Word Block

 If any of you out there are like me, then you probably have a lot of trouble when it comes to writing lyrics. And if you bear any resemblance to me, you probably have difficulty setting those words to music. Now, I go to an art school, and let me tell you, there is talent around every corner. There are kids in my guitar class who can conjure up catchy, witty songs magically, like there's some kind of formula for it or something. And I'm sitting there in the corner, practicing Bach's Bourree in E minor, wishing I had half the talent these kids have for song writing.  Don't get me wrong, I can come up with plenty good tunes and chord progressions. . . I have the music part down. . . It's just the words. . . sigh. When I was younger, we had to write poems for our English class. What I would do, is write a single line, like "The sun is setting over the ocean." and then slowly make it fancier sounding. Soon, "The sun is setting over the ocean" became "The searing sun is setting over the blissful ocean" and eventually I would end up with something like "The searing solar stone of stones laid itself to rest under the blissful ocean's silent roar". Pretty impressive for a then-seventh grader, right? But now, quite a few years later, words are not coming to me so easily. It seems almost as if I'm trying too hard. . . I am currently obsessed with a certain band's lyrics and I can spend hours analyzing them only to come out with nothing of my own to show for it. Like, take these lyrics for example:

If all our life was but a dream

Fantastic posing greed!,

Then we should feed our jewelry to the sea.

For diamonds do appear to be

Just like broken glass to me.

And then she said she can't believe

Genius only comes a long in storms of fabled foreign tongues.

Dripping eyes and flooded lungs,

Northern downpour sends its love.

Hey moon, please forget to fall down.

Hey moon, don't you go down.

I mean, those last two lines. . . what a simplistic yet beautiful way to say "I don't want the night to end.". And I'd much rather hear those first five lines instead of someone just saying "Our money is worthless, so let's throw it away." And later in the song, there is a line that goes:

I know the world's a broken bone. . .

Melt your headaches, call it home.

Which is just a better way of saying "there's nothing you can do about our current situation, so lets just not stress out anymore.". I would give anything to be able to write like that. I have been thinking about carrying around a notebook to just write random clever things that I think of down. But the last time I did that I ended up doodling all over it and basically just ranting all the time as if it were some diary instead of a sacred lyric journal. These are probably all signs that I'm not cut out be a writer. . .

Hello readers. I would just like to take the time to recommend a book to anyone who is interested in learning more about the science of sound. The book is How Music Works by John Powell, and it is quite interesting!! It even comes with a cd, which is always a plus. . . .John Powell also has a talent for delivering very funny quips. . . so I never got bored while reading. I bought this book at Changing Hands Bookstore in the valley after being quite intrigued when I read the question printed on the back cover, "Why are ten violins only twice as loud as one?" This book is explicit enough so people who never learned any kind of theory in their life can understand, but goes in depth enough so that people who think they know something about theory (*cough* me *cough*) can learn a few things from it, too. All in all it's a great book, and, well, just go buy it and see for yourself!!

The Phenomena of the Accompanist

 Since my terrible experience at the jazz audition, I have wondered. . . what makes a good accompanist?! I recently stumbled on a question that was posted on a piano forum. The question was posted by a woman who had been trained classically for 25 years and had recently decided to join her church's band. Boy, this woman was in severe distress. She reported to, although being able to read the music very well, having a really difficult time playing with singers and getting them to do what she wanted to do. She said that when they were singing at a bit slower tempo than they rehearsed, she would speed up in an attempt to get them to sing faster; an attempt that ended in vain. Her post ended with the question "How can I be a good accompanist?". Well, I think I have the answer to that. . .

Classical piano is most definitely a solo instrument. The only thing you have to pay attention to is yourself, really. It's the same with all instruments that hold the melody line. But, when you're playing good old rhythm guitar, bass, or percussion, you learn very quickly that the most important thing to listen to is not yourself, but rather the others playing around you. And most classical pianists never learn this!! Which is why the transition from playing solo instrument to a percussive one can be rather difficult. It just takes developing the skill of listening. As a jazz drummer, I have been given a talking to many a times because I do not listen to the bass player sometimes when I am playing, therefore the time is not entirely in sync. This kind of "in the pocket" playing is crucial to stylized music such as jazz and gospel!!

Second of all, being a classical musician often requires you to play both melody and harmony at the same time. When classical musicians (guitarists included) are asked to accompany, they often don't know what to do with themselves. All they want to do is play the melody!! But playing the melody while accompanying will give you a very angry singer on your hands, because the melody is for the singer to handle, not the accompanist. Plus, playing the melody often steps on the singer. . . not good. I mean, people didn't come to hear the accompanist play, they came to hear the singer!! So, backing off is a well needed skill. And the only way to back off while still playing something that will compliment the singer is to learn how to play passing tones and lead in notes. Definitely not something a classical player is used to.

To top it all off, the accompanist needs to remember that they are not the star of the show. They need to remember that although they do have the job of keeping time, the singer will ultimately have the most control in a performance, and the best thing you can do is just follow the singer. Don't speed up when the singer is out of time, because honestly that just makes both of you look bad. Go with the flow, play with feel, and don't try to steal the show by overplaying with fills and such. It's a happy medium that can be difficult to accomplish, but will eventually happen after the accompanist has committed to doing all of these things!

Sigh. Yesterday morning I went in for a jazz audition. At my small performing arts school in the valley, jazz is definitely the highest ensemble instrument class to get in to. And the judges for the audition are always super intimidating on a feeble person like me. One judge was a vocal performance and composition major that had won several "Jazz Performer of the Year" awards for local performances given. And this woman has been in the business for quite some while. . . She is nearing fifty years in a couple of months and has sung at countless weddings and jazz shows, I was a nervous wreck knowing I had to perform in front of her. The other two were instrumentalists, one a Cuban piano player whose album was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award, and the other a popular jazz drummer in the community college, well, community around here. Needless to say, I definitely took a lot of time in preparing for this audition. Even if i didn't get in, I still wanted to show them that I had the capability to really work hard for something that I wanted (and this is exactly the kind of drive that is needed in this industry, or so I've been told). So, I picked a song to sing that I already knew: You Took Advantage of Me. Now, to be completely honest, the only reason I know this song is because of the recent remake of Fame, where the talented Megan Mullaly performs this at a karaoke club. I know!! I should know this jazz standard anyway, especially if I want to be in a higher level jazz class. . . So anyways, I spent FOREVER looking for a decent backing track and I couldn't find one anywhere. But luckily (or maybe not so luckily, as you will find out) my friend Joel bailed me out and said he wanted to accompany me on guitar. Now, let me tell you about my buddy Joel. He's a drummer and guitarist and has been playing for a long time, and he really, truly does have talent. But sometimes, he likes to pretend that he knows everything and he can get a bit cocky. So, he started to advise me on my audition, and said that I should perform a ballad as well. He picked (let me restate that again, he picked for himself) Why Try to Change Me Now, which is a beautiful song made famous by such interpreters as Frank Sinatra and Fiona Apple. I learned the song and was so happy with the outcome that I actually became excited for jazz auditions. I would definitely show them how talented I was now!! But then, audition week came. Joel didn't realize that the audition date was scheduled to be around the same time as his college class, so he said I had to get  to school at around 9:30 in the morning so he could make it on time to his class. And any singer who is anything like me at all knows how terrible their voice sounds in the morning. . . So I just said to myself, "Don't worry about it. . . you can drink some green tea. . . and then maybe do a couple dozen warm ups on the piano. . . and you'll be fine. Possibly.". Then, to make matters worse, Joel was busy all that week, so the only time we got together to rehearse was the night before the performance. AND HE FORGOT HIS LEAD SHEETS AT HOME. He knew the A sections to both songs, but didn't bother to learn the B sections. So he pretty much just wasted our practice time by playing on my Roland.

The next day, Joel drove into school at around 10. I asked him if he learned the songs, and he said "Don't worry about it, it's all taken care of.". I supposed we must have terrible communication or something, because when we went on stage, he played a completely different song that I was totally unprepared to sing. God, I sounded terrible! I changed keys going into the B section, and forgot the words, and when I wouldn't do what he was expecting me to do, he said "We're tagging the ending." right in front of the judges. Probably one of the worst performances I have given in my life. So, here's the lesson learned. Either don't give up looking for a backing track, or hire a GOOD accompanist that's actually used to playing with singers. And make sure this guy is responsible too, cause forgetting lead sheets is possibly the worst thing that you could ever do. Luckily I still made it in the jazz class, because the judges asked me to scat over a chord progression and I did pretty good (mostly because it didn't require Joel to be playing anywhere near me). So I guess it ended well. Joel, however, will not be hired again. . .

Hello. Welcome to "A Path to Proper Musicianship. . .". As a young musician in today's scene, I will be blogging about my discoveries and findings of my craft, life, and the people I meet a long the way. Sounds heart warming doesn't it? And perhaps a little generic. . . But! No matter. My art is still something that i have yet to understand, and writing about it might help me comprehend where exactly I am going with this career. Besides, you will also get to hear my commentaries on music in general. So. . . It's a win win situation! Check back for more later.