Archives for 2010

A Merry Christmas to all…..the christmas song (chestnuts roasting by an open fire)

Listen to the video below and try to follow the melody only. Hopefully this won’t be too hard as the I’m playing the melody slightly louder than the other notes.  This is a standard arrangement norm, keeping the melody in the foreground, and applies to all types of arranging, orchestral music, pop music etc In the process of learning a song, learning the melody first gives us a head start. If you’re struggling with an arrangement, concentrate on the melody, only play the melody if necessary, a good melody will stand on it’s own. Often if students are having difficulty making an arrangement sound fluent it will be because they are losing focus on the melody.  So, my advice is, start with the melody and once you’re playing it strong and sure, start to fill the arrangement out with the other notes

If anybody was looking for ideas for their Dads christmas present……I recently came across an old film now re-released on DVD, “Talmage Farlow” ( available on Amazon !!!) that was a great inspiration to me when I first watched it in the early 80’s. The film looks at the life of Tal Farlow, recognised as one of the all time great jazz guitarists, who came to promenance in the 1950’s. After a 10 year spell at the top of Jazz, Tal turned away from the jazz spotlight to lead a quiter life in New Jersey. However, as he says in the film, he never stopped playing. I had the great fortune to meet him in Glasgow in the early 80’s when I attended a workshop with him. He was a modest man who played with driving bebop lines and (in George Benson’s words) a wild sense of harmony. Check out some of the clips from the DVD at http://talfarlowfilm.com/film_excerpts.htm