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08/10/2024 - First Lesson

-              Discussion of previous experience

-              Playing through jazz standard Just Friends by John Klenner from memory + improvisation over form

-              Self-evaluation of choices made while improvising

-              Discussion regarding collaboration and the way playing with another instrument can influence improvisational choices

-              Playing up and down arpeggios going around the circle of fifths (major 7s, minor 7s, diminished 7s and half diminished 7s)

-              Evaluating why this exercise positively impacts improvisation and lets the chord changes become more prevalent and acknowledged in improvisations

-              Given chord chart of unfamiliar jazz standard and improvising to a click using only the arpeggios of the chords to reflect the chord changes

-              Doing same exercise but this time trading fours with teacher

-              Discussing what contributes to an advanced improvisation: rhythmic variation/interest, advanced acknowledgement and musical reference to chord changes, the importance of leaving space

-              Discussion of relevance of transcription to independent practice: importance of transcribing a solo purely by ear and learning the exact phrasing, tone, sensitivity in addition to the notes themselves + transcribing and notating a solo on manuscript paper

-              Brief discussion of learning 2 5 1 licks and how they can be applied within improvisation (learning technique being to find a nice lick, and learning it in all keys so it can be applied to an improvisation when looking at a chord chart and recognising a 2 5 1)

22/10/2024

-              Developing the use/practice of extended scales

-              Forming scale patterns and working around the circle of fifths (1231)

-              Ear training: listening to a lick and playing it back to test memory and ability to coordinate it with fingers

-              Testing of sightreading ability

-              Sightreading a solo from Pat Harbison’s “20 ‘Authentic’ Bebop Jazz Solos’’ along with a click so as not to rely on rhythm + note implications a piano accompaniment can provide

-              Going back on phrases to solidify notes

-              Discussion of how to approach articulation

-              Taking a phrase of consecutive swung quavers and mechanically tonguing  each second and fourth quaver – gradually speeding up and also working to make it sound more natural

-              Playing through Wayne Shorter’s “One by One”, and taking a solo two times over the form

-              Discussion of choices made during solo and working through the arpeggios of each chord within the form

Soloing over form again but limiting to notes within chord arpeggios – aiming to place emphasis on either the 3rdor the 7that the beginning of each bar

01/11/2024

Further emphasis on exercises which improve technique

Rehearsing Harbison's solo and analysing changes made/improvements VS areas to focus on

14/11/2024

Introduction to Bouncing With Bud by Bud Powell

Learning fragments of the tune by ear

Then placing more emphasis on understanding the harmonic content

Experimenting with call and response as a way of unleashing unexpected improvised lines as influenced by someone else's approach to the chords

28/11/2024

Polishing the accuracy of written melody

Discussing how engaging with the an audience becomes more intuitive when one has memorised the pieces being played

Applying chordal knowledge to improvisations and evaluating how to approach fast chord changes

06/01/2025

-              Timing pieces to decide how long the improvisation should be on Bouncing With Bud

-              Determined the logical order in which the pieces should be played

-              Rehearsed the order and discussed how to further personalise my interpretation of the repertoire

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23rd of October 2024

Leyla Cemiloglu

Solo classical piano recital

In PATS Studio 1

13th of November 2024

Student lunchtime pop/jazz recital

Band 1: Matt Brown (vocals), Ahan Sengupta (guitar), Jacob Treasure (bass), Callum Little (drums)

Band 2: Jay Mckechnie (vocals), Ahan Sengupta (guitar), Eoin O'Connor (bass), Callum Little (drums)

Band 3: Ahan Sengupta (guitar), Joel Allison (bass), Callum Little (drums)

Band 4: Millie Castillo (vocals), Nicholas Groom (guitar), Jacob Treasure (bass), Roko Orosnjak (drums),

In PATS Studio 1

15th of November 2024

Redtenbacher's Funkestra: Brothers In Funk

Pete Billington (keyboards), Piers Green (tenor saxophone), Terry Lewis (guitar), Stefan Redtenbacher (bass), Mike Sturgis (drums)

In The Boileroom, Guildford

20th of November 2024

Silvano

A "surreal interactive immersive audio & visual experience with installation by Augustine Leudar"

In PATS Studio 1

23rd of November 2024

Guildford Symphony Orchestra

Romance and Revolution

In the G Live Main Auditorium

1st of December 2024

BAP!

Sam Bullard (alto saxophone), Chris Allard (guitar), Joe Pettitt (bass)

In The Hopyard Brewing and Co.

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BAP!’s performance demonstrated a high level of how to engage an audience both musically and socially. The performers were dressed casually to align with the more intimate size of the venue, and established the way the audience should perceive them from the moment they stepped on stage – humorous and passionate. Their repertoire was solely original unreleased jazz music of theirs, and each tune came with a unique story regarding its inspiration. They were deeply focused during their improvisations but remained present and engaging to bring the audience into the emotions they were conveying with their music. Their performance highlighted the way intimacy and uniqueness can draw an audience in and leave them both inspired and connected as a unit.

The Guildford Symphony Orchestra aligned closely with the conventions of a classical performance, and thus allowed the music to feel polished and technically advanced. Between each symphony the conductor would bow and acknowledge the audience, but other than that there was a clear division between the audience and the performers. The attire was formal and coherent amongst the musicians, which meant the audience dressed accordingly, and the demonstration of advanced technical ability was somewhat expected as a result of such polished aesthetics. The repertoire was a journey through the Romantic era, and although there was a division between the audience and the performers there was a deep sense of engagement to the music and understanding of the period. This performance highlighted the way formality does not exclude the audience, but rather provokes a focused state of listening.

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6th of November 2024

9am-2:30pm (1:10pm concert)

Performers: Bruna Da Silva (voice), Nadine Tabanji (voice), Sona Mohubaliyeva (voice), Yanran Xiong (voice), Joseph Oates (saxophone), James Warren (drums), Jacob Treasure (bass), Joey Price (keys), Margaret Roberts (piano),

Management Team: Yaman Ugural (coordinator), Callum Little (manager), Seth Nel & Emilie Rowley (assistants), Dan Fearson, George Hopper & Nicole Jessop (Tonmeisters)

Evaluation Of The Day

Dressed in smart all blacks

Asked by one of the accompanists to pass message onto concert manager in regards to the order of the programme

Assisting with page turning during rehearsals before the musicians had stuck their parts together yet

Given unfolded prints of the programme and folded them

Stood in entrance once doors were open to welcome/direct audience members and hand out programmes

After ensuring no further audience wanted to enter we closed the doors to allow for a prompt start to the concert

We then sat at the seats closest to the entrance in case there was a disruption to the concert/someone wanted to enter or exit the performance space

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After Lesson 1

Extended practice of arpeggios on basic triads, dominant/major/minor sevenths

Solidifying exercises around the circle of fifths

Struggled to maintain consistent accuracy so spent time playing exercises to a metronome and only increased the bpm once I was playing accurately at least 3 times in a row

Found more unfamiliar chord charts and pushed myself to make the chord changes clear without accompaniment improvising

After Lesson 2

Broke down Pat Harbison's solo into its five sections and treated them as separate pieces

Recorded myself playing each section at a slow bpm and the correct BPM to analyse the musical arc/interest I was creating at that time and to establish which elements of the "pieces" required further attention (whether from an accuracy or a musical point of view)

Took each melodic line that had a fair amount of consecutive quavers and practiced tonging the second and fourth quavers to develop a strong basic swing feel

Then experimented with where slurs may add to the musicality and create a less mechanical sounding feel

Went back and paid particular attention to the note lengths and rests to ensure that my interpretation of the solo was an accurate representation of the intended note length value

Decided on a few moments within the piece where it felt more instinctual to fluctuate the length of the rests in order to play the solo with feeling - instead of resulting in a completely mechanical approach

After Lesson 3

Re-recorded the solo at the correct BPM and compared my varied musical approaches in the recordings

Determined the strongest elements between both recordings, and attempted to implement them as much as possible (dynamic choices, articulation, loose VS steady feel, tone etc)

Worked on tone outside of the piece by playing sustained notes and adjusting mouth position and airflow incrementally to access a sound with

Struggled to find a growl which positively contributed to the texture of the piece - despite its general coherence with the style

Determined that the tonally strongest approach came from a combined open throat and stronger air pressure

Used a metronome to play the solo at a faster BPM than intended until it was comfortably swinging, and then decreased the BPM to its correct time which made it a lot easier to swing in a natural and relaxed way

After Lesson 4

Used Bud Powell's recording of Bouncing With Bud to learn the tune by ear and therefore allow for a more expressive and unrestricted recital of the piece

First revised what had been learnt in the lesson by playing along with the section of the track we had learnt

Then used the track at its original speed to see what other phrases were being picked up naturally

After this I used an app named Amazing Slow-Downer to decrease the speed of the recording without lowering its pitch, and learnt the tune chronologically

This helped my accuracy with the more complex lines within the piece and also influenced my understanding of the harmonic content since I was listening to it repeatedly at a slower tempo

I gradually increased the speed of the recording until I was comfortably playing the entire head at full speed

I then, again, increased the speed slightly beyond its original to ensure the entire melody was comfortably in my fingers before returning to the intended tempo

With this I began to evaluate the dynamic and textural approach I wanted to take with my interpretation of the tune

After Lesson 5

Wrote out notes of each chord within the piece to have an advanced understanding of how to improvise over the structure

Practiced using arpeggios to do a simple but harmonically accurate improvisation over the form

Allowed myself to improvise more freely but remaining faithful to the chordal information provided

After Lesson 6

Arranged several rehearsals with my trio (Joseph Oates on piano, Jacob Treasure on bass)

First played both tunes without much prior discussion to see what musical content may come of natural musical communication

Next developed a strong ending to Pat Harbison's solo by going around two bars, then moving them up a tone, and then playing the two bars in their original key again to form a unique sense of a conclusive turnaround

We then moved onto discussing the structure of the written tune and the improvisation and determined the correct balance between improvising and written playing

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Participating in the University Choir most notably affected my ability to contribute to a strong ensemble sound and communicate musical adoration during performance. Our warmups focused intently on the importance of letting passion shine through while performing a given piece, and also being able to demonstrate a high level of technical ability. Our repertoire included a range of choral music - from John Rutter's Shepards Pipe Carol to Jean Sibelius's Finlandia, and gave me the opportunity to perform music I was unfamiliar with. Our rehearsals also involved attention to not only learning complex vocal harmonies, but understanding how to place and balance them within the context of an ensemble. I learnt the importance of viewing an ensemble as a unit, and performing as such to let the unit shine rather than placing emphasis on a sole member within it.