Jazz Artists

Since I'm planning on returning to school to study jazz, I've been growing a list of artists that I like. Most of the artists I'm finding are contemporary and I have a feeling I'm getting a fairly biased view because of my sources and the influence they have on what I can find, but nonetheless I'm posting a list here and updating it as I go of artists I've found and enjoy.

In no particular order:

• Albert Ayler
• Gatemouth Moore
• Max Roach
• John Lewis
• Sun Ra
• Thelonious Monk
• Art Taylor
• George Duvivier
• Django Reinhardt
• Bud Powel
• Joe Williams
• Count Basie
• Art Tatum
• Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton
• McCoy Tyner

Also, as I find sources on the internet, I'll post them as well. For now you could go look at http://www.espdisk.com/.

DAW??

First Lesson

I attended my first lesson on Monday. I have posted the notes and what I learned in the lesson. Obviously I've found some holes in my own understanding of what the teacher said, so if something looks incorrect or if you think that something is missing, please let me know - email or comment.

Spring & Summer Lessons

I went to the Conservatory of Music and signed up for summer and spring lessons. I signed up for lessons for the remainder of the spring - two one hour lessons - and the summer as well - eight weeks of 30 min. lessons. I'll be able to get a good idea about where I stand after years of not being active on the piano in the first lessons; the summer should be plenty of time to prepare for the audition.

I'll have access to a piano at the conservatory which will make it easier on me while I'm trying to figure out where to get a keyboard and which one to get. The requirements I was told for the jazz audition were to be able to read chord symbols and improvise over two tones. I assume that the reading chord symbols will be fairly easy and that I'll probably be doing most of that work on my own outside of the lessons. I went to Barnes & Noble today and purchased Scales, Intervals, Keys, Triads, Rhythm, and Meter which was the recommended text to prepare for the written theory exam. Hopefully this will be good enough to get me ready to read chord symbols as well. As for the improv - I assume that this is mostly what I will be working on with my teacher.

Goals and Plans

This blog is to track my progress through my music studies. I have already completed an undergraduate degree in General Studies. I will be returning to school to complete a second undergraduate degree & eventually graduate work to be able to teach at the college level.

I've registered at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette as a Music Theory/Composition major. My goal is to complete my bachelors of music theory/composition & progress to masters and doctorate work. As of now I'd like to do my graduate work at the University of North Texas; they offer a masters and doctorate of music composition that I want to pursue. During the summers as I complete my undergraduate work, I'd like to study at the Acadiana Conservatory of Music here in Lafayette. This would allow me to get different perspectives on technique, theory, style, and teaching method. The summer after my undergrad work is done, I'd like to attend one of the summer programs offered by the NCVS (National Center for Voice and Speach); they offer a different approach to looking at the voice that I think would add value to my studies and make me stand out in graduate studies and as a future teacher.

I have a long way to go before I can accomplish all of this. There are many other things that I want to incorporate into my studies as well. I'm in a good position already having a bachelor's degree; I hopefully won't have to worry about anything other than coursework that is relevant to music. This should allow me to broaden my focus from the theory/composition work to include my primary instrument - the piano - as well as two secondary instruments - the guitar and the voice.

As I accomplish this I hope to use this space to organize my thoughts and convey them to an audience. I'm hoping to use this blog to teach myself how to teach other people - at least in written form. I'd value any comments that anyone reading this could give me & thank anyone that takes the time to read my blog; hopefully you'll find something interesting here that will help you in your own studies of music.