July 2005

July 24, 2005 13:58

Not much time to talk today, I decided to take a short break from studying jazz and focus on Bach, I want to finish the g min adagio by october, this was part of the goals I have set for myself this year.

Kudos to Carla who is able to play tchaikovsky, no small accomplishment there. I often wonder what it would be like to play like that. Even though I am too poor to afford lessons, I decided I will try to see if i can take 1 lesson a month, I cant stand trying to figure out spiccato and all those off the string stunt-violin tricks all on my own anymore. I think im going to ask Chris Howes to teach me this time. He is a great jazz violinist and I have been watching him play with Paul Brown's band for like 20 years. Last time a I talked to Paul, he said Chris was doing lectures at the berkley school of music. Even though Chris is a great jazz violinist, he was actually classically trained and played the mendelssohn at age 16 with the columbus symphony. (Paul is himself a massively talented musical genius who happens to play the guitar)

Other than that, I was enjoying this thread at maestronet about the messiah strad...

...that and I may already be a hilton!

cheers
scott (muggle violinist)
visit my webpage

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July 20, 2005 20:53

I had another jam session with Ron again, we are starting to form a set list and its alot of fun playing music with him.

The following is a list of the music we are playing currently:
1)Autumn Leaves - standard in the real book
2)Misty - standard in the real book
3)There Will Never Be Another You - standard in the real book
4)Django - a standard Ron Likes
5)Stardust - another standard Ron likes
6)Joan - Ron wrote this
7)Treasure Map _ I wrote this
8)A Night In Tunisia - By Dizzie Galespie
9)Four - by Miles Davis
10)Blue In Green - By Miles Davis
11)Ornithology - by Charile Parker
12)The Sigh - by Ralph Towner
13)Afro Blue - As played by Coltrane
14)Love for Sale - By Cole Porter

These are all songs I know how to play now, we are also studying many compositions by Bill Evans like:
Very Early
Re: Person I Knew
Waltz For Debby

...and also the standards he used to play
My Romance - standard in the real book
My Foolish Heart - standard in the real book
Nardis - By Miles Davis
Milestones - By Miles Davis
Peri's Scope - By Scott LaFaro

(if you dont know about the real book do a search at amazon for the real book)

This week went well, we are starting to improvise more and its starting to turn into 2 guys having fun rather than an academic study in harmony like it has been for the last 2 months. This is the part where all the thinking has been done and all the hard work is paying off and we can relax and have fun.

I had an audition for a bass gig yesterday that I mentioned in my last blog, it went well. They are a old school rythm and blues band with horns like the band in the movie the blues brothers. Its kind of fun and it pays well, we play some motown/ r and blues stuff, for example remember that song "if you dont know me by now"? We also play rock pop reggae and rap. SO if you think about it I have ties to all styles of music: I play jazz guitar with Ron, study classical violin on my own and play bass in a pop band for good money. Also, a pianist in the band is offering to sell me a piano for 300 bux, Im so excited, I think Im going to buy it!

I also just thought of an amusing name for a fusion band, how about epo - electric prune orchestra?
(special thanks to Buri, the John Madden of violin)

cheers
scott (muggle violinist)
visit my webpage

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July 13, 2005 18:44

Today was my 5th meeting with ron, my new jazz piano friend, i failed to mention he also plays claitinet, flute and sax. He had to teach today so we had to cut our rehersal today short.

and

We worked on these pieces:
Stardust - a standard once played by django reinhardt

and

Joan - a gorgeous ballad that Ron wrote

and

Treasure Map - a composition of mine that I wrote about 10 years ago

and

We also played these tunes:
Django - as played by the modern jazz quartet

and

There will never be another you - this is a jazz standard in the real book vol 1, it is one of our favorites to play already

and

Autumn Leaves - the first jazz standard I ever learned about 15 years ago, also in the real book vol 1

and

Blue In Green - a tune by miles davis on the famous cd kind of blue, this is the second jazz tune i ever learned and it is probably the most familiar and comfortable jazz tune for me to play

and

Afro Blue - a tune coltrane played on the live at birdland cd, truly stellar improv on that disk!

and

Next week we will study these works:
Very Early - composition by bill evans who is my favorite jazz pianist

and

Waltz for debbie - another composition by mr evans, this was played by ralph towner, one of my favorite jazz guiratists, this is in a book of towner transcriptions that is still available

and

My Foolish Heart - a standard that mr evans enjoyed playing frequently

and

My romance - another standard that mr evans enjoyed playing frequently, this is also in the real book vol 1

and

The Sigh - a piece written by ralph towner, also in a book of towner transcriptions that is still available

and

what im trying to do is write music for violin that merges jazz with classical; improv with structure, im trying to do is study as much music as i can to make the music i write more robust. My goal is to write original music and then find a violinist to perform the music with me accompanying them and trading solos so that we can play a whole night of interesting original music, the trick is to try to find your own sound and that doesnt come easy

and

im not a good violinist but i study violin music to better understand the instrument and also because i love the music, because i dont play violin well maybe i shouldnt be posting at violinist.com but at a site called peoplewhowritemusicforviolinbutcantplayviolinwell.com or something like that?

and

I finally ordered that oistrakh cd with the vitali chaconne on it

and

a band just offered me a paying gig as a bass player, not sure if im going to take it though

and

no more and!

cheers
scott (muggle violinist)
visit my webpage

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July 4, 2005 12:48

Happy red white and boom day everyone!!!

Most of you know that I am trying to write music for violin that combines jazz mixed with classical, improv with structure and alternating between diatonic ideas and using altered scales and I try to study as much music as I can so that the music I write will be more robust.

I think I burned out with all the notes I have been reading the last few weeks, Ive never read so much music all at once before. Things are going very well, last week Ron and I played alot of music and studied a few more tunes, this is a review of last week and what will be studied this week

week 4 (this wednesday)
to study:
four
green dolphin street
love for sale

week 3
music played:
naima
a night in tunisia
there will never be another you
maiden voyage

music studied:
django
all the things you are

-After this week Ron and I will focus more on the music of Bill Evans and we will start to study his style of playing. We will be learning many of his pieces including "Very Early", "Re: Person I knew", "Waltz for Debby", "Peri's Scope", and many of the standards he plays like "My Romance", and "My Foolish Heart". And we will also be studying out of a book called The Harmony of Bill Evans and also work out of many of the Bill Evans transcription books like this one and this one and this one and this one.

Regarding jazz recordings:
Misty - is on the peterson perlman cd - oscar peterson is a great jazz pianist who recorded with grapelli of course, one of the greatest pianists in jazz for sure.
Four - is a miles davis tune on a sonny rollins cd called live at the village vangard.
Dolphin Street - is on the miles 58 cd
Love for sale - is a cole porter tune also on the miles 58 cd
...all other tunes have recordings listed on my previous blog

Im a little burned out on reading notes I think the next few weeks will be just alot of playing and more focus again on violin and studying bach, so you can see its a give and take between jazz and classical for me.

Another thing I have been doing is programming music with my cakewalk software, I have been recently goofing around with trying to create music for a video game and thats kind of fun. Cakewalk Home Studio integrates notation tools that allow you to create and print your own musical scores. Record and transcribe performances using any MIDI instrument, or just point and click to edit notes directly on the staff. Print up to 24 staves per page, with chord charts and symbols, lyrics, dynamic markings, and more. This is only one function of the cakewalk software...

...now if you'll excuse me im going to go looking for a bow that costs more then my car, that and I want to be a hilton

cheers
scott (muggle violinist)
visit my webpage

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More entries: August 2005 • June 2005