College Work and Gigs

Been a busy few weeks with gigs with The Birthday Suit and Dirty Rose, due to this I have unfortunately missed out on a couple of lessons with Richard in college but we will catch up on these. I have been working on new techniques for dynamics that he gave me and also on picking my solo assessment tunes. I think one of these will be "High Maintenance" by the Big Phat Band, also Blackbird Special by Stanton Moore, both will envolve using brass sections and are both very technically challenging.

I also missed the recording of "funk" week in performance class. I had originally been involved with the original rehearsal of " Stealing Watermelons" by the Chambers Brothers. I got one of the DFM drummers to stand in for me when I was in Dundee gigging. The process of rehearsal for this band was really good, I actually really enjoyed playing the track as it had a really nice feel to it when everyone was playing it and locking in with the groove.

I have been working on some modal tunes for improv class working from the worksheets that include tracks like " So What", "Impressions" and others. 

Today in performance class is Jazz week, so I will find out what track we are playing and start working on it today! 

Performance Week Two

Monday 24th - Had folk band again, we went through the sets that we had been rehearsing in previous practices, unfortunately I had missed the last folk practice due to a clash with another timetable arrangement.

Tuesday 25th - Rehearsed with Owen, Jodie, Jake and Kieran for the masterclass just before a drum lesson in the morning. We are going to play Bloodbank - Bon Iver, Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder (with brass) and No Rest - Dry The River. This all came together quite quickly although we will need another rehearsal, which will be a week today. Today me and Jordan spent some time mixing and editing the video recordings we did in the studio.

Wednesday/Thursday - I was not needed for any of the catch up sessions and unfortunately couldn't make it in to college as I had to work both these days.

Friday 28th - A couple of the band members couldn't make Friday for a rehearsal for the Masterclass, I did not realise that there was an option for us to get involved in the DFM performance workshop.

Improvisation Personal Review Assignment

So far for improvisation I have not been drumming at all. I have been learning scales on keyboard and improvising over backing tracks in different keys. I can understand why this will benefit me musically, although I feel like I am practicing keyboard more than I am playing drums. So far I don't feel any more accomplished at improvising on a kit, and i'm not particularly sure how I will be graded on improvisation.

I have been continuing to practice scales on a keyboard, however it feels like I am trying to learn a second instrument.

I understand how this is helping me musically, and I feel like I have a much better understanding of how keys and scales work together.

Strengths -
I feel very confident in my drumming and usually improvisation is no problem at all when I am drumming, I am just not sure how this will be graded and I don't feel that my confidence in drumming really shows in this class.

Weaknesses-
I think my weaknesses in this class are being quite slow at working out the theory and connecting it with my playing on a keyboard. I believe that I can understand the theory behind the scales and keys but I am not particularly fluent in playing them on a keyboard which makes me look relatively bad at it.

Improvements -
To improve by next performance block, I will ask my drum tutor more about improvisation on a kit and I will hopefully have a better understanding of how I will be graded, I will also keep practicing the scales on keyboard, although I don't see why I should be graded on a keyboard for this class. I do however understand the importance of the theory behind the improvisation so I will continue to try and understand this to the best of my ability as I believe I have a decent understanding of it already through my theory classes.
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Pieces Studied-

High Maintenance - Big Phat Band            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y5r-4Wte2A

This piece is a very up tempo Big Band piece. Quite jazzy in feel as the feel is counted on the "two and four". There are some amazing harmonies used throughout the piece making full use of the band. Also there is an endless amount of room for solos, with a really nice backing rhythm and hits to compliment the soloist. There are a few sections where the melody is off beat, and where the phrasing starts half way through the bar, creating some really intricate rhythmic ideas and feels, which also makes it very challenging to play.  My plan is to play this for my end of year performance with the big band. I may transcribe some or possibly all of it myself to try and get better at transcribing and to give me a better knowledge of harmony and rhythm notation.

Splanky - Count Basie   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBTSoLzZ3-U

This piece has quite a laid back feel to it, again can be played with a big band, the main riff is not dramatically rhythmic but sits very nicely in the rhythm. The piano plays a lot of 7th and diminished chords as with most in this style of playing, again giving it that jazzy edge to the sound. Splanky also has the classic question and answer style of playing, which compliments the soloist in certain places also giving some intertwining rhythms. There is quite a lot of dynamic contrast throughout the piece. 

So What - Miles Davis       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqNTltOGh5c&ob=av2n

This piece has a very nice laid back swing feel to it, walking bass throughout. The main riff is a very simple but very effective rhythmic idea, which moves up in melody, then back down again. The basis for the soloists is very bare and simple which puts a lot more focus on the soloist, they really stand out. Repetition seems to be quite common in this piece as the man riff is very repetitive. Even in Davis' solo, the same rhythmic ideas seem to keep coming up which creates a lot of intensity.

Performance Week 1 + Holiday Recording Session

During the performance week, I unfortunately didn't get many chances to play kit, other than playing snare in folk group on Monday, every other day seemed to have clashing workshops which meant that I missed out on some practical groups. I attended the Jazzy Lecture which helped with understanding when some deadlines were and clarifying what we had to do to meet the criteria, although I found some of the theory pretty hard and I felt like it was quite far on from what we are actually doing in theory class, having to know this year how to score out pieces in different keys and for different instruments for assignments comes as a bit of a shock to the system. Unfortunately there is only room for three kit players in Jazz band, so I missed out on this as well. The drum and bass workshop was very interesting and gave me some new ideas in ways of playing, but as of yet I have only been able to really try these out in my own time at home, as I don't seem to be getting many opportunities to play in college.

During the holiday, Jordan Linton and I had a day in the studio to try out recording some drum videos which went very well, it was good just having the studio between the two of us as we work together well and I think any more people would have just made it very rushed and crowded.

Last Week of Improv Class and first few days of performance weeks

In Last weeks improv class, we started out by playing our tunes/ solos, which seemed to be a success in or classes part. We then played one of the tunes, and passed a solo of a chorus around the room. I was playing drums this week which I have to admit is a lot better for me than keyboard has been up until now.

The first few days of performance week have been a bit hectic trying to get my head around what is actually being asked of us for different classes and trying to figure out which of the clashing workshops to attend. I went along to folk group on monday which is a new experience for me but I really enjoyed it, hopefully I will get to play a bit more drums over the next couple of weeks as this hasn't really happened up until now.

Improvisation week 4

This week in improv, we were still working on the same D minor pentatonic scale, working around the room taking 4 bars of solo each, then we went on to taking a chorus each on a twelve bar sequence.

We have some more homework to do, which is to write either a tune, or a solo which we will play to the class. We can also transcribe these out so that everyone else can play them, one score would have to be in Eb for the saxophone.

I am still trying to practice on a keyboard as much as I can but I find the actual playing of a keyboard very difficult

I now understand slightly better how drummers will be graded in this class as I was worried that it was going to be on keyboards, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Week three improv

This week in improv we were working in D, Using the minor pentatonic.

Once again I found this quite difficult to physically play, not being used to a keyboard, however when I finally got my fingers to realise where the right keys were, it became slightly easier.

We have some homework for next week to look over some minor pentatonic riffs and rhythms.

Hopefully I will start to get the hang of the keyboard soon and be able to start improvising on a kit.

Week Two Improvisation

For week two of improvisation, we were all on different instruments, I was playing a small keyboard.

This I found very difficult as, being a drummer, I am not really used to having to play on a tuned instrument. It will be really good for me to learn more about using scales out with the theory class and I am really looking to try and get to grips with it.

I am going to practice this at home as much as possible, I may try and get my hands on a small keyboard to practice at home.

When we were in class, we started off playing the C major scale, then the C minor pentatonic, and ended up at the C Blues scale - C, Eb, F, Gb, G and Bb. I knew this in the sense of theory however I have not really tried to physically use it while playing, other than composition, though in composition you don't have to think as quickly.


We had a backing track on in the background and Simon would play a small blues riff, which we were then to copy and play back on whichever instrument we were on. 


When we did this on the Major scale, I found it a lot easier than when we were on the C blues.


This then switched and we were each to play a blues riff along to the backing track, which everyone else was then to play back. This I again found relatively easy, other than the physical playing of the keyboard, I had the riff idea in my head, it was just that my hands struggled to actually connect with the keyboard, and actually play the riff.


For next week we are to listen to more Count Basie and start to use the rhythms sheet that we were given in class to start creating some cool rhythms.

Blog created! + week 1 of improvisation

Week 1 - We were to listen to some different Count Basie tracks and learn a riff from your favourite track to bring back to class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBTSoLzZ3-U

I chose the piece Splanky, and chose the main riff to learn and return to the class