February 7 Rehearsal
Great rehearsal everyone! Thank you braving the weather to make it and no worries if you weren’t able to come. We are able to get through many of our pieces in a very short period of time 🙂
Rehearsal 4
Played: Red Book #21 – 27 – experimented with solos again; building vocabulary
It Don’t Mean a Thing
My Dinner with Ronald
Jammin’ with Charlie
Frankenstein
25 or 6 to 4
The beginnings of each piece are coming along nicely. Take a look at parts AFTER the solo sections as we have not played them much and they are sometimes more rhythmically challenging. We are having larger sectionals next week, so think of questions about technique, swing rhythms, soloing or anything else.
Soloing / Improvising
We talked extensively about soloing during the second half of the rehearsal. David made some great points about what he might do and I followed up. Here’s a quick review of some of those ideas:
- Solos can be fully written out, partially written out, or fully improvised on the spot. You do not have to make it up all the time.
- Most professional musicians have a “toolbox” of soloing ideas that they often refer back to so their mind isn’t completely blank
- Give yourself parameters to solo within so you aren’t overwhelmed with all of the options. These include using only 2-3 notes, or using only a specific rhythm that we have gone over
- Long notes and space can be great tools to use; solos don’t always have to be full of notes and difficult rhythms
- Listen to the rhythm section for the chord changes and arrival points. This will help you figure out where you are if you get lost.
Try some out some solo ideas with backing tracks on YouTube. Here is a link to a Blues backing track in B-flat major. It is swung so you can also try out some of the rhythms we’ve worked on. Stick to the Blues Scale and you will sound awesome every time!
Social Outing
We decided not to go out because of the weather. Also, Valentines Day is next week so we won’t go out then either. Let’s aim for February 21st.
