Thursday March 9
Agave Practice. Played the usual stuff but felt and sounded unusually sloppy and slow. The Bose PAS1 we have been using is the elephant in the room, its like a high end stereo with the amplification power of a guitar amp and a pa all in one. Requiring little to give a lot, it projects itself easily in the band room but I however still find it hard to hear over the drums. Drums being an acoustic instrument, are set up to be loud by design, in order to be heard over loud amps, but enter the Bose PAS1 and the paradigm shifts greatly. If we all had one I think everything would sound as the manufacturer intends, clean and uncompromised. I ended up moving closer to the unit and closer the other guys as well. The clarity of the vocals is unprecedented, all the good and bad are crystal clear.
Musically I think we are at a crossroads. With the departure of Dave and the arrival of Pat we have completely reformatted our sound for the better. Having a player with the authentic sounding Wurlitzer, Rhodes, organ etc. and a voice that doesn't sound like a howling cat, makes a positive difference. It seems that we can now focus on the music more than ever in that we are not distracted by the bad playing and worse vocals of our dearly departed former keyboard player. I really don't like dissing other musicians, especially those who are good at heart and genuinely motivated to play and participate but criticism is fair game for all if directed in a fair and (mostly) objective manner. The other stuff, like flaking and being wholly unapologetic about its affect on the rest of us is another matter. No one should have to endure such a lack of consideration and professionalism, there are to many responsible, talented players in the Bay Area to warrant the amount of tolerance we had for that behavior.
Now that a new guy is in the mix we all play differently, in that we are focusing more on the music (or at least that is what we should be doing). Beyond the normal growing pains of having a new member in a band that has been playing for several years now, I think this will work out well over all. In my ears/eyes, it's simply a matter of Pat learning the material (which he already knows the majority of) and bringing songs, original or otherwise, to the table.
He sounded great and I hope we can keep him on board. A few gigs and some recordings will help entice all of us to grow and do more.
Wednesday March 8
Major 7th's again? Yup. I learned to play the western harmonic stuff so well that anything else requires a relearn of how I finger the notes. The interval method makes more sense musically because all scales, arpeggios, patterns, grooves, rhythm's beats, and chords are based on intervals. 2 of these and 3 of those makes this particular scale, and so on. I think all students of music should learn their intervals first, then the fundamentals of harmony, no matter where they are from. I know from the public school music teachers I know and have known, that music is taught from a melodic, song based approach at first. The student learns the bare basics of their instrument, how to play the notes on the page then is given simple songs to learn based on these mechanics. A nice approach if you want the student to be a musical mynah bird with little artistic development. I agree that the study and practice of music will enrich the life of anyone disciplined enough to stick with it, but then why do so many students quit? Boredom is one reason. They are not able to relate to the music and really hate practicing are other reasons. I understand why music educators use this method, in jazz one of the best ways to learn to improvise is to know the melody of the tune and use it as a launching pad for exploration. Playing simple songs is the best way to get a student up and playing but why is the failure rate so high? Why do so many students give up, like I did in the 4th grade. Perhaps conventional wisdom is that students would not benefit from my approach because its to theorectical. In fact smaller groups and a stronger mix of ensemble playing and theory would encourage a music student to stick with the program and maybe derive some joy from music making. Right now, with the current approach, it seems that most students see it as yet another academic obligation and parents see music study as a frivolous pursuit. All I can do is continue with Kai's lessons and try to learn them as best I can.