Day 3

On day 3 we had another session with Martin Speake. This time we looked at jazz improvisation.
First, he introduced us to basic jazz harmony:

Then he talked about jazz standards in general and played us different versions of the song 'Somewhere over the rainbow'. It was amazing how different they sound, still being the same song.

By the way, personally this is my favourite - non-jazz, however - version:

Then, Clare sat at the piano to play the melody of the song and we harmonised it:

After learning enough about jazz harmony (if only!!!!!)  - or at least about 'Over the rainbow's' harmony - we all had a go at playing it.

I was in a group with two singers, a guitar and flute. Gosh, I never felt more lost in my entire life! I felt like when I was 2 years old and my favourite game was to open something I knew to be a music score and try to 'play it' on the piano, getting really angry at the same time as it didn't sound quite right. Or like talking a foreign language (or talking cat) by trying to imitate the sounds. I did get some of the chords right though. 

'The important thing is to start well and to end well' And to make it sound OK in between!

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In the afternoon it was time to think about our performance that would have to be on the following day, instead on the Friday. We experimented with some poetry-and-singing-on-the-go:

The amazing thing was how Danae had already written 'Under the rain' when Tom and Grace, who didn't see the white board started singing 'Beneath the rain'. That's what happens when people tune in to each other. 

After that we did more soundpainting with Diego:

  

This time we learnt about a few more signs, f.e. the 'copy, paste' or 'imitate'. Edward (who is a composer) and I tried conducting ourselves, the former a bit more successfully than the latter. My conducting kind of fell apart but it was a good experience and I felt all the responsibility that comes with the power, but also the amazing possibilities that come with that. 

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In the evening I went to the Bastard Assignments: Cells CoLab performance in Deptford Old Police Station. It was really good. And I made pranks on my friends: