What Are You Practising / Composing Now?

[Pulcinella]

No specific reason Pulcinella, I am going to do my diploma at some point and the Rachmaninoff is on the syllabus but the others are just because I like them! The Alkan I worked on last year before I started the job I've just left and I want to get it back to where it was - my teacher was pleased with it but it wasn't quite "finished", if you know what I mean! Thanks for the congratulations, I'm really looking forward to 10 minutes rather than an hour and a quarter to get home.

Good luck!
It's MANY moons ago that I got my Grade 8 and was able to play the Brahms Op 117 Intermezzi (my A-level practical pieces)!

[Jonathan]

I must have a go at the Brahms Op.117 however my teacher has a pathological hatred of his music (so do her parents, who she lives with). No, I don't understand it either! I did grade 7 when I was 17 but kept playing and finally did grade 8 just over 2 years ago, aged 44 and passed.

[BBMmk2]

I’ve played these a few years ago now. Very rewarding, Jonathan. I’ve begun my current project for big band of a Bruce Springsteen song!

[Joseph K]

The presto movement from Bach's G minor violin sonata BWV 1001. I'm using it as an etude for my plectrum technique, and of course it is nice to be able to keep on playing Bach even after giving up classical guitar. It has wide leaps with angular intervals and some nice hemiola.

[BBMmk2]

The presto movement from Bach's G minor violin sonata BWV 1001. I'm using it as an etude for my plectrum technique, and of course it is nice to be able to keep on playing Bach even after giving up classical guitar. It has wide leaps with angular intervals and some nice hemiola.

Be good to hear!

[Joseph K]

Be good to hear!

Yes well, maybe. Let's wait until I have it a bit closer to 'presto'.

[BBMmk2]

Yes well, maybe. Let's wait until I have it a bit closer to 'presto'.

All the best!

[Joseph K]

All the best!

Thanks.

[BBMmk2]

No problem.Doing alright with my current project, for big band.

[Joseph K]

I just practised Stella by Starlight for an hour and a half.

… which has deviated from my schedule, certainly. But it is a lot of fun. I find this tune more interesting to play than others. Basically, I practise it by linking up firstly the arpeggios in continuous quavers through all the chords of the tune, in all the positions along the guitar neck. Then I practise linking up scales in a continuous motion, which is harder, and really enhances how you visualise the neck. Then I might try using different scales (there's often more than one scale option for any given chord - especially dominant chords). Then what I'll do is take a motive extracted from the relevant scale and take it through the chord changes, changing scale as per the chord as above, then in different rhythms like triplet quavers, perhaps with (linear) triads.

There's no end to it, but I should practice (and learn) other tunes...

[Richard Barrett]

I just practised Stella by Starlight for an hour and a half.

You know this one maybe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxS7nr0eS3Q

[Joseph K]

Yes, I know that. For prepared guitar. Bailey pretty much ignores the changes though, except when playing the melody at the beginning and end. It's nice though. But for me, I am interested in playing the changes.

[Richard Barrett]

For prepared guitar.

I don't think he was doing anything with preparations by the time he recorded this, though. Of course I wasn't holding it up as an example of how anyone else should do it! Your mention of "Stella" just reminded me that I hadn't listened to Ballads for a long time. Actually, as you probably know, the album is more like an unbroken "stream of consciousness" during which DB makes more or less tangential references to different tunes he would have played at the start of his career before he struck out on the free-improvisation pathway. When I first heard it I was quite amazed that he even remembered any of them after so long, and it's often obvious (though not with this tune) that he still knows the changes even if he only hints at them. I find it a very touching and thought-provoking album...

Since I'm here: I've been working on a piece for double bass and 8-piece ensemble; it has four movements, of which one can also be played as a separable trio for percussion (gongs and steel drum), harp and bass, and that one is finished so far. The idea was that it should be a companion piece to Scelsi's Okanagon for the same trio, which consists of slow, deep resonances, which influenced my decision to make this one the complete opposite: the bass is in its highest register playing harmonics almost throughout, so that all three instruments occupy the same range of pitches, in which they mostly play a sort of nervous mosaic of ostinati.

[Joseph K]

Sounds interesting. I am quite fond of gongs and steel drums.

[BBMmk2]

I’m finding, with my current project, arranging for big bandis a medium I quite enjoy. I think there may be other commissions to follow.