Letter from Dan (2/16)

Dear Concertino West,

Thank you for your excellent work in rehearsal this week! OK Factor visited and led us in an improvisation workshop. Here are the steps to improvising:

• Review the scale
  • We reviewed the Concert G major scale using the provided scale sheet.
• Improvise using notes only
  • We played a solo using any notes from the G major scale using a simple quarter note rhythm for 8 measures.
• Improvise using rhythms only
  • We played a solo using only the note Concert G using any rhythm you wanted for 8 measures.
• Improvise using notes andrhythms
  • We played using any notes from the Concert G major scale and any chosen rhythms for 8 measures.
• Other tips:
  • Keep it simple.
  • Rests are our friends. Don’t feel like you need to fill every measure with notes because silence is cool, too!
  • Have fun!

The OK Factor put together some backing tracks for improvisation practice for us! You can check them out here and use one (or more!) of the improv techniques above.

I’ve had a few questions about what we’re playing for our next concert on Sunday, March 8. Here is what we’re playing:

• Haydn Settings (all three movements)
• Of the Extraterrestrial Sort
• White Walls
• Smile and a High Five

GTCYS10 for this week

• Haydn Settings:
  • Review all three movements. Think about phrasing (musical sentences) and how they end (soft/relaxed, not punchy)
• Extraterrestrial:
  • Review
• White Walls & Smile and a High Five:
  • Continue to review tricky spots
  • Practice improv with the backing tracks on your own at home
• Lord of the Rings:
  • Keep working on this. We’ll come back to it soon!

See you next week!

Dan