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Hope by Saindon, Liebman, Wilson, Clark

Guys, here’s another one. We’re playing my composition Hope. The intro featured a drone which was Lieb’s idea. I like the mood that it set up for the tune. The lead sheet can be downloaded from my website here: http://www.edsaindon.com/originalcompositions.htm

Part Two can be checked out on my YouTube page here: http://www.youtube.com/edsaindon

Invitation by Philippe Briand

Hey there guys (and dolls) ! About time I posted my attempt at Invitation. I'm not too conspicuous on the site lately. I'm teaching (what little I know) a trumpet player who I hope will be a good playing partner someday. This takes an awful lot of my time. When I've done a session with him (and this almost everyday), all I crave for is a cigar and a beer. Anyway, here's Invitation. I've tried to follow Tony's instructions in places, especially on the bridge. I'm still using the Albrights. They get a big sound but they are a bit unwieldy. Also I'm off to Germany on Saturday, for 10 days.

Don't Just Play, Do Something Else

So I'm messing around with Woody n You and I'm having trouble getting ideas. This melody is different from many others I play. So I'm trying to think about 4 mallets and what I'd do. Wasn't making much progress.

But my cat is dying, and I've taught her to talk to me. So she started talking to me and I brought her down (basement) (feeling sad) and sat there with her and was petting her and talking to her, and she was replying. Then I gave her my good chair and went and worked on Elio Villafranca's music for a bit, and then I came back to Woody n You and everything was different.

Transcribing?

So I just finished the first chorus of Bill Evans's solo on Nardis from his Blue in Green Live album. It took me about 3 hours to get it right. I think that is a pretty long time for one chorus, although the solo is pretty challenging and it goes pretty fast.

The only other solo that I've transcribed is Milt Jackson's solo from Miles Davis's Bags' Groove album. But that solo was 10 choruses long. This Bill Evans solo is only 3 choruses, so maybe I should go ahead and spend the extra hours and just get it done?

10,000 Hours

In the book 'This is Your Brain on Music', I'm reading about what it means to be an expert. Many scientists use the 10,000 hour theory. That is generally speaking to become an expert at anything you have to spend 10,000 hours working on it. That translates to 3 hours a day for about 10 years.

I thought this was interesting because at least this gives us an idea about practicing in a general sense. He brings up things like Mozart writing a symphony at age eight and argues that you don't have to be an expert to write a symphony.