COVID Testimonial
Author: Lance Schwerdfager
[email protected]
Date: November 4, 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.
COVID Testimonial from Lance Schwerdfager
With respect to jazz-oriented things that are happening during this COVID-19 pandemic, this bass player has been completely inactive on the live scene, as most of us have also been.
However, I have become quite a bit more active on the creative scene by composing a few more tunes that have been getting positive feedback from peer musicians.
In particular, over the past few days a fairly catchy jazzy blues entitled 'October Monday' has popped up out of nowhere. Perhaps it's an amalgam of the writer's experience with 'Miss Scarlet in the Lounge', my more jazz-oriented musical aggregation, my blues band 'Barry and the Blasters', and with learning and applying various jazz-flavoured rhythms and chord progressions to newly created music. The melody seems to have emerged out of thin air somehow, but it does seem to be working nevertheless.
With its Afro-Cuban feel, another recent tune is 'Silicone Sandwich'. It's based mainly on a partido alto rhythm with a more straightforward samba rhythm for the bridge. The result feels great even though the tune has been created by a guy that has had virtually no prior involvement at all with Afro-Cuban music.
The origin of the title is kind of funny. My better half was making sandwiches on the kitchen counter. Next to her were both a container of sandwich spread and one that contained silicone; one false move and the title of the tune could have easily become reality. Such is the way that tune names sometimes come to be.
I might mention that I've found that controlled repetition of phrases, both melodic and rhythmic, is essential in making a melody accessible to the listener. Those melodies are generally based on chord tones as target notes but not always. Incorporating fairly stable places to land using longer notes appears to be critical in handling the tension/relief aspects of melodic phrasing. The generally accepted principles certainly do hold true much of the time, but adding the occasional surprise to add spice is well worth it.
It's interesting that, as a bass player, my usual involvement with melody is minimal. Producing decent melodies for instruments that I'm not familiar with is certainly a learning (and highly experimental) experience, but I'm having a lot of fun doing so.
Anyway, any of us can have fun creating music if we allow our inhibitions and self-doubt to take a back seat and just give it a go. Let creativity reign; it feels good!
Lance Schwerdfager
[email protected]
With respect to jazz-oriented things that are happening during this COVID-19 pandemic, this bass player has been completely inactive on the live scene, as most of us have also been.
However, I have become quite a bit more active on the creative scene by composing a few more tunes that have been getting positive feedback from peer musicians.
In particular, over the past few days a fairly catchy jazzy blues entitled 'October Monday' has popped up out of nowhere. Perhaps it's an amalgam of the writer's experience with 'Miss Scarlet in the Lounge', my more jazz-oriented musical aggregation, my blues band 'Barry and the Blasters', and with learning and applying various jazz-flavoured rhythms and chord progressions to newly created music. The melody seems to have emerged out of thin air somehow, but it does seem to be working nevertheless.
With its Afro-Cuban feel, another recent tune is 'Silicone Sandwich'. It's based mainly on a partido alto rhythm with a more straightforward samba rhythm for the bridge. The result feels great even though the tune has been created by a guy that has had virtually no prior involvement at all with Afro-Cuban music.
The origin of the title is kind of funny. My better half was making sandwiches on the kitchen counter. Next to her were both a container of sandwich spread and one that contained silicone; one false move and the title of the tune could have easily become reality. Such is the way that tune names sometimes come to be.
I might mention that I've found that controlled repetition of phrases, both melodic and rhythmic, is essential in making a melody accessible to the listener. Those melodies are generally based on chord tones as target notes but not always. Incorporating fairly stable places to land using longer notes appears to be critical in handling the tension/relief aspects of melodic phrasing. The generally accepted principles certainly do hold true much of the time, but adding the occasional surprise to add spice is well worth it.
It's interesting that, as a bass player, my usual involvement with melody is minimal. Producing decent melodies for instruments that I'm not familiar with is certainly a learning (and highly experimental) experience, but I'm having a lot of fun doing so.
Anyway, any of us can have fun creating music if we allow our inhibitions and self-doubt to take a back seat and just give it a go. Let creativity reign; it feels good!
Lance Schwerdfager
[email protected]