Another relatively quiet week this one… I’m in a bit of a late night spiral. Going to bed later and later, getting up around lunch time. It’s been pretty productive though. I’ve really been getting stuck into writing harmonies for some of these tunes. I will admit it has been the most efficient work. I need to figure out how to do it properly. It’s been all trial and error, and it feels like something isn’t right… There’s something missing, or there’s something not connecting.
So I asked Antonio who is in the studio next to mine, for some criticism. There was a bit of a language barrier, some of these things are hard to put into words.
My question was more about the line harmonising under the melody. He was more concerned about the piano voicing’s which I didn’t pay much attention to, cause I want real musicians to play it from a chord chart. He did give me a few good pointers. Like how the melody needs to be the highest and everything else goes between it and the bass. So the 2 most important lines are the melody and then the bass line. Everything else is just colouring in between.
He always gravitates towards the Barry Harris method as he studied with him for many years in Europe and in New York. I understand the very basics, but as with most concepts they expand infinitely.
Anyway, I got some ideas and am trying to get it all nice and tight. I wanted to finish it this week, but it’s a lot of work. And it never really gets finished too. There’s always something you could change, or add to.
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So it was just the 1 and a half gigs yesterday. Played Shake with mostly subs. I think we held it together pretty well, all killing musicians, and a relatively quiet night. Then when Denise came on for the 3rd set, she had everyone up and wanted to keep it going a bit longer. So I ended up being 20 minutes late to the JZ late night concert. Antonio and Guilaume weren’t happy, but I couldn’t just walk out mid song. Anyway, If I do shake, I probably shouldn’t agree to the late night set at JZ as this has happened before.
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So now I got New Years Eve and the next day (Yuan Dan) and then nothing lined up…. So I’m thinking of just getting out of town and go lye on a beach somewhere in SE Asia. For some reason my psoriasis has gotten really bad these last few months. Not sure why, but some sun and salt water will be good for it.
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Still looking for a new place to upload my live recordings after this weeks YouTube debacle. Not having much luck with Library Credits, or Dtube…. I guess the decentralised web is going to be a decade or so.