Chinese Proverb

"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I'll understand." - Chinese Proverb.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Lesson #57 (Jazz #14 03/18/12): Intonation

During this lesson we worked on intonation, and went over just intonation versus equal temperament.

He said a good rule of thumb when working in a duet, is to first tune to open strings D, G, A and then C. I think he said that D had the strongest resonance in a cello and I should always pay attention to make sure my cello is resonating to get the best sound, so adjusting to the D before the G is better.

We went through Country Dance and we drew little arrows to show whether it was supposed to be played a little lower or higher. He admitted that it's tedious work to go through note by note, but after awhile I should start remembering if the note should be played a little higher or lower with respect to the other notes. I don’t think I’m good enough to adjust each note when I need to, but it definitely is good practice and its good to know / hear when the notes are off and why they are.

When I was listening to the duet practice recording, I thought we sounded pretty out of tune, but I was listening to my cello and it was resonating fairly well so I didn't think I was off, but with respect to the other note I was!


Clayton recommended that I play these pieces against a drone, which I have been, but I wasn't able to hear and recognize when I was off. Especially B flat against the open D string since haven't played any pieces with B flat before.

Assignments:
1) Continue working on Goodear.com intervals – 10 min a day
  • I seem to hear 'Increasing Intervals with Prime, 3rds, 5ths and Octaves,' but for some reason I can't recognize them in Decreasing Intervals! I asked Clayton if there was a way to recognize this easier, and he said I just had to practice it, and to stop working on Increasing Intervals and focus on Decreasing Intervals! He said specifically for me since I don't have a lot of time I need to focus on things I don't do well in. How did he know I wasn't practicing Decreasing Intervals as much? LOL! 
  • I started a log to track what I was getting correct, so hopefully by the end of the month I'll have tangible proof that I'm getting better. Although I am able to start recognizing things now, which is pretty cool. 

2) Jamey Aebersold’s The II-V7-I Progression Vol 3
  • Read through the book
  • Work on pages 25 & 26 
  • Listen for intervals and chord changes, follow along first
  • Try to play along
  • Play the arpeggios (the blackened in notes)

3) Jamey Aebersold's Nothin But Blues work on page 29
  • Read through book
  • Follow along and try to recognize and hear the chord changes
  • Try to play-along to the CD

4) Work on intonation with duets 
  • Use a drone
  • Really listen to see if the notes are in tune 
  • Play double stops 


No comments:

Post a Comment