The
plan for the next few sessions is to re-visit various 'old favourites'
mixed in with some new choices. We first looked at McCoy Tyner's Search For Peace back
in 2012. At that time Annie wrote some beautiful lyrics and I thought
this would be a good opportunity to hear them again in a traditional
large ensemble (aka big band) setting. I scored out a vocal arrangement
for our session using some of the elements from the instrumental version
I wrote two years ago. At Annie's suggestion I raised the key (by a
major third) and I also decided to include a counter-melody (played by
the brass). The new score is attached below.
The
first half of our session was spent working on this arrangement. The
harmony in this composition is rich and the chord progression is not
always obvious - it takes a while for the ears to really tune in. I
wouldn't normally devote so much time to rehearsing a piece in this way
but on this occasion I thought it was worth it - I hope you enjoyed the
exercise. Thanks for your patience. I am attaching an mp3 of our final
run through. I think there is some lovely ensemble playing here and
Annie, you sound great, soaring above the orchestra singing your lyrics.
In
the second half of our session we focussed on soloing, specifically
over the first 4 bars - a minor II V resolving to a dominant 7 sus chord
(we reverted to the original key, so in concert: Am7b5 D7alt G7sus). I
primed everyone with two scales (both melodic minor modes), namely locrian natural 9 for chord IIm7b5 ( 1 2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7 8 ) and altered
for chord V7alt ( 1 b2 b3 3 #4 #5 b7 8 ). There are of course
other possible scales but I chose these for this particular exercise. I
then asked you to create a quaver line using four notes chosen from the
first scale followed by four notes from the second, and finally
resolving on to a suitable long note for the dominant seventh sus chord
(any note from mixolydian 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 8 ). The idea of
this was to create a good phrase to play over the first two bars (and
again over the next two bars). I was delighted with the lines everyone
came up with and pleased that you were able to play them in a convincing
melodic ballad fashion.
Other
aspects of the chord sequence are covered in my feedback notes from Nov
2012 which are still in the Dropbox (and you will also find below).
No comments:
Post a Comment