I like this explanation and suggestion very much. I studied composition with Lou Harrison, who never "got into" jazz, but was considered one of America's leading composers. His music was involved in notes carefully tuned by mathematical ratios. When he explained this, an audience member asked, "when you are playing, do you actually think of this?" Harrison replied, "Of course. Music is just emotional mathematics." It was because of his deep and intuitive understanding of the underlying harmonic theory that Mozart was able to produce such a massive amount of great music in a short amount of time. For all the talk of "Inspiration coming from God" and "It was written like he was just taking dictation," there is great clarity in Mozart's music, and it's structure is dictated by the harmony. In many ways, jazz is spontaneously applied harmony. Dizzy Gillespie was said to be a great master of harmonic theory, which he could apply at incredible speed in his bebop trumpet improvisations.
Yeah, I'm right with you on that. Check out the codas for 'The Chosen' and 'Freedomland': the subtlety of what's added is flipping magical. Thank you Russell!
Notes 1,2,7. And building on these avoids the major minor feeling of the typical chord in jazz . It is a more ambiguous sound interesting. The mind is looking for that third in any case.
if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. the satisfaction of of putting the time, practive and patience (in any worthwhile endeavor, really) is that the payoff is much more enduring and long lasting... and REAL!
To me the YellowJackets music is too powerful to NOT be hanging on his every word regarding theory and mathematics. If that's how Russell creates the Yellowjackets sound then it's important (to me at least)--I NEED some of that in my music. Thank you, Russell.
That wasn't a lesson. It was more like a master class. Anyway, it was really good advice. Those intervallic melodic patterns don't have to sound stiff and mechanical. They're a big part of "storytelling"...taking a listener on a journey. Playing scales up and down doesn't give the listener anything to follow...Melodic patterns achieve that.
I agree that theory is very important, but to me the emotion and feel is everything. You can't learn that you have to be born with it. That leaves a lasting impression on the listener as opposed to mostly head-based playing that tends to go over the average listener's head...
well when it comes down to the theory, it is all math. And thats the incredible thing about playing on a standard these guys do. All they do is be a musical calculator but put a human aspect into it which makes it musical (instead of math) and emotional. It takes a lot of practicing and real understanding (on a subconsciousness level. It becomes second nature) of harmony and rythmic theory. And that's the frustrating part. It takes a lot of time, practice and patience to get on such a level.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I think it's the combination of his soft spoken but intense speech pattern, his "unusal" eyes, and overall physical appearance, but he could pass for Malkovich's long lost cousin or something.
