On Thursday in my improvisation class we improvised for the first time as a group from a "lead sheet" (the piece of music that has the melody and chords written out for a jazz tune). That made me really happy because so far in the class we have mostly been doing a kind of "free improv", where we don't try to plan or follow a pre-determined melody or harmony. It was actually a lot of fun... and it felt more natural to me than I thought it would, even though my improvisations were not very good. We each took turns improvising first on the melody, and then improvising a "walking bass line", while the rest of the group comped the harmonic progression. The way Mario (our improv teacher) explained how to make a walking bass made it seem so simple - and it has always seemed like such a mystery to me how bassists come up with their walking bass patternds. Basically, though, to make a walking bass we use the first and the fifth note of each chord change as a guide post, and then make "walking" (or mostly step-wise) patterns between them as the chords change, trying to (usually) end up on the root (first note) of the chord at the beginning of each measure. To start out Mario said that you can just try to play the root on the first beat of each measure, and the fifth on the middle of each measure, and then start to make the walking patterns between them. Then from there you can start coming up with lots of variations... and by listening to what other people do you can borrow from their ideas.
I am so excited to keep studying jazz... But I don't know where I am going to be living next year!!! I want to keep playing with a jazz group though so that I can keep improving -- And then someday be able to sing and play jazz songs while improvising!
I feel in kind of a weird place right now because I still don't know where I will be in the fall. March went mostly by and I didn't hear anything about the results of my scholarship audition at the University in Colorado in Boulder... So I called the graduate office last week and left a message asking about my scholarship status. A lady called and left a message at my home in Montana saying that she looked up my name on the list of scholarship recipients and I wasn't there.... but she said I could possibly be on the "2nd tier" or "3rd tier" or "4th tier" (which means if somebody decides not to accept their offer from CU Boulder then I could be next in line to receive it... or 3rd, or 4th, etc.). But she said she doesn't have access to that information. So I just have to wait and see. If a scholarship doesn't come through for me then I will have to figure out something else to do. Maybe I am meant to do something else.
The options that seem most plausible for me right now are: 1. Go home to Montana for a little while and practice and make recordings and study with my teachers there (and live at home for free). 2. Try to get a job here in San Francisco (if I could earn enough money to pay my rent and living costs) and keep studying with Paul and Jane. 3. Go live in Madison, Wisconsin with my grandma or great aunt (for free probably) and study with the teachers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. 4. Move to Los Angeles and try to get more into producing recordings and videos. If I move to L.A. I would also need to find a job... There are some jobs open there for various churches that I am considering applying for. and # 5. Possibly going to Italy for a little while to study/perform there and perfect my Italian!
Decisions, decisions! The hard part is I still won't know anything for certain from Boulder until at least the end of May. But also I am waiting to hear from the America's Got Talent auditions... that could influence my decision as well. I think that the AGT auditions should be contacting me by the end of April if I got in. If I didn't get in then I just won't hear from them.
I am really overwhelmed with everything I have to get done this week as well as before the end of the semester... I have to perform in studio class tomorrow some of my Schubert Sonata which is barely memorized and was not very good yesterday when I was practicing it. Then Tuesday I have to perform some new music with a singer for continuo class, on Wednesday I have to be ready to sing new repertoire for both Oratorio workshop and Baroque Ensemble, and on Thursday Paul wants to hear all of my Schubert sonata from memory at my lesson. I don't know how I will get all of this ready but I will try. I also have a concert coming up in only a couple of weeks where I will be playing the continuo part on the harpsichord for a cello sonata. I need to set up some rehearsals with my cellist for this weekend.
Today is a General Conference broadcast for my church, so I'm going to try to watch some of that. I guess now that I should go get practicing!!! :-S Happy April Everyone!
I am so excited to keep studying jazz... But I don't know where I am going to be living next year!!! I want to keep playing with a jazz group though so that I can keep improving -- And then someday be able to sing and play jazz songs while improvising!
I feel in kind of a weird place right now because I still don't know where I will be in the fall. March went mostly by and I didn't hear anything about the results of my scholarship audition at the University in Colorado in Boulder... So I called the graduate office last week and left a message asking about my scholarship status. A lady called and left a message at my home in Montana saying that she looked up my name on the list of scholarship recipients and I wasn't there.... but she said I could possibly be on the "2nd tier" or "3rd tier" or "4th tier" (which means if somebody decides not to accept their offer from CU Boulder then I could be next in line to receive it... or 3rd, or 4th, etc.). But she said she doesn't have access to that information. So I just have to wait and see. If a scholarship doesn't come through for me then I will have to figure out something else to do. Maybe I am meant to do something else.
The options that seem most plausible for me right now are: 1. Go home to Montana for a little while and practice and make recordings and study with my teachers there (and live at home for free). 2. Try to get a job here in San Francisco (if I could earn enough money to pay my rent and living costs) and keep studying with Paul and Jane. 3. Go live in Madison, Wisconsin with my grandma or great aunt (for free probably) and study with the teachers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. 4. Move to Los Angeles and try to get more into producing recordings and videos. If I move to L.A. I would also need to find a job... There are some jobs open there for various churches that I am considering applying for. and # 5. Possibly going to Italy for a little while to study/perform there and perfect my Italian!
Decisions, decisions! The hard part is I still won't know anything for certain from Boulder until at least the end of May. But also I am waiting to hear from the America's Got Talent auditions... that could influence my decision as well. I think that the AGT auditions should be contacting me by the end of April if I got in. If I didn't get in then I just won't hear from them.
I am really overwhelmed with everything I have to get done this week as well as before the end of the semester... I have to perform in studio class tomorrow some of my Schubert Sonata which is barely memorized and was not very good yesterday when I was practicing it. Then Tuesday I have to perform some new music with a singer for continuo class, on Wednesday I have to be ready to sing new repertoire for both Oratorio workshop and Baroque Ensemble, and on Thursday Paul wants to hear all of my Schubert sonata from memory at my lesson. I don't know how I will get all of this ready but I will try. I also have a concert coming up in only a couple of weeks where I will be playing the continuo part on the harpsichord for a cello sonata. I need to set up some rehearsals with my cellist for this weekend.
Today is a General Conference broadcast for my church, so I'm going to try to watch some of that. I guess now that I should go get practicing!!! :-S Happy April Everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment