The school year has begun and a dip in temperature makes it feel like fall is already here. With cool mornings and hot afternoons, looking back on the summer is refreshing. My last blog discussed the first half of my summer and in this one, I’ll reflect on the second half.
Before jumping into July, let’s start by revisiting June. Getting family together and celebrating our marriage was special. If you throw a party, hire a photographer or put someone in charge of taking photos; it’s easy to miss out on everything that’s happening. I can’t thank Joelle and Jami enough for capturing so many beautiful moments.
Musically in June, I was working on a recording project. In the spring, I attended a masterclass with Steven Bernstein (The Lounge Lizards, Sex Mob, the Millennial Territory Orchestra), hosted by Jazz Heaven He had so many wonderful things to share. The recordings I made are an expansion of one of them. Steven Bernstein calls it “Arpeggio Exercise 15 Permutations.” One note stays the same throughout the exercise. That stable note will be the root, 3rd, 5th, or 7th of the chord. When you work through every iteration, you get 15 chords. I took this exercise and went beyond playing arpeggios and scales. I recorded myself as a saxophone and EWI ensemble. Each track is a chord tone. As an exercise for myself, I recorded this exercise in all 12 keys. After the meticulous focus of recording each chord tone, I would solo over top on either EWI or tenor sax or both. This project did a lot for my playing. As Steven Bernstein intended, it opened up my ears to the possibility of harmonic options. Overdubbing and layering parts improved my rhythm. Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the complete videos. I won’t be posting all 12 but five that I thought might be interesting to watch.
Do you ever think about why you make the decisions you make? It’s a heavy question but one worth asking. After I finished recording 15 Permutations in 12 keys, I needed a new challenge. It came from a simple statement from my friend Gary Ruschman. I played what I was working on in my home studio and I said to Gary that I wasn’t sure what to do next. Gary simply said: “Instead of harmony, think about harmonizing.” If you know the definition of those two words, you know that they have very different meanings. That was my musical goal for July: harmonize 12 melodies. This exercise took me a lot of different places. I had to compose 12 melodies. I harmonized each one in a major and minor key and took some into dominant and other modes. I found myself thinking more like a vocalist instead of an instrumentalist. With Gary being an outstanding vocalist, he influenced my thinking through his approach to music. This proved to be very beneficial. We get so caught up in our own way of thinking that we just keep doing more of what we know.
Earlier this year, I said to Lisa: “Let’s get in the car and drive somewhere this summer. I don’t care where…let’s just be together and get away.” We discussed our options, the cost, and the possible experiences. After much conversation leading up to a week before leaving, we decided on Denver, Colorado. When Lisa and I travel, we like the city as much as the countryside. We enjoy a museum as much as we like a trail. Colorado has all of these things. The drive out was fun because we got to spend time talking for nine hours sharing dreams and reflecting on the past. We stayed in the RiNo Art District. With art literally everywhere, we enjoyed our walks to eat and explore. With Denver as our base camp, we took day trips to Boulder, Rocky Mountain National Forest, and Idaho Springs. It took me a few days to really feel like I was on vacation. I didn’t take my school computer and I rarely checked my email. We averaged 15,000 steps per day and we somehow managed to relax while staying active. A memorable trip indeed.
A summer isn’t complete without Band Camp. It’s always a joy to see students again and to get to know the incoming freshmen. But this year also included several sophomores returning to Band. I think it’ll be a few years before we really get over the Pandemic. I don’t blame any student for dropping Band when it was online. Band is about community and being with your friends. Sure, there’s music but it’s more than that. I think about all of the people I met in Colorado and once they discovered I was a band director, most of them told me that they were in Band in high school and a few, in college. Music doesn’t need to be a career, it just needs to be a part of your life.
Last minute shows are always welcome. A band I’m very happy to be a part of is English. We haven’t played a show together in over a year. When Chris English asked me and Hans Decker to join him for a solo acoustic show at the Biergarten in Water Works Park, I couldn’t say no. Playing the songs as a stripped down trio made me remember just how good these songs are. The gig also gave me an opportunity to test out some changes in my pedal board. Nothing major, just different amounts of reverb and delay in the signal chain.
As always, I appreciate you reading this. I try to cut through the noise and avoid adding to the clutter. If you enjoy my rambling, send me a message or share with a friend. Take care.
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