It has been brought to my attention that additional tracks from the new Dream Theater album, “Black Clouds and Silver Linings”, have been leaked onto torrent sites. To date, every track has been leaked, except for “The Best Of Times”, prior to the official release date.

This is very disrespectful to Dream Theater, and specifically to Mike Portnoy, who put a lot of effort into the arrangements of these compositions, and into their production. I admit, that I did download “A Nightmare To Remember”, and “A Passage of Passage” when they were first leaked. I initially thought that they were released by the band as a marketing thing. However, when I found out that the two tracks were released, ” … without consent”, I immediately discontinued my listening pleasure. It’s completely ridiculous to me, the thought that virtually their entire album can be leaked, over a month prior to the official release date. Moreover, I’m shocked that DT fanatics can feel no guilt in downloading their own copy on 5, yes 5, of the songs, knowing full well that they were released without permission.

This post is a cry out to all the true Dream Theater fans in the world, that actually have the slightest bit of respect for the band they have supported all these years. The ones that have the decency to wait, and be patient. Please, don’t download any more tracks off of the new album. And if you have listened to any of them other than “A Rite of Passage”, please discontinue your listening. For one, it’s illegal; and two, it simply spoils the excitement, and the fun of it all. What’s the point of having a set release date for an album?

You’re only ruining the experience for yourself. Show these guys some respect. I mean, come on. You have been supporting this band for all these years, and you’re just going to throw it in their faces.

It’s such a shame. Personally, I won’t be listening to anything else until June 23rd. I would encourage you to do the same.

Jared

I just finished transcribing another Hank Mobley solo. This time it was, “This I Dig Of You”, from “Soul Station”. I’m going to play the solo along with the recording for my Tech & Rep at the end of the semester. Originally, I agreed with my bass teacher, Eric, that playing the first three choruses would be enough for the transcription side of the exam. I now feel that I should play the entire solo. It will be a big challenge for me, and will stretch my memory, technique and self-control. I am yet to inform Eric of this decision, however, I’m confident that he would be more than happy to let me play on!

Initially, I thought it was going to take me a long time to solidify the additional two choruses of the Mobley solo. However, upon analysis, I realised that he was playing a lot of the same kinds of lines. Some of the lines he repeated note for note, several times throughout the solo, others, where slightly modified, but gave off the same vibe. Once I realised this, it then became much easier to not only read the transcription, but also to memorise the rest of it. This is something that I’ve just recently discovered. A lot of jazz players have their own “licks”, or “riffs” that they play frequently during solos. Hank Mobley certainly has many-a-lick! This becomes more apparent when you cross-analyse transcriptions. Mobley frequently used the same licks in a number of different solos, as both leader and sideman; and across albums. Incidentally, a lot of the jazz students at the School of Music have a number of licks under their figurative belt; and developing a library of bebop-styled licks is (generally) encouraged by the staff at the faculty. When I think about the concept of developing jazz licks, I begin to think of the licks that I myself have developed over the months and years. Some of them came naturally, as a line that my fingers always seem to deviate to. Others, were written out, often times away from the instrument. Generally, when I write out licks, it’s for analytical purposes. However, if I feel that the lick is particularly strong against the chord changes, I may decide to memorise it, and move it through the cycle of fourths, which is what the saxophone teacher at the faculty highly recommends. Eric has a different approach to soloing. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t believe that memorising a bunch of licks is a good way to solo. Rather, he believes that the soloist should be coming up with these sorts of ideas on the bandstand. I agree, and I’m sure that every other teacher at the faculty will also. However, I’ve found that playing licks is, a lot of the time, necessary if you want to get through the changes.

What I mean is this: when one begins to learn an instrument, they don’t want to jump straight to the technical stuff (scales, key signatures etc). That individual chose to take up the instrument for a specific reason. Because they either saw someone playing it, and thought it was cool; or they heard someone on a record, and thought it was cool! Regardless, they wanted to be able to play cool stuff like they originally saw or heard. And a lot of the time, it’s simply a lick. And as this newly found musician begins to play more and more, he/she will develop his/her own sound, and common licks, riffs or “ideas” will naturally sprout from that learning experience. The reason this is important, is that when it comes to playing jazz, or any form of music for that matter, there needs to be some form of “familiarity” when playing a given music. I believe that’s where these licks, or ideas come in. No two musicians are alike. They may sound similar, but there is something in ever musician that distinguishes them from the rest of the pack, and that is their playing “style”. To me, an individuals playing style can only develop from… well, playing a lot! And when you play with other musicians, you begin to realise that certain people have their own style and sound. Furthermore, when playing in a jazz setting, the players are playing ideas that they’ve been playing ever since they started, that is, they tend to gravitate towards the style of playing that they know, which was originally stimulated by licks! Finally, when playing in a jazz setting (which is my preferred setting), it’s always good to have a few licks that you can fall back on when you’re struggling to think of creative soloist ideas.

I hope that long rant of connecting words made some sense, and I hope I was able to portray what I was thinking, without utterly confusing you all! If you have any questions, or if you found this post interesting, leave a comment. I would love to know what you think.

Talk to you soon,

Jared

It’s been a long wait, and the release of Dream Theater’s new album is still two months away. I’ve been literally counting down the days since March 22, and it seems like the release date of June 23 will never arrive. Although when it does, I won’t be listening to anything else for the next couple of months. I’m particularly excited for the new Dream Theater tour in support of the new album. It’s agonising to think that this amazing band won’t return to Australia until 2010, assuming they do decide to do a leg here again. I saw them when they came to Sydney, way back in January of 2007, at the Hordern Pavilion. What an amazing concert.

I’m very excited about this new album. I’ve been following the bands progress through web updates since late last year, ever since Mike Portnoy annouced on his forum what the new album was going to be like.

“Imagine a DT album with ‘A Change of Seasons’, ‘Octavarium’, ‘Learning to Live’, ‘Pull Me Under’ and ‘The Glass Prison’….all on one album…” – Mike Portnoy

Pretty exciting stuff. I’m particularly excited this time around to get my hands on the additional audio releases: Instrumental version of the album, and CD of band cover songs (which at present remain a mystery). In four weeks time the first cover title will be released to the public, which is exciting in itself, meaning the album release will be just six weeks away. I’m also really excited because this album will consist primarily of DT epics. There are only six tracks, with an album length of approximately 75 minutes. Two of those tracks are singles. I’m expecting four 16 or 17 minute songs, but I’ll try to not get my hopes up.

Mike Portnoy, along with John Petrucci release an audio sample of snippets from the new album on the Eddie Trunk show, which I’ve been listening to a bit too much! Sounds very promising. Anyway, just 71 more sleeps until the next chapter in Dream Theater history is shared with the world, and I can’t wait.

Once again, another very informal, illogical post, but I hope you enjoyed it.

Talk to you soon,
Jared

This has been a question that has been floating around in my head for several months. There are so many differing genres of music; many differing styles. I suppose a better question to ask, rather than, “What Is Music?”, would be, “What Isn’t Music?”, or, “What Is Musical?” As some of my friends, and others may know, I listen to a lot of music. And a large percentage of it comes from overseas, from places like Norway, Sweden and Germany among other places. All of these nationalities have their views on what music should be, and what it shouldn’t be.For example in the 18th and 19th Century classical eras, the musical interval of the major third (C to E, G to B, Eb to G etc) was considered one of the devil’s intervals, and that melodies should be harmonised using perfect fourths (C to F, Ab to Db etc), and perfect fifths (B to F#, D to A etc). Our Western musical system is based on the twelve tone system, of twelve distinct sound pitches within an octave (C, C#, D, Eb … B). Whereas musical cultures from the East, particularly in Indian provinces often times compose their music using tones in between the semitones that are used in the West. Consequently, when Westerners listen to Indian music, it often times sounds “out of tune”, however, to the ears of the natives it sounds perfectly normal, or if you like, “in tune”. Classical music from the 18th through to 20th Centuries is very sophisticated in it’s harmony, however, generally the performance of Classical compositions stays the same, that is, only the notes on the page are played. In some instances, there may be a section in a classical piece where one or more of the instrumentalists can take a solo for a predetermined number of bars. I heard a piece of music where this was composed for the harpsichord player, however the title and artist has escaped me. Western popular music works on much the same principles, of recording a song or piece exactly as it was originally written. In the field of Jazz, this is not the case. In jazz recordings, the one thing that (usually) stays the same is the melody, and the chord changes. Musicians in a jazz setting are improvising, and reacting to that improvisation; bouncing ideas off of one another in order to create a recording that is very interactive, and spontaneous. No matter what musical style or genre one plays, the question of what music actually IS, always arises, at least in my mind. One of my lecturers at the ANU School of Music once said something very profound with regard to this very issue. He quoted the great Charlie Parker, which I’m going to loosely paraphrase. Parker said when confronted with a hate statement against another style of music, “What gives you the right to speak like that. That style of music may mean the world to someone.” There are several genres of music that I could never get into, such as rap and general pop music, and I often times found myself speaking quite negatively about these genres. When Charlie said this, he was absolutely right. I now have changed my attitude towards the musics that I’m not in agreement with, and treat it and it’s supporters with the respect that I want to hear about my own tastes in music. Music is a very personal thing. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it weren’t for several things, music being one of them. So, to ask the question again, “What Is Music?” Music to me is what the individual makes of it. The epitome of music to one person may be rap, of classical music, jazz, reggae, rock, metal, funk, samba etc. Music can be as simple as the birds chirping outside your window in the morning. In my mind, “Music is a Joyous Noise.”

I hope you enjoyed my little rant about what music is. If there was something in here that you liked, or something that you disagreed with, let me know, and I would love to talk with you furthur. Have a great day, and keep your ears open.

Talk to you soon,
Jared

Many, if not most prog fans know, or at least have heard of these two amazing vocalists. James LaBrie, from Dream Theater; and Michael Eriksen, from Circus Maximus. Recently I’ve been thinking about the vocal talents and styles of both these vocalists. I’m only guessing here, but I believe that Michael has a greater vocal range than James. However, I would rather listen to James LaBrie for his tonal characteristics. I really like Michael, but there’s something about his voice that bugs me every time I listen to him. It could just be his accent, being Norwegian. To elaborate further, I mentioned that I liked LaBrie’s voice better. By that I mean his voice circa. 1993, during the Images and Words album and tour. I am aware of the food poisoning incident, and I take my figurative hat off to him for persisting through that tough period in his life. In my opinion his voice remained great up until Score in 2006. I guess something weird happened from then on. I now am not particularly fond of his voice. For instance, I believe he sounds horrendously bad on Chaos in Motion, especially on their most recent studio material from Systematic Chaos (his most ear-piercingly annoying moments are from Surrounded ‘07, Lines in The Sand, although in that song he had his moments, and Forsaken, which was dreadfully bad). Having said this, for performances of Dream Theater’s earlier material, namely off of Images and Words, he sounds adequate. A lot of my friends criticise me for even mentioning that his voice has lost it’s touch, and character, but quite frankly it has. They always bring up the food poisoning incident, and yes, I am very aware. I am aware he lost part of his range. However, he himself stated that he didn’t feel vocally normal until 6 or 7 years after the incident had occured, which was around 2000, with Live Scenes From New York (which I dig by the way). However, that was almost 10 years ago, and he hasn’t gotten much better since. And as I said previously, he sounded really good in 2006 on Score. I know I sound very negative towards James LaBrie, but please don’t take it the wrong way. I really like James, and it is quite clear to anyone who listens to him sing, that there is an obvious talent that he possesses. I’m just slowly becoming more critical about the way he sounds. And yes, he can still hit most of the high notes that he hit in 1993, but they just don’t sound very good anymore. That’s also why I don’t like seeing them play certain songs from Images and Words, especially Another Day, as much as I love the song.

Not much criticism is due for Michael Eriksen at present, just praise. However, it’s still early days. I’m sure early Dream Theater fans from the early nineties weren’t expecting James to contract such a bad case of food poisoning, and then go against doctor’s orders and destroy his vocal chords even further on the Awake tour. Only time will tell I suppose.

Kind of a strange entry, but whatever. If you liked it, or even if you didn’t let me know what you think.

Talk to you soon
Jared

Last night I was feeling a little hungry. Wondering what I could cook up, due to the now limited range of food stuffs in the cupboards, I decided, non enthusiastically, to cook up some rice. I wasn’t really in the mood for rice, but I couldn’t ignore my hunger. I then remembered a video that I had recently watched on YouTube titled, “Perfect Basmati Rice”. I figured it would taste better than the usual way that I cooked rice! Anywho, long story short, I followed the instructions, and the rice that I ate was really, really good! So good in fact, that I didn’t put anything on it, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The video was supplied by one of my favourite internet chefs, John Mitzewich. His YouTube channel is under the name of, foodwishes. He also has his own website with the same name, foodwishes.com. If you’re enthusiastic about food and cooking, I highly recommend that you visit his website, and become familiar with his videos like I have done. Also, if you wind up with a gurgling stomach at midnight, I recommend you make this rice. Here’s a link to the video,

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=dZJN762MrJU

Check it out, it’s so flavourful, best rice I’ve ever eaten! Anyway, I havn’t posted in a while, so I thought I would just to confirm that I wasn’t dead. I would like to thank Chef John for the excellent video recipe, and I hope you give it a try.

That’s all for now. Talk to you all soon.

Jared

For the last couple of months I have been actively listening to two Hank Mobley albums, “Roll Call” (1960), featuring Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Wynton Kelly (piano) and Paul Chambers (bass); and also “Soul Station” (1960), featuring the same line-up, minus Hubbard. These two records are among my favourite jazz works of all time. Every track on each of them is an uncompromising musical conversation between a bunch of extremely talented swing-era contemporaries. As discussed in some of my earlier blogs, some of my first influences as a jazz musician include Chick Corea’s “Return to Forever”, “Light Years”, and “Like Minds” featuring Pat Metheny and Dave Holland which to this day still remain a giant influence on my style and expression. However, in this blog, I wanted to address specifically the playing style of one of the greatest tenor saxophone players of all time, Hank Mobley; and more specifically, playing in the style of Mobley.

My first great Mobley love was “Roll Call”; an album that, like “Soul Station”, I listened to religiously for several months. This album, and many other Mobley albums have helped to shape the way in which I approach jazz music, and compose in a jazz context. The melodies that Mobley exhibits in his recordings are simple, yet of the highest quality. I have been striving for this quality that is prevalent in Hank’s playing style and personal expression. Indeed, more important than the melodies themselves, his phrasings (rhythmic, or harmonic) of these melodies has been top rate. I draw much influence from Mobley in terms of both these two factors: melody and phrasing. For my playing in particular, the issue of phrasing has been an ongoing struggle, and in some instances, a discouragement. It’s tough to play a line that is smooth and rounded out. To me, phrasing requires an awareness of numerous instrumental techniques. In my case, since I’m an electric bass player, techniques such as legato, hammers and pulls, slides, staccato and accents, and straight plucking among others are phrasing necessities. All these things make for a well rounded line, that sounds smooth and musically pleasing. Hank Mobley, on these two records, was the master at this, phrasing his lines with various tongings and other saxophone techniques. I believe that this is a very important part of every jazz musicians playing capabilities: being able to phrase a melody to make it sound pleasing.

Phrasing is certainly an important aspect of Mobley’s playing style. However, the key factor that I wanted to discuss in this blog was his choice of notes. The lines that he created in the moment of these recordings. Later on, after hearing “Roll Call”, I listened to “Soul Station”. It wasn’t until a good month and a half later, that I decided to transcribe one of his solos. I transcribed the Mobley solo off of “Remember”, an Irving Berlin composition. It was a mammoth task, an epic assignment, taking a good eight hours to (mostly) complete. However, what I gained from that seemingly enormous, ear-melting exercise, was an idea of the concepts and melodies that one of the leading jazz masters of the early 60’s created. The transcription was one thing, learning the solo was another. And I believe my melodic side of my playing benefited the most from this. As I frequently discuss in other blog posts, my time at the School of Music has taught me much that I hadn’t known previously. In the first Semester I was introduced to some important jazz soloing concepts, that I had been assured that, ” … all the guys you hear on recordings use.” Concepts such as chromatic enclosures, double-chromatics from above and below, and double-chromatics leading to enclosures, all of which are present in this one Mobley solo. However, what I struggled to do with this information that I was given, was to implement it into my own solos and lines in a manner that made sense to the line that I was playing. Having disciplined myself to do this transcription (whether all the notes are right or not), I feel that I’ve had my queries settled, and not a moment too late!

I know I’m going to be repeating myself, but the key point that I want to shed light on in this post, is the concept of “playing in the style of Mobley, as a bass player”. Indeed, many of the Mobley solos on these records are technically challenging for saxophone. However, they are also very hard on the bass. Now, the question that I want to raise is this: “Why aren’t bass players today, playing lines like Mobley was 50 years ago?” Personally, I feel that a lot of bass players today (myself included) fall into the trap of playing similar sounding lines, all the time, on every solo. And the primary reason for this, I believe, is that we try to play something that ” … fits easily under the fingers.” Evidently from transcribing this solo, almost every line that he played resulted in a somewhat awkward fingering for me to play in, but it sounds really, really good. This has been a challenge for me over the last couple of weeks; to play what you hear in your head, no matter how bewildering it may seem to position on the neck. I believe Mobley became the super-star that he was in the 50’s and 60’s because he did just that, staying true to the music, and where it was going along the way.

I hope this post has been an encouraging read. Hopefully you stuck around to the end! If you have any questions about any of the content that I’ve covered in this blog, feel free to email me, or leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and talk to you all soon.

Jared

Hey, what’s up?!

Due to my many commitments at the School of Music, I have had little time to post on my blog. My work load just got marginally lighter, so I thought I’d write something. This will be more of an informal type of post, which should be a nice change, and contrast to my previous ones. Anywho, despite the insane pressures of University, I’ve been greatly enjoying the time that I have been given to study under many of the countries greatest jazz musicians. I also really like the environment of the school. Undoubtedly, most, if not all of the other faculties of the ANU view the School of Music as an “non-academic” part of the University. When I went to O-Week, way back in early February, one of the science professors (I think she taught palaeontology or something, not sure!) jokingly said to the audience something to the effect of, “If the work load is too excessive you could always just take up a music degree!” I had a bit of a chuckle at the remark. On one hand I believe she is right, but on the other, she is very wrong. Certainly, the academic workload offered at the school is probably about half of that of many of the other courses offered by the Univerity. However, the School of Music is not a strictly academic facility. The primary focus at the school, is artistic. I believe the academic workload of the school is such, to ensure that the students concentrate most of their time into what is really going to keep them eating, their playing ability in the musical style of their choice (that is, classical or jazz). I believe that this is very important for people to understand. We (School of Music students) are not a bunch of academics. We are an artistic people, striving to create a voice, and an identity. On a similar note, relating back to the professor’s amusing comment about the school, it’s surprising to me how untouched the Art School is. It’s always the music students that get a hard rap. Now, I don’t want to get into an argument about art, but I believe that there is something different in music, that traditional art cannot portray or create. And that is the sheer fact the music is an artform that exists in time. It has a starting point, and an ending point. With an artform such as painting, the artist can take their time, ponder, and intricately craft their painting the way they want to. That’s all good and fine, however, this is what I believe makes music such a special and exciting artform. Since music is an artform that exists in time, their is simply not enough time for deep thinking. There is always a chance that we take every time we pick up an instrument, and that is the “mistake factor”. When a musician makes a “mistake” there is no opportunity for him/her to fix it. That’s it. It’s now a part of the music, a part of the art work. It’s been immortalised into the work. And to me, that is one of the most exciting things about music, and one of the reasons why I play it. However, having said this, many styles of music from rock to metal etc., can essentially ignore this factor, due to recording techniques, studio mixing, overdubs and the like. However, jazz, classical, and other musical conversations have to deal with it when placed into a live setting. I’m particularly attracted to this, and always try to put myself in situations where I can take a chance musically. And when you pull it off, it can start a musical dialogue and interaction between the musicians in the ensemble. To me, this is the best part of playing jazz. The fact that every time you play a standard, like “Autumn Leaves”, or “Bye Bye Blackbird”, something different is going to come out. Different paths will be taken, roads will be travelled, and different conversations will take place. Wow.

Anyway, I probably better leave it their. As you can see, when I start rambling, it can take me a while to stop. I didn’t title my blog “Jared’s Rantings” for nothing! I may not be posting for a while, once again, due to Uni stuff. However, it’s nearing the end of the year, won’t be long! Anywho, I’m getting a little hungry.

Talk to you all soon,

Jared

“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that [were] on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Joshua 24:14-15

One of the things that I’ve been discovering more and more throughout my Christian walk, is how much imagery there is in the Scriptures. This is an example of such imagery. I’ve been attending Soul Survivor conferences in Sydney and Canberra for the last two years, and each time I went, Mike Pilavachi gave his message on, “Jesus in the Old Testament”. The first time I heard this message was during the conference of 2007, at one of the four seminars that were available at a certain time in the program. I chose to see his one, honestly, not because I thought that his message was going to be any good, but because he was very funny! The message was great, and very insightful. To my excitement, and also to my disappointment, he delivered the same message the following year in Canberra, but this time it was at a main meeting. Ever since that first message back in ‘07, I have been interested in the parallels, and the imagery that is hidden amongst the stories of the Old Testament. This one in particular, came to me when I was engaging in my daily reading. I thought it was so good that I had to make a note of it.

“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: … “,

That’s a life lesson in itself. Learning how to fear, and have reverence for God. This is essentially the meaning of life. The writer doesn’t stop there. He continues,

“ … and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.”

To me, Egypt in the Old Testament is, of course literal, in that it was the homeland of the Israelites for some 400 years. However, it also contains a hidden meaning, or imagery. It is a picture of, “a life without salvation”, “a sinner’s life”, or “a lost life”. The life that every believer once lived before Christ revealed himself to them. He continues by saying,

“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that [were] on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: … “

To serve the Lord, and be obedient to his calling is something that we all have to decide for ourselves. It is something that every person on Earth will have to decide upon, at some put in their life. I like it how this passage mentions more than one type of god: the gods on the other side of the flood (Mesopotamia), or the gods of the Amorites. There is only one true God, but there are, indeed, many Earthly things that can become gods over us. Whether it be, money, sex, television, a career, or a hobby. It is important to keep ones priorities right, and to ask one’s self every now and again, “Who am I serving?”.

“ … but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Joshua 24:14-15

That’s all for now. If you have any questions about the Bible, or the Christian faith, please feel free to contact me. I hope this has been an inspiring read! Thanks as always.

Talk to you soon,

Jared

]]> http://jaredplane.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/biblical-imagery-1-joshua-2414-15/feed/ 0 Jared http://jaredplane.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/the-jazz-department-semester-1-part-4/ http://jaredplane.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/the-jazz-department-semester-1-part-4/#comments Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:32:37 +0000 Jared Plane http://jaredplane.wordpress.com/?p=30 ]]>

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

]]> http://jaredplane.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/the-jazz-department-semester-1-part-4/feed/ 0 Jared