A Letter of Encouragement
Author: Mary Moore
[email protected]
Date: September 2, 2020
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Ottawa Jazz Happenings or of JazzWorks Canada.
A Letter of Encouragement - or How I'm Dealing with the COVID Crisis as a Jazz Learner
When lockdown happened I hit the ground running – after all, I have to honour my status as an extrovert! I belong to a couple of Spencerville (where I live) choirs (Village Voyces Chamber Choir and Malala Women’s Choir), and a couple of groups (Cuppa Joe, Mixed Blessings). I had been studying jazz guitar with Tim Bedner ([email protected]), and also was a member of one of his combo groups with Sue McCarthy, Mark Fried, and Owen Munn before COVID hit.
One of the decisions I made right away was to stick with Tim for Zoom guitar lessons – 1/2 hour per week, and I almost prefer the Zoom lesson from the comfort of my home studio. I determined my learning outcomes and have achieved some of those goals under his excellent tutelage. At my age, what will be will be; however, I made some headway learning to play jazz guitar ‘pianistically’ – moving through chord progressions, especially where there is only one change in a given measure, by using chord inversions, or by playing leading notes or approach chords. And I no longer get a headache when Tim speaks ‘mathy’ to me. :-)
Before COVID hit, I was leading a ukulele jam at the Nectar Community Centre. I offered to continue this by Zoom and it went very well. We stopped in July, and I went back in August to do a porch concert fundraiser with Barry Cooper on mandolin and myself on ukulele and vocals. I joined other Zoom jams (Tuesday Tunesday and Bytown Ukulele Group (BUG) jams – still going on virtually) when I could – what a terrific ukulele community this is. I taught some jazz tunes to the group, and discussed jazz arrangements and approach. In addition, I thought I would up my playing skills and studied with Joel Jacques. I joined his Ukulele Ensemble for two sessions, learning to better read tablature, and to parse songs for solo playing.
On the vocal front, our Spencerville choirs struggled to continue but were hampered by some having very poor rural internet. To fill the gap, I joined a few virtual choirs, which will continue now in the fall.
For guys and gals alike, I highly recommend Lee Hayes (Vox Virtual SATB (soprano-alto-tenor-bass) Choir). Each part meets once a week. Her charts are so much fun! She is a great teacher, and very organized. You do not have to audition, or be afraid to try something new! Contact her at [email protected] to learn more.
Another virtual choir I am in is with Elise Letourneau - the Vox Eclectica Women’s Chamber Choir. As many of you know, Elise is also a wonderful teacher and choir leader. Sessions are sectional, and each starts with very comprehensive and helpful vocal warm-ups and tips. Elise’s charts are also fun to sing. Both choirs produce a video for each piece, and both offer a wonderful sense of community. Contact Elise at [email protected] to learn more.
Also vocally, Cuppa Joe (a cappella jazz quartet) practiced virtually every week, recording our parts at home as well, until such a time as we could sing together socially distanced. We have learned several new pieces over this time, and are now officially a 'garage band', as we meet in soprano Cathy Thompson’s two-car garage once a week.
Early on I also decided to learn the ins and outs of Garage Band and have become fairly proficient. I’ve had the software for so many years on both my iPad and my Mac, so it was high time I learned to use it – and I highly recommend anyone who has access to the software look into what it has to offer. Despite the humbling experience of recording yourself, especially at first, I have found it such a learning tool, both for guitar and voice. Just go to 'Google school' (aka "Google it") with any questions! I have used it to create recordings for myself, to help my choirs to learn music, and to help our re-constituted bi-weeky combo session to put our music together. As I continue, I hope to learn more about EQ and mixing.
Lastly, being a graphic designer, I wanted to learn my video software during this time. I have owned Adobe Suite and Creative Cloud (formerly Adobe Suite) for many years, and Premiere Pro comes with the Creative Cloud package. I now have several videos under my belt, both composite group ones, and artsy ones featuring myself (e.g. https://youtu.be/R1_Ud8XeQ1w How Can I Keep from Singing). I also created a still video with some subtitles in honour of dear friend to the jazz community, Marylise Chauvette, taken from a GigSpace performance we did together (https://youtu.be/g8lHTwkzApE). Onward and upward – the videos are a creative challenge and take a lot of time!
As I don’t think we will be gathering in groups for the most part any time soon, I encourage you all to set some new goals and see where that takes you. Enjoy the journey!
Warm regards
Mary (Moore)
When lockdown happened I hit the ground running – after all, I have to honour my status as an extrovert! I belong to a couple of Spencerville (where I live) choirs (Village Voyces Chamber Choir and Malala Women’s Choir), and a couple of groups (Cuppa Joe, Mixed Blessings). I had been studying jazz guitar with Tim Bedner ([email protected]), and also was a member of one of his combo groups with Sue McCarthy, Mark Fried, and Owen Munn before COVID hit.
One of the decisions I made right away was to stick with Tim for Zoom guitar lessons – 1/2 hour per week, and I almost prefer the Zoom lesson from the comfort of my home studio. I determined my learning outcomes and have achieved some of those goals under his excellent tutelage. At my age, what will be will be; however, I made some headway learning to play jazz guitar ‘pianistically’ – moving through chord progressions, especially where there is only one change in a given measure, by using chord inversions, or by playing leading notes or approach chords. And I no longer get a headache when Tim speaks ‘mathy’ to me. :-)
Before COVID hit, I was leading a ukulele jam at the Nectar Community Centre. I offered to continue this by Zoom and it went very well. We stopped in July, and I went back in August to do a porch concert fundraiser with Barry Cooper on mandolin and myself on ukulele and vocals. I joined other Zoom jams (Tuesday Tunesday and Bytown Ukulele Group (BUG) jams – still going on virtually) when I could – what a terrific ukulele community this is. I taught some jazz tunes to the group, and discussed jazz arrangements and approach. In addition, I thought I would up my playing skills and studied with Joel Jacques. I joined his Ukulele Ensemble for two sessions, learning to better read tablature, and to parse songs for solo playing.
On the vocal front, our Spencerville choirs struggled to continue but were hampered by some having very poor rural internet. To fill the gap, I joined a few virtual choirs, which will continue now in the fall.
For guys and gals alike, I highly recommend Lee Hayes (Vox Virtual SATB (soprano-alto-tenor-bass) Choir). Each part meets once a week. Her charts are so much fun! She is a great teacher, and very organized. You do not have to audition, or be afraid to try something new! Contact her at [email protected] to learn more.
Another virtual choir I am in is with Elise Letourneau - the Vox Eclectica Women’s Chamber Choir. As many of you know, Elise is also a wonderful teacher and choir leader. Sessions are sectional, and each starts with very comprehensive and helpful vocal warm-ups and tips. Elise’s charts are also fun to sing. Both choirs produce a video for each piece, and both offer a wonderful sense of community. Contact Elise at [email protected] to learn more.
Also vocally, Cuppa Joe (a cappella jazz quartet) practiced virtually every week, recording our parts at home as well, until such a time as we could sing together socially distanced. We have learned several new pieces over this time, and are now officially a 'garage band', as we meet in soprano Cathy Thompson’s two-car garage once a week.
Early on I also decided to learn the ins and outs of Garage Band and have become fairly proficient. I’ve had the software for so many years on both my iPad and my Mac, so it was high time I learned to use it – and I highly recommend anyone who has access to the software look into what it has to offer. Despite the humbling experience of recording yourself, especially at first, I have found it such a learning tool, both for guitar and voice. Just go to 'Google school' (aka "Google it") with any questions! I have used it to create recordings for myself, to help my choirs to learn music, and to help our re-constituted bi-weeky combo session to put our music together. As I continue, I hope to learn more about EQ and mixing.
Lastly, being a graphic designer, I wanted to learn my video software during this time. I have owned Adobe Suite and Creative Cloud (formerly Adobe Suite) for many years, and Premiere Pro comes with the Creative Cloud package. I now have several videos under my belt, both composite group ones, and artsy ones featuring myself (e.g. https://youtu.be/R1_Ud8XeQ1w How Can I Keep from Singing). I also created a still video with some subtitles in honour of dear friend to the jazz community, Marylise Chauvette, taken from a GigSpace performance we did together (https://youtu.be/g8lHTwkzApE). Onward and upward – the videos are a creative challenge and take a lot of time!
As I don’t think we will be gathering in groups for the most part any time soon, I encourage you all to set some new goals and see where that takes you. Enjoy the journey!
Warm regards
Mary (Moore)