Ted Talk PROJECT FINALLY OVER!!! (WEEK 6)

Ted Talk

After a week of stress preparing for the Ted Talk, it is finally over, and I thought I did a pretty good job. I was able to demonstrate my progress over these 6 weeks, and ultimately present what I learned during these 6 weeks. As I delved further and further into the world of jazz, I suddenly realized my own inadequacy as a musician. As I realized how bad I was, I motivated myself to become better thorough practice.

Progress Update

The Genius Project has finally come to an end with the Ted Talk, and I am feeling a variety of mixed emotions. I am relieved that the project is over and that I don't need to worry about the grade, but this project was something I put a lot of effort in and now it is ending. It was a project that allowed us to express ourselves in any way we wanted. It was the ultimate form of freedom. 

Looking back I made a lot of progress during these 6 weeks. After practicing chords, researching, music theory, listening to solos, I was finally to improvise, at least on a very basic level, over chord changes. Although I am still not that good, I have definitely become better, and I am noticing a difference when I am playing in the jazz band, and in my very own quintet.

It was a long Journey

As I write this final blog post for the project, I am feeling pretty depressed. These 6 weeks were some of the greatest improvements I have made in improvisation, and I am afraid that this improvement might slow down after this project ends. So far I have still been practicing regularly, but I don't know how long it will last. So I am thinking of maybe continuing these blogs. Maybe not as frequent, but I feel it is a way to force me to practice and continually demonstrate my progress as a jazz musician. Although I am still far from being the next Charlie Parker, I can still dream.

Project Ending Soon !? VLOG (WEEK 5)

Progress Update
This might have been my least successful week. I honestly didn;t get much done this week, but I have been focusing on training my ears and listening to many Jazz Songs. I go to bed each night just listening to a playlist of Jazz tunes (you really don't get a lot of sleeping done). All of a sudden I realized that I'm already at the end of 6 weeks.
This Project went by incredibly fast. I am all of a sudden at the end of these 6 weeks feeling really unprepared. But I won't be typing for too long, I let the video do its job. Here is my VLOG on my channel (I need the views) but you can see it down below.
BTW I look like an idiot when I play very deeply so don't look at my face.

UGH UGLY

I honestly might continue blogging only to force myself to practice.

Interview Finally Here

FINALLY...
So after about 5 weeks one of the people I emailed finally responded to my email. His name is Robin Haffley who is a Professor and Jazz Artist that has written his own Jazz Pieces. Here is some of his songs that you can find on YouTube (CLICK HERE). Although preferably I wanted to have an video interview with him, due to his schedule, he said he wouldn't have time for it. So here are his email answers to my questions. The full answers are here.

One of the biggest gains from this interview, I feel, is a sort of reassurance. Sometimes I rush into things trying to get better to quickly. Two of his answers below allowed me to realize that getting better at improvisation is something that takes time.

There is not shortcut to learning improvisation. Certainly there is no way I will have a complete grasp of something so complicated after 6 weeks. It allowed me to sit back and sort of come to terms that I am still learning, and that it is okay I am still learning. Even he still considers himself a student that has yet to understand improvisation.

One of the best tips he gave me, is how to practice outlining the chords.

Throughout this process, I have been struggling on finding a balance between outlining the chords, and also having a solo that doesn't just sound like me repeating chords. Basically there is no one way to do it, and that it is ultimately going to come from experience and constant practice. It's going to take time for me to get used to outlining the chords.

Overall, I feel that this was beneficial interview that really helped me not only musically, but to gain a little bit of confidence. Check out the rest of the interview here.

Blog 5: Finally Actual Improv Kind of...? (Week 4)

Progress Update

It's finally time to actually improvise. Finally I'm gonna sound like Charlie Parker and be so cool. Of course there is no way 4 weeks of practice was gonna get me sounding like a jazz legend. But hey I was dreaming. This week I have been playing jazz standards easier chord changes or less frequent chord changes such as Billie's Bounce, Blue Bossa, Autumn Leaves, and Song for my father. All of these are famous jazz standards that you should check out (idc if you don't like jazz). I begin by playing chords and scales over all of the changes to get a good understanding of the song. When I finally felt I was ready enough to start an actual solo, it basically sounded like this. 

Yeah... a bunch of scales an chords mixed together. I mean technically it wasn't wrong musically. I played the right notes in the right spots, but it was really just me playing scales in a weird order. I didn't have any creativity in it. Basically it wasn't a solo. Now this is really different than any of the previous issues I've had. It wasn't a lack of comprehension, difficulty memorizing scales, it was having ideas for solos. I was having JAZZ SOLOER BLOCK

However, this was a much bigger deal than the other issues since creativity is not something I can learn in 6 weeks. It is something that takes years of listening, playing, and experience to get a hang of. So I needed to find a short cut. A couple weeks back I went to a Jazz clinic, and a professor at the University of the Arts said that one of the best ways to start of soloing is to look to the melody of the song. As long as the chords of the song match up with the melody chords, you can use those notes as basis. He also said it is fine to steal licks and ideas from other great musicians. So of course I quickly used this to add some flare to my solo. Here is my solos for the previously mentioned songs: 

 | Blue Bossa | Autumn Leaves | Song for my father |  Billie's Bounce |

Ordered from best to worst.

All in all I think I made some pretty significant improvement. I still think there needs some work in responding to the chord changes faster, but I am getting a better grasp on improvisation. I have still have a long way to go though. 

Before I sign off I just want to say that this weekend Wissahickon is having it's Jazz Festival. It's a good chance to here the many Jazz bands in our area and a chance to hear our very own 1 O'Clock and 2 O'Clock jazz band (Sadly no solo for me). One of the best things to improve is to listen to more jazz music which happens to be the next thing on my list. Listening to Jazz music and actually try transcribing it. It is good practice for my ears and also a way for me to get new ideas for solos. If I can practice a pseudo perfect pitch, it will only be easier to play the sound that I want. See ya and hopefully I'll see you at the Jazz Festival.

Blog 4: DiJAZZtrous Week (Week 3)

Progress Update
As the title indicates, this week has been pretty bad for me. Beyond the fact that the music theory is extremely complex and hard to understand, this Friday was my second Jazz Competition. It was also my first improvised solo and basically, it went terribly. The solo section was extremely complex and complicated. It was something that could only be played through chord changes as the melody and the chords didn't match up. Because of this, I had no choice but to attempt improvising over the chord changes. However, my lack of understanding of the chord changes, along with the difficulty of the chords really screwed me over.

Someone playing this would have been better than me

Moving on to my progress this week, it was slightly better than my performance this Friday. One of the things I figured out is that the 3rd and 7ths of the chord are responsible for making the changes. When moving from chord to chord, it is usually best to link the 3rds and 7ths of the chord together. It is best if these notes are half notes apart. You can also move chromatically to connect the notes.

I have also started watching a a series made by Ed Barker(Barker Parker no wonder he's a good player), the saxophone soloist for George Micheal, about Charlie Parker's solos, and what he did (Visit His Channel Here). It analyzes each notes he played on each chord. It looks at the notes he played in relation to the chords.

Ed Barker takes some of Charlie Parker's famous licks and breaks them apart from a chord perspective. The first thing that we learn is that this is a 251 progression. This is a common harmonic progression where the notes are related to the root or the 1 chord. In this case the root is the C Major chord. As shown by the image below, the D is the 2nd note of the scale, and the G is the 5th note of the scale. This then creates the chord progression DGC shown above.

Although Charlie Parker's solo was very complicated and fast, in actuality it was tied to the basic chords. The first 4 notes after the 1st measure actually perfectly outline the chords of D minor. We also see the repeated use of the 9ths of the chord that are used to create tension, that he later resolves with a more normal part of the chord such as the 3rd.

The purpose of this is not only to gain a better understanding of how to improvise from one of the best, but to take some of these "licks" and use them myself. Because improvisation is not just about playing the right notes in the chord, but to have interesting melodic phrasing. In order to get ideas for my own solos, it is only natural to learn from Charlie Parker.

This Weeks Plan
This week I plan on putting what I learned into practice. Not only do I need to play it musically correct in relation to the chord, but it is important to play interesting ideas along with it. I already began this practice today. During my practice with a couple of my friends forming a band (CHECK OUT OUR FACEBOOK HERE SHAMELESS PROMOTION), we played many songs and improvised over a variety of chords. Here's an audio clip of what we did (CLICK HERE).

Since the chords were easier than the songs I played on Friday, I had a much better time improvising over them and was able to restore some of my confidence. This week I will try to emulate this practice by using backing tracks from the internet. I will start off by outlining the chords in my solos and then moving on to embellishing the basic chords. Wish me good luck.

Blog 3: The Practice Doesn't End (Week 2)

Ahoy fellow Jazz musicians. As the 100th Aniversary of the first jazz recording recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band (Yes JASS), it only makes sense to make a blog today.
Here is the Official first Jazz Recording

Now it is time to get on to my progress in improvisation. This first week was probably the most bored I have been in my entire musical career besides when I played the piano. I had to squeeze in almost 40 minutes everyday devoted to only scales and chords. one of the realizations that I come to that the Mixolodian mode, and Dorian modes are not actually different from the major scales. Although a C Major scale is different from a c Mixolydian. A C Major scale is the same thing as G Mixolydian. The only difference is that they start on different notes. But the notes in the scale itself is the same. Down below is the C Major, G Mixolydian, and D Dorian scales.

C Major Scale

G Mixolydian Mode

D Dorian Mode

However, just because this first week is over, it doesn't mean I'm going to stop practicing the basics. 1 week is not nearly enough time to really have these chords and scales completely at my disposal. In addition to the practice of the basics, I have to start my study of music theory, and learn how the chords fit together in a piece. However, it is making absolutely no sense to me right now. Currently I am using the Jazz Handbook by Jamey Abersold to get a basic understanding of the chords. This book was a recommendation by a previous private teacher to get a better understanding of improvisation. It provides many useful tips a long with and explanation of chords and the scales. It also shows a bunch of other scales and chords that extend beyond the basic dominant and minor chords.

Although there won't be enough time for me to play all f these scales, there are some that I amd going to need for certain songs since not all songs only have dominant and minor chords. This 56 page long read is gonna be tough.

Blog 2: Boring Beginning (First Practice Day)

WOOHOO. It's this first practice day. I'm finally going to get to be like Charlie Parker. It's gonna be so much fun.

2 hours later...

Never Again

Like my most people I was excited to jump right into the cool improvisation and all the amazing things that Charlie Parker did. However, knowing the importance of the basics, it was extremely important that I went back to the basics. During my first practice, I focused on reinforcing my scales, and taking the time to actually learn all the chords. Saxophone players like me never get the chance to really learn chords. No matter how boring it was to just play scales and chords, I forced myself to do it.

Here is a video of my practice (CLICK HERE). This is only contains the major scales (or it would have been ridiculously long). Seriously don't watch the whole thing unless you have nothing better to do (that would be sad).

For this first practice, I focused on just the major scales and major chords as all of the other scales such as the mixolydian mode and the dorian mode are simply the major scale but have one note (for mixolydian) and 2 notes (for dorian) that are flatted in the scale. Here are some examples below:

Chords on the other hand, are completely based off the scales and the different modes. Chords are made up of the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, (and so on) notes of the chord. The major chord corresponds to the major scale, the dominant chord corresponds with the mixolydian mode, and minor chord goes with the dorian mode.

These are the main chords that occur in any song. Of course their are more rare exceptions that may occur in the song.