A transcription of Doug Riley’s Child Eyes from his solo piano record ‘Freedom’ is now available on my Post page. Hope you enjoy!

From my previous post:

“We take for granted how limiting most people’s vocabulary is for describing music… Open up their capacity to express themselves. Guide the development of their vocabulary.

I’ve heard people express contempt for post-secondary music institutions. Their viewpoint is that communities are being flooded with musicians who are offsetting the balance between supply and demand. There are too many players and not enough gigs.

After writing the previous post, I was opened up to implications that are far above and beyond the issue of supply and demand. Arts institutions serve much broader a purpose than creating musicians, and it relates to the quoted text above.

For one thing, arts institutions also create directors, promoters, programmers, agents, managers, presenters, donors, sponsors, educators, journalists, critiques, radio hosts, page-turners, presidents, CEOs, public officials, taxi drivers, factory workers, moms, dads and a host of other arts appreciators and supporters. Not all graduates have the skills, perseverance (or desire) to be performers. But that experience remains with them forever. They have a unique perspective. They have a cultured perspective.

Here’s another benefit: Arts institutions often host a plethora of cultural activities for the public to experience. Just at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music there are hundreds of performances every year that are open to the general public. Every performance is an education. All audience members are broadened with new expressions and granted a means to express it.

How does all of this affect society? How does this shape the human spirit?

This is new territory for me and I have more exploring to do. I’m just skimming the surface. But I’m not interested in the issue of supply and demand any longer. Let’s talk about the bigger picture.

I’m happy to be teaching at the National Music Camp of Canada for the next two weeks. This week, the students are between eight and thirteen years old and for one of my classes, I conduct a ‘jazz listening session.’

I prepared a list of songs to play for them and asked them two simple questions: Is this jazz? Why or why not? My strategy isn’t to look for right or wrong answers or to plug them with my favourite jazz tunes. Instead, I want them to develop a vocabulary for describing music that is consistent with how they feel about what they’re hearing.

For example, one student said he loves drum & bass because it’s repetitive. Later on, he mentioned that he doesn’t like classical music because it’s repetitive. I asked him to clarify the inconsistency and he said that drum & bass is catchy-repetitive while classical music is just repetitive.

Most of them used the word fast to describe jazz. I played them a recording of Art Tatum playing Tiger Rag. Most of them agreed that it wasn’t jazz because it was too fast and too showy! But Bill Evan’s rendition of Here’s That Rainy Day was jazz even through it’s really slow.

Jobin’s recording of Samba De Uma Nota So was considered jazz, but his recording of Desafinado wasn’t jazz because it had vocals. One student thinks vocals in jazz makes it ‘bad-jazz’ (Kurt Elling’s version of Tania Jean was ‘good-jazz,’ but only for the first 15 seconds).

They were on the fence when I played them Mars from Coltrane’s Interstellar Space. But they all agreed that he was a ‘show-off.’

The entire session was filled with observations similar to this. I never implied what I thought was or wasn’t jazz, but I often challenged their definitions and viewpoints. Most of the time, I would repeat and question their statements and they would immediately pick up on the inconsistency. “There are never violins in jazz?” Or “Can jazz be slow?”

We take for granted how limiting most people’s vocabulary is for describing music. Even though I’m dealing with children, I would think that grown adults with little to no music education would have similar difficulties. How many people know the difference between a double bass and a cello? Can you imagine how they would describe jazz?

I haven’t wrestled with all the implications, but I feel there’s a wealth of information here that hits many levels. For example, if you’re wondering about how most people hear and describe your music, I would ask the kids. If you’re concerned about the future of jazz and wonder why it’s ‘dying,’ I would ask the kids. If you want to raise jazz from the grave, I would start educating the kids.

Open up their capacity to express themselves. Guide the development of their vocabulary.

PS: Before I played Brad Mehldau’s rendition of Radiohead’s Paranoid Android (from Largo), I asked them: “is Radiohead jazz?” One of the kids asked: “who’s Radiohead?” The kid beside him said in a very familiar tone: “You don’t know who Radiohead is!?”

A transcription of Doug Riley’s Peace Dance from his solo piano record ‘Freedom’ is now available on my Post page. Hope you enjoy!

Please comment and share your stories! Here’s mine:

I booked myself at a club. I found out the night before that the owner forgot to tell me he sold the club’s piano. Luckily, there’s a piano dealer in town who’s open at 7:30pm! I cold called them and negotiated a reduced rental rate, about $400, which includes moving in, moving out and tuning.

The owner was only willing to cover $100 of the piano rental. I was ready to walk away from the gig, but there was an article/profile in the local newspaper advertising the performance. So I decided to suck it up and play.

A week or so later, I found out that his cheque bounced. He promised to send me another cheque by weeks end. He never sent it. After many phone calls, emails and voice messages, I read in that same local newspaper that the club went bankrupt.

I lose!

The original post
First Variation

Last one. It’s simply put, but probably the most frustrating of the three!

You’re organizing a tour and hoping for tour support. The tour can’t happen otherwise.

You can’t apply for touring support unless you have gigs. You can’t get gigs unless you have touring support!

Catch-22

Is there a better way to distribute grant monies?

The original post

Here’s another one:

You have $10000 to give out to composers. The money is to be used to commission new musical works. You have 20 seriously dedicated composers who apply for and deserve the money. They also submit samples of their proposed compositions, which vary in thematic development and unity. Unfortunately you can only give out ten awards of $1000 each.

You make your decisions and give the awards out to the composers with the most thematically developed and unified music samples. You tell the other ten composers that they weren’t considered because their samples weren’t as thematically developed and unified as their peers. It is your belief that they need more time to explore their thematic material.

Of course, they respond and say they need money so they can create time to explore their thematic material, which is why they applied in the first place!

Catch-22.

What’s the solution?

You have $10000 to give out to artists. The money is to be used exclusively for lessons and training. You have 20 seriously dedicated artists who vary in technical proficiency and experience. They all apply for (and deserve) the money. Unfortunately you can only give out 10 awards of $1000 each and they’re handed out based on artistic merit.

You make your decisions and give the awards out to artists who are more experienced and technically proficient. You tell the other artists that they weren’t considered because they’re not as experienced and technically proficient as their peers. It is your belief that they need more lessons and training.

Of course, they respond and say they need money for more lessons and training, which is why they applied in the first place!

Catch-22.

To whom do you give the awards?

Do you name your tunes after you write them?

Or

Do you name yours tunes before you write them?

You have perfect technique if:

• You sound exactly how you want to sound and
• You’re not injuring yourself

Your listeners will think you have perfect technique if:

• You satisfy their tastes

Most music schools focus on this process: Read-Execute

Very rarely do they teach this process: Listen-Execute

Or this one: Execute-Notate

When learning new rep, I usually use this one: Listen-Notate-Read-Execute

When teaching students, I encourage balance between all of these.