Rope’n'Tackle and Visions - Week 12 06-02-15

To complete this four week block we played through both of our tunes, soloing on each. I suggested putting an emphasis on playing more rhythmically. On Visions we investigated a simple rhythmic pattern (a note placed on beat ‘one' and another on 'two-and’) used through the whole sequence. There was a tendency for this to sound sluggish but with suitable efforts (clearer articulation) it sounded quite effective. We tried displacing this pattern, first by a crotchet (one beat) and then by a quaver (half a beat) which gives it a very different feel to the figure. I thought there was some excellent soloing from everyone on Visions.

We played through Rope’n’Tackle without bass which made it more challenging but allowed an increased sense of openness to the harmony. Not everyone is completely ready to embrace this yet and I know this kind of approach is not always to everyone’s taste. Nonetheless there were some lovely musical moments (and some rather nice singing to finish!)

I hope you have enjoyed playing these tunes. As I mentioned in the session, why not having a go at writing something yourself - perhaps a ‘modal' piece, or a ‘ I IV V I ' type piece.

In case any one missed it, the answer to the Visions intro is:  D harmonic major followed by Bb lydian (4 bars of each) repeated 4 times making a total of 32 bars.

The two tunes for our next block are Armando’s Rhumba and So Nice both sitting waiting for you in the Dropbox :-)

Hope you have a good few weeks and I look forward to seeing you all again on Friday 6th March.

Week 11 30-01-15 Rope’n'Tackle and Visions

Week 11  30-01-15

Rope’n'Tackle  and  Visions

The focus for this week’s session was improvising over the six scales used in Visions. To help keep in place I suggested playing simple two bar phrases (two on each scale). This can mean you end up always starting a phrase on the first beat of every other bar (all the odd numbered bars in fact, ie bar 1, bar 3, bar 5 etc). To get away from this predictability you might experiment with playing different length phrases (eg a one bar phrase, or a three bar phrase, etc) and starting on different places in the bar. Playing phrases which go over two scales can sound good but you need to be sure in your mind what scale your about to go to (and of course when to change!) In a piece like this there is also scope for deliberating ‘blurring" the transitions, either by anticipating or delaying the change of scale. Try leaving say three bars empty and then starting a two or three bar phrase in the fourth bar. Where do you end up? 

Next time I would like to spend part of the session exploring ideas on ‘rhythmic playing’ (Steve L brought this up). There are a number of ways we can approach this. If you haven’t done so already, try improvising over these scales with a metronome set to 120 bpm. Later, change the beat to 60 bpm (so it is marking minims) and if you’re feeling really courageous try 30 bpm (marking the bars).

I would also like to take a brief moment to think about sound and texture, in the context of this piece.

Your ‘optional’ home assignment is to listen to the full version of Visions (in the Dropbox labelled "Visions (MBTS).mp3”) and work out what chord/scale sounds are being used in the intro section, before the tune comes in.

Next week I also hope to make time for a final play through of Rope’n’Tackle plus a quick mention of 5-part 'big band style' block writing (I’ll put a sketch score in the Dropbox).