December 20, 2014: Sam Bullard

Many thanks to Sam Bullard for an interesting session in which we covered:

Bernie’s Tune” by Bernie Miller
Reunion” by Gerry Mulligan

Bernie’s Tune” was taught to us by ear before sheets were handed out. We were also taught a phrase to play over the first two chords that highlighted the transition between the D- and Bb7#11 in the first two chords, using the F melodic minor for the latter.

Reunion” is a contrafact on “There will never be another you“, the melody to which is almost exclusively diatonic to Eb major. Sam made us all improvise solos using only Eb major which forces you to be more melodic rather than you might otherwise be.

[Full report unavailable, Christmas got in the way]

Many thanks to Sam for and enjoyable session as always.

May 18, 2013: Sam Bullard

Many thanks to Sam Bullard for a testing session in which we covered:

“Rhythm-a-ning” by Thelonious Monk
“Evidence” by Thelonious Monk

Sam started by teaching us “Rhythm-a-ning” by ear before handing out the rhythm changes on which this tune is based.

“Evidence” was played after the break, though mercifully we were given the lead sheets for this.

Throughout the session the emphasis was on rhythm and several exercises involving note placement were performed. To start with, single note stabs were played over the A section of Rhythm-a-ning with the first note being on the first beat of the bar, the second note on the second beat of the bar and so on until the fourth. We then took a simple phrase through the same thing. Finally, we repeated the process but with the three note phrase from the end of bar 4 to start bar 5 Rhythm-a-ning but this time moving a half beat and noting how the character of the phrase.

Thanks again to Sam for an interesting session.

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