Wednesday, March 21, 2012

12 bar blues + improv

this is the combination of my 12 bar blues and improvisation of my creation. i think it sounds good and catchy and hopefully it will grab the audience's attention. i think i am ready for the assesment and i hope i will get a satisfying score

Monday, March 19, 2012

improvisation 12 bar blues

this is the final improvisation of the 12 bar blues of my creation. i think my improvisation is quiet creative, and i mixed the rhythm so it will sound catchy. i need to practice more so each notes will sound clearer and the rhythm feel will also sound louder. 

12 bar blues


since we have an upcoming assesment this wednesday i practiced my 12 bar blues and reduced my mistakes. and i folloed mr herry's advice too, as he stated that i should fix the rhythm in the last bar because it doenst match with my finale.  

12 & 14 march 2012

rehearsal

reflection question: how is my understanding of improvisation especially in blues?

improvisation is an important part of blues music. without applying improvisation, blues music wont sound so lively & interesting because the improvisation plays an important role. it also helps to develop the artists to improve their skills. after learning the 12 bar blues, now it has been clearer to be that improvisation creates a great impact to blues music. alongside with walking base.

in instrument class, we learned how to play walking base. walking base is another technique when playing jazz music. the reason why they call it walking base is because the notes are composed of ascending-descending notes. and, we also learned the various chord progression applied in the walking base

Monday, March 12, 2012

walking base

this is me playing the walking base technique using only one of the frequently used chord progression for this particular technique.  i played it step by step so it will be much easier to play rather than playing it all directly at once. i think i played quiet well and understood the technique as well.

improvisation 12 bar blues

this is my first attempt at trying the improvisation using the blues scale for the 12 bar blues. i played this spontaneously, meaning i had not prepared to play before. i think this is an okay improvisation, not that good, so i need to practice more.

chord progression on walking bass

as i have learned the dominant chords for the walking bass, turns out there were various of other chords we can apply to the walking bass technique. here are some of the famous chord pregression used by famous musicians

blues scale

this is me playing the blues scale. the blues scale is similar to the normal scale which is the combination of acsending and decsending notes. the only thing that differ between them are the notes. these notes ca be used for improvising a jazz piece for example, a 12 blue bar piece

Sunday, March 11, 2012

5 & 7 march 2012

12 bar blues


reflection question: how does the blues influence jazz in its early development?


the blues, perhaps more than any other music, is jazz greatest influence. From the time when jazz evolved from the sounds of the Mississippi Delta a century ago right up to the modern jazz of today, the blues has been a benchmark for jazz musicians. from the perspective of musical structure, jazz as we know it would not exist without the blues. The twelve-bar blues chorus, with its familiar harmonic structure and narrative form, was the single most popular template for early jazz improvisation, the walking base were the major impact blues had affected to jazz music. without blues, jazz wouldnt be so special. 


in instrument class, we rehearsed our 12 bar blues as an ensemble and accompanied the other instruments playing, also, we developed our 12 bar blues using the blues scale. we also learned the technique of walking base. this is used in the bass instrument, but it is also often used in piano for the left hand. 



27 & 29 february 2012

12 bar blues

reflection question: how is my progress playing my own 12 bar blues?

now that im already fluent at playing my own 12 bar blues, we expanded our skills and played it as an ensemble together with the rest of the piano students. in order to make it more challenging, we took turns on playing each of our own parts and combined all our compositions at the end so it'll be more variative. i think that our ensemble is already quiet good although we should remember to keep the tempo steady.

in instrument class, we practiced our 12 bar blues alone with the headphones. i think i've done pretty well since i have minimized and fixed the errors. i should improve my playing by adding accents and a jazzy feel to it.