weeks thoughts

It's been an interesting week or so.

Thinking when was the last time I wrote here? Must have been a couple of weeks ago.

I guess I'll go back to New Years Eve. We had a bunch of rehearsals in the lead up to it. I wasn't really so keen to be honest, but the singers and Alex wanted it to be good. The agent made a big fuss about everything, so there was more on the line for them. I didn't really have any excuses not to rehearse anyway, since it's been very quiet for me these days. The problem I had was that the 3 singers had over a hundred songs between them. We needed about 20-25 for the 3 x 45 min sets. And we got the 'final' list a day before the gig (and we still changed it on the gig).

I caught a bit of a cold, so wasn't feeling that well. We had a couple hours wasting time trying to get the sound decent. All the monitors were linked with the mains so there could only be one mix. In the end we just got it as best as possible and let it go.

It was in the tallest building in Shanghai. On the 53rd floor (they have another bar on the 92nd too). Not sure what the event was for, but I think it was for all the guests in the hotels NYE celebration. They had balloons stacked with a big net up near the top of the room. Must have been up around the top of the building (because they took a minute to float down). So a minute before countdown they let the balloons go as we brought in the new year.

Gotto admit it was a fun one. We were doing pop and rock, which I don't usually enjoy so much. But this was NYE and we had a big crowd. Maybe 3-500 people? So with that kind of energy, it would be pretty hard not to enjoy yourself.

Some of the tunes in the last set, people were going nuts. 'It's my Life' by Bon Jovi and 'Bad Guy' by ....(forgot... some new pop singer) were the crowd favourites. I felt like a rock star up there. 3 singers, keys, guitar, bass, drums, and sax.

When the balloons came down we were meant to play a couple more, but the balloons covered everything! It was like an ocean! Haha. Not only that but people stormed the stage and were dancing. So we were done.

Was a bit dangerous too, as there broken glasses and kids running around (they love balloons!), and electric wires, people in a sea of balloons. I had to swim down to find my ipad, which luckily wasn't broken.

Since I don't drink, I thought I'd try split early and get a taxi. So I wished everyone a happy new year, packed up and went down. Still took over an hour to get one, and I had to pay an extra 50 just to seal the deal.

......

The next day I was lucky enough to have another event which came up a couple of days before out of the blue. It was with Por Que Pas the French gypsy band. It was another nice paying gig. Very easy, in a fancy shopping mall. Later that night I had Heyday too with Denise and Courtney. That was a fun one too.

......

With my cold, and zero gigs lined up for January I decided to book a quick trip to Phuket. Get some sun and go swimming in the ocean. And the following day that's what I did. The last event in the mall kinda paid for the flight and the hotel (even though rent is due, and we have another holiday coming up).

The airline was budget as. No meal, no service really. With my cold and the cheap insulation on the plane my ears were blocked for a couple of days. Which wasn't so bad cause the hotel was on a noisy road.

It wasn't easy finding a cheap hotel as it's peak tourist season here. When I arrived there were huge lines to get through customs. I was surprised! Russians, Indian and Chinese all had separate lines (probably cause of visa rules). I think most of the tourists were from Russia. On the beach they were everywhere.

......

So while I was in Patong my days went as followed. Get up early (around 7am) go swimming at the beach until the sun got too hot, go back eat, sleep. Get up around 2pm have another coffee, write music. Then around 4-5pm go back to the beach to swim again. And in the evening eat and write music.

That was it! Nothing else, no massage or sightseeing. I didn't really speak to anyone either. Just swim in the ocean and write music on musescore.

I think I got a couple of decent songs out of it too. Not everyday though. I will need to spend a bit more time editing and thinking a bit more about it. Quite a bit of variety too. The first day was a song inspired by a couple of Sonny Rollins tunes. This one should work well in a jazz quartet.

2nd day the song was more of a post rock build up song. It needs a bit more work. Maybe a few things to be taken out of it.

3rd days tune had more of a neo soul vibe. It's probably my favourite of the bunch. I think It might be finished too. This one might be cool to add lyrics and get a singer to sing on it though.

4th day I had another successful tune which would be great with a larger group, particularly with 3-4 horn players. I was really digging it the first day, but after listing again it might need more work. It's hard to tell in the computer program how these lines will sound when a real musician plays it.

And after that, I think I had a few unsuccessful attempts. One of 2 more with potential but I began getting stuck. I wanted to write something inspired from Thai language. Musecore playback lacks in this respect (I think there's a new version though), as I need notes to rise and bend.

The main problem I had with getting a bit stuck is harmony. I can come up with interesting melodies and grooves. But finding the perfect chords to play them with is a challenge.

Trial and error usually gets good results if I stick with it long enough. I think I got side tracked with this Barry Harris minor 6 stuff. I simply don't understand it yet. Or have a limited understanding, but am unable to use it for writing harmony.

So these next couple weeks before we go away again I'm going to try spend a decent amount of time at the piano trying to hear how I can use some of this stuff. I know how to make a melody 'fit' any bass note, but when I try to use the Barry Harris stuff it doesn't seem to work.

.....

So this short trip to Phuket was good for me. I definitely want to bring the laptop and write music again in Europe when we have free time. Hopefully by then I'll have some better understand of harmony, or at least some new ideas about it. Then run through and check all the horn arrangements I've been doing and make sure everything is pretty spot on before starting projects.

I want to try keep up this routine too. I need to get up earlier to get more work done. Harmony in the morning, rhythm in the afternoon and writing, editing or transcribing in the evening. At least for this off season period.

I also need to set up the studio for recording video's. Next week wan't to do one with Eddy and Guillaume. Also want to see Brian Blade at the Blue note this weekend if I can.