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! 

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