So, here we are. It’s coming up to Christmas and you’re thinking, ‘I just can’t think of what to get my Mum and Dad/Nephew/Friend/Pet/etc”. Well, fear not, my friends, for I have the answer. Three good, slightly dandruff-ridden, socially afflicted friends of mine have just realeased their debut album. It’s called ‘We Are The Banzai Buddy Band!’. You can listen to it right here, right now. There are 9 tracks, hit the scroll button to hear the other tracks [either side of the play button on the player].
The whole album plus extras is available for immediate download in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire, for as little as 0.1p to as much as you want. Just click on the ‘download’ link on the player. Also included are some pictures of the band and a picture of a wind strategy lecture that followed a portion of a gig that included talks on splitting the atom and birdwatching, as well as live aerobics and molecular pictionary/guess the chemical reaction.
A little note.
This is not the album I’ve been working on proper! This is just a little fun project that may or may not develop into a musical and dominate Broadway for years to come.
Get it now before the downloads run out :)
Two new Banzai tracks done: ‘We Are The Banzai Buddy Band!’ (kind of a signature song, that one) and ‘The Rhythm Machine’ (an homage to the awesome Dr’s beats) They’ve all gotta be done, finished, dusted, by Sunday. That’s er, today. Rats, I’ll be busy tomorrow then. Today, even.
Check us out here. http://www.myspace.com/thebanzaibuddyband
[Myspace unfortunately. I hate Myspace, so when all the tracks are done I’ll put ’em on BandCamp so you can download them and play them ALL the time :)]
If you’d like to book us for a world tour that’d be very nice. Or maybe an endorsement with Rubik’s Cubes. Hey, whatever… you just go wild.
Thanks a lot!
*update* Two more tracks added now. ‘Genius Boy’ and ‘I Like A Little Bit Of Maths In The Morning’. There are a few more to come before world domination so get some rest…
Here’s an idea to help you get three different dominant sounds into your playing.
You give up three and a bit bars to three simple licks. The lines are all clichés, but don’t hold that against them; they describe the sound of the harmony and may give you a way in to that sound. And this exercise is not really about that. Confused? Splendid!
Click here to download the notation.
The idea is that you improvise a solo on these chords but where you see the written out lines, you have to play those lines EXACTLY as they are, EVERY chorus. NO MESSING ABOUT NOW! I will totally tell you off if you do.
So that gives you two challenges:
1. Can you nail the licks in exactly the right place – every time? This is a useful exercise if you’re trying to keep track of all the chord changes and they seem to be flying by. If you can nail the lick exactly right then you know you’re in the right place and you’re keeping your place in the form.
2. The challenge of playing into and out of each lick and making it sound natural.
I think playing out of the licks is easier than playing into them. It’s a useful thing to do because it makes you aware of the form and aware of what you’re aiming at.
Things to do:
1, Do the exercise for an hour and see how creative you can get.
2, Write your own lines. For example, you could write a line that uses 4ths, and then that might make part of the challenge to improvise the rest of the solo using 4ths. Or not :)
Please note that this is not what you want to be doing when you play. It’s just a thing to practise and get good at. Playing in this way is much harder than just coming up with ideas and developing them. Whenever I try to use licks it always sounds like I’m being too deliberate. Ideally, you have an idea and then you do stuff with it.
Like, say your idea is ‘eggs’ and then you go on to describe, elaborate or comment on eggs, and ideas that occur from doing that. Playing licks would be a bit like preparing a speech in response to that idea, or having pre-planned snippets to churn out about eggs. It’s much easier to just gibber away about eggs and elaborate on your ideas than it is to do just that but complicate it by trying to add pre-planned egg ideas as well. I really will stop now because that is total gibberish.
And I don’t even like eggs.
Pete playing with Victor Brox at the Nursey Inn
(courtesy Butch Mepham)
I found out recently that Manchester guitarist Pete Bocking died last week. He was my first electric guitar teacher and a complete one-of-a-kind. There’s more info available on the net about Pete here:
I’m just learning, also, that he was very well known and loved by the communities within various political blogs, and that they’re just learning about his musical career.
Anyhow, I thought I’d share a few memories of him here.
I first studied with him when I was around 15 or 16 over three years or so. Pete taught from an upstairs room at Barratts Music Shop on Oxford Street, Manchester.
Every Saturday I’d look forward to the adventure of getting to Manchester, having a lesson and then exploring: trawling through all the music shops, buying up most of Music Exchange’s stock, checking out records at Yanks, and milling about at the Cornerhouse Cafe. It was a magic time.
I can’t remember how I came across Pete. I may have just wandered into the shop and seen that he was teaching there. But he really took me under his wing and opened my eyes to studying the guitar. He had a very methodical and detailed approach, and he loved to talk about the theory and analysis of music.
At the time, I was obsessed with Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Led Zepellin and so on. I brought this to him one week, it’s a Vai piece from the movie Crossroads. The following week he had it down, and it’s not easy! He then used it to explain how the arpeggios implied the harmony and then he showed me the Paganini Caprice that part of it is based on, and that led to a section from Bach’s Violin Sonata in G Minor that he really impressed upon me to learn. That was a beautiful thing to do, I think. To take the rock stuff I was into, learn it and then blow my mind with all this other great stuff. And he did that with pretty much everything I brought to show him.
He explained jazz harmony to me very well, and he was very encouraging and motivating. I remember him pressing me to work hard because I wouldn’t have the time later. [Right, he was!] Another thing was the passion with which he played. I remember him playing a blues and really going for it in his playing. He wasn’t a shrinking violet as a player.
I’m really thankful for the tuition and good advice Pete gave to me and especially lucky to have had Pete as my first teacher. Obviously, he must’ve taught many people over the years, so if you’re one of them and are reading this, feel free to add any thoughts or memories below.
He’ll be missed by many.
I’ve just made a Spotify Playlist of the transcriptions in the Charlie Parker Omnibook and thought I’d share it here. Hopefully, they’ll appear in the order they are in the book. Feel free to link to it, pass it on, or whatever. There’s only one track missing: the alternate take of Kim. [update: got that one now] Also, this version of Anthropology skips a few bars at the beginning of the solo – some digital meltdown, perhaps. Anyhow, it makes for a great practice/listening session.
Ko Ko is my favourite piece that’s transcribed in the book – face-melting in every way. Outside of Omni-world, my favourite Parker tracks are Embraceable You which has a stunning solo; The Washington Concerts featuring Parker winging it over a big band with no rehearsal – incredible, smart, intuitive playing and a great Red Rodney interview; and, The Savoy Sessions featuring Parker playing tenor alongside Miles.
Enjoy!
Here are the tunes in the book. Click here for the playlist
Ah-Leu-Cha, Another Hairdo, Anthropology [some skips in the version], Au Privave [No.1 & 2], Back Home Blues, Ballade, Barbados, Billie’s Bounce, The Bird, Bird Gets The Worm, Bloomdido, Blue Bird, Blues (fast), Blues For Alice, Buzzy, Card Board, Celerity, Chasing The Bird, Cheryl, Chi Chi, Confirmation, Constellation, Cosmic Rays, Dewey Square, Diverse, Donna Lee, K.C. Blues, Kim [No. 1], Kim [No. 2], Klaun Stance, Ko Ko, Laird Baird, Leap Frog, Marmaduke, Merry-Go-Round, Mohawk [No. 1 & 2], Moose The Mooche, My Little Suede Shoes, Now’s The Time [No. 1 & 2], Ornithology, An Oscar For Treadwell, Parker’s Mood, Passport, Perhaps, Red Cross, Relaxing With Lee, Scrapple From The Apple, Segment, Shawnuff, She Rote [No. 1 & 2], Si Si, Steeplechase, Thriving From A Riff, Visa, Warming Up A Riff, Yardbird Suite.
Also, check out these fantastic articles written by Steve Coleman on Charlie Parker.
Seems to me that with all the interesting things I’m finding out about via Twitter such as NaNoWriMo, Home Taping, RPM Challenge and NaSoAlMo, that there really should be some sort of practice version. I reckon it could work if you had a way of connecting a few like-minded souls with a common goal, let’s say learning a particular tune or a solo, and the goal would be to get it down in the space of the month. The deadline and group network would be a great motivator, especially with the ability to record and share audio and video versions of your work so easily. I wonder if this would work in some sort of classroom environment, also? National PhD Month…
Does that exist already? If not, then I hereby create it! NaGtrPraMo – National Guitar Practice Month :) It needs a forum/focal point, I suppose. A Posterous maybe? And some people who are willing to set some challenges…