CREATING COMPELLING INTROS On-line Workshop

Berkeley CA

Description

Saturday February 5th 6:00-8:30pm EST On-line through the California Jazz Conservatory http://cjc.vbotickets.com/event/creating_compelling_intros/63792 Intros are an essential ingredient to capturing your listener's attention and setting a particular mood. If you play piano or guitar in an ensemble that includes a dedicated melody instrument (like a sax) or a vocalist, problem solved. But what if you're playing in a trio with just bass and drums, or even solo? How can you distinguish your intro from the melody clearly? How can you create a compelling intro that's original, yet still retains some essence of the original piece? Finally, how can you expand the scope of a piece by incorporating your new intro into the repeating form of a piece? The first part of this workshop will survey many of the classic intro techniques for participants who are starting to get comfortable playing jazz in a group. The second part will be geared towards more advanced players and arranger/composers who want to feel more invested in a song by creating an original intro. Here, we’ll examine approaches that will allow you to not only draw from different sections of a song, but also different elements as well. Participants of all levels will find this second part of the workshop enlightening and inspiring. You’ll hear four distinct techniques for new intros through these songs: * Stella By Starlight / My Romance / Have You Met Miss Jones? (medium swing) * Sno Peas / The Merry-Go-Round Of Life (jazz waltz) Prerequisite: a basic knowledge of jazz theory. Michael Smolens is a pianist/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist who has been composing and arranging for nearly six decades. His commissions include Meet The Composer, The Fleishhacker and Bernard Osher Foundations, National Public Radio, UCSC Dance Department, The Occidental Choir,, New York sculptor Rita Blitt, and by many vocalists, contemporary churches, and festivals. Michael has recorded seven CDs under his name that cover jazz, gospel, classical, world music, and free improvisation. (Samples can be heard at https://soundcloud.com/michaelsmolens). He has performed or recorded with instrumentalists Stefon Harris, Zakir Hussain, Paul McCandless, Akira Tana, Alan Hall, Paul Hanson, Sheldon Brown, Erik Jekabson, David Balakrishnan, Evan Price, and Bobby McFerrin vocal collaborators Rhiannon, David Worm, Bryan Dyer, Katy Stephen, and Claudia Schmidt. Michael has been teaching privately and in universities since 1974, and coaching other freelance teachers since 2000.