berklee in an evening
Last weekend, I had the great pleasure of hosting a brilliant Berklee-educated and very successful musician in my home which led to hours of music playing, music listening, and music talk. Though it’s hard to tell how much I should say about my technical music background (or lack of it), I’ll suffice it to say that when Vincent Briguglio sat me down at my piano to sort out of few things about the musical science of chord progressions, I was a little terrified.
As a songwriter and singer, I’ve spent immeasurable time writing lyrics and melody, then explaining it to others to figure out and perform with me. I play a little piano and a little guitar, but more and more lately it has become clear that if I want to give my songs, my angels, the life they really want then I would need to learn to write my own full charts. It’s been burning in me for a while and a recent short lesson with my composer friend, Dechen Hawk, really lit a fire under me… so I was poised and ready for Vinny’s impromptu instruction.
Sitting at the piano for that night while Vincent unlocked a whole world for me – what he referred to as a $10,000 lesson because it cost about that much for him to learn this at Berklee – I cried with joy. Really. It was like a bright flower flew open in my heart and stomach shining a light on my path as a musician. It was an incredible gift. At times I felt like I was drowning in the ideas, but then would pop up for a big breath and realize that I understood it – all!
Now comes the work of sifting through and implementing all that I learned, applying it to the songs I am constantly writing, and to start handing my own charts to the band instead of paying someone else to do it for me. Oh joy! If you can grock what I’m saying, let me know. It’s really vulnerable to admit that I have been writing music for so long while knowing so little theory. That’s changing finally, and THAT’S changing my life.
Filed under: music | 1 Comment
Tags: berklee, briguglio, chart, dechen, education, harmonic, hawk, learning, lesson, music, student, teacher, theory, vincent, vinny
hey heather,
appreciate the new comment on the ariel site. that snap thing is pretty cool. as far as the chart writing goes, i have only recently started doing the full score/part thing on sibelius. after putting it off for years but am now drawing on the berklee experience to score these arrangements and charts out. any way, it saves rehearsal time or, in some cases allows to pull off complex gigs without rehearsal, and am now am getting inspired to compose again in the small band idiom, full score and parts, to get shows together. any way, i totally relate.
i hit ariels myspace site and read her part on the boulder music scene, is it still happening? i know that colorado u is there with a berklee college grad heading the music dep. which may add to the influx of jazz in the area? also, i was not aware you were a naropa music/multi discipline grad. i have studied classical n. indian music with ustadt imrat khan for the past 12 years and have a good friend and great bansuri player, deepak ram i have dome concerts with. could you recommend some one i could get in contact with at naropa as far as doing a possible workshop/concert on the similarities and differences of improvisation in the american jazz/classical n. indian traditions? the imratgitar is an instrument that was designed by imrat, luthier kim schwartz and myself to allow western musicians access to indian raags and indian musicians access to western chords. very cool. any way, best of luck on your music and thanks again for your posts, they have definitely helped. look forward to your response,
todd
http://www.toddmosby.com