Monday, December 8, 2008

Debuted an original tune at the Slam

So, tonight was an extra special night for me. One of the things I like about leading a group is that I decide on the tunes. Tonight, was a debut of an original tune of mine. The working title is 'Choking Hazard'. The chord progression is extremely simple, but the tune itself I've been messing with for a few years. About a month ago, I had this itch to write it out. I'm glad that I did.

Tonight, we debuted it. The response was great. The tune isn't a typical Green Mill song-instead of being Bop or Free Jazz orientated, it borrows elements from Minimalist music & musical theater. The reaction from Marc Smith [Slam Founder/host] was strong enough that he came up on stage and looked at the lead sheet we were playing. Pretty hip? Sooooo-I'm going to record this and see if I can get a copy of the recording of tonight's Slam.

The song is based around a pedal point in the piano right hand of F C. This stays static until I switch it to E C. The most 'dense' it gets is adding a D to those chords. The bass tones are: D C Bb and F. I'm thinking of the chords as Dmin7, Csus4, Bb9 [no7], F [triad], Bb9#11, C9 [no 5th]. There's probably a more accurate harmonic actualization/spelling, but eh. That's even a bit complicated to what I think.

The reaction was great. I gave Marc my copy of the lead sheet. It was a ceremonial jesture more than anything-I'm going to print another one off for me.

all the best.