Thursday, April 29, 2010

jazz workshop 4

Rythem changes....these are REALLY HARD and though i feel like im hangin in there. Im starting to struggle a little bit. I have been practising my butt of and i learned the head to oleo so i hope i do alright today. Im learning so much from this workshop. I LOVE it

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Jazz workshop 3

I LOVE this workshop! Our last Session was great! We talked about bebop scales, flat 9ths, and 2 5 1s! It was really interesting! And the fact that I'm keeping up with two other seniors who have been doing this for a long time really hosts my self confidence! :) our homework was to write a solo and I'm really proud of mine! I can't wait to show Dave!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Jazz woekshsop 2

The second workshop with Dave was even better than the first one! He was nice again and that made me quite happy. He gave us packets about Blues and improvisation which showed us techniques that really helped my soloing. Our two assignments are scrapple from the apple (G scale) and my little suede shoes (F scale) I do have NYSSMA coming up and that's a lot to practises but I think I will be fine. I'm really excited to show Dave what I have practised.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Song writing workshop #1

I have been writing songs for a while now. Last year my English scholars project was songwriting, but i got no good songs out of it. I brought one of those old songs to robin to help me work on it. He helped a lot! Before, it was a finished song that i did not like at all. I played it for him, and he helped me take it apart. Now, It isn't nearly finished. It is just a bunch of little pieces of a song that have not been put together yet. But i love it! :) I like this song fraction way more than i liked the original. I cant wait to show my new stuff to robin.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Lalama workshop day 1

I was placed in the jazz workshop with Dave Lalama, and even though I have only done one work shop with him I'm loving it already. Honestly, I was scared going into it because Leah told me that he is an awesome guy, but he will pick me apart completly. That made me very nervous.

The first question he asked me was if i knew my major scales. I knew a bunch of them, but im not perfect with all of them. I got nervous, and like a dumbass, i said yes. He proved me wrong right away. He was really nice about it though. I was supprised. I though he would yell at me or make fun of me for something when i couldnt play my Db major scale, but he didnt. He told me what i needed to do and he was very strait forward, but he wasnt mean. After that i was comfortable. We worked on changes from "scrapple from the apple" and we played a lot of scales in intervuls. I learned a lot already. Its great! :)

For this next workshop i have to learn the head to "Scrapple from the apple" and practise my major scales. I have been working on it but im a little bit scared for this next workshop cause my scrapple from the apple still isnt great. I hope he is as nice as he was last time.