Thursday, January 14, 2010

Back In to it #2

So this whole week I've been attempting to get back into a full swing of things despite Australia's heat at the moment (38 degrees Celsius or 100 Fahrenheit).

So what I've been working on is making my town better on the Tenor and the Clarinet (after hearing an Australian sax player by the name of Adrian Cunningham and his version of Triste by Jobim that he released on his album Unspoken, I decided to play the clarinet more, he does an amazing job of Triste, I will one day get to learning it).

Secondly I've been trying to perfect my scales, I'm still doing all the majors and minors as well as Blues and Pentatonics, and diminished and Bop scales as well as all the modes. What is taking the time and work (is perfecting or in some casing just getting them right) is performing the minor scales in 4ths 5ths and 6ths.

Then there is transcribing for my Individual Research assignment which is something along the lines of comparing Cannonball and Kenny Garrett. So I've been transcribing both these fine sax players versions of What Is This Thing Called Love. In order to compare them on the exact same set of changes.

On the Giant Steps front, I have memorised the 1st chorus of Coltrane's solo and have started taking it around 12 keys, in particular the lead in bar of the solo which he repeats a number of times. I'm playing it at about 240bpm. The Kenny Solo I have learnt it the way that Will Vinson told me I should learn it which is all aurally and with the CD at speed. I still make mistakes on a few of the lines and occasionally forget whole chunks, and it is much harder, but I most definately feel the benefit from doing it this way.

I have kept with my teachers wish of Learning 2 songs a week, This week I've been learning Central Park West and Alice In Wonderland. They are going ok, I'm finally on top of the form of Central Park West, and Alice In Wonderland is a nice song, have been listening to Bill Evans a lot.

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