playing standards

The SIM workshop in oslo was about RealtimeMusic. When people talked about playing standards this sounded like they thought it a plague to me.

My way into this and out of it is play with the standards

• take the first column, the one with with the red border as a improvisational basis.
• playing them straight gives an extra long form, at least if you are into eight bar forms like me.
• take one of the other areas, keep it, loose it, play.

standards can be much fun, one should play them, but one is oneself not any coltrane, he did not play it like it was written too (and if he would have done, i consider this his problem, not mine).

have fun.

back from oslo

Spent five days at SIM workshop in Oslo at the norges musikkhøgskole.

In one: good experience, recommended.

In pieces:

• Norwegians seam a little dry at first, which suits me well.
• The black varies, kaffebrenneriet was ok to me.
• The students from musikkhøgskole attending the course were all real nice and good, I am sorry that I could not play with more of them.
• Sidsel Endresen, outstanding, simple as that, constantly in doubt, thinking how to express, how it is. live all the time.
• Thomas Strønen, no complaints left or right, very musical.
• Grand Jonas of the pianoforte thanks for your patience with me and your strength. Thanks to Ina the bravest and powerfull Ida, airy Kari many thanks.
• Jon Christensen, like Sidsel, outstanding, but simpler, simple great.

See you tomorrow, next life or universe.

Sunday at home

nice instrument, but every now and then the pickup hums (close to low G, in 50Hz surroundings).
no humming for a year now (2013). fishman faq tells something about "the hole beeing too narrow or wide" which is no real help to me.

cardgames

i have 24 cards with all major and minor chords written on it (survival supply, just like dental hygene products and chocolate and a towel of course)

pull a tune, for example: three cards for the chorus two for the bridge.

beaware of morphic fields, places mostly home to guitar players tend to produce tunes centered around E,
for example i got : F#minor B C#minor E Eb

recent experience showed the danger that the improvisation degrades to something like a jam in a-minor or similar, be warned and prepared. possible preparations

• alert everyone, twice at least
• uses cues and breaks
• set up a bigger structure, by dynamics, tempo or enlongated harmonic rhythm 

which is of course the same one would do when producing written material, but that is the point, it has to be the same.

wilde of no importance

Music makes one feel so romantic -
at least it always gets on one's nerves.

It's the same thing, nowadays.

-- oscar wilde "A Woman of No Importance"

tune: bluesical chairs

take a 12 bar blues on every round play drop one bar.

variation a

take a blues with a clear turn around drop front bars, footprints worked good

  Cmi % % % Fmi % Cmi % F#7/F7 E7/A7 Cmi %

interesting configurations are the 10 bar start

  C C F F C C

the 9 bar one too because "C F F C" is a standard short form.

variation b

start dropping from the end, till every ends in C-heaven, sing out loud, break .

 C % % % F % C % G F C F/G
 C % % % F % C % G F C
 C % % % F % C % G F
 C % % % F % C % G
 C % % % F % C %
 C % % % F % C
 C % % % F % 
 C % % % F 
 C % % % sing:"chair man a chair ..." 

tune: grinder

grinder - playing advice for drummer plus three

* the band apporoaches the stage
* the drummer stops at the last table before stepping up 
  takes a sipp from his beer and leaves it on the table
  get's up behind the drums counts to four and starts a wailing (rock?) beat
* the rest of the band tunes as required and enters when and with what they think
* when the last one is in, play eight bars silent, then build up for eight bars: STOP
* the drummers goes to his beer takes a seat and sip.
* one of the others leaves for the toilet
* the rest starts with e.g. au privave as a ballad
* comes time all reenter