Click Click Click

Hello there... I'm clicking for you. Is your internal pulse in need of a pacemaker, you might try THIS site. Yes it's a metronome. In the interest of full disclosure...I, your blog, am generally against metronomes. However, if your sense of time is that pathetic, oops, I mean erratic, then at least be a jazzer about it and put the clicks on beats 2 and 4 when you practice. Or for fun try clicking on every 5th beat in a 4/4 tune. Turn the beat around, like Gloria!

Smalls...

Smalls, where these two clips were filmed, is a jazz club in Manhattan really worth checking out. If you haven't been to the city to see jazz live, you really should talk your parents into bringing you. We live about an hour away from the center of the jazz universe. A place where on any given night, the best and brightest musicians are playing their hearts out. Some great clubs to explore are Smoke, the Village Vanguard, Birdland and the Jazz Standard. Live music is great because there is an element of experimentation that is not often captured on albums.

This first clip is of tenor saxophonist Grant Stewart with guitarist Joe Cohn. Grant sounds a lot like Sonny Rollins to me, with a modern twist. This tune has a lot of the II-V's we've been talking about. Listen to how each idea or motive is developed before spawning the next. Grant's group plays at Smalls almost once a week.

O.K., this second clip is maybe more than a little on the dark side, but the solo is killer, and it's over a blues in F called Birdlike written by trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. The alto player in the dark is Miguel Zenon, one of jazz's rising stars. This really captures the excitement of being at a club, it's nice someone was there to capture it.

Make a song your song...

This first clip is of Billie Holiday with the Count Basie Orchestra performing a song she co-wrote with Arthur Herzog entitled "God Bless the Child." Listen to the way a vocalist like Billie Holiday sings a melody, then try to mimic that phrasing on your instrument.

Billie holiday
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The second clip is of Eric Dolphy performing the same song on Bass Clarinet. Eric Dolphy was one of the leaders of a style of jazz known commonly called "free jazz." Free jazz musicians usually try to alter, extend, or break down the conventions of jazz, often getting rid of fixed chord changes or tempos. The style came about in the 1960's as a reaction to bebop and modal jazz. Free jazz is fun, give it a try. To get started, take a duet and have each player play the notes but at different tempos. Speed up or slow down wherever you feel like it. You'll find you get some pretty modern and interesting harmonies. The more you open up your ears to different sounds and tonalities, the more you will grow as a musician.

I've got one for ya'...

A man is being led thru the jungle on a safari. He begins to hear some really furious, pounding drums, rolling along without end. After 15 minutes of this, he asks the guide "When do the drums stop?" The guide answers "Oh, the drums NEVER stop. Bad things happen then." The man ponders this for about two hours more of furious pounding, and says, irritated, "When do the drums stop?!?" "The drums never stop. Bad things happen when the drums stop." Finally, after 5 hours, the man asks "What bad thing happens when the drums stop?" "BASS SOLO."

Free Blank Staff Paper!

If Beethoven's arrangement of "Grosse Fugue" for piano four hands can sell for 1.95 million dollars (pictured here at left), you might want to start writing down some of your ideas. If you want to write down your ideas, you are going to need paper, and that's where I, your blog, can help you out...
CLICK HERE for free blank staff paper.