czmxlojp

There is something wrong with the way I listen to myself sing. I was trying to figure this out with Tim this weekend. I can hear more clearly when other people are singing or playing than I can when I do it myself. So in some sense my ears are okay. I can hear someone sing a line and I can (roughly) determine the intervals. But when I do it, I confuse myself. Therefore this either has to do with the way I hear myself singing or how I'm clogging my brain as I sing. Sometimes it feels like my brain is making judgement calls on what I'm singing rather than my ears. I feel like a blindfolded painter dipping my brush into what I think is green paint, but is really red.
I don't have any answers yet. I was just hoping that writing it out would help.
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I'm having trouble again today with Pat's phrasing, and sometimes, choice of notes. Some of his lines are wierd; awesome, but wierd.
I'm spending a lot of time singing the phrases first to get the rhythm and pitches together, and then sing them to myself to find them on my guitar.
Slowing down the track helps sometimes.
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It seems like it took the better half of two hours to add in about 7 seconds of music. I think I can work a little more efficiently with this project, but there is also a part me that understands that it might take this long to fully process a lick (or a set of licks).
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I think I just tapped into something big regarding my ear progress: I'm not very good at it. And what I mean by it, is that I'm not profoundly good at it. I can superficially identify the notes, but sometimes I have to think about it or sing the note, so sing the notes in between the notes. But when it really comes down to it, one has to hear the notes and identify the relationship between them. I need to hear or feel my when playing or singing. Therefore, what I'm going to try to focus on is getting in touch with a more gut-level association of these intervals. I really need to know what the notes sound like so I don't have to think about them.
I'm working on this with the Teoria ET drills and I was just amazed at how much I had to think about the notes. I even limited myself to intervals no bigger than a major 3rd and I still had to think about them. I should know that stuff inside and out.
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Having stumbled on this realization I've gone back to the Teoria exercises and focused on my weakness. I worked on the ET drills using my guitar for a bit and then I worked on using my gut-reflex through the drills. I was a lot worse off than I thought. I didn't really know the intervals. I was so dependent on my tricks to determine the notes that I actually forgot the big point of it all: hear the notes. It took me a while to build my hearing back up. This really wasn't so hard for me. In some sense I know the notes, but I didn't know how to access them in this format. By working from my gut on these exercises I was using my past exeriences of playing music (which I have a lot) to guide me through the decision making process. I feel really good now, having done it. It makes me wonder what I was thinking about before, but now I think I"ve got it together.
I spent some time after the ET tests and put in some random II-V's into the loop station. I was a delightful experience. I'm sure I'll forget some of this tormorow and have to refresh again, but I think I know how to hear this stuff correctly now.... we'll see
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vyjyfxw

45 minutes on the Pat Metheny solo. He's playing couterpoint with himself and it's incrediably dynamic and awesome. The two lines are really more "call and response," but he has a different level of dynamics and sense of tempo for each line. Quite difficult to get around my fingers. Transcribing like this reminds me of my Gamelan practice, when learning a new piece. It's just played in front of you, over and over until you can handle in on your own. I spent about fifteen mintues with a 7 second loop that looked at 2 main lines and two response lines. I've just about got it. I'll give it a little while this afternoon and come back to it later. See how it's steeping in brain.
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I've got the first chorus of his solo 99% down. He switches his time-feel back in forth between three and four, and I'm not thinking about the rhythms right now, just the sounds. I'm playing it it time, but not thinking about the pulse (if that makes more sense). I think if I just stick with it everything will even itself out.
I'm singing wiht the solo as much as I can because I'm still having trouble with the random chord exercises. There is still a dis-connect with the pitches I sing and the way my ear hears them. Or what my ear hears and what my fingers play.
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ugerjxgz

Another 8 seconds into the Pat Metheny piece. It took about a half hour of my time working on this and refreshing from last night.
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hitbt

I'm taking a hiatus from my TM transcription because frankly it's too hard. I told myself that it was the only part of the tune that I wanted to learn, but apparently I was lying. His whole solo is awesome, it's just going to take me forever if I continued working on it now. I've got to get a couple more things under my belt.
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I've started working on Metheny's "Waltz For Ruth" (Hayen's Composition). I've got the melody down and found it to be very nice. It's a great exercise in hearing the minor and major seconds that I'm having trouble with. Right now I'm working on the solo and I was struck about a big difference in transcribing and learning to play the solo by ear: Right now, I'm working on a difficult phrase that looks quite simple on paper. The trick is that the rhythm is very loose and very important to the feel of the piece. I don't think I could get the same feel from the piece if I were reading the notes off the page. So now, by just listening to it, I'm working on getting it into my fingers in a much more profound way. I just loop it over and over and sort of teach my fingers right and wrong according to the groove.
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I spent an hour working on about 20 seconds of music. I learn it fast, but it takes a while to put it all together. I'm mostly training my fingers to recognize this tomorrow.

urqhay

During my lesson with TM on Sunday we spent time discussing how and why I have a dis-connect with my ears, voice & fingers. The main thing I came away with was that I just don't have a lot of experience playing like that. I'm a very analytical persoan (and player) and would often think about the chord changes as I was playing through them. I'm finding this to be too cumbersome of an approach.
So my big resolution for these weeks is to find that connection where everything lines up and I don't think about what I'm playing, but think about what melody I want to get to or create. I spent some time working on this today. I would plug in a two chord vamp into the loop station and just sing my way through it. I had the best results when I played through a non-diatonic set of chords or two un-related chords. This helped me through my analytical mind out the window because it doesn't know what to do with such strange concoctions of harmony. My ear and my voice can navigate easy enough. Sometimes the melodies would produce pentatonic or sextontic (?) scales, while others would produce scales where certian available notes would change depending on what chord I started on.
My biggest problem right now is that I'm screwing up the major 2nd & minor 2nd approach. It's seems like it would be easy to distinguish between the two, but for some reason I keep screwing it up. I think partly it's because I'm thinking about it too much. The plan is to spend enough time doing it by feel and intution that I learn to trust myself in those situations and have something more stronger to rely on that what I'm using know (whatever that is).

drvyat

As usual, I had a good lesson with Tim. One of the things that I really appreciate about studying with him is that he's a good sounding board and a good constant. In the 15 months I've been studying with him he's been consistant with his prescription for me: transcribe, transcribe, transcribe (and sing while you play). As such a stable guide post, it's helps me recognize some of the things that I'm doing wrong. We spent a lot of time today just trying to figure out why I'm having difficulty connecting the pitches I hear to my instrument. I'm not sure if we found an answer but I feel good that I know what direction to move in. This kind of stuff reminds me of zen training or peak performance stratedgies. I know that I have all the information I need to make the music I want to make, but it's coming out of me wrong. I'm thinking about it incorrectly or too much.
One of the things that I've resovled to do as a result of this lesson is to start a new or work up an old musical creative project. Either get some solo guitar gigs at a coffee house or club, or work on music for a trio or duet. I'm currently lacking enough creative outlets to make the breakthroughs I need with my ears and my playing (I think). Part of understanding or mastering this subject is just getting out there and doing it. My current Solo Guitar gigs don't really allow for such creative freedom, therefore I must set it up for myself some other way. I've been really itching to do this anyway. It's helpful to get a push.
One of the other things that I'm going to try to do is be more creative with other aspects of my life. I think for a while now I've been shutting those things down, thinking they got in the way of what I wanted to do. I have a feeling I was wrong.
And finally, I'm going to put my faith in this transcription project: transcribing tunes & the random ear exercises. I think I'm making progress with both of these and it's helpful to have sit-downs with Tim to serve as markers. When I'm doing this on my own I get discouraged by how long the whole process is. I'm still not getting it all, but I'm a little closer that I was before. It's helpful to see my progress.
ramble ramble ramble

mrksqyt

I'm having trouble playing the last 11 seconds of Tim's solo up to speed. There is a sweep-picked arpeggio (I think) and it's done quite fast. Right now I'm thinking about it to much and I'm trying to the extended lick into my fingers at a 10% slowdown, hoping that this will help me to flow through the piece when it's time.
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I've got the lick pretty well down at 10% less and I'm going to take a break to let my fingers process the information. There is a point of diminishing results that we can run into with any sort of playing. Right now I feel like I'm at the point of diminishing input. I don't think I could do anything else to get my fingers to understand this lick. I've played it enough times, they've just got to figure it out on their own time.
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Half the day passed before I picked up the guitar again and before I did, I listened to Tim's Solo on loop in the background. As I picked up the guitar again the solo was better under my hands and only shaky in a few random places. The solo could use some steeping (maybe a week or two). So the solo has officially been learned and now I move on to tune #3.
When I came back to the Paul Desmond Solo I was a little out of place with it from having worked so much on the Tim Miller solo. Paul Desmond is such a different soloist. His time, feel and melodic sensibillity is so different I had a difficult time getting back into his swing. I'm too worried about it, as I bring these two tunes back into balance I think it will all even out.

bjyazas

I finished the Tim Miller solo (again), or at least the 45 seconds of it that I want to work on. I have a little more memorizing of the whole piece that I have to work on. I only know segments alone at playing tempo. It's a good and fun tune to work on, and it's builiding my confidence with my playing. It's reminding me of when I used to play my Joe Satriani & Steve Vai records.
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I'm taking each lick now and playing it on its on from the end of the piece to the middle. I'm foggiest the most on the second half of the piece. This is what happens when you always start at the beginning.
I can play the licks by feel but I can't think about what I'm playing. When I think about what I'm doing then I have to slow down and implant it. It's kinda crazy that way. It's confusing my fingers a lot and I think it's best to take frequent breaks.
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I've been recognizing lately that I haven't been working on any creative projects and that doens't sit right with me. I've been feeling the creative void perhaps.
I sat down for a moment today and played through a piece that I had on my audition tape for NEC. It's a simple tune that I like. It doens't have a name. EIther way, during the improvised part of the piece I was very surprised and a little scared by my playing. I had a lot of new ideas for a G major vamp. It started out simply by playing an A minor arpeggio and then went crazy dissonant. I started using the C# from a Dmajor scale form and an A major arpeggio line. The strange thing was that I increadibly comforatable with the dissonance and the "wrong notes." They weren't really the notes I wanted to play from a sonic perspective, but my fingers were so confident from physicall perspective they kind of made them sound all right. It was very impressive and a little breathtaking. It's exciting to think what's ahead of me musicially is a little outside of my imagination, but today I think I hit upon something big. I want to play a lot more like that. There was a lot of power there.
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I spent a half hour working on the last 15 seconds of Tim's solo. I worked in increments, memorizing each chunk before I had another bit. I've played the whole thing before several times, but this time I'm trying to memorize it. It looks like in three weeks work I will have two solos under my belt for a total of 3 or 4 minutes of music.
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All this practicing is ripping through my strings. I put a new set on yesterday and I've just about worn them out allready. Damn sweat!

dee

Wednesday: I forgot to post yesterday. Nothing exciting happened. Same old stuff with the Tim Solo. This time I slowed down the new section about 30% less to get the phrasing nuances. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this up by Sunday.

dfd

I'm still working on the same Tim Miller lick today. It took a lot to come back to this today. I'm working on a 10 second clip right now, slowing it down and gradually bringing it up to speed. It's a difficult lick to execute perfectly. I think I'll be able add on to it tonight. I'm beginning to understand the feel of the line.
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I've got the lick down to about 90% now. I think I'll be cleaning it up the next couple days. I have a few more things I want to get out of this solo and then I want to check out something else.
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My fingers are feeling a little sluggish today. I'm not sure why. It might be from the computer work I did early today or something else.
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I finished up what I wanted from the Tim Miller Solo. The entire excert is 44 seconds long and it will probably take me 2 or 3 more days to fully play up to speed. I'm going to take a break now and see how the Desmond tune is doing. I hope I haven't forgotten it.
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As I work on the ear-related exerices, I don't really know how much I know. When I played the Desmond solo again today, it had been a couple days since I looked at it. As I was playing it I was just thinking about the melody and I noticed that I came up with a totally different fingering on the spot. It made a lot of sense at the time, but if my fingers know where to go than why can't I acess that all of the time? I think this is the balance of control and letting go that I'm a little unsure of right now. I think if learn some more solos I'll have more language under my fingers to really let go in my playing. Right now I feel a little empty.
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My fingers are sluggish because they are dry. Silly me.
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fs

So I've been working on this Tim Miller lick for about 2 or 3 days now. It's getting better and I can just about play the whole entire phrase (but not very well yet). I think I've got about 3 more days to go on this lick. My sweet-picking/arpeegios are getting better because of this lick and I'm connecting to my guitar like I used to when I played rock n' roll solos. Tim's got some fun licks.
I'm going to work on slowing them down, finding the best fingerings and memorizing them the best I can so I can fly through this section. The whole thing is only about 13 seconds long, but he crams a lot of notes in there. There's one more section after this lick that I'm going to transcribe and then I think I'm going to move on to a different tune or spend months learning this one.
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gres

I had a big Gamelan day yesterday and no guitar. Today I started off with a review of my Paul Desmond solo. When I've gone a day or two without practice I have a little aversion to sitting down with the guitar. I'm not sure why, because when I play, practice or stretch my mind in any way I usually feel pretty satisfied. I'm surprised I confuse such a pleasant experience wiht "work."
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The Desmond piece is a good solo to warm up on. I worked on the 2nd half of the tune more than the entire piece because the 2nd half is rustier than the first half. I forget what I'm doing more in the second half of the piece.
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I like that the Gamelan work is really helping with my guitar studies. The process of memorizing my Gamelan tunes, or learning them by ear has helped with my overall musical competancy, and in turn has affected the way I'm improvising and thinking about tunes. The muscles in my brain are working out.
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As I'm practicing the Tim Miller piece I have to slow down and isolate (loop) more sections. By doing this my fingers do much more work than my brain and I find myself zoning out a lot, yet my fingers are processing the information of the form and the phrasing. It's pretty weird. I think I should be a little more mentally present, but what do I know?
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I had a very similar experience when learning gamelan music: When learning a new part there was a point where my hands could play the pattern and my ears could guide me, but when I went to think about what I was doing it all fell apart. I'm at that place right now with my Tim Miller solo, on this one lick. It's a very long phrase (really two stuck together - kinda like a run-on sentance), and my fingers and ears know it better than I do. I think this is a good indication to take a rest and move on to something else. My brain will probably understand what I was doing tomorrow and then I'll fly right through the lick (let's hope).
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I plugged into the random chord exercise and felt a better connection to my instrument and my ears thanks to the transcribing warm-up. I'm still lacking a big part of my ear-fingerboard connection. Today I worked hard on exposing my weaknesses in that area. That's a tough task by itself. It's hard to point out how you're not good at something. I would sing each note before I'd play it and then make myself play that note. I was overthinking the whole process and messing up more that I need to. I know what these intervals are, I just got to stop my neurotic thinking mind from getting in the way. It's just like the ET tests. When I think too much about them I screw myself up. The more I let go and just listen to the notes, the better I do.
Speaking of which..... I spent the last part of my playing by ear exercise improvising over the random chords and not thinking about what I was doing; just listening. I would just play random lines over random phrases and listen to the results. My ear would tend to steer me towards connsanant chord tones, which was neat. My rhythms and phrases are coming along from my Tim Miller & Paul Desomond studies.
It was a good exercise to inspire me to do this more.
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Friday Night

I've started working on the Tim Miller solo for "TR." It's a solo that I've been admiring for a while. I transcribed some it a few weeks back, but back then I was just transcribing; not playing. Now that I'm coming back to it, I have to practice my arpeggios and speed picking technique. I've got the metronome out to help me get some of the licks up to tempo to the recording.
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I chose this recording because I like it, but also because I'm studying with Tim right now and I've never had the oppurtunity to talk to someone about their music one-on-one. Plus it's also a really nice tune. Next tune will probably be Keith Jarrett's "Stella."
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The lick I'm working on right now is tough. It will probably take me a couple of days to work it out. It reminds me of basketball & baseball drills I would do when I was a kid. I just keep doing it over and over and over again. Every once in a while I get the hang of it and I can move forward a bit. It's a very satisfying expericence.
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Now that I have one solo in my belt I'm going to try to incorporate this exercise 2-3 times a day. It doesn't take very long, and I think the repitition would be helpful.
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st.p

I've got the Paul Desmond Solo pretty much down today. The last 1/4 of the piece is my shakiest, but I think I've cleaned that up now. It's only 1:35 long. Small steps are important ones.
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I ran into the same situation that I experienced a couple days ago: I'll be playing the solo and my fingers take me into a position that I'm unfamiliar with but still are the same notes. It's kinda neat. I'd like to have a little more control or comfort when they do that, but it's a good start (i think).
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I also spent some time with the solo competely zoning out. My fingers have played it enough to sort of figure out there way around the neck and through the solo.
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d

I was really tight on practice time today. I'm glad that I forced some time into my schedule to make it happen. It's very easy when it's late at night to push it off to tomorrow, but this stuff is accumilative and compounded on the previous day's work.
I finished the Paul Desmond Solo (barely). Some of the licks are little foggy, but I've transcribed the whole thing (in my head) and it will give me something to review for the next couple days. Tomorrow I have to decide solo #2 and start working on that one.

nxqhdruy

I worked on the next 7 seconds of the Paul Desmond tune. It was tricky section. It was rather fast and a little cumbersome on the guitar. I got down pretty well by looping and slowing it down against a metronome. I'm sure it will be ready for tomorrow.
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I'm very happy with my progress. I've practically memorized the entrie piece and I'm planning on picking up a second tune tomorrow. The thing that's been helpful for me is breaking it down into small pieces. I was really intimidated by all of the work I had to do at first, but I feel like I'm picking things up at a decent pace.
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My day didn't have a whole lot of practing, so at night I went back to my online ET tests and just tried simple intervals. There are a lot of compound results from the work I did in February paying off. I can hear things without humming them and because I'm going to be tested on it, I'm a lot looser about the whole thing. It's a pretty good feeling and one that wants me to continue working on it. This plus my other two exercises are really helping out.
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tf

So I've got a minute & seven seconds memorized on the Paul Desmond piece. I've been singing a lot when I've been playing and I noticed that sometimes I don't always go to the right fingerings, but I go the right notes. Sometimes, if I get off on the wrong finger I end on a different string, but my fingers know how to get to the correct note. It's kinda neat.
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I played around with the same random chords in the loopstation and had similar results. I get a little uncomforatable becuase It's very difficult for me and a having a burning desire to get away from my guitar, but I persist and struggle to stay focused with this exercise. I'm always thinking about ways I can make this easier or more digestable for me. I haven't found one yet. I was day dreaming today of a sustain pedal like that on pianos or keyboards. I want one for guitar. I dont' know if that's possible.

tre

I got about 20 seconds in to Paul Desmond and ran out of time for the day. I've played the entire solo before by reading a transcription, but I haven't transcribed it by listening to it until now. I noticed a couple of errors and I'm playing different than if I were reading it. When I judge by sound and phrase accents than my fingering and postioning shifts. I like this way a lot better. Small chunks are helpful as well.

mmm hmmm

I started working on a wolfgang muthspiel tune but his ideas are too out there for me. It's a very beautiful solo with so many ideas, but I want to work on something with a cohesive and direct melodic statement. That brings me back to Paul Desmond.
I find it very interesting that I have approach/avoidance conflict with these exercises. There is part of me that wants to do them and then there is another part that recognizes that it's hard and that I'm not very good at it. That part wants me to stay away from the pain associated with learning. There really shouldn't be any pain with learning, but let's face it, admiting that you don't understand everything or that you are not very good at something is difficult, even if it is to your own self-conscious. So somewhere I'm protecting myself from embarassing myself from myself. Nice.....
The part that I am doing well with is the reason portion. I've made a comminment to do these exercises and I've seen what these exercises can do for people and I want that. I talk about this with Tim Miller often: When I was a teenager I used to play every rock n' roll guitar solo there was. I would play every note that Slash, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Brian May or Eric Clapton ever played. I had an amazing intuitive sense to my instrument and in some sense I'm working very hard to get back to that.
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As I was working on "the memorizing the tune" portion of my exercise I recognized that I have trouble memorizing tunes. It's not that I can't do it, but that I haven't done it. I'm having the same trouble with Gamelan music that I'm having with memorzing solos or really any piece of music. I don't have the memorizing background. Because of that I think I'm making the process too hard. I'm taking the long way because I don't know any shortcuts. So much of my playing background is improvising and reading leadsheets to understand the form. This has now become my biggest weakness, or at least the oppiste of what I want to do right now: memorize music and know the form. It's helpful to acknowledge all these challenges that I'm having because I can address them and work with them rather than getting caught up them or being brought down with them.
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tonight I'm going to transpose the Paul Desmond tune up a quarter-tone or so and work on the first chorus. Take small bites at first....

hummdy hum

This weekend was all Gamelan all the time. I spent Saturday practicing for the concert & Sunday performing at the concert. Today I'm back to my regular schedule.
I spent all of today working on ear/guitar exercises. I plugged in several short random chord exercises into the loopstation for future use. I had previously had trouble with the exercise because I was remembering the chords that I had just played and was identifing the others ones as well. I was trying to listen to what I was playing, but I was intelleculizing it instead. So plugging in a couple of random chord progressions in the loop station helped. When I came back to them I found them fresh. When I started identifying a chord or the notes I was playing I would try to jump to a different string and start somewhere unfamiliar. This sounds weird when the end-goal is to be able to know what you're playing, but I'm intellecuatlizing it to much. I'm thinking chord tones or chordscales too much and not enough feeling or hearing the music.
I found that this is a very difficult exercise and that I don't like doing it very long. I like to take breaks or zone out as I play it. I think this is because it is still new and very hard. I try to come back to it as often as I can. I'm seeing progress and that is addiciting.
My other project is playing a solo I know by ear. I think I'm going to swing back to my wolfgang music for this because I know more from an ear perspective anyway. There's one piece of his that I've never written out. I'd like to couple it with the Paul Desmond tune, but there is a lot more prerequiste work I have to do for that.
We'll see how it goes.
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Back to my random chord exercises..... I'm noticing the 3rd and the 4ths as well as the roots and major & flat 7ths when I play. These are kind of the exetremes or the outer layers of hearning (in my opionion). I'd like to hear the other intervals like I do in ET tests.
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Lou Guitar

A picture from yesterday's paper. In my opinion, it's hard to make the klein look cool. Lou Reed does a pretty good job. 

strange

I've been doing the ET exercises more casually since the audition has past. All of the work I put in to it in February is really paying off now. I can zip through the test with higher percentages than a few weeks ago.
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I've been coming back off and on to the two playing by ear exercises and I'm floored at how much it is changing my playing. The random chord changes is something I can only do for a small amount of time per session and then I'm exhausted. It's such a neat exercise because it really can expose my weakness. This can be both good and bad.... Inspiring and discouraging. As long as I take frequent breaks and keep coming back to it, I think I'll be fine.
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Bango

My random chord exerice practically exhausted me today. That must mean that I'm doing it right. I made some big progress with the exercise today. The key was to slow down the chord changes to about 4 bars for each chord. This gives me enough time to establish what note to move to and then build a little line. Some of the times I could hear the interval I was playing. The sus4, root, major 7th and altered 5's are easy to hear. Then all I have to do is string a line together to connect them. It's a neat idea to be able to hear what I'm playing and what's playing behind me. The work was exhausting and I'm glad I took a break. I might have to build in a break with the exercise.
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I also worked on Paul Desmond's "Strange Meadow Lark" solo. I first just sang the solo over and over as I was doing some paperwork and then I got the guitar and played along with the recording. I'm reading the solo, which is not what I'm supposed to do, but I've got to start somewhere. If I really get caught up in it and I'm not making progress, I'll shed the sheet music. It's going to take me a while to build up this solo. It's rather quick-moving and fluid. If it's not too much I'm going to try to couple this study with a Keith Jarrett solo on "Stella."
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Also, in Gamelan news, I finally figured out the gong pattern in Kebyar Duduk. It took me a while of singing and memorizing the melody. I've been putting a lot more work than I expect to in the Gamelan department, but when I finally get something, it makes it all worth-while.

part deux

I finished the day with another batch of playing by ear drills with the loop station. I thought I had a good idea of how to use the pedal with the exercise, but it fizzled.
I loaded in about 15 solos, that I'm going to work on for this project, into the computer
and sang along to most of them. I'm going to have to choose which one I want to start with tomorrow. I'm leaning towards Paul Desmond & Keith Jarrett.

hmmm

I had a chance to work more on the "playing by ear" exercise and I'm really exposing some profound weaknesses in my playing. It's a good feeling because it makes me think of the power I can have when I get this stuff together. work work work.....
To compliment this exercise I'm working on singing through some solos that I know. The first step in that process is actually to memorize some solos. I'm going to work on some Paul Desmond stuff tonight. We'll see what happens.

Last Night

Blogger wasn't feeling well last night and for some reason I didn't save my journal entry at the end of the evening. If I remember correctly, it basicly illuminated the fact that I can do the random chord exercise pretty well, but I snagged when i play by ear through chord changes. I was playing over "Alice In Wonderland" and I noticed that the melodies I was thinking were not coming out on the guitar. When I'm playing the random chord exercise I can get a feel for what chord tone I'm on and then figure out where a whole line would be. When I'm playing a tune I have string a line over a set of chords and that exposes my problems with the disconnect between my ear & my fingers. It's a good thing to be aware of, because it's something I can work on.

Tong

I just spent that last two hours transcribing about 30 seconds of Gamelan Music. I have some tricky gong hits to make on Kebyar Duduk and Alit said that I should "just listen to the melody." Where have we heard that before? I can't hear the melody very well because I'm still confused by the style, so I transcribed the part and sort of twisted western musical notation to make it fit:




Tomorrow I've got figure out what I'm doing at the begining of the piece. I'm too burnt out to look at it tonight.
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In other gamelan news, I woke this morning to find that we (still) had no power .Nstar had a scheduled shut-off, but said it would be up and running by 8am. It didn't come back on until 3:30. With the power out and no internet disctraction I put on my headphones and transcribed the rhythm for Semara Wisaya on the iPod. It didn't take very long. It's the same as Gringsing; there some parts that are very much "in time" and others that I'll need to watch for my neighbors' cues. For the first time today I started to develop a "feel" for gamelan music. For the parts that weren't rhythmically obvious I would listen for the jublag & penycha to lead up the right note. It was the first time I could anticipate where a note would fall in gamelan music. That's good news.
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With the power out I tried a fun experiment where I sang bass notes and improvised over them. I tried a simple I, VIm, IV & V, and had a blast. It's a little like talking to two different people at the same time. The more intricate I get, the more congested I get.
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My final guitar exercise was the random chord trick, but with the power out I really had to listen to the harmony before I played. I'm getting better at understanding what melody note I'm playing as it relates to the chord below it. I wish I had this together for my audition the other week. I just didn't realize that this was what I was supposed to do.
It's an exciting experience, and I think I"ve mentioned this before, but it's a little scary. It's almost too easy to improvise. Shouldn't music be hard? What a silly thought. I think this might be my biggest adjustment to this technique... learning how to let go and relax into the music. It gives me shivers to even think about it. Music is complex! How can one relax?
It will take some time. 

Naps save lives

One of the nice things about waking up early in the morning is that I have the chance to take care of the things that are important to me first thing in the day. Today was a big gamelan day. This week will be a big gamelan week. I transcribed the melody of Semara Wisaya & the rhythm for Gringsing:


I'm going in to work with Alit this afternoon and it will be good to spend some time with the instruments. Right now I'm just playing everything on guitar.
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I worked on the random chord exercises and I did surprisingly well. My ears have come allong a lot more than they have since the last time I did this exercise. I made the observation as I was playing: "oh, I get it. I just listen to what I'm playing." It's sounds stupid, but it's incrediably profound for me. I can't always articulate what's happening but I can feel my way around the changes by really listening the chords and the notes I'm playing. Sometimes I can really hear the relationship of the notes that I"m playing, other times not. It was a very inspiring and freeing experience. It was a little scary too. It's tricky to let go that much when playing music. It's important to do, but I'd like to have a little more control or influence on my playing. I think that's where I'm going to be doing a lot of my work. How do I harness this way of playing? How do I know with more certainty what I'm playing and why?.... 

wha?

Sunday was a big gamelan day. I woke up out of bed, got dressed and headed over to the gamelan room. I had 4 big tunes to work and really only got to three. With a performance next Sunday, I have a lot of work ahead of me this week, but all stuff I can manage. I think at the very least I will be looking at my paired musician for rhythmic and/or melodic cues.
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I had a great lesson with Tim. It very helpful (as always). The new agenda is a two-pronged approach to ear training. My focus is going to be on a select few transcriptions that I will play & sing on a daily basis, plus improvisation on random chords to develop melodic accuracy. I'm very happy & excited about the current plan. These are both exerices that I've looked at before, but I wasn't able to understand their use or value the first time around. Since the NEC audition I've had a better, more clear idea of what I need to do with my ears. I'm very gratefull for that.
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In some sense I spent 6 hours playing gamelan music on yesterday. I worked really hard transcribing and understanding the form of these crazy tunes. This evening/morning I was woken by an imaginary cockroach on my back. I was having several dreams about gamelan music, or one dream about several pieces of music. I think it was my brain's way of processing my experiance from yesterday. In the dream that woke me up I was playing a piece that had a fast part in it and that fast part was represented physically in the center of my back. For a split second I transfered the dream into a physicall sensation and then my brain had to figure out what it was. It's first conclusion was a sheet touching me, then a finger, and then ultimately a cockroach. I woke with a fright and threw the covers off me. I was quick to do a quick scrape of my back and throw the cockroach off and away with the covers. I very quickly realized the absurditiy of this premis, primarily because val & I are living in the most insect & rodent free apartment of our lives, plus why would I cockroach want to be in my bed, on my back. There are much better places to be than there.
Despite all this logic, I took it as a sign that I was a little wound up. As I tried to get back to sleep all that I could hear was gamelan music playing in my head. This would be cool if I knew that part that was stuck in my head, but I don't. That, plus the idea that I was stressed out about insects, and since it was 5am, led me to get up and do something productive. This journal entry is the first sidetrack allong the way. My plan is to transcribe the two jegogan parts into music notation (rhythm & pitch) and then organize the other two tunes that I have to learn. This is my goal for Monday in general; I just figured I'd get a head start on it in the AM. I'm eager and curious to see what Gamelan music for the jegogan looks like on paper. I'm imaging a lot of whole notes tied to each other.

good

Liza was kind enough to give her performers chocolate for participating in her recital. It was nice little "Thank You." I'm eating them now. I'm not very happy with my performance last night. I didn't really feel in my element when I went out to perform. Usually during a performance I'll get a little rush of nerves and I'll use that in my playing. Last night I felt I was too casual; too much of an observer. I realized halfway through that I was peforming and I freaked myself out a little bit. It's a good reminder to develop a ritual or take a breath before performing (ecspecially in foreign enviroments) to center myself before I play. When I "freaked out" I went blank for a moment and really felt like a screwed some up (dropped a beat or something). Everything got back together at a point but I really was upset that I blanked out. There a small chance that my intuition kicked in and made the performance sound okay, but I really think I screwed up. These are feelings that I get when I'm unprepared for something and in retrospect, I was prepared for the piece, but unprepared for the performance. At the last note of the final movement I was concerned because I didn't know what came next. There was nothing next. It was the end of the piece. I thought to myself: "it's over? that was fast." I'm frustrated that I wasn't there for the piece, to connect and respond to the players. It's surprise to think that I didn't think through the performing aspect of the evening too well. Usually I think about my performance a little bit more. I think that would have helped last night.
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I listened to the second half of her recital from the audiance. She is a wonderful composer and had some amazing players. One of her last piano sketches stands out in my memory as well as the trumpet & piano duet. I had forgotten how beautiful a trumpet could sound...... anyways, my ear exercises over this past year have really improved my listening capabilities. Some things are still a little foggy, but it was delightful to listen to Liza's lines bend a swerve through tonalities. It's something I hear in great Jazz players and it's something I'm looking for in my own playing. I listened to an old Frisell classic that I love: "Verona" and I was surprised at how uninterested I was in the solo. I was looking for more intense lines and shapes in his playing, but they weren't there.
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Now that I have no audition and recital to prepare for, my practice time is quite open. Today I devoted a lot of time to a Tim Miller transcription. I worked on the solo of the tune I was looking at earlier: "TR." It did about a good 30 seconds of the solo and haven't had a chance to analyze it or really play it in time. From what I've glanced at it looks like I'm going to be learning the simplicity lesson again: "Brendan, don't work so hard. Music is easy"
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Here's the first page of the transcription:

 

fredo

I did an irresponsible thing today. I put on a new brand of strings on the Klein (hours before a performance). The Klein is still a finiky instrument and doens't like change very much. It probably could use a set up, but I think it will be okay for tonight. I'm using La Bellas now, instead of the D'addario's. So far I like the La Bellas.
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Today is mostly practicing for the recitail. I don't really need to practice for the recitial, but it's kind of what I do when I have a performance in the evening. I'm going to try to move on and work on some other material today as well.
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I spent some time breaking in the new strings. It took a little while to get used to them, now I love them. They immediately had a differental tonal response (but that isn't uncommon for new strings), but as I continued playing I could tell the difference between new strings and new string brand. They are the exact same dimmensions of the D'addarios, but somehow they feel a little thicker. They sound a little beefier as well.
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I spent most of today practicing for the recital. Trying the pieces at different tempos and with and without the recordings.
After that I had a little while to work on my current "changes" project, where I'm illuminating the chord changes and able to use chromatic approaches.
It's good stuff.

tada

another day slips away. It's amazing how much paperwork/busy-work I had to do on a weekly basis. I spent a lot of today shuffling papers but made sure I took a little time to work on the recital piece for tomorrow. I think tomorrow will be a "back to normal" day for me. I'm just about caught up from my February Madness and think things will be winding down a little bit for me.

ga

Very busy day today. I spent a lot of today working on the Gamelan music. I'm really behind on my parts. I don't know the tunes very well and I have a hard time "feeling" any of the pieces. I spent a lot of time today listening and singing back. Tonight I'm going to go in early and practice with the instruments.
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i spent some time working on the recital piece and that's about all for guitar today. Tomorrow is much more open.
All day gamelan for me today.