Improv in C

Crazy Saturday by Ramsnake. Here is a soundtrack, for a short surf movie I shot recently, created and performed by me using the Yamaha S90XS. Such a brilliant music creation tool and the sax voice is particularly wonderful fun! I utilised the Performance named "Smooth It Over" in a one off live take with all the arpeggio variations to create variety in the backing track and recorded it straight to USB.
I then transferred the .wav file to my iMac, converted it to an mp3 using Audacity and then imported it into the project in iMovie HD.

SoundCloud!

SoundCloud lets you move music fast & easy. The platform takes the daily hassle out of receiving, sending & distributing music for artists, record labels & other music professionals. I have just uploaded 3 more tracks to my Soundcloud site to add to the 3 that are already available there. If you write music of any sort and want to get it out there then Soundcloud is a terrific means for you to be able to do so. Check it out!

SoundCloud: The Tour from SoundCloud on Vimeo.

More jazz piano resources!

Following on from the previous post, II V I left-hand voicings in both "A" & "B" positions around the cycle of fifths. Enjoy!

The Jazz Piano Book extra resources

I have been working through the beginning of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Piano Book" and to assist with my learning, I have created myself some useful extra resources using Sibelius. Yes, I know jazz piano playing is primarily an aural art but, being a reader, I find it useful to have the dots in front of me initially to find the notes I need and then work towards internalising them from there.

1. Notated Cycle of Fifths - II V I - 3 note chords starting with the 3rd on top.

2. Notated Cycle of Fifths - II V I - 3 note chords starting with the 7th on top.

3. Notated Cycle of Fifths - II V I - Substituting the II V with a Sus chord

4. Notated Cycle of Fifths - II V I - Substituting the II V with a Phrygian chord

I am happy to share these for free and have published them on my webpage at Sibelius Music.

Double click on the Jazz folder and then the Jazz Learning Resources folder and either download or print them off for yourself.

TwentyTen is born!

On the weekend, Michelle and I finally got around to seeing local band MoodSwingz play a gig at the Matilda's Meadow Winery.

My mate and former colleague Colin Reeves, who is an awesome and talented musician, is the guitarist and it is always a pleasure to hear him play.

The band also features consummate music man David Rastrick on trumpet/cornet, guitar, bass - you name it he probably plays it!

Holding down the bottom end are the inimitable Joel Barter on drums with sidekick Mark Tupman doing a great job on bass.

They were sounding tight and comfortable with the music they were playing so we had a great time even getting up on the dance floor to shake booty for a few songs!

Although nicely funky, alot of the music was a bit all sweetness and light so in the last 24 hours I have whipped together a composition with a little more edge for them which I hope they might like enough to include in their repertoire. It is based around a descending progression I wrote on the guitar sometime ago and I have added a contrasting B section to round it out and for the soloists to have a good time with.

Created in the "Oh, so capable and brilliant Sibelius", it is called TwentyTen and is available on Sibelius Music in full score and all the parts.

Since I have acquired Sibelius 6....................

......... I have used it to rescore and revise all my compositions/arrangements both finished and still incomplete and uploaded some of them to my homepage at Sibelius Music with more to come as time passes by.

There are quite a few little pieces for guitar including what I believe is the first transcription for solo guitar of the lovely little Adagio in F by J Haydn which you can buy for $5.00 US.

There is also a short piano piece in the style of Philip Glass.

I also have ready to upload a wind quintet which is a Homage to a musical acquaintance of mine, still young being in his 40s, who has unfortunately contracted an incurable cancer and is not expected to live for much longer.

Currently I am working on a piece called " Passion Play" scored for string quartet which is sounding interesting.

Apart from Haydn's Adagio, the rest of the guitar compositions are free, so please do take the opportunity to print them off for your own or your student's use if you would like.

Sibelius 6!

Most years, I take the opportunity at Christmas to splurge a little, and buy myself a present that I would really like.
Now that we have finally moved to Denmark, I am looking forward to becoming far more actively musically than I have for some years.
Apart from playing and performing, I would like to include a more regular composition regime than I have sporadically done so in the past.
I have been an on and off user of both Finale and it's quite capable little off shoot Musicprose for many years
However, following some fairly extensive online research, as is my want nowadays when contemplating a purchase, I have chosen to switch to the "other" music composition software Sibelius now in it's 6th version.
Why you ask? Well it appears to be more user friendly and intuitive than Finale ( I downloaded the demo version to trial and is particularly so of score layout which can be a pain in Finale! ) and this is confirmed by the many comments made by users and particularly so this latest version!
The main new features are:

• Magnetic layout
• Track changes and compare versions
• Conduct your own scores
• Better sounds than ever
• Syncs with many sequencers and DAWs including Logic Pro which I use
• New keyboard/fretboard windows and much easier chord symbol and guitar chord diagram generation
• Top notch looking scores with pro engraving
• Sell scores around the world

and many, many others.
I cannot wait to start using it so looking forward to getting my 24" Imac back today with a new hard drive to replace the original one that was starting to fail? ( So I am pleased I took out some Applecare warranty )
Check out a video of the new version here and Sibelius Senior Production Manager Daniel Spreadbury's terrific blog.