that wasn't enough practice, so I developed my own chart for going through and learning the modes. I can just pick one, write it out, cross it off, then pick another, and so on, until I've gone through them all, then I can start all over again. It shouldn't take too long to program them in my brain.
Here's the chart I made, with the modes and keys altering in different patterns around the circle of fifths:
So my hypothesis about jazz theory is simply: jazz is a mental music made easier by doing the mental work and understanding the theory behind it. It is possible to be a phenomenal jazz musician without grasping the theory, but I estimate you can take one or two years off the time it takes to become virtuoso, just by taking a jazz theory course. Someday, I may even turn out to be the proof of my hypothesis.
Last week we covered the modes of the scale. Now, I learned about these from my piano instructor in something like my third lesson, but I never much paid attention to them, because I didn't really understand how they were (or could be) applied. It all just seemed a lot of excessive, unapproachable, forced idiom and jargon meant to discourage the uninitiated. Which in fact, it is. I mean, the chances are really good you'll never hear a jazz musician go, "Okay, man, this is A-flat mixolydian, so let that sax solo rip!" Musicians, and especially jazz musicians are supposed to infer what notes will work and what notes won't when they hear the tune. How uncool it would be to have to actually analyze jazz before you could play it, right?
But how much easier it is if you can decipher the tune and know in your own brain that A-flat mixolydian is correct and B-flat Ionian or whatever is not, because then if you know what A-flat mixolydian is, you automatically know what notes to play.
And the 1-3-5-7 notes of the mode define the ii-V-I progression, and so, if you know the mode you know the notes, and if you know the notes you know the chords, and if you know the chords you can play a song, any song, correctly, and guess what? You're suddenly a real jazz musician! So now I'm in the process of forcing myself to learn all the modes more or less by heart, or to at least be able to figure them out in a couple of seconds so I can use them on tunes right away. I completed our class homework assignment, but that wasn't enough practice, so I developed my own chart for going through and learning the modes. I can just pick one, write it out, cross it off, then pick another, and so on, until I've gone through them all, then I can start all over again. It shouldn't take too long to program them in my brain.
Here's the chart I made, with the modes and keys altering in different patterns around the circle of fifths:
So my hypothesis about jazz theory is simply: jazz is a mental music made easier by doing the mental work and understanding the theory behind it. It is possible to be a phenomenal jazz musician without grasping the theory, but I estimate you can take one or two years off the time it takes to become virtuoso, just by taking a jazz theory course. Someday, I may even turn out to be the proof of my hypothesis.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
When your ears abandon you
Here are ten things to do when you are practicing your ear training and you become completely unable to identify anything that isn't an octave or a tri-tone. (Believe me, it happens to me, ... a lot!)
1) Have a glass of wine
2) Listen to some music
3) Play a couple of hands of poker online
4) Have another glass of wine
5) Log into Facebook and check up on your Mafia Wars character and see if you have enough energy to do a job in Cuba or not
6) Play with your cat (here's one of the two I'm apt to play with)
7) Have another glass of wine
8) F....o....c....u....s.....
9) Cry, throw a tantrum and bash your keyboard against your computer tower
10) Switch to whiskey
Here are the expected results of each action, based on what happened when I tried each of them during a recent ear training session
1) Feel a little better, still can't hear crap
2) Feel a little better, wish hearing intervals was as easy as listening to Bill Evans
3) Feel better if I win, skip to #9 in above list if I lose
4) Feel even a little better, begin thinking interval training is a waste of time
5) No, it's only been fifteen minutes and you still can't do anything in Mafia Wars yet
6) Causes me to think about ears, but nothing really constructive
7) Alcohol doesn't improve anything, including my hearing, but at least I don't give a damn
8) Continue to be wrong only now with much more intensity
9) Causes some minor excitement in the house, but could be a potentially expensive and seriously regretful activity (I was lucky nothing broke this time)
10) No longer able to see the computer screen, I only hear ocean sound in my ears, and anyway, I can't click a mouse accurately enough to continue (it was bedtime anyway)
For those who missed the comments in my previous entry, I am training my ears using the fine free application available at Good-ear. And for the record, none of the above was good-ear's fault. I just suck at identifying notes with my ears, and that's that. Maybe someday I'll be able to report progress, but I've been down this frustrating road before and I recommend my readers not hold their breath for that (undoubtedly) joyous day.
1) Have a glass of wine
2) Listen to some music
3) Play a couple of hands of poker online
4) Have another glass of wine
5) Log into Facebook and check up on your Mafia Wars character and see if you have enough energy to do a job in Cuba or not
6) Play with your cat (here's one of the two I'm apt to play with)
7) Have another glass of wine
8) F....o....c....u....s.....
9) Cry, throw a tantrum and bash your keyboard against your computer tower
10) Switch to whiskey
Here are the expected results of each action, based on what happened when I tried each of them during a recent ear training session
1) Feel a little better, still can't hear crap
2) Feel a little better, wish hearing intervals was as easy as listening to Bill Evans
3) Feel better if I win, skip to #9 in above list if I lose
4) Feel even a little better, begin thinking interval training is a waste of time
5) No, it's only been fifteen minutes and you still can't do anything in Mafia Wars yet
6) Causes me to think about ears, but nothing really constructive
7) Alcohol doesn't improve anything, including my hearing, but at least I don't give a damn
8) Continue to be wrong only now with much more intensity
9) Causes some minor excitement in the house, but could be a potentially expensive and seriously regretful activity (I was lucky nothing broke this time)
10) No longer able to see the computer screen, I only hear ocean sound in my ears, and anyway, I can't click a mouse accurately enough to continue (it was bedtime anyway)
For those who missed the comments in my previous entry, I am training my ears using the fine free application available at Good-ear. And for the record, none of the above was good-ear's fault. I just suck at identifying notes with my ears, and that's that. Maybe someday I'll be able to report progress, but I've been down this frustrating road before and I recommend my readers not hold their breath for that (undoubtedly) joyous day.
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