Mark's Music School Diary.

[Dudeman1967]

From my arranging textbook:. I had a chuckle.

@Flamencology @Poparad.


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Jazz was so popular until Jazzholes decided it needed to be protected from misuse by the irresponsible. DAFUQ? messedup0

 

[Mark Wein]

When you bust your ass doing a full analysis of five pages of music and then discover that you only had to identify the secondary functions.

Yay.

 

[Mark Wein]

I just spent five minutes watching two theory professors argue over chord functions.

 

[Dogsinplastic]

Kudos to you. This thread has directly and indirectly made me realize how much theory I've let slide or having sliding.

The direct version was me not remembering that one flat int he key sig = F.

Indirectly, when I was reading this reading yesterday I got to thinking about scales and started thinking about the melodic minor scale. As I had a guitar in my hands I tried to play some and realized that I'd lost the instantaneous recall of the melodic minor modes. More time is needed in the day I tell you...more time!

 

[frunobulax]

From my arranging textbook:. I had a chuckle.

Wynton Marsalis write the textbook?

 

[vonbladet]

(Is agreeably odd to see jazzbo's doing the famous Gazebo Blowhard riff "My musical illiteracy makes me Rousseau's Noble Savage, ACTUALLY", but I don't really buy it from them either.)

 

[Dogsinplastic]

I did and do constantly waver between full appreciation of the quantification of music (it's language, methodology, "rules", etc.) and thinking it's just a massive waste.

That said, I can appreciate the difference between the need of three folks in garage working on basic tunes or original material compared to writing generally more complex music for big bands and orchestras. One is about the moment, inspiration and finding your way through something while the other is about precise coordination of many musicians to make everything sound cohesive (sometimes even as platform for the former).

But presenting the any method for creating art or "rules" for art is somewhat obtuse, all the more so if presented with the notion that said way is only way or the proper way.

Who wants me to stop this rant?

That's right...all of you.

 

[Honkridge]

Have you theory guys made up your mind about that Tristan chord yet?

lulz

 

[Honkridge]

From my arranging textbook:. I had a chuckle.

@Flamencology @Poparad.


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This^^ is such colossal elitist Bullshit. At North Texas you could check out any of Stan Kenton's charts from the library and analyze them to your hearts content. That's what learning is all about. That's what passing on knowledge is all about. That's what caring about the future of music is all about. Who ever wrote that ^^ isn't a teacher...just a bitter old fuck who doesn't give a shit about anything but himself and "his" music. Infuriating.

 

[Mark Wein]

While I wait for my kids to get out of school. Gregorian Chant Mass for music history.

 

[Mark Wein]

This^^ is such colossal elitist Bullshit. At North Texas you could check out any of Stan Kenton's charts from the library and analyze them to your hearts content. That's what learning is all about. That's what passing on knowledge is all about. That's what caring about the future of music is all about. Who ever wrote that ^^ isn't a teacher...just a bitter old fuck who doesn't give a shit about anything but himself and "his" music. Infuriating.

The author of the book was a professor of my professor. My first stint in college 28 years ago was populated by jazz Nazi teachers who felt that anything recorded after 1960 was garbage. These days things are pretty different and while the emphasis is on pre 1970 jazz if you sound contemporary and bring it then there is respect and encouragement. No one blinked when I brought a strat and a pedalboard to performances last semester to better perform another students original piece that is posted earlier in this thread. My professors are trying to allow students to develop into artists if they have it within themselves, which was not (for the most part) the environment when I was a kid.

 

[Danhedonia]

Please let you professors know we are keeping music safe from little boys who never got to be as famous as they (not so secretly) wanted. But that hey, anyways, good job on that $120 gig in Dana Beach on Tuesdays.

(sorry, I'm an asshole)

 

[Mark Wein]

Please let you professors know we are keeping music safe from little boys who never got to be as famous as they (not so secretly) wanted. But that hey, anyways, good job on that $120 gig in Dana Beach on Tuesdays.

(sorry, I'm an asshole)

Actually most jazz gigs don't even pay that much around here. Hence my residency in the rock cover band ghetto.

 

[Mark Wein]

So it looks like my schedule and the massive amount of new guitarists in the program have kept me out of most of the small groups at school. Turns out there is a grad student who is in his last semester who also needs a combo and is doing his Masters recital on the music of Paul Motian so it looks like I'm going to spend my semester learning how to play like Bill Frisell with a group of grad students. I can think of worse fates.


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[jelloman]

So it looks like my schedule and the massive amount of new guitarists in the program have kept me out of most of the small groups at school. Turns out there is a grad student who is in his last semester who also needs a combo and is doing his Masters recital on the music of Paul Motian so it looks like I'm going to spend my semester learning how to play like Bill Frisell with a group of grad students. I can think of worse fates.


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SCORE!

 

[Mark Wein]

It's always a good sign when your theory teacher walks into the room and says "we're going to have a "come to Jesus party right now" while passing back the homework.

 

[Mark Wein]

Wow, how did any of these people pass the last semester of harmony?

 

[dodgechargerfan]

Wow, how did any of these people pass the last semester of harmony?

Auto Tune?

 

[Dogsinplastic]

Wow, how did any of these people pass the last semester of harmony?

Probably not by much. While you're 4.0 it, some of your peers/classmates are just as likely to just be squeaking by (others failing out).

I think it might speak to my previous post and other discussions in this thread wherein many musicians get by (or try to get by) primarily on/with their ears. Obviously the importance of your ear cannot be overstated in music, but in musical academia you have to speak and translate the language. For some I know it's easy, but for others it can be a bear...I'm on the bear side of things myself.

 

[Mark Wein]

Probably not by much. While you're 4.0 it, some of your peers/classmates are just as likely to just be squeaking by (others failing out).

I think it might speak to my previous post and other discussions in this thread wherein many musicians get by (or try to get by) primarily on/with their ears. Obviously the importance of your ear cannot be overstated in music, but in musical academia you have to speak and translate the language. For some I know it's easy, but for others it can be a bear...I'm on the bear side of things myself.

The thing is, this isn't anything very complex. If they had just done the work in the previous two classes of the sequence they should understand this stuff fairly easily. I mean, the class started with the professor saying "some of you are still putting accidental on the wrong side of the note heads". My piano teacher was only partially kidding when she said that if you were struggling with what we were playing last week in class (which is all review) then you should change your major. By the third semester you either need to buy into the reality that this is just like any other major and the book work needs to be conquered or do something else. Because the book work is really the easiest part of this who thing.


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