Monday, 2 July 2001
Louisville: The south is different: In the median of one street, a large statue featuring the inscription, “To our Confederate dead.” Three statues. One man with a sword. The next with a rifle. The third, inexplicably, with what appeared to be a toilet brush.
A block away a garden planted in tribute to the first black professor at U of Louisville. There’s something about this that I can’t quite put my finger on. Definitely wouldn’t see this in Chicago, but I think that it’s a good thing.
Theory classes are divided into four groups: Advanced, intermediate, beginning and drummers and guitarists. I was placed, not surprisingly, into the intermediate group. A handful of new concepts. As a theory autodidact, I figure it’s best to be here rather than push myself up a level to fill in these gaps.
The combo is intriguing. Alto and bari saxes, trumpet, trombone, piano, drums and me. I had initially thought the drummer was one of the faculty members who had performed the night before and was puzzled about the disparity in his playing last night and today until at lunch I saw the faculty member and realized that they were two different people. A somewhat surprising variety of skill levels. The masterclass consisted of working out a bassline for an F blues. Not especially earth-shattering, but I’d never really analytically looked at this process before and again, some gaps have been filled. It’s going to be a week of keeping my pride subdued.
I’ve started developing a blister on my index finger from so much pizz playing. Playing at the jam session this evening was probably a bit of a mistake. I did manage to find my way to a piano to finish writing the little trifle that I hope to take to combo rehearsals and try out. The head is a slow 3/2 waltz, but solos are then taken in a double time 4/4, with the outro recapitulating the waltz theme, but in 4 rather than 3. Some nice 4-part development in the head which is a nice counterpoint to the usual unison playing there (with the rare harmony, but still a unison rhythm).
Tuesday, 18 August 2026.
After a long time, I’ve finally gotten around to fixing the code on this site so that the music diary can return! I’ve been largely quiescent, although I do occasionally play bass or piano for Masses at St Giles which is my main musical activity right now, although I’ve been thinking of doing a bit more music on occasion.
Friday, 20 September 2019.
And yet another long-delayed update. Went to a singing and playing get together that happens monthly here in Oak Park. I decided to take a bass since from the pictures on the Facebook group it looked like they had plenty of guitars and I took my double bass since I didn’t want to deal with an amp.
I was a bit rusty at first and discovered that I don’t seem to have any rosin anywhere I could find it so my bow was relatively useless, but as the evening proceeded, my playing improved. I feel like once a month is probably a good level of commitment for me to do something musical at this point in my life.
Tuesday, 19 June 2012.
A long-delayed return to music diarizing. I’m currently in Tampa for the residency of my Creative Writing MFA. I brought along my banjo and found a piano so I’ve been able to get in some practice on banjo, piano and voice while I’m here. The big things I’ve been working on have been a piano and voice arrangement of “Nuages”and working out a bit more of “I Found Jesus” which now has its melody and chords a bit more defined (It’s a I-vi-IV-V in Bb).
Sunday, 14 August 2011.
Second rehearsal of the gypsy jazz group. My endurance was a great deal better, although I was a bit behind in printing up charts. I’ll have to spend some time on this before the next rehearsal. I’m feeling pretty good about my playing, although I want to be spending more time practicing.
Monday, 8 August 2011.
A new musical project. I auditioned for and was accepted by a nascent gypsy jazz group as their bass player. My finger is a bit sore from that much pizz playing after so long away from the instrument. I also found myself fatiguing well before the audition was over with my fast walking parts hard to keep up to tempo. Fortunately, a lot of manouche bass is a somewhat less demanding root-five kind of line.
Sunday, 16 January 2011.
Got a bunch of lyrics done on “You Took My Photograph” but I’m not done. Pulling out the rhyming dictionary has helped a bit. I’m actually finding it to be more of a book to creativity than I would have guessed. I do find myself wanting to rhyme “days” with “protease.”
Saturday, 15 January 2011.
Nailed down the music for “You Took My Photograph.” I had some really nice ideas that came to me while falling asleep last night, but I lost them. I did remember some Gospel-esque chord progressions which I did manage to approximate while working on the song. There’s a nice shift between G and Bb in the tonality of the song.
Tuesday, 11 January 2011.
Nobody played their songs at this week’s songwriting class. I guess it was a case of terminal shyness. Next week, I don’t care: I’m playing my damn song. This week’s song wasn’t so good, but I have some ideas for where to go with next week’s song and I think it’s going to be pretty good, close to a keeper (especially if, as I hope, I can get some feedback on the song).
Monday, 10 January 2011.
Finished the song for tomorrow’s class. I’m not really happy with the lyrics, but the melody’s not bad (even if I couldn’t remember how the short lines of the chorus were supposed to fit in). I did do a nice thing where there’s a shift from Bb to D on the choruses. One of those great harmonic things I picked up from Gospel music.
Friday, 7 January 2011.
Ended up doing no evening practice, but I did write the first verse and chorus of my song for my songwriting class during a slow moment at work. I rather like what I’m doing with rhymes in that song, and I’ve got a clear view of where the song is going.