The Jazz Department: Semester 1 (part 4)

I had just finished my mixdown for my last recording assignment, and had my Harmony exam. The only piece of assessment that was left, was the dreaded Tech & Rep exam (Technical and Repertoire). The assessment criteria for this exam was given to me during the second week of the start of the school. Eric gave it to me during my lesson, and in a round about way said,

“Here’s what you gotta do, now go do it!” He went on to say that,

“It’s your responsibility to get the charts for the tunes, and to create a CD with the Aebersold play-a-longs on it. We’re not going to baby-sit you! You’ve gotta do this yourself.”

I thought this was fair enough. I had to find out how to rip the tracks off of numerous play-a-longs to create my own unique “Tech & Rep CD”, to be used on the exam. Eric suggested that I talk to one of the second, or third year bass players, or to anyone else that has been through it before. It all worked out in the end. The Tech side of the exam consisted of a whole bunch of scales and modes; and the Rep, was a list of 8 tunes that I had to learn. I had to learn the melody, walk over the changes, and take a solo. Out of the 8 tunes, only two of them were to be called on the exam. Luckily for me, I got the two that I had practised the most, “Now’s The Time” (a blues), and “Autumn Leaves”, the tune that I had been practising for the last semester for Improv class! I felt that I nailed the tunes, but I tripped up on a couple of my scales.

“Now play the seventh mode of Eb Harmonic Minor!”

I was under a lot of pressure, and found it hard to relax myself to think clearly. Often times I found myself just going for the difficult modes when they called them, without first thinking what notes made up the scale, which was where I tripped up. There was a panel of three teachers, just like in the audition: the trumpet, guitar, and bass teachers.

Apparently I got a good mark for a first year, 72%, which overall I was pleased with. Honestly, I love being at the school, but I was just happy that the semester had finished! Plus now I have the chance to sleep-in till 5pm!

Talk to you soon,

Jared