Musings

Wine With Sunset by Adam Dawson

Sunset Behemoth by Evan Leeson

Here’s a Reggae style piece I did recently that was inspired by my love of being on the ocean, aboard a ship.

One of my favourite places / times is at sunset at the back of the ship, where there’s usually a bar overlooking the stern. You can’t beat watching the sun go down over the ocean while you sail away from all your cares.

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“trio” by chacabuco

Here’s a really simple 12 bar blues piece I did in about 30 minutes on the WX5 with MixPad.

I can imagine three different versions of me sitting on a front porch somewhere in the Autumn sun drinking a few cold beers, and playing this.

The voices are Trumpet (#5), Clarinet (#99) and Air Sax (#10).

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For the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on this rendition of Bach’s Fugue in G Minor “The Little” (BWV 578).

I’ve driven our entire house crazy with it, and now my poor wife, Liz, can’t get the tune out of her head. And I can’t stop whistling it and humming it as I walk around.

I think I could do better than this, but I’m sharing this with you because if I know someone listens to it, I’ll try harder next time. Despite my clumsy attempts and the slow pace I took it at, I love this piece. Bach is a genius. This music is just as enjoyable now as it was hundreds of years ago when he wrote it. I love the way the different phrases echo from each part.

This arrangement is in four parts, for four saxophones. I recorded each track separately on my WX5 using the Floboe for Soprano and Alto parts, Trumpet for Tenor part, and Baritone sax for Baritone part. At one place, when the trumpet had a two bar sustained note, I was really tempted to throw in an improvised jazz lick, but in the end I decided not to because I need to play it better before trying something like that.

It’s hard to play this on a wind instrument because you have bars and bars of semi-quavers, and no room to breathe.

Anyway, if you listen to it, please let me know. I’ll try hard to play better next time!

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Here’s a simple lullaby.

I picked out the simplest chord progression I could find, (I IV V) threw in a simple bridge (ii I ii V) and played a few different parts on different tracks. (Air Sax, Floboe, Bass Clarinet). The piano accompaniment is a what I got when I plugged the chords into Band in Box).

It’s amazing how something beautiful can come out of something so simple.

The pics are of my sister, brother and me as babies.

Hope you like it

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Here’s some more live music from our jam session this morning.

As with previous sessions, Brian picks the chords on the guitar, and I improvise on the WX5 playing whatever music seems to fit.

The end result has plenty of mistakes. We could have tidied it up post-mix, but the aim of the exercise is to create something fresh, and real, rather than make something tidy and manufactured.

Life, Friends and Music mean more when they’re real – when you can see the flaws, but you know that what you see is what you get, and you like it anyway.

I hope you like them

1. Happy Day (Floboe and Guitar)
We just started warming up with this song at the start and didn’t intend to record it, but we were having fun with it, so we decided to record it. Every Saturday is a happy day for me – it’s a lot of fun to sit down for an hour and make music.

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2. Almost Knockin’ (Floboe & Guitar)
This one was an exercise on a known chord progression. The chords on this song are the same as “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” except we’ve thrown a bridge in the middle. The hard thing is NOT to play the tune you’re used to hearing, but to create something new.

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3. Little Boy Blues (Clarinet & Guitar).
I love what Brian does on the guitar on this one. It’s a delight to learn with such a talented musician. I don’t know how he can do so much on one instrument.
This one’s cheeky. I think the blues teach you not to take yourself, or life too seriously. Kids teach you this too, so perhaps Kids and the Blues are related some way?

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4. Minor Tears (Air Sax & Guitar)
The Air Sax has a haunting quality about it. It’s ideal for slow minor blues. You might notice it “squeaks” a bit in the high register. That’s not through bad fingering. The tone generator is programmed to “break” when it goes up high. I suppose whoever created that voice thought that something so sad should have a few cracks in it.

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5. Evensong (Trumpet & Guitar)
When I close my eyes playing this, I’m sitting on a hillside, playing a smooth trumpet, watching the sun go down.

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Dammit! I have a cold, I’m as contagious as the plague, my voice is so deep I sound like I have three gonads, and I can’t go to music tomorrow.

So I did the next best thing and played a classical clarinet trio with two people I know pretty well – me and myself.

The piece is Rondo (from Divertimento IV) by Mozart.

I chose this piece because although it looks easy, the timing is a bit of a challenge. And I need to improve my timing.

Hope you enjoy it!

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Brian sounds amazing on the sax.

Here’s a few pieces we recorded on Saturday with Brian playing Soprano & Tenor sax, and me on WX5 as Clarinet and Flugel Horn.

The backing tracks for the Bond tracks are great to play along to. But the raw and real feeling of that last blues piece, with no backing track – I really enjoy that.

Here’s a piece Brian and I did a couple of weeks ago as part of my lesson.

It’s “C Jam Blues” by Duke Ellington.

The Drums, Bass and Piano are on a backing track.

I’m playing the brass quartet at the start, plus the clarinet, trombone and trumpet, all on the WX5.

Brian’s playing guitar.

This is one of the reasons the WX5 is so much fun to play – there are so many different instruments available. the challenging part is that when you play a “trumpet” it’s important to think like a trumpet. When you play like a trombone, imagine you’re playing a trombone, and how you’d like it to sound. I have to adjust my playing technique depending on the type of instrument I’m trying to mimic, otherwise it doesnt sound convincing.

With this piece, although we in front of us the chord progression that Ellington used, we improvised all of what we played.

One thing Brian has taught me about improvisation is that it’s not about trying to play every riff and lick in your repertoire. It’s all about fitting in with your fellow players, and with the ideas that the composer originally had.

It’s real music, and it’s a lot of fun.

One of the highlights of my week is my jazz music lessons with a fantastic musician named Brian Hayes.

Each week I bring my WX5 and he teaches me as he plays along on Guitar, Sax, Flute or Clarinet. I find it really enjoyable, and am continually amazed at his wonderful musicianship.

Late last year, Brian suggested we record our session. He played some tunes on his guitar, and got me to improvise on the WX5, playing whatever I wanted. I made lots of mistakes, but we decided to record it “as is”, and these songs are the result. We called the collection “Warts and All”.

Thinking of Lizzie

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Elephant Blues

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Cheeky Liquorice

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Black Brassy Blues

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Frightfully Flugel

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Laid Back Fanfare

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Morning Reed

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Not Quite Danny

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Saxsquito

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Sunset Blue

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For each song, I chose a different voice on the VL-70m synthesizer – the challenge being to select the most appropriate voice, and to play it in such a way that my style suites it. I find brass, clarinet and flute voices fairly easy. Sax voices are difficult to do well.

If you can look beyond my mistakes in these songs, I hope you can get an idea of how much fun this is!