Monthly Livestream #65!

Thanks for tuning in to today's livestream! Here's the recording:

I started off with a few tunes, first "Lament" by J.J. Johnson. (Shout out to Nick Finzer, whose new album The Jazz Orchestra Vol. 1 came out last week!) (Also shout out to Ken Peplowski - Unheard Bird !)

Then I did something a little different - there's a brand new play-along app coming soon, (I'm sworn to secrecy so I can't disclose more about it for now, but it's coming out in a month or so...) and it's actually truly fun to play with, so I decided to play a version of "Up Jumped Spring" along with it! And you'll be hearing about this app soon...

Then moved in to some great questions:

• First, about an arrangement of "I Should Care" that I play with Colin Stranahan and Rick Rosato ("I Should Care" - live at Smalls). The arrangement was actually born from this little song in an NES baseball game we used to play (Baseball Simulator 1000). Then I talked about my favorite rhythm exercise, from the great Ari Hoenig, and how it can be used to feel 7/8, 7/4, 7/2, and really any rhythm. Actually, this exercise really gets us to feel music away from our instruments first! Then it comes out of the piano afterwards. For more about this exercise: My favorite rhythm exercise (from Ari Hoenig)

• Then about transcriptions - how long to study them before they become part of your playing, how to use them, etc. I'm a big proponent of transcriptions, although actually in the jazz world they can be a somewhat controversial topic, as some people are kind of against writing down transcriptions. I talked about how useful and important it's been for me, why I think piano is too hard to transcribe without writing it down, and demonstrated some specific transcriptions I've done and how they have, or are becoming, part of my playing. (Chick Corea, "My One and Only Love". Erroll Garner, "Fantasy on Frankie and Johnny". Art Tatum "My Heart Stood Still")

• And about "limitations" - should we use them when we improvise? And how to use them? Basically, yes we need them! And I demonstrated some limitations that I use in my own playing, and how limitations are basically storytelling devices. One important limit I mentioned was range, and I made a video about this a few years ago here on Patreon: Limiting the Range. And here's another video about left hand limits that I made several years ago as well: Using the Left Hand - using limits and planning ahead
  

Thanks again everybody, and see you all next month!

Glenn