JEN Conference Preview: Instrumental Performances for Everyone by Dr. David Fodor The upcoming JEN conference from January 3-6, 2018 in Dallas, Texas is packed with instrumental performances and jam sessions that you won’t want to miss. There are over fifty instrumental performances to see and hear! Evening Concerts will present memorable capstone performances for […]
Jazz Listening 101: A Primer For Students Of Exemplary Songs Of the Genre by Dr. David Fodor I was recently asked by a friend for a good online jazz listening resource that covered a broad range of history of the music and featured its best exemplars. I jumped at the chance to create such a […]
No Resources? No Problem! Starting A Free, After-School Music Education Program In Your Community by Arturo Riera There is an after-school youth performance ensemble that has no school, staff, or Board, is not a 501(c)(3) organization, yet has been free to all musicians for the last 16 years. There is no audition, and the ensemble […]
Chord Spelling Standardization By Jerry Tachoir While attending Berklee College of Music from 1973 – 76, there was a campaign underway to standardize the spelling of chords. I became aware of this need while writing charts for classes that contained several international students. I realized very early that the European symbol for the number 7 […]
A Structured Approach to ‘Woodshedding’ Improvisation By Jesse McBee Most professional musicians arrive at a certain level of proficiency resultant of years of disciplined, consistant practice. We have numerous books and studies making their way around colleges, universities and conservatories and into course curriculum dealing with performance practice and human learning, such as Malcolm Gladwell’s […]
How To Improvise With Others (When You Lack Confidence) by Monica Shriver Confidence is a tricky thing. Sometimes you feel it and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you deserve to be confident and sometimes you don’t. And sometimes that doesn’t stop you. The trick is tempering confidence with humility and kindness. When is comes to improvising, […]
Sight-Reading from the Drummer’s View by Steve Fidyk I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to hold the drum chair for more than 20 years with the Army Blues Big Band. As an ensemble, we read new music daily, record, and accompany guest artists at festivals and universities. One essential skill that is somewhat […]
Drum & Rhythm Section Performance Tips: Understanding and Executing the Tune by Marvin Sparks Tunes (Examples) Straight Ahead: Medium Tempo: “Take The A-Train” – Duke Ellington (Sonny Greer) Up-Tempo: “Milestones” – Miles Davis (Philly Joe Jones); “Impressions” – John Coltrane (Elvin Jones) Latin/Samba: “Blue Bossa” – Dexter Gordon (Al Foster) Funk: “Chameleon” – Herbie Hancock (Harvey Mason) […]
Let’s Talk About Sound… By Monica Shriver The first thing that people hear when you play (or sing) is your sound. Let that sink in for a minute. Think about all the time spent working on technique (licks, scales, chords, patterns, etc.), range, and performance material, but all of that is only able to be […]
Latin Percussion Applications in the Jazz Band By Victor Rendón Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and other “world” instruments have always been played in the context of popular music and jazz groups including jazz bands in colleges. Often, this area of drumming is neglected in an educational setting leaving the student to attempt to come up with something […]