Old Town School – On The Road

Dispatches from the road from our wayfaring travelers.

Waiting for a melody to bite

This past week some of the participants have been meeting with Dave to work on writing. It’s been really interesting to hear what people have come up with and also, of course to hear Dave’s insight into the process.

He has given us the task of writing a piece one page long, three voices, no chord symbols. (For those of us who don’t write down ideas but record them, this is a challenge). Having these parameters makes you focus on the essense of the ideas you want to get across – to present them in a concise way.

One of the pieces I performed at Telejazz on Thursday night was Dogstar, a Dave Douglas piece from the album Moonshine. This piece is one page long, just 2 parts, but very effective and really sets a mood.

Supposedly Bill Frisell said something interesting about composing – that the melodies and ideas are like fish in an ocean. They are ought there to be caught. You just have to be patient. And Gerry Granelli, the drummer who just left last night said after one improvisation session – “the music is already written, you just have to hear it.”

So it’s Sunday, the next get-together us writers is tomorrow morning and I’m hoping to finish an idea I have. It’s very simple, but I’d like to develop it more and I’m having trouble coming up with a melody. So we’ll see – I have a bit more time, my cello, a practice room and a fishing pole….

Filed under: Banff International Workshop 2009,Canada,Notes from Alison by Alison | May 31, 2009 | Comments (1)


1 Comment so far

  1. Jason on June 3, 2009 10:39 am

    “So we’ll see – I have a bit more time, my cello, a practice room and a fishing pole….”

    Beautiful!

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