Musical Choices
- Published on Friday, 31 March 2006 01:00
- Category: Music and Guitar
We make millions of little choices each day of our lives, and the choices we make, no matter how insignificant they seem at the time, send us down different paths.
How does the improvising musician let the music flow from his creative mind without being distracted by all the theoretical choices that melody and harmony present? We don't think about it.
Snow Falls on Granville
- Published on Friday, 31 March 2006 01:00
- Category: Songs written by Blue Morris
I wrote this waltz in my head while walking in my South Granville neighbourhood. It doesn't snow often in the city. I like the way snow quietens the city by absorbing all the sound. Of course, it's also quiet because no one in Vancouver drives when it snows. It hasn't been released yet, but I do have a short MP3 available you can listen to. A link to the PDF score and the MP3 is below.
The Jazz Painter
- Published on Friday, 31 March 2006 01:00
- Category: Music and Guitar
A lot of people don't seem to understand the process of jazz, and because of that, they don't understand or appreciate the way it sounds.
People understand well how a classical musician works. He has music written down in front of him and he plays that music -- with some interpretation.
And people seem to understand well how a painter works. He sees something, either in reality or in his mind, and he paints that picture.
If a painter was a jazz musician, he would be given only three or four colours and one brush. He would be blind-folded and given five minutes to create something. That's improvisation!
3 Goals of the Jazz Musician
- Published on Friday, 31 March 2006 01:00
- Category: Music and Guitar
1) Put jazz music in your head.
If you don't listen to jazz on a daily basis, how can you expect to play it well? Let's say you are learning another language -- Spanish. If you rarely hear Spanish, how could you expect to speak it well, with correct grammar and accent? If you rarely listen to jazz, how can you expect to play it with a jazz sound, harmony, rhythm and melody?