Yolanda Y. Williams's Blog (10)

You all did such a wonderful job last night. You received and are receiving many accolades. One of the most interesting compliments was when someone said to me, "You guys should start charging for these concerts." The Big Time!! Anyway dear friends, I really have appreciated the ways in which you worked hard and generously shared your gifts with each other, me and our audience. Now get some rest. I have addresses for most of you but not all. If you did not fill out a contact form, please reply v… Continue

Welcome back to the Fall semester everyone. The Jazz Ensemble has been working skills by actively listening to music and identifying musical elements. You can use this forum to share what you are learning and what you are listening to. Looking forward to learning from you. Continue

It occurs to me that this is a topic that is not often discussed. I offer some of the techniques taught in score study as possible suggestions and reccomendations. Most of us begin to learn a new piece by playing through it. I think learning a piece of music shoudl actually start with reading it as you would a book. Learn the form first. Form: Are there repeats? Where are they located and what exactly do they repeat? Is there a D.S.; D.C; Coda, etc. Is a D.S., where exactly is the sign. If an al… Continue

There are many skills, techniques, strategies etc. that the music "gurus" will say if you try this you will be a great musician. Of course you all being bright, intelligent and mature know this is just not true. Becoming a great musician though is a lot about "living with" your instrument, whatever that instrument may be and about "living with" the repertoire, whatever that may be. You will find story after story found in autobiographies of musicians who play for hours. I really believe that "pl… Continue

Although I play and have played several wind instruments, I am no expert, but there are some ways in which the voice, also a wind instrument can help you in your performance of other wind instruments. 1. Breathe not from your chest, but from much lower in your abdomen. Many people use the term diaphragm to identify this place. Think of it better as the expansion around the stomach, this would include the back. 2. Breathe in the beats leading up to the downbeat or pickup. Resist counting… Continue

Remember that the basic concept is that the string must vibrate in order to produce a pleasing tone. The wider the vibration and the faster the vibration, the more resonant your instrument will sound. Here are some ideas to practice the increase resonant playing. 1. Practice bowing in front of a mirror. Here you not only want to make sure that your bow is crossing the strings in the space between the bridge and your fingerboard, and that is make a straight line from tip to frog; you also want t… Continue

Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni was born in Venice in 1671. It is really amazing that his melody found in the Adagio in G minor, being studied by the Chamber Ensemble sounds so romantic. Not the "lovie-dovie" kind of romanticism, which the word brings to mind, though. I am using the term to refer to music of the Romantic Period. Think, Beethoven. The music of this period (1800's) was full of emotion and sometimes way too much angst...again think Beethoven. Albinoni is a Baroque composers like Ba… Continue

The piece we are learning in Jazz Ensemble may seem to most of you as if it is a confusing barrage of sounds. There are in fact some very interesting themes and riffs that create a pedal point. This is interesting because traditionally a pedal point consists of one pitch that is sustained, often by a bass instrument. What Mingus has done is create the sense that there is one sustained pitch, but that sustained pitch is instead of being created by one note, it is created by the combination of the… Continue

...at least for the school year, anyway. It occurs to me every year at this time, that while most of the world operates on a year that begin in January, that the academic world is very smart in beginning it's year with one of the major changes of season. As the leaves change color th… Continue

There is an interesting article from the Jazz Resource Library about the history of Jazz Education. It can be found here: http://www.jazzinamerica.org/l_jazzed.asp What struck me in the opening paragraphs was the two reasons given for the shift in opinions leading to the acceptance of jazz in education. "Two reasons for the shift were: 1) jazz came to be regarded as art music and not as mere entertainment; and 2) extracurricular jazz activities on college campuses were highly successful" The… Continue