So. This week I had musicianship class testing. I was horrid at this class and the material when I was 19. This week we had to do a music dictation test on Tuesday consisting of identifying intervals by sound, transcribing a rhythm and writing out four note patterns that he played in solfege. Thursday we had to sing all of the intervals in one octave ascending and descending and then sightsing an 8 bard exercise from the Dannhauser book. I got a 94% on the two tests combined which made me very happy.
Piano has been about minor scales with both hands in two octaves, the triads that go with them in two octaves with both hands, sightreading, sight harmonization, and repertoire. I have a performance test on Friday.
Music theory is just about review..the three kinds of minor scales this week (natural, harmonic and melodic).
I have to be in Mens Chorus to satisfy my "large classical ensemble" requirement so I have 90 minutes of singing twice a week. Lots of technique, sightsinging and ensemble work. We have several pieces of music we are working up for Not what I want to spend my time doing but it is proving to be very valuable.
in Improvisation class we have been discussing pentatonic scales as a jumping off point for improvisation. The song we are working on is "Equinox" by John Coltrane and in addition to knowing the melody and chord progression I have to transcribe the first two choruses of Coltranes' solo by ear and I'm not allowed to write it down. That element actually made it more difficult that I would have expected because while I can hear what is going on I guess my crutch has been to put it on paper and not rely as much on my aural memory. The instructor is doing this all by ear to that end. No written transcriptions right now.
I started my actual guitar lessons with TK Gardner Thursday night and most of my first lesson was more about what I'll be doing at the school and how to succeed as an older student. He is in his early 60's but went back for his degree at age 48 (I'm 46) so he has a lot of good input for me. We also discussed a few less tangible subjects in terms of feel and sound but my actual lesson this week is to write out five four measure ii V7 I licks using the altered dominant scale (the 7th mode of the Melodic Minor scale) over the V7 chord.
My final music class is Guitar Ensemble. This is usually jazz arranged for five guitars and a rhythm section. Nine guitarists showed up so its a massive class. I got 5-6 pieces of music that we sightread in class yesterday that were really difficult. I wasn't the only one struggling to read this stuff but I felt like I should have handled it better. I'll have it together by next Friday.
Then I played a loud rock gig are The Blue Beet last night.
I'll post pics of some of the music next to show you what I'm working on.
Piano has been about minor scales with both hands in two octaves, the triads that go with them in two octaves with both hands, sightreading, sight harmonization, and repertoire. I have a performance test on Friday.
Music theory is just about review..the three kinds of minor scales this week (natural, harmonic and melodic).
I have to be in Mens Chorus to satisfy my "large classical ensemble" requirement so I have 90 minutes of singing twice a week. Lots of technique, sightsinging and ensemble work. We have several pieces of music we are working up for Not what I want to spend my time doing but it is proving to be very valuable.
in Improvisation class we have been discussing pentatonic scales as a jumping off point for improvisation. The song we are working on is "Equinox" by John Coltrane and in addition to knowing the melody and chord progression I have to transcribe the first two choruses of Coltranes' solo by ear and I'm not allowed to write it down. That element actually made it more difficult that I would have expected because while I can hear what is going on I guess my crutch has been to put it on paper and not rely as much on my aural memory. The instructor is doing this all by ear to that end. No written transcriptions right now.
I started my actual guitar lessons with TK Gardner Thursday night and most of my first lesson was more about what I'll be doing at the school and how to succeed as an older student. He is in his early 60's but went back for his degree at age 48 (I'm 46) so he has a lot of good input for me. We also discussed a few less tangible subjects in terms of feel and sound but my actual lesson this week is to write out five four measure ii V7 I licks using the altered dominant scale (the 7th mode of the Melodic Minor scale) over the V7 chord.
My final music class is Guitar Ensemble. This is usually jazz arranged for five guitars and a rhythm section. Nine guitarists showed up so its a massive class. I got 5-6 pieces of music that we sightread in class yesterday that were really difficult. I wasn't the only one struggling to read this stuff but I felt like I should have handled it better. I'll have it together by next Friday.
Then I played a loud rock gig are The Blue Beet last night.
I'll post pics of some of the music next to show you what I'm working on.
