December 17, 2005 at 10:38 PM

Is everyone ready for christmas?

I decided to get my 7 yr old nephew a violin for christmas, except one of my friends lost her job and they are threatening to shut her gas off - so I suppose I will be spending my money on helping my good friend. I wanted to get a new amp too because the jazz gig is starting to happen and Im going to need to make my instrument louder to be heard over drums, that and I love the chorus sound with reverb that an amp can provide. It is good for people to want things but Im pefectly happy with what I have now, somehow I have learned to live with less and be happy.

Ive been writing new music and Im really enjoying that. Last week I did some jamming with my guitar friend Kevin: I show him the chords then play over them on violin. We even did a little recording and I remeber saying to him "Im just trying to be me". The thing is I can focus on becoming a great performer but what I really want is to write my own music and find my own voice, its incredibly difficult and frustrating to have so many things come out that arent satisfying but finally Im starting to get some good ideas. The thing about me is Im trying to study as much music as I can harminically - so that when I write music it will be more robust. Lately I have been developing a chord voicing for a major 13 #11 cord just as an example, other new chords i have been experimenting with are a7+5 and d min 6/9...

Expanding scale practice > lately I have been discussing improv ideas with triads, I would like to encourage people to try triads that arent in 3rds, my friend Ron calls these intervallic sructures, just pick a voicing that isnt in 3rds - just experminet until you have something that sounds good then take that shape and secuence it modally. Another idea is play a scale with 3 notes then 6 for example 123123456 234234567 345345678 when you play this at a high speed it has a neat sound and since you are playing an odd number of notes - the beat lands in strange places when youre trying to play over 4/4 (I got the idea for that from the late improv master shawn lane)

The problem with legato > I would like to write about a quote regarding improv, it is my opinion that allan holdsworth is the most innovative soloist around on any instrument (he actually plays violin on the iou cd) one of the things he was talking about is that the tendency with legato is to play too many notes in 1 direction and I find that to be true. The thing to do is to develop some legato ideas that move in different directions. If you are interested in hearing some wickedly innovative improv you can check out allan on jean luc ponty's "enigmatic ocean" or his live cd called "then". You can check out allan's website at therealallanholdsworth.com

That and someone recently turned me on to a refreshing new acoustic guitarist called kaki king, i like her music alot and it sort of reminds me of something Michael Hedges would have done if he were still alive. Her music is relaxing and has become inspirational to me. You can check her out at KakiKing.com

Now if youll excuse me, Im suddenly having a craving for some corn

cheers \_/
Scott
(computer programmer, muggle violinist, compulsive doughnut eater, music slave, virtuoso guitarist, servant of the muses, reasonably sound harmonic advise, etc)

From Samantha Hiller
Posted on December 17, 2005 at 10:43 PM

you program computers!?!?! my favorite class this semester is my AP computer programming class...we started java this year, and its really difficult, but i like it a lot...works my brain differently than any other class i've ever taken.
Since you write music...I've been trying to write my own, and I keep hitting dead ends...I've got tons of unfinished songs with lyrics and chords, but I just can't seem to find the right melody...any ideas???

From Eric Stanfield
Posted on December 18, 2005 at 1:52 AM

Holdsworth has always been a god. Do you like DiMeola? I saw Al play an acoustic show in Chicago a few years ago. Unbelievable of course. Super clean. The guys who are so technical like them, when they improv it's like they are just speaking in Music rather than playing the instrument.

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on December 18, 2005 at 4:55 AM

Scott, you are so kind to help your friend by paying her gas bill. The world needs more people like you.

I'd love to hear you play something written by you or other people. I hope you can post something for us.

From Scott 68
Posted on December 18, 2005 at 1:39 PM

i use triads as a building block for creating melodies

one thing I have been doing is creating triads but not in third patterns then take that pattern and move it around also take a chord shape and then hammer on to a higher note or pull off to a loewr note

yes i love the whole fusion sound of mclaughlin dimeola and holdsworth i also like the sound of ralph towner, all of this translates well to the violin

maybe one day i will have the chance to record some, ive been trying to get something togather with my frind ron who plays piano clairinet sax and flute, we will see what happens

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December 17, 2005 at 10:38 PM

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