all-levels

Improvising on “All The Things You Are” using chord tone soloing along with one tension. For the Major and Minor chords, I’m using only tension 9 and either 9 or b9 for the Dom 7 chords. In most cases, I’m using the b9. The improv can also incorporate other tensions like the 11 and 13 as well as diatonic and chromatic approach notes. This is a fundamental and valuable improv technique covered in Volume One of The Complete Guide to Improvisation. The concept allows us to clearly sound the changes since most of the notes are chord tones.

"Be My Love" - I had first heard this song on one of my favorite recordings from pianist Keith Jarrett titled The Melody at Night, With You. It was written in 1950 by Nicholas Brodzky and Sammy Cahn for the movie The Toast of New Orleans.

Here's my morning take of the classic "Christmas Song" by Mel Torme.
I tried some Røde M5 Microphones for the first time on the Omega.

A song I composed titled "Remembrance". The rough sketch lead sheet can be viewed and downloaded from google docs. The link is in the video description.

Bach: Double in B Minor (Sonata II) - Sonatas and Partitas for the Violin. Exploring and improvising on Bach's music today. I love Bach's music and his Sonatas and Partitas are among my favorites. I'm a big fan of Itzhak Perlman's recording of these Sonatas and Partitas. The students and I get a lot from studying and playing Bach's music as well as using some of the progressions in the pieces to improvise on. The harmony in his music is brilliant and contains beautiful inherent lines and a wonderful sense of logic.

“Da Blues” - warming up today on my favorite set of vibes at Berklee. An old, beat up but great sounding vibe that we bought used many years for $1,500.