I apologize to those few of you who read my blog for not posting last week, but I had to go down to SC for my great-uncle's funeral.
anyway: this week in jazz...
we played pretty much the same songs as last post, but there are a few changes...
Heavy Duty - still about the same tempo, but we added 4 measure fillers (electric guitar) and an electric guitar solo that most of the band forgets...oh well...
Kissing Cousins - no changes
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - we figured out who takes the melody in which places: alto sax first time around and bridge, tenor and bari second, and trombone and bass third time around
A Jazzy Merry Christmas - fun times: easy chording, but upbeat tempo. All the instruments basically have easy parts.
Catch Me Up - Only the alto sax likes this one...weird chording, spazzy rhythms, and just not a very good jazz song.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
its been a while...
So we played some good stuff in jazz band this week, Kissing Cousins, Heavy Duty, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by ear
Kissing Cousins - despite its name, it has nothing to do with incest, but refers to the 'two against one' rhythm, or a triplet against a quarter note. Very jazzy feel, a swing/shuffle beat and I think it's somewhere around quarter = 156. It's got a very simple progression which is a I - IV - V progression (for those that know music) in G. We're gonna play the solo section 4 times, first a trumpet solo, then a tenor sax solo (my sister), an alto sax solo, then an electric guitar solo (that's me). Very simple, but still a goodie.
Heavy Duty - this one's a whole 'nother pancake to put on our stack. This one's funk, set at quarter = 100. It's also a I - IV - V progression (as many songs are) for part of the song, based in Bb. Def. a good song, and this solo section we're taking three times, trombone, trumpet, alto sax, and i get to do little filler stuff on the electric guitar. It's got a crazy bridge section where the bass, electric, and piano have a soli. It took me about 2 weeks to figure that part out - it's a booger.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - this one's a classic. I won't explain it here, as most people know it. If you don't know it (and there are 2 people in our jazz band who have either never heard it or only heard it once...they're British) you should look it up on itunes. Playing by ear is something as guitarists we have to do frequently, especially because we don't have the same book as everyone else, but most linear instruments (by linear, I mean can only play one note at a time) can't play by ear. So to break us out of our respective comfort zones, our director told us to pick out the melody, and he wrote the chords on the whiteboard. then he told the other instruments to find their note in the chord. Very boring for me, because I just play the whole chord, but I think it was good for the band as a whole.
Kissing Cousins - despite its name, it has nothing to do with incest, but refers to the 'two against one' rhythm, or a triplet against a quarter note. Very jazzy feel, a swing/shuffle beat and I think it's somewhere around quarter = 156. It's got a very simple progression which is a I - IV - V progression (for those that know music) in G. We're gonna play the solo section 4 times, first a trumpet solo, then a tenor sax solo (my sister), an alto sax solo, then an electric guitar solo (that's me). Very simple, but still a goodie.
Heavy Duty - this one's a whole 'nother pancake to put on our stack. This one's funk, set at quarter = 100. It's also a I - IV - V progression (as many songs are) for part of the song, based in Bb. Def. a good song, and this solo section we're taking three times, trombone, trumpet, alto sax, and i get to do little filler stuff on the electric guitar. It's got a crazy bridge section where the bass, electric, and piano have a soli. It took me about 2 weeks to figure that part out - it's a booger.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - this one's a classic. I won't explain it here, as most people know it. If you don't know it (and there are 2 people in our jazz band who have either never heard it or only heard it once...they're British) you should look it up on itunes. Playing by ear is something as guitarists we have to do frequently, especially because we don't have the same book as everyone else, but most linear instruments (by linear, I mean can only play one note at a time) can't play by ear. So to break us out of our respective comfort zones, our director told us to pick out the melody, and he wrote the chords on the whiteboard. then he told the other instruments to find their note in the chord. Very boring for me, because I just play the whole chord, but I think it was good for the band as a whole.
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