My Blue Heaven

Jazz class

I don’t blog that often anymore. I seem to be lacking the “passion” for it these days. I suppose we all go through up and down phases in everything, even blogging. 🙂

So anyway, I realised I forgot to blog about my jazz class last Thursday night. Well, it was awesome! I really really enjoy Alan’s jazz performance group. He’s an excellent teacher and an awesome musician (saxphonist). Its very different from Nick’s class, which is good, coz its good to have a change every now and then, and be challenged in different areas.


Our first class, he didn’t give us any music charts. He just taught us a 12 bar blues piece called “Now Is The Time”, to play by ear. He taught the melody line first, which had a really cool syncapated punchy jazz rhythm. Since we have a few horns (2 saxophonists and a trombone), he arranged different ppl to play the melody in different keys… a semitone or a tone higher than the original.. all at the same time, which clashed really badly, but in the end, it sounded really cool! The final arrangement was to play through the chorus twice, first time everyone playing the melody in concert, then for the second time, the first half of the chorus we split into our different clashing parts, then we came back together for the last half, but on the last note we all just chose a note (any note!) and held it for the whole bar. Then we went into solos, each person taking a few chorus’, going round, until the end, where we repeat what we did in the beginning. It sounded so cool! 🙂

And like in his previous classes, he really emphasised playing just behind the beat, because thats the essence of true swing jazz. The tension created when the rhythm section is holding it together tightly, whilst the soloist pulls it back, playing just behind the beat. Its pretty tough to get it right, and u feel like ur playing too slow.

Miscellaney

So anyways, my weekend was very nice. Just hung out with Paul, having lotsa quality time. We went to see “Day After Tomorrow” on Sat night – hehe did anyone else feel really *cold* after watching that movie? 🙂 I enjoyed it, but then I’m a sucker for those high tension, exciting sorta movies. Unbelievable, yes, but the action and special effects is way cool! Then on Sunday, hung out with Paul some more.. had a really nice day actually.. we had lunch at Westfield, then went and bought a new pillow for him at Myer. Sounds boring, but it wasn’t. 🙂

Oh, and I’m booking myself a spot on the SIC04 ski trip! Staying on snow at Smiggins, Lodge 21! Woohooooo!! 🙂 Perisher Blue.. here I come!! 🙂 I’m gonna be going by myself too… yet again. I seem to keep doing that. But ah well, I only go for the skiing. Though its fun to meet new people too. Should be good skiing with these people, coz they’re all mad keen skiers. It’ll be nice to ski with some really experienced skiers/boarders. Kamikaze better be open this time! And I’ll try not to kill myself. 🙂

Current listening :: “Walk Me Home” – Mandy Moore

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