wiseone2

I just took a hefty load of music off mine and placed it on the floor. What's on my stand? NOTHING.........and it's going to stay that way for a while.
I attended a Jazzmobile Masterclass yesterday and realized how dependent on the music on the stand I have become. Jimmy Owens ran the class, it lasted about an hour.
During the hour Jimmy talked about the requirements for a musician. The knowledge of scales, intervals and chords was stressed. This was to be done without music in front of you on your stand. The making of a player, no matter what the ultimate area of performance , should be firmly based in theory.
So it's back to basics for me............I am working on scales in fourths, In all the keys.
I am putting the Sam Krauss line I use as my signature into action.
Wilmer

Tootsall

hehe... "S.Suark".

Billy B

I too have recently set aside a considerable amount of practice time playing scales and modes in various configurations. I also spend some time with free improvisation. I was listening to a new CD, Bob Brookmeyer and Ted Rosenthal. The flawless movement between modes and key centers of these guys is just amazing. Brookmeyer never plays anything burning, just very simple, beautiful lines.

talcito

When Donald Byrd was at Jazzmobile he used to tell us to put the method books away. He would ask us to create our own exercises.He would say "Do not Re-create....create instead".

He would have us create a small pattern and play it in thru all the keys. He would say "Its important to understand the pattern intellectually....play it thru twelve keys without looking a a piece of paper will help you internalize the music".

Wilmer, who is the regular teacher now at Jazzmobile?

mrfabulous963

wait, from memory, i got some work to do!!!

wiseone2

Dr. Byrd is in.
I hadn't seen him in years. We exchanged numbers. Donald is the real deal in teachers.
He wrote a piece for me based on fourths, then gave me a set of exercises to speed up my mind and fingers. I have to dig it out.
Wilmer

miniminime

whats on my stand....

erm my boyfriends shorts that he left at mine, and a moose

mrfabulous963

a moose!

Spitty

When I was studying with Jimmy (just spoke with him Wilmer, he told me you were at the jazzmobile) - he really stressed developing good finger technique, and being able to play phrases through all twelve keys - one idea we would use was playing a phrase in one key a certain predetermined number of times while figuring out in your head how it lays in the next key you would be going to so once you switched keys you could play it right away. These phrases could come from jazz standards, solo transcriptions, your own melodic ideas, anywhere really.

Another thing we worked on was being able to play your maj, min and dom scales in 3rds, 4ths, 5ths and 6th intervals - up and down, and backwards as well (starting from the 6th of the scale, etc . . .).

There are so many great great things from Jimmy's teachings. Hopefully his time will allow to take me on as a student again one day. But I am teaching myself by developing my own exercises based on deficencies in my playing.

Cheers,
Jason