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.