Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I’ve posted my performance of Vince Guaraldi’s Skating, live from a Christmas concert I performed on Dec 11/09. Hope you enjoy!

Also, I’ll be taking a blogging break and will be back on January 4th, 2010.

See you in the new year!

I’ve made it a habit to post all of my recent transcriptions for download.

The irony here is that I have never downloaded someone else’s transcriptions; I have no use for them. Even if I were transcribing the same thing, I’d still pass.

Checking someone out is more than learning a few licks, listening to them passively, or learning to play someone else’s transcription. There needs to be an element of heavy listening and study. Otherwise, you’re not really going to get it.

Want to check out some Doug Riley or Bud Powell? I would recommend you transcribe it yourself!

In the meantime, my transcriptions will be here to tempt you.

Stay away!

Technique or Music?

Which comes first?
Which came first?

Some students don't get it.

• They show up late
• They're all talk
• They're disrespectful
• They expect immediate results
• They have big egos
• They don't take care of business
• They have a sense of entitlement
• They expect compliments
• They don’t work
• They don’t care

This isn't news to teachers; There have always been and always will be students like this.

Side note: I've actually heard colleagues comment that the number of students who don't “get it” has been increasing over the years. Is this in fact a growing trend? Why?

This discussion isn’t for students; it’s for teachers. To what extent can we help them figure it out?

First of all, what does “figuring it out” entail? Easily put, it means taking care of all the issues listed above! That’s enough to make most teachers happy! But on another level, it could also mean finding and accepting one’s place in the tradition, respecting the old-school while carving out a path for one’s self, discovering individuality, embracing it and devoting oneself to cultivating it through music.

Figuring it out, especially on a deep level, has to come from individual effort. For that reason, it’s understandable that some teachers won’t address this issue. From their perspective, figuring it out is far above and beyond their call of duty, and may or may not happen regardless of what they say and teach. “Students have to figure it out on their own and at their own pace.”

Some teachers make it their primary mission and try to force their students to figure it out. From another angle, institutions create the illusion that students with decent grades (or a degree!) have figured things out. But any teacher from that scene can attest that this isn’t always the case.

I think most teachers are inclined to nudge their students. Nudging could range from subtle hints to dropping the hammer. If it works at all, it would only solve some of the issues listed above and may be only temporarily.

Nudging may not get them closer to figuring things out, but this is up for discussion!

How much should we nudge students? Should we nudge them at all?

Having the ability to perfectly execute your improvisations?

Or

Having the ability to perfectly execute a written score?

(Related is my post on: Perfect Technique)

I called him three times a week for two months. I left messages and I sent emails. They were never returned. Occasionally, I reached him on the phone. He told me he was too busy to discuss and to call back the next day.

Weeks later, I reached him again. He told me again that he was too busy to discuss. I asked him when he’d be less busy and I’d call back then. He said he was too busy to think about when he wouldn’t be busy. He was indefinitely busy.

With the current system, there’s no solution to this besides respectful persistence. You’re best to assume that he/she is too busy. Don’t let your dark side convince you that he/she is an asshole. Or else that’ll seep into your correspondence and then you’ll never get the gig!

In the meantime, is there a better way to organize club bookings? The current system must be frustrating for club owners too. I can’t imagine how stressful it must be to own, manage and book a club, especially with all these artists pestering them every day!

Maybe some kind of online, social networking or digital booking system?

Once artists/groups go through an approval stage, the manager/owner places them into a class. Those customized classes determine the frequency the artist can play and on which days of the week. Popular artists can play more frequently and on Fridays and Saturdays, while less popular or younger artists can only play once every few months and on Sundays and Mondays. Artists could manually book themselves into clubs!

Could booking gigs go Web 2.0?

Pianists! Learn this fingering and own it!

I’ve posted my performance of Oscar Peterson’s Hymn to Freedom from my performance at Hermann’s in Victoria BC on October 10, 2009.

Or download it here.

When I was working on ‘Solo,’ I reached a point when I was deciding if I should approach record companies. I contacted a number of friends and colleagues and asked them for their advice. “Should I go for it?”

All of them, with the exception of Braid, told me to do it without a record company. Reasons varied, but were along the lines of: “You’re not ready,” and “It’s better to do it yourself.” I have two issues with this advice:

Firstly, it’s counterproductive. Had I taken their advice, I would have been responsible for artwork, manufacturing, licensing, distribution and publicity. Inevitably, with zero experience in any of these, mistakes would have been made, money wasted, precious time spent and most importantly, quality would have been lost.

There are experienced people whose job is to manage these tasks. Artists should be eager to work with them. They may not be eager to work with you, but nothing ventured, nothing gained right? Go for it!

Secondly, I’m afraid this counterproductive advice is part of a broader culture of negative education. I’ve heard many variations on these phrases:

• There are no gigs
• You need to teach to live
• Leave Canada to be successful in Canada
• The music biz is evil
• Record companies are evil
• Don’t go for it

These statements may be true for some people, but preaching them will prevent students from reaching their fullest potential. Let’s rethink this attitude because taking Braid’s advice was one of my best career moves; I’m extremely grateful for his insight.

Don’t listen to people who tell you not to go for it.

I’m happy to announce that I have exceeded one hundred posts! You’re reading post #101!

A few things I’ve learned and observed about blogging:

• Shorter is better
• Post frequently
• Don’t be silly
• Know your audience
• Trolls are unavoidable
• Be interesting
• Blogging is the new school (double entendre!)
• Transparency is important
• Abide by the above and readership will grow!

Oh yeah, don’t forget:

• The community needs uniting

A transcription of Bud Powell’s The Fruit from his record ‘The Genius of Bud Powell’ is now available on my Post page. Hope you enjoy!

Some writings that I’ve read and enjoyed over the last month:

• Fine-tuning: composer reinvents the piano (Link)
• Seth's Blog: Boundary makers (Link)
• In The New Content Economy, Consumers Want... (Link)
• The link between exercise and more brainpower (Link)
• Is the virtuoso pianist a dying breed? (Link)
• Jazz connotations (some meta-blather about shifty, loaded, lazy and vague words) (Link)
• Timewarp: How your brain creates the fourth dimension (Link)
• First and Last Competitors Have the Edge (Link)
• How the AvantGrand, Yamaha's new electronic piano, improves upon a 300-year-old instrument (Link)

In case you missed it, here’s the link to Part 3

Quick recap: I’m skeptical it can exist, but I’m trying to create a jazz piano formula for non-specialist teachers to give to their beginner students. I’m going to try and expand on the three parts mentioned in the previous post.

The chords are easy to expand on. No more root position; use inversions and better voice leading:



Add the Charleston; shift it through the measure.



Here’s a bass line they can learn:



If they listen to the recording, maybe they’ll figure this out:



Here’s why this process is shady: With the exception of the chord inversions, every expansion is coming from my knowledge of the jazz tradition. A non-specialist would have no way of figuring out that bass line without listening to a recording (which won’t happen) or learning it through me. That means whenever a student is ready for the next step, his/her teacher would have to come back to me to get more information! That’s a problem on many levels. Namely, his/her teacher would be acting more as a relay than a teacher. It’d also be impossible to shape lessons around the student’s individual capabilities and interests.

The best solution I can think of is for the teacher to pass his/her students on to a specialist, someone who knows instinctively how to play Freddie Freeloader. Maybe he/she can keep the students and give them the above material over three lessons. But preferably, they take lessons from a specialist sooner than later. Remember, I haven’t even touched improvisation!

The question: If our goal is to build another room, to what degree, if any, can the new room include non-specialists?

My answer: Non-specialist piano teachers can stay for three lessons max!

Thanks for reading!

In case you missed it, here’s the link to Part 2.

If you’re interested, this is my attempt at a formula for non-specialists for their piano students. It’s very limiting, but it’s a start.

First and foremost, tell the students to start listening to jazz records. Hopefully they can make a connection. I recommend Oscar Peterson’s Night Train because that was my first record. I also recommend Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue because I handed out a lead sheet of Freddie Freeloader. The point is that students are hearing (and hopefully enjoying) these tunes, and then take steps to learning the tunes themselves. Piano students might like Night Train better than Kind of Blue, so I would consider handing out lead sheets for C Jam Blues and Night Train instead (emphasis on the blues).

Side Note: For all you James P. Johnson fans, notice that my starting point for beginners is Freddie Freeloader from the 50s. I start here because this is where I began my jazz education. When you’re shaping your lesson plans, where will you start?

I’ll divide the tune into three parts: bass, harmony/chords and melody/improv. Bass parts are played in the left hand, melodiy/improv is played in the right hand and harmony/chords can be played in either hand (I also handed out a chord chart). The student’s challenge is internalizing all three parts individually and then pairing them with another part.

• Bass + harmony/chords
• Bass + melody/improv
• Harmony/chords + melody/improv

I’ll show you. For the sake of example, I’ll only use measures 5-8 of Freddie Freeloader. Also, the melody/improv part will be restricted to just melody. For a number of reasons, figuring out an improv formula is very complicated.

The lead sheet:



The three parts, in their most basic form:



Paired in three different ways:



So far, I think non-specialists can handle this. What’s next!?

Usually, the next step is derived from either recordings or the guidance of a specialist. We can’t assume young students (or their teachers) have the skills or patience to figure out what’s happening on the recording. That leaves us with needing a specialist, but we don’t have that either. So if we bother to continue, things will get shady from this point on.

I’ll try. Stay tuned for part 4!