Tuesday, July 18, 2017

What Did You Miss This Week? (Week 495 #539)

One Chord Improvisation!!!

Joe is away teaching in West Virginia this week, so Grant and RickEy spent some further time discussing Dennis Gruenling's recent one chord improv over the Louis Myers tramp groove.

Grant's main point was to share that he personally was interested in the connectors or junctions between phrases. How did Dennis move from one thought or phrase to the next in a way that made sense and that the listener followed? RickEy pointed out the connector for Louis Myers was to peg that two draw rhythmic element between phrases, which is true. Those were mostly absent in Dennis' take, so what holds things together? What are the jumps in phrasing that connect things?

The point was not really to answer that so much as to point out it is something to listen for. Sometimes it's use of a rhythmic element that leads to the next place; sometimes it's using the last few notes of a phrase to begin the next one. There are a lot of answers - the point is to know that some connector is needed to make for a stronger piece.

We wrapped too with the reminder of something Shoji Naito taught us in B1 at one time - know the root and the fifth scale degree and navigate between them as a solid starting point for phrase building.

Class Notes

  • Joe will be back next week and then out of town once more on July 31 - Level 3 and Performance classes proceed as normal though with Grant filling in. 
- Grant Kessler, B1 Blues Crew