My second master class was good.  The group sounded more together this time around than the first.  Not sure if that comes from shedding on tunes or just getting more comfortable playing around each other.  Right now the line up is tenor, alto, trumpet, drums, bass and piano…  just like the Miles Davis sextet from Kind of Blue.  I still need to play out more…  at least I think I do.  It could be that I just can’t hear myself.  I do not want to play over top of everyone but I also want to pull my own weight too.  I may check with the other horns and see if they can hear me ok.

One really cool thing is two of the musicians live in my neighborhood.  We already hooked up this past Thursday to shed on some tunes and it was a lot of fun.  A guitar player (who was really good) joined us and shared some valuable info on approaching different chord changes.  Still, I think right now I get the biggest benefit alone with my horn working on my weaknesses.  There are many but I am not discouraged.  I may try to hook up with the tenor player and do some practice.  From talking to him we are working on similar things.

I haven’t played at church since my last journal entry.  I was supposed to play last Sunday but I missed rehearsal with the organist.  I could have probably tried it cold Sunday morning but I didn’t feel very comfortable doing that.  I’m going to play a song called “He Touched Me” second Sunday this month.  I’ve heard that many people (including our Pastor!) look forward to me playing again and is extremely encouraging.  I also got a surprise CD from my choir director by a trumpet player named Rod McGaha.  It’s called “Trumpet Sounds” and it is really good.  She also included a very encouraging note and eluded to a few opportunities playing with the choir when I sing.  That would be fantastic.

One thing that drives me nuts about my playing is 4th line D.  It is horribly flat.  When I play tunes that require me to sit on that note (Freddie Freeloader is a great example) it is like pouring lemon juice in my eyes…  ok…  maybe not that bad but it is ROUGH.  The strange thing is E, F and G above that come out fine to my ears.  I usually end up lipping it up but the initial attack is almost always wrong.  I have quite a few old mouthpieces laying around and I noticed that it is better (or worse) depending on what I piece I use.  I need to figure something out so I don’t go into convulsions every time I see it coming on a sheet of music notated in a half or whole note.

As to what I am working on — I’ve been spending more time on jazz than anything else.  If I gave a ratio, I’d say 60% jazz, 40% fundamentals.  The jazz studies include scales, playing through changes using chord tones only (great exercise similar to note limiting) and improv on tunes we are doing for the master class.  “A Train” showed up again and as usual it kicked my butt.  After some serious study (chord tone solos) and listening to the greats perform it (I have a great version with Ella scatting with Duke) I think I have a better handle on it.  Listening to the records REALLY helped me hear some things that I had not before.  Never underestimate LISTENING to jazz.  It is very, very important for development.