It’s very hot in Montreal these days. When your suffering from the global cooking (yes, it’s beyond global warming now!) try this :
A metric modulation is, in my very own words, a “gear shift” in time in the context of a song that is in tempo. In fact, it is a tempo change (and sometimes simultaneous time signature change) in which a relationship/ratio exist between the initial tempo and “target” tempo. (An example : “Let’s modulate from 4/4 to 3/4 with half-notes becoming dotted quarter notes!”)
We can find countless recorded examples of metric modulations in jazz from recent years. It seems to be (more…)
It’s the Montreal Jazz Festival (June 25th to July 5th I believe).
I’m “over my head” in pretty much everything : gigs, teaching, rehearsing, practicing, writing … and yes, going out a lot. It’s great!
I went to a few free shows so far and attended a jam session last night.
I can ride my bike or take the metro to the festival site (I get there in less than 20 minutes usually). I’ll keep you posted …
Still in a very good musical phase theses days : I’m practicing, playing sessions, composing, rehearsing and putting hours into this new project (Waï Trio). Here are the news…
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On the practicing level :
In general, I’m trying to make my playing/practicing evolve around (more…)
I recently received a PDF by email from a colleague and friend (bassist Clinton Ryder) that discussed different implications of the tritone resolutions. The article was inspired by the teachings of master Gary Peacock (it’s chapter 25 in an unknown book on jazz and improvisation… I don’t know the author or the title and I’m just glad this information “came my way”). Here’s what it’s about :
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As you may know, the tritone has a strong pull to resolve by a half step. For starters: In C major, the tritone is made of the two notes F and B. The resolution is : F goes down to E and B goes up to say. This can be seen as the cadence “G7 to C” and/or the cadence “Db7 to C”.
G7 and Db7 resolving to C
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In the “New Pathways Home” article though, Gary Peacock explores different tonal possibilities of (more…)
My life, music and career are still evolving positively these days. Last time I wrote on this blog, I was attempting to implement a “more strict” discipline to my life… it’s working ok. To give you a rough idea, I’m trying to do the following everyday: (more…)
After reading this self-discipline article (for the third or fourth time now…) I decided to create my own “30 days challenge” :
For 30 days straight, 6 days a week I will spend (more…)
I’m in such a great musical phase right now!
It may not look or feel like it from an outside point of view (since I’m not blogging religiously about every detail of my practice…) but I’m doing great.
To make a long story short : (more…)
It’s been a long while (more than a week) since I posted anything here. I must apologize to my regular readers and subscribers. On the bright side: It is NOT some kind of discouragement or lack of interest in practicing. I’m spending more time than ever with my instrument these days, here’s why…
I had to give myself a break: some kind of “reset” where I would not feel obliged to (more…)
My traditional “report” on my musical situation, career and development :
In the past week or two, I realized many small but important things. It’s funny how it happened while I (more…)
