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| 1140 Boylston St. |
I just finished week four of this fantastic
five-week experience. This was the last
week of my normal class schedule, next week I will continue to have some
classes, but they will be interspersed with my final performances. Almost all my classes have a final
concert. My ear training class will sing
“Take on Me” (A-Ha) with all the parts in solfege syllables: La la
fa re re so so so te te do re... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914). I also have performances in orchestra and from
my various other ensembles.
Currently, I am most anxious about my jazz
ensemble performance. I volunteered to
solo on a song called Ornithology, which is notoriously difficult, partly
because it is played at tempos that make the speed of light look relaxed. It is also one of those jazz songs that changes
keys every couple of bars. If one tends
to get lost (ahem) then there is very
high chance the note that sounded perfectly fine half a second ago just became
the worst possible note to be playing. I
am expending so much energy on learning this song that it is starting to crop
up in my dreams.
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| Strand Theatre, where we heard some Jazz |
People from home keep asking me if I’ve
improved. I truly can’t tell, I think
partly because everyone else here is so amazing. Yesterday before my orchestra performance, I
sat and watched all the other string players cavort around me. Most people had congregated in groups and
were trying to out play each other.
People played impressive presto classical pieces from memory, or laid
down a groove and traded solos. I
watched and listened and thought, “There is such incredible talent in this
room”. All that being said, I do know
that I can play songs now that I would never have attempted 4 weeks ago,
ornithology being a great example of that.
I also know that when I go back and play songs that I knew really well
before the Five Week, I can barely recognize my playing. But I can’t tell if I’m different better, or
different weird.
Another example of my skillset shifting is
how I think of playing scales. I used to
think that playing all 12 major scales was too many scales to practice in one
day, partly because it was time consuming and too difficult for me. Now, the first thing I do when I take out my
violin is to play through my major scales.
I start in the key of F and continue through the cycle of fourths,
extending the scale to encompass all the relevant notes in the first position
fingerboard. The funny thing is that
this only takes a couple of minutes, if that.
I don’t know why I thought it was so difficult.
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| Hallway in the 1140 Building |
I recently learned that the Berklee level
one proficiency test requires the ability to be able to play all the modes of
the major scale, in all of the 12 keys.
Non-musicians can think of modes as weird derivations of the major scale
that can sometimes sound really strange.
There are seven modes per key, each mode based off a note in the major
scale. This level one proficiency test
requires students to know, and therefore practice, 84 different patterns.
The level two proficiency test is to play
all the modes of the three minor scales… in all 12 minor keys. So that’s 3 x 12 x 7 different things to play
through. I can’t even contemplate
learning all of those, let alone practicing them every day. I do practice my modes diligently, but I can
only do my mode exercises in three keys.
Only 9 more to go!
Last night, I found the musical jam I’ve
been looking for since I got here. I was
hanging out in a friend’s room when I heard some music wafting down the
stairwell. Two guitarists, perched on
stairs, were playing a beautiful gypsy jazz style duet from the film Midnight
in Paris. After listening in awe, I ran
to get my violin. After I pulled out my
fiddle, a bass player and a couple more guitarists joined us. We played some jazz standards, some original
compositions, and a little Stevie Wonder just because he’s awesome. And I had an epiphany. Jams like this must occur about 5 hours later
than I’ve been searching for them. I need
to become nocturnal and then I will find jams like this every night.
