tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13630144.post113559495265966973..comments2023-12-04T09:29:06.375-08:00Comments on Casa Valdez Studios: Dan's Polyrhythmic Practice a la Warne MarshDavid Carlos Valdezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02338319345488366328noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13630144.post-1136420549408099802006-01-04T16:22:00.000-08:002006-01-04T16:22:00.000-08:00You should really take one of the workshops the ne...You should really take one of the workshops the next time he gives them. He's got a good way of teaching. There weren't too many handouts - the bulk of them were printouts from the Omnibook, but the things he told us to do with them were not printed out formally.<BR/><BR/>He has an exercise where you play uninterrupted phrases that begin in a certain way: the first one begins on beat 1, second on the & of 1, third on 2 and so on until the & of 4. It's harder than it sounds. Then you can do the same thing with the starting beat in reverse order. Then you can do the whole thing over again, except instead of beginning the phrases on these beats, you can begin anywhere, but you must end them on the specific beats. It's a similar exercise in rhythmic awareness.<BR/><BR/>I don't feel comfortable publicily publishing Randy's material on the wiki. Like I say, take the masterclass when it comes up again -- it's in a group setting, and there were a number of good musicians there (Tim Jensen, for example). Plus, he co-taught with Reinhardt Melz at the workshop I took, so the rhythms were being discussed from a different angle.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13630144.post-1135939168956258902005-12-30T02:39:00.000-08:002005-12-30T02:39:00.000-08:00Well, these are just patterns for accents, like a ...Well, these are just patterns for accents, like a clave that doesn't repeat every 2 bars. If you're able to play these rhythms against a 4/4 pulse, you've got somewhere. I don't understand exactly how to play polyrhythmic music on a guitar (it would have to be fingerstyle. Woitach would have some idea how....) but when you're playing with a jazz rhythm section, then you can apply it linearly, just like a horn player. If you have enough independence to play a bossa comping pattern with an ostinato bass line, then you can figure out how to play these rhythms as a polyrhythm while keeping the ostinato together. It's not really an idomatic idea specific to the piano. (Warne was a tenor player, of course.) It's like some of the things Randy Porter does in his master classes (if you haven't attended, you should), where he makes the students improvise in dotted half notes - only, and make it fit the changes. Then, when that becomes possible, move to dotted quarter notes, then dotted sixteenth notes. That's just the first level of the exercise (three 8th notes, repeated).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com