For my June 2007 podcast, here’s an interview I conducted with Andrew Lawrence while I was attending Django In June in Northampton, Massachusetts. Andrew is founder of the Community Guitar Program, as well as being the director and coordinator of Django In June, the only annual music camp in North America dedicated to the pursuit [...]
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Here’s my final formal post on Django In June ’07. I’ll try to encapsulate how this experience has changed me, and which direction I’m likely to take in my musical development as a result. But first… what was it like? Well… read my other posts, for starters. The details describe the experience fairly well. Nevertheless, [...]
Friday, June 22, 2007
Wayne Nakamura of HyperHip Media has just posted a couple of videos from the Saturday June 16 concert on Youtube. Enjoy!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Andrew had warned us: on the last morning, many of us would be either exhausted or heading out. Nevertheless – in a final display of commitment to this experience – many Django Campers are attending the last seminar of the week, at 10am! Not me. I’m done for. Fingers are hurting, I haven’t slept much [...]
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Tunes of the day: Djangology Douce Ambiance Morning session: improvisation with Biel Ballester (Barcelona, Spain) What was covered: Djangology: learned to practice changes with arpeggios. Learned two chord substitutions for the second chord in the piece. Instead of C dim, play basic triad: with F#, play D7 with G natural, play Cmin 6 (“planar cadence”) [...]
Friday, June 15, 2007
Tunes of the day: Dark Eyes Swing 39 morning session Рimprovisation John McGann (Berklee) What was covered: Metronome practice fundamentals. Also learned a specific scale for improvising over Dark Eyes. John prefers (and advocates) mid-tempo playing over fast, because breathing space makes for more inventiveness, less reliance on licks and clich̩s. Lessons learned: Do [...]
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Tunes of the day: Swing ’42 Swing Gitan Morning session – imrovisation Vladimir Mollov (Bulgaria, via Philadelphia) (sorry, forgot to take some pictures!) What was covered: In a guitar heavy camp, I was one of the only guitar players in the session. Role-reversal with players on other instruments. Vlado kept it simple. His focus was [...]
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
N.B. for the remainder of this camp diary, I will use a summary format (as in today’s post) to describe the seminars and other noteworthy camp offerings and events. Tunes of the Day: Minor Swing Django’s Castle Morning session – improv with Michael Horowitz (Seattle, WA) What was covered: How to get started on vocabulary [...]
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
For the trip down to Massachusetts I’ve hooked up with Michel Gaudette, another Montrealer who will be attending the event. After a five-hour road trip, we arrive in Northampton on a fine June late afternoon, and make our way straight to Smith College. First impressions? This place is just gorgeous! Obviously, the founders of Smith [...]
Saturday, June 9, 2007
In a few days, I’ll be heading south of the (Canadian) border, for a week-long vacation in Northampton, Massachussetts. Why Northampton? What’s so special about the place? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were allegedly spawned there. One of my all-time favorite movies – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – was filmed (in part) in Northampton. According [...]
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Sunday, June 24, 2007
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