Comments on: Pattens > Phrases > Melodies – Organising Musical Material

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 19 May 2010 21:35:38 +0000

What are intervallic permutations?

…sorry, the way I wrote it there’s a bit of a disconnect between the phrase and the explanation – it’s this bit:

“What that means is that we can take a fix set of notes – say one octave of a G Major Scale – and a particular interval – 3rds, for example, and work on all the possible permutations within that, ”

cheers

Steve

By: Huggums

Huggums — Sun, 09 May 2010 23:49:03 +0000

What are intervallic permutations?

By: Why any good Songwriter, needs to be able to Improvise « Songwright

Why any good Songwriter, needs to be able to Improvise « Songwright — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:56:31 +0000

[...] Lawson, solo bass player extraordinaire, wrote a blog post where he describes improvisation: # Improv resolutely is not ‘playing things you’ve never [...]

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:46:24 +0000

Hey, sounds like a lot of twiddling to me.

Intervals off scales, diatonic arpeggios and such are all muffin and muesli to the practising musician. It’s all part of the daily struggle to able to play what you hear and not just what you can play.

I do believe though that if you can zip up and down a scale or whatever convincingly, then you’ll be able to play slower with greater assurance and expression.

I have a couple of personal test pieces that I revisit two or three times a year and am always encouraged when my performance of them has been improved by non related practice.

And I fear it is a case of learning it all and then letting it go – no way round it.

Good luck with the rest of the bass camp sessions – I still think it’s a brilliant idea.

By: Neil Alexander

Neil Alexander — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:38:48 +0000

Great stuff, Steve. Very thought provoking, with many ideas aplicable to my keyboard teaching/clinician practice. I would only be so bold as to add a bit of info from Thelonious Monk – there are NO WRONG NOTES – only ones you don’t believe in. No matter what you play, epecially in an improvising context, it’s important to “stand behind them”. This doesn’t mean that you can play nonsense (or maybe it does?); but it’s more connected to Coltrane’s idea of Learning everything – all scales, modes, harmony, every possible note choice and option, “correct” or otherwise – and then letting it go.

Anyway, enough monkey wrenches for one day. Wishing you continued success!
-Neil