Performance Anxiety and Beta Blockers

If you are ill-prepared to perform for an audience and dealing with high levels of  anxiety because of your incompetence, then it makes sense to hit the practice room and just learn the material.  But, if you are like many performers, anxiety reactions can escalate to the point that they seriously interfere with performance, and yet are not underscored by lack of preparation, poorly honed skills, personal insecurities or any other seemingly rational explanation.

   Irrational fears of performing, public speaking, or just being looked at by a bunch of people are extremely common.   Fear of public speaking ranks higher on the anxiety scale than fear of death.  On second thought, though, being judged and scrutinized for your appearance, demeanor, and your never-perfect performance by possibly hundreds of your friends and peers and critics, being stared at and talked about -- maybe that's not such an "irrational" fear after all!   Especially compared with clearly irrational fears like these actual real-life examples of serious phobias:


    whale tails
             butterflies
                  bathtub sharks
                       mermaids
                             aliens
             windmills
                 rainbows
                         mugs
                    microwaves  
                              walking up stairs at night
                    blueberry yogurt
               music playing backwards
                    belly buttons
               wiggling fingers
                         Hawaii
    calling people on the phone
                               mushrooms
               

   Musicians' performance-fears seem perfectly understandable compared to these!   In any event, I'm not going to dissect the psychology of performance anxiety and the therapeutic solutions... I'm here to talk about the DRUGS.

    Beta-Blockers were first marketed in 1967 for heart rhythm issues or angina. These drugs inhibit the sympathetic nervous system, the fight or flight response, and found their way into the performing-arts communities (music, dance, public speaking, acting)  for that reason - though taken in much milder dosages.   Back in 1987 studies showed that some 27% of Professional Orchestra Musicians had used beta-blockers, and these are considered conservative estimates!   Who knows how many use them now!?   I know a bunch, personally.  Some use beta-blockers for every performance, more use on special occasions where anxiety is a particular concern, like for an audition or solo performance.  They seem to provide a ceiling for the fight-or-flight response that just prevents your adrenaline reaction from going "over the top" to keep you from going in to the dry-mouth, sweaty hands, shaking feet, pounding-heart-phase that can destroy all evidence of your hard-earned skills.  Some claim that they dull your senses, but many deny that.
         The most common Beta-Blocker is propranolol,  marketed as Inderal. 
 Use of this prescription drug for performance is hotly debated and I'm not advocating for one side or the other.  The debate rages about whether the drug inhibits your performance or reduces your emotional connection to the music.  Some say you should deal with the Psychology behind the problem, others say that doesn't work or can take years if it works at all.  Some say that a reasonable approach is to use the drug to learn to play free of uncomfortable anxiety and it is easy to phase it out later. Plenty of info is available with a Google search.

    But Beta-Blockers do something else.  Oxford University reports that patients using propranolol test with lower subconscious racial bias.   It reduces Racism.  As measured by the "Implicit Association Test" developed at Harvard.  What that test actually measures is of course, up for grabs, but it is tantalizing to think that "racial bias" can be influenced by something that also has an influence on the brain's "fear center", the amygdala.  Fear and racism .... of course!  When I first moved to Salt Lake City in 1972, a fellow student who came here to study in the renowned Jazz Program that was here at the time, who was Black, had an impossible time finding an apartment to rent. It was pure fear-based racism, as there were very few non-Whites here at the time and nobody knew what to make of him.  I had no problems in this regard.  He eventually found a place but it took weeks and was a very sad and disheartening process.

 Please research in detail and consult a physician before embarking on any path that involves drugs!


Here is a terrific article about the debate about propranolol and performance-anxiety from the New York Times worth reading:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/arts/music/17tind.html


    

Those Pesky Slash Chords

Slashing through the Confusion over Slash Chords


     First. listen to  the classic Herbie Hancock  "Maiden Voyage" entirely based on Slash Chords ( the easiest way to notate these chords).   The first chord is C/D --- or in more conventional long-hand notation,    D9(sus4, no 5)

In Maiden Voyage, the slash chord describes a simple voicing chord-quality that is most easily described with the slash symbol C/D.   But slashing has a more important function -
      The quality of a chord has a lot to do with how it's voiced, how the notes are laid out, spread out, left out and moved around.  But even more so, it has to do with the choice of note that is on the bottom.  This note defines everything about the chord quality - in fact, many composers of jazz will routinely write a 2 staff lead-sheet just so they can be in control of the bottom note, feeling that a simple chord-symbol is just TOO simplified.  Music notation evolved to allow us to specify that bottom - note, short of actually writing out all of the notes on the staff. We call these chord symbols "slash chords".   Slash chords also specify the exact notes that are to be included with the chord, just not exactly how to play them.

          But there always seems to be some confusion about "slash chords"....   I know this because I never know what note will come from the Bass Player when I give out charts that contain "slash chords".  Back in the 17th Century (and still today!)  music notation made use of "Figured Bass" to be very specific about what note to put on the bottom, or more accurately, what inversion of the chord was to be played.  It is a very important component of composing and arranging. The bottom note progression defines the quality of each chord in the harmonic progression and allows music to be so much more interesting than when it always just has the root on the bottom. The manner in which the bottom note progresses is one aspect of music that brings it to life.


  For example , this Figured-Bass notation on the left describes a Bb triad in 2nd inversion by laboriously describing the intervals that make up the inversion ( a sixth and a fourth ). 

    Nowadays, in the jazz world anyway,  we use the some what less specific and less cumbersome Slash System to at least specify the bottom note, since the bottom note is so important to the sound of the chord and is heard as an important countermelody in its own right. We tend to leave the choice of actual voicing to the player, in jazz and pop music.    As simple as it seems, there is still confusion about the system, however.


The most common form of slash chord is the one on the left - note the diagonal slash to denote the top CHORD,  from the bottom NOTE.   

      One school of thought recognizes a second kind of slash chord ( on the right )  with a HORIZONTAL slash to denote the top CHORD from the bottom CHORD -  a polychord.  This is much less common and I would never assume this notation unless instructed by the arranger.

                               Back to the regular diagonal Slash Chords ---
     Slash chords fall into 3 categories   (examples below use F as the given Low Note)....
_____________________________________________________


FIRST Category     -  simple inversions of an F triad

    F/F      a type of F chord
      F/A       a type of F chord
    F/C         a type of F chord
     F/Eb               a type of F chord              (F7)


.....    where the bottom note is just one of the chord tones but the root of the chord is still F.
___________________________________________________________________


SECOND Category

  The bottom note is functioning as the ROOT of the chord. Slash notation here is to specify a chord type or voicing in a simple way.  Note that none of these is actually an "F chord" in sound or in function.
   F/G     a type of G chord,                    G11(omit 5)   or G9(sus4, no 5)
   F/Bb     a type of Bb chord                   Bbmaj9(omit3)
    F/Db        a type of Db chord                    Dbmaj7)#5)
__________________________________________________________________


THIRD Category

    Function is up for grabs on these more dissonant chords, completely dependent on context ( of course the F/D you will recognize as a Dm7, not dissonant,  but in certain contexts writing it as a slash chord actually might make some sense). Tonality is ambiguous.


F/Gb    F/Ab   F/B   ( F/D )    F/E
_______________________________________________________________________


Here is a schematic of all 12 Slash Chords in the Key of F to visualize the 3 categories described above:

  And I just have to mention -  in writing Slash-Chord symbols correctly, it is often desirable to use a Cb or an Fb  in the chord symbol - particularly  when writing  chords like Fm7(b5)/Cb   or Bbm7/Fb .  I have learned over the years, though, that this is an almost guaranteed way to hear a wrong note coming from the bass.  Please be advised that    Cb is B      and      Fb is E.     Just for the record, because it is just plain illogical to write Fm7(b5)/B and I hate to do it just to increase the probability that the symbol will be read correctly.  
  And for an absolutely guaranteed wrong note I would write  Ebm7(b5)/Bbb - pianists tend to read Double-Flats fairly often in Classical Music but this will trip up Jazz Bass players every time - no disrespect to Jazz Bass players!  


      Now, with that knowledge,  let's look at what scales an improviser of Jazz might play over slash chords - understanding what the chords REALLY are can empower some good soloing...
F/A           F major
F/C           F major
F/Eb         F mixolydian     ( it's an F7)
F/D          D aeolian     ( it's a Dm7 chord, the vi chord in F )
F/G          G mixolydian   ( it's a G7sus chord )
F/Bb          Bb lydian or major      ( it's a Bb chord )
F/Db          Db lydian, #5     ( it's a Db chord    with maj7 and augmented-5th )

... happy slashing.

Mustard, Cognitive Psychology and Pentatonic Scales

   Take anything ordinary, something that we use everyday and take for granted, something that's always there and pretty much never changes.......  something that's part of life, we get it, we know it, it is what it is, we think.         Now stand back to really consider how we think about it.  Accept the fact that, no matter what it is, we have already chosen a way to think about it, and we're probably not even aware that this choice has been made - by our parents, TV or corporate ads, convenience or just random chance. 
 

yummy...

Take mustard -- we think of it as a flavoring, a spread,  a condiment to smear onto a pastrami sandwiches ( or in this case, a tuna sandwich),  or on a hot pretzel.  But, now, let's make a conscious decision to think about mustard in a completely different way.  Mustard is also an "emulsifier" - it acts as an agent to enable water-based foods and oil-based foods to mix together, much the way eggs do.    Let's agree to think differently about mustard.  Think function rather than taste.   Just imagine, if every time you reach in the fridge you consciously tell yourself to pull out the mustard, and have a little conversation with yourself like:
   "OK, what am I going to do with this stuff?  Well let's see... I know it's an emulsifier....hmmm"


You will find, through choosing to think a different way about something, that you will begin to USE it a different way. Your habitual ways of thinking will give way to a world with more possibilities.  Who knows, maybe you'll make some amazing mustard gravy then clean your greasy bicycle chain with a dijon slurry. Your salad dressings may never be the same after you change your thinking habits and people may start to comment about the yellow tint of your whipped cream toppings.

                      ( Cognitive Psychologists  think about how we think about things.)


    So, consciously choosing to think a different way, causes you to behave a different way - what a powerful tool THAT is!   To change behavior,  change thinking.  You can change how you act and feel by making a decision to think in a different way.   That, of course applies to all of life, but that topic is a little out of my league  so, onward to music and improvising music......

YES, BUT WILL ALL THIS MAKE ME A BETTER JAZZ MUSICIAN?
       yes


  A pentatonic scale is a series of 5 notes - you can think about those 5 notes as a linear series of notes, one higher than the next   OR    you can  consciously CHOOSE to think about those 5 notes in a multitude of other ways.  This intentional reprogramming of your attention will have everything to do with how you ultimately use those notes.   When you're improvising, this "mental map" will guide you on your way to  greater worlds of "melodic interest", if you're one of the rare people who feel that's important.  And I assume you are, if you're even reading this blog at all.


Here are 8 different ways to think about a C Major pentatonic scale.  Anyone who uses this scale ALREADY thinks about it in ONE of these ways - my suggestion is to reprogram thinking to think about it in a different way.  And ultimately, this is not really just about the pentatonic scale, this is about Everything - the scale is just one small example to make the point.

At the end you will see a melodic line that resulted by thinking about the scale as a series of perfect 5ths. 

  EIGHT WAYS TO VISUALIZE THE PENTATONIC SCALE

THIS MELODIC LINE SEEMS COMPLETELY NATURAL WHEN THINKING OF THE SCALE AS A SERIES OF 3 PERFECT FIFTHS:

Adelle WHO?

Adelle Adkins

    Adelle won 6 Grammys this year and 2 Grammys in 2009, and numerous other Billboard and Brit Awards,  including such distinctions as Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Best New Artist, Album of the Year, Best Independent Artist, Critics Choice, Best Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Artist of the Year.
                                                 SOMEONE LIKE YOU
     This song in the video below won Best of 2011 and has taken the world by storm.  It was #1 in Great Britain for 5 weeks and won a Grammy for Best Solo Performance. It topped the charts in Australia, New Zealand, The United States, Ireland and the U.K., and #1 for 7 weeks in France.  It also hit # 1 in Finland, Brazil, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Scotland, Switzerland and Belgium. In the U.K alone she has sold over 1.2 million copies and over 4 million in the U.S.   This YouTube video has nearly 100,000,000 hits!   

Here it is : Someone Like You

There is a lengthy article about this song on Wikipedia, the inspiration, history, and analysis.
           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Someone_Like_You_%28Adele_song%29

Just How Many Scales Are There, Anyway?

Scales, scales and more scales...

Phrygian, Hungarian Minor, Blues Pentatonic, Super-Lochrian, Neopolitan Minor, Neutral Pentatonic, Arabian Major, Spanish 8-Tone, Lydian Dominant, -  does it ever end??!!   YES IT DOES - and I'll show you exactly WHERE it ends.

      Assume that all scales contain and start with the note that is included in the NAME of the scale - for example, a C -scale of any kind contains and starts with the note "C".  This leaves 11 notes from which to construct the rest of the scale, since there are only 12 notes. 
   Let's also assume that we will only be creating 7-note scales that start with C ( a C-MAJOR or C-HARMONIC MINOR scale would be examples of  7-note scales that start with C,  and there are many others ).  Every 7-note scale we create is a simply a different "combination" of 6 other notes ( plus C ) chosen from those 11 notes that are not C. 

      Just HOW MANY scales are possible, then , from the 12 notes we are given..

Fortunately, there's an easy way to calculate that number. 
First, reframing the question:  "How many combinations of "11 items, 6 at a time",  expressed as C(11,6),  are possible?"  Using simple Probability Math ( see below),  that number turns out to be 462.

     IT IS POSSIBLE TO PLAY 462 DIFFERENT 7-NOTE SCALES.  ( many of them may not be very useful, but we'll save that investigation for later)

For fun, let's also include all of the 5-note scales, 6-note scales, and 8-note scales, because these are common configurations in Western music and Jazz Music. ( not to be confused with "Country Western Music" which is something else altogether.)

C(11,4)  = 330      5-note scales

C(11,5) =  462     6-note scales

C(11,7)  =  330    8-note scales

That adds up to a Grand Total of 1584 scales,  5,6,7 and 8 note scales.  And that's just in the key of C.   Finally we see an END to the number of scales that are possible from the 12 note Tempered Scale. Better get practicing because many of these scales are pretty interesting and useful. 

Here's one scale, for example, that has a very intriguing quality, a Japanese  pentatonic ( 5-note) scale  called

                                                         kumoi           1  b2  4  5  b6

There are 1583 more.....

HOW TO CALCULATE COMBINATIONS of anything ---


  Imagine that you have five fruits

and that you need to make a fruit salad that only contains 3 fruits. Obviously it doesn't matter what ORDER you put the fruits in the salad, it really only matters which 3 fruits you choose.  Every possible fruit salad would be a different "combination".  If the order mattered, that would be a "permutation" - there are many more permutations than combinations.

One possible  combination of 3 fruits chosen from 5 fruits might be this fruit salad:

ONE OF 10 POSSIBLE "3-FRUIT-SALADS" FROM 5 FRUITS

 There are 10 different fruit salads you could make with 5 fruits, i.e. 10 combinations of 5 things, 3 at a time.

Combinations of 5 fruits, 3 at a time   or    C(5,3)  is calculated using "factorials".

A factorial is the number that results from multiplying a number by a series of numbers that decrease by 1 each time.   The process is denoted with "!".

for example.....
5! = 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1   =  120
            Combinations of "n" things, "r" at a time can be calculated with this formula:

         or, as applied to the above fruit salad problem,

             C(5,3)   =     5x4x3x2x1            =      10
                                3x2x1 (2x1)

Bon appetit and good luck with the scales.......which 20 scales will you spend YOUR life practicing and why?  
     

Tracking Down Stella .... By Starlight

   The 1944 Movie Uninvited introduced Victor Young's classic tune  Stella By Starlight.  Sixty years later the tune is still considered a fixture in the Jazz Musicians' repertoire and, as is customary in the Jazz World, it has had 60 years of speeding up and 60 years of natural selection, slowly morphing into a totally different animal.  The video below, with Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey at the helm,  is the movie feature of the tune, and you will notice right off, that the song is a ballad, and if you're a musician, you will notice that it starts of with a Diminished 7 Chord and not a min7(b5) Chord as is now customary.  Those are 2 pretty different qualities of harmony, even though they differ by only a single note.    But I'm not too concerned about that, since the replacement chord comfortably fits the up-tempo style that people have applied to this tune.  And, I must say, many people have applied themselves to this tune - about 800 versions pop up in Rhapsody!

STELLA BY STARLIGHT    from UNINVITED   1944

 
  But,  I really wanted to do some detective work to figure out the confusion behind the Real Book I published version of this tune and the awkward chord progression that has become defacto Standard on this tune.  I remember this tune from the 50's, as a kid, and how I loved the chord progression ( some things I guess you're born with!).  What I remember hearing are the several spots in the tune where there's a Suspension in the melody against a Major Chord  and, simultaneously a 5th in the bass.  Yes, most of my friends we outside playing tackle football while I was doing this, and staying safe.    At the time I didn't know what that sound really was, but I just remember the sound being absolutely captivating.  That wasn't something you heard every day -- neither was hearing  a song that STARTED with a Diminished 7th chord.  (The other song I remember starting that way was Gershwin's "Our Love is Hear To Stay", but we've also blown off THAT diminished chord  in recent times.)
  In time, though, that unique "HOOK" that was built into the tune ( major 3 AND sus4 AND 5th in the bass), gradually disappeared.  I say "gradually" because I did hear a number of early recordings where the HOOK was still there.. case in point, the Anita O'Day version at the very bottom of this post).  In the abbreviated Chord Chart below, those 2 "hook" spots are marked in PINK. The original chords, taken from the movie score, clearly show this  tension-resolution moment,  built into the song.  Fake books like "Real Book 1" tend to simplify-down the harmony by leaving out important aspects of original compositions, important aspects such as  a Fifth or Third or a Seventh in the bass, and that could explain why one never hears this tune played with much adherence to the original chords - musicians tend to get their chord knowledge from fake books and NOT from old recordings.  And can you blame them?... the song is from a totally different era, after all.  Someday there should be a discussion about this philosophy of using old movie songs as jazz "standards" and "blowing over changes" and the merits of doing so.  But I digress.  

   The SECOND  element of confusion on this song happens in bars13-16 (YELLOW).  The original chords have a really nice descending bass line with a SURPRISE Diminished 7 chord along the way.  It's exactly what I remember listening to the radio back then when the tune was popular with the mainstream culture.
  Here's where some detective-work has paid off.  Miles Davis recorded the song in 1958 and 1964, about 15 years after the original movie,  and supplanted the original chords with the ones you see below in GREEN.  They are actually very effective, as you might expect from Miles,  as long as you blow off the Fifth in the Bass on F chord that leads into them.  They work really well --- and the Bass progression weaves a nice logical and elegant path.   The Real Book version ( in BLACK), which came AFTER Miles recorded his version,  is a bit of a bastard child of the Miles Davis chord changes and the original chord changes, taking one from one and one from another.   It just doesn't work. It goes to the Em7(b5) chord earlier than did the original chords but then it just comes out of it in a really dumb way.  The Bass line suffers and the progress of tension and release  is ambiguous.   I guess that's about as well as I can describe it.  Many versions on YouTube are worth hearing if you can sift through the fluff.   Check out Anita O'Day at the bottom of the post.  Despite all my rantings, Stella By Starlight is still a great tune.

  MILES DAVIS  GREEN        REAL BOOK 1   BLACK       ORIGINAL SCORE   RED


(DOUBLE CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Stella By Starlight FIRST 16 BARS

 

AhavaRaba by Any Other Name would Sound as Sweet...

 It's a Jazz Scale, but it's also a Traditional World Music Scale,

G  -   AHAVARABA

Call it what you want (and many people seem to do that ), this scale is derived from the Harmonic Minor Scale and is one of the most useful Jazz scales but is often overlooked in the Jazz texts.  It can function a solid foundation scale for improvising against a Dominant 7 (b9) chord, one of the MOST common chords  played in Jazz.  It easily adapts "Alt chords" with its inclusion of the 5th and the b13th so it works well against complex altered chords that have a b7, which is pretty much every other chord.

   It is simply the scale that results if you start playing a traditional Harmonic Minor scale from the 5^th note of the scale,  i.e. it is the “5^th Mode of Harmonic Minor" and is particularly useful in a tune where the chord is functioning as the V7 chord in a minor key.  BUT, in world music traditions, often the scale just sits there and vegetates and never really resolves as a V chord would, so it becomes the “defacto”  I chord.  In this case, the scale is derived from C Harmonic Minor, starting on the 5th note of that scale: G.

 To restate that in English, you could just jam on a G7 chord forever and play strictly from this scale.  The resultant music in this context would likely have an exotic quality that reflects  Jewish, Arab, Turkish, and Flamenco traditional sounds.  The first 2 chords in the "Key", in this case the key of G, are  Major Chords a 1/2 step apart ( G Major and Ab Major) - this is a really distinctive "hook" that comes out of this scale and is the basis for the compositions like  Malaguena ( YouTube video below).   One might argue that the two chords are what created the scale and the sound in the first place.   A G7 chord and an Ab Major chord, added together, contain every note in the scale!  (Keep in mind, that, in Jazz, this scale would likely be functioning in the key of Cm and would be used in a whole different way than it is used in, say, Klezmer or Gypsy Music.) 

In some Jazz texts, this scale is called the Spanish Phrygian, or the Dominant b2,b6 Scale.  In fact, in scouring other world-music sources, this scale turns up with all sorts of names and descriptions. From playing a lot of Klezmer Music I know it as "AhavaRaba" but it goes by many aliases:

Ahava Raba Scale,  Ahava Rabboh Scale

Freygish Scale

Spanish Phrygian Scale

              Spanish Gypsy Scale

Phrygian Dominant Scale

Altered Phrygian Scale

Chromatic Dorian Mode

Jazz Dominant  b2, b6 Scale

5^th Mode of Harmonic Minor

Major Scale with b2, b6, b7

Phrygian #3 Scale   (“sharp 3”)

  In researching the facts for this post I collected at least 32 other scales from around the world ( in addition to the dozens of Modes and Altered Modes, blues scales and Pentatonics) that will provide some fascinating topics for future articles - I am surprised that it is actually possible to generate well over 60 distinct scales from a mere 12 notes!     Stay posted as I sort through these. 

   Here is Stan Kenton's Orchestra playing Malaguena, a Bill Holman arrangement of Ernesto Lecuona's composition that owes it's existence to the AhavaRaba Scale, or whatever you want to call it:

 

Freelance Musicians in Utah - you may want to read this...

More and more often, here in Utah, freelance musicians will be required to show proof of liability insurance, Workers’ Comp  or a Workers’ Comp Waiver.  I have already run into 4 separate gigs where the employer insisted on it.    Here I show you the easy way to get the Workers’ Comp Waiver.   Typically, freelance musicians are not set up as licensed businesses, corporations and the like, but even if they were, I think it is much simpler to just push things through as an INDIVIDUAL.   There are many ways to skin this cat but I show you an EASY way here. 

Tangling with the new Labor Commission Laws can cause Narcolepsy

As an individual, after you fill out the application form, which can be done online ( link below) or on the 1 computer at the Labor Commission office ( 160 E. 300 S. 3^rd floor), you can simply produce the following 3 items to the staff-person to qualify for the 1-year waiver.    

1.  Xerox copy of your name and address that is printed in the Phone Directory

2.  Recent income tax return proving Income from Music

3.  Blank check or account statement in your name proving that you have a bank account.

If you don’t have all of these items, then you will want to read the requirements using the link below to find another way to qualify, but those other options are less likely to appeal to the average free-lance musician as they involve things like business licenses, liability coverage, printed ads, etc.    

Even if you are incorporated you can still push it through as an individual. By the way, the cost for this is $50 with a 3-day delay if you write a check and the Waiver is good for 1 year.  Yes, it costs money to NOT have insurance.  For information on getting insurance coverage rather than a waiver I suggest contacting Musicians' Local 104 office in Salt Lake City.

Disclaimer – I am not a lawyer and if you get injured on the gig by an exploding generator or collapsing bandstand, I am not responsible for your not having insurance coverage.

To read about the requirements

http://laborcommission.utah.gov/IndustrialAccidents/WCCW.html

To fill out the application online

https://webaccess.laborcommission.utah.gov/wccoveragewaivers/

Here is some background on the new requirements from the Salt Lake Trib:

The Salt Lake Tribune

First published Jun 30 2011 12:12PM
Updated Jul 2, 2011 12:06AM

Businesses that have no employees and operate under rules establishing partnerships, sole proprietors or corporations can get waivers to show they are exempt from maintaining workers compensation insurance.

Starting Friday, the Industrial Accidents Division of the Utah Labor Commission assumes responsibility for issuing those waivers. Previously, insurance companies did the job.

In 2010, insurance companies issued 3,800 waivers; the state division anticipates issuing 4,000 during 2011.

One of the “disturbing” trends the division will be examining is the practice by “some employers to mislabel employees as ‘independent contractors,’ or ‘members’ of limited-liability companies, in order to avoid workers compensation obligations and other employee responsibilities,” according to a statement issued by the Industrial Accidents Division.

“This trend is particularly noticeable in the construction industry and for non-English-speaking employees,” the statement said.

Interim Governor of Utah

Night Train takes a Left Turn just out of the Station

    I heard a version of  the great blues standard - Night Train the other day played by a student at the U. of U. Jazz Juries, and realized that I'm not totally sure how the melody really goes --- so I did a little research. Turns out, no one else is quite sure either  ---- even Jimmy Forrest, the composer, comes at it from 2 very different directions.   The notes in question are right at the beginning and happen throughout the tune - whether to use Bb or B, and  what to put at the end of the phrase.    Check out the surprising tempo of the original recording while you're at it...

Surely, Jimmy Forrest's original 1951 release is something to use as a guide:

But wait, here's a version one and the same Jimmy Forrest playing it with the Count Basie Orchestra - pretty different notes...( notice the 2- B naturals and the E in the 3rd bar ):

But wait...... here's how James Brown's band played it:

But wait...... here's how Oscar Peterson played it ( same notes as Jimmy Forrest's second version but played with a laid-back straight eighth feel )

But wait..... here's how Buddy Morrow played it:

       I think I'm going to go with #1 next time I play this tune, the original 1951 recording - I like having the Maj 3rd and the min 3rd in the same line and I like ending on the 9th of the chord - it's a nice bluesy "jazz-chord" quality to lead into the next chord, the IV chord.  

O.Winston Link, famous Photographer of Trains at Night shot with 4x5 Graflex Camera using up to

60 Flash Bulbs, requiring up to 2 days setup.   

More of O. Winston Link's incredible black and white images HERE.

The Winter Solstice Music Phenomenon

Google "WINTER SOLSTICE MUSIC" and you will get hundreds and hundreds of current listings for festivals, concerts, recitals and recordings in small and large towns everywhere.  For some, I'm sure, it's just an excuse to throw a concert or party, but....
           ...  Winter Solstice actually is a BIG deal all over the world and has been for thousands of years. Concerts and celebrations have been going long before Christmas was placed onto December 25 back in the Fourth Century, assigned to that date expressly to COMPETE with Solstice celebrations.  When you consider that 2/3 of the world population is non-Christian AND that a fair number of Christians don't really celebrate Christmas,  it makes sense that this event is more pervasive than Christmas, since the physical and spiritual effects of this astronomical phenomenon affect EVERYONE directly,  independent of religion and culture. 

     Back when we were less scientifically knowledgeable and yet more connected to the apparent motion of the sun, back when surviving the upcoming deep winter months was actually a pressing concern, the sun's reversal in the sky from it's 6 month decline was truly a monumental event and a time to reflect and celebrate, especially if you were inexperienced enough to think that it might just disappear forever.   Here are some phrases from writings on the topic that paint a picture of what Winter Solstice has meant to people over the ages.

hope and celebration
      rebirth  and transformation
                        hope in the heart
           peace and renewal
                                          fertility, strength to budding life
          license and revelry
                inward reflection
                                                last feast
                             sharing and forgiveness

Path of the Sun for One Year Photographed at the Same Clock Time Once a Week - the Analemma

Celebrating the Solstice has always been intermingled with mythology, superstition, ritual, folk tales and religion.  In fact, many of the Solstice Concerts that I scanned included traditional Christmas and religious music - it is open game on how people celebrate the event and is often not intended to be an alternative to "religion", however,  for many, it is can be just that - an alternative to Christmas and Consumerism, without religion.    There is a perception that the Solstice Celebration is a Pagan or Atheistic ritual, but it really much more at its roots about universal human feelings and the anticipation of arriving at the shortest day of the year and heading into a replenishment of daylight - it is something anyone, regardless of their cultural overlays, mythologies and beliefs, can find reason to celebrate.   Solstice Celebration has attracted, in particular, New Age, Celtic, Native American, Jazz and Classical musicians in their attempt to enhance the spiritual experience of Winter Solstice through music.   But not just music----Below is a sampling of other ways people of all cultures have celebrated , and still celebrate the Solstice :


Animals freshly slaughtered for upcoming winter months provide feast.
    Wine and beer fermentation is complete and ready for drinking.
          Feasting and Gambling.
               Fornicating ( I'm not making this stuff up!)
                        Dressing up.
     Attending all-night plays.
             Gift giving to the needy.
                     Performing pranks.
                                  Visiting friends.
_______________________________________


Jazz Woodwind player Paul Winter has made a name performing music in celebration of Winter Solstice for some 32 years. Here is a sample from a Paul Winter CD with Uillean Pipes ( Irish bagpipes ) and soprano sax and pipe organ that captures the style of much of the "genre".
 

 "A Winter Solstice" series of 5 New Age CD's is a big Windham Hill favorite.  Not MY favorite, mind you, but popular nonetheless.

             A refreshing and welcome flavor to any Winter Solstice program is European Renaissance music (1400-1600). Because the character of the music and timbre of early instruments, it  fits right in to the introspective mood and is usually way more interesting and sophisticated than even the most adventurous New Age Music. 
   
  A SHORT EXPLANATION OF THE ASTRONOMY OF WINTER SOLSTICE:


Other than being the shortest day of the year  ( only 9.25  hours here in salt Lake City on Dec 22) ,  it's most interesting to know exactly what's going on, astronomically speaking.  But first, here are some other observations that we might make  on the day of Winter Solstice, Dec 22:

   1. It's the LONGEST day of the year if you live below the equator.
  2.  It's a day of 24 DARKNESS if you live anywhere above the Arctic Circle.
  3. It's a day of 24 SUNSHINE if you live anywhere below the Antarctic Circle.
  4.  If you live anywhere along the Tropic of Capricorn, the sun will be directly overhead at noon ( true noon, not clock time,  when the sun crosses the N-S Meridian)
  5. The sun will rise in the SouthEast at its farthest southerly point of the year and set in the Southwest at its farthest southerly point of the year.
  6. The maximum height or "altitude" of the sun at noon ( true noon)  is the lowest that it will be all year.
  7. The shadow from an eave onto a building is the highest from the ground that it will be all year.  The shadow cast by a tree will be the longest shadow of the year ( at noon ).



    The Earth, on the day of Winter Solstice, is tilted in such a way that the sun shines directly over the latitude line of -23.5º, which is about 1621 miles South of the Equator.  And since the Earth is turning on its axis, the sun STAYS right over this line, or great circle around the Earth.  This is such an important demarcation that we've labeled it the Tropic of Capricorn after an astrological event that used to take place that no longer does because of the Earth's changing position in the galaxy which is one of many many reasons that Astrology is a bunch of nonsense, but I digress.

  The "Declination of the Sun" on Winter Solstice is -23.5º ( the angle at which the rays of the sun hit the Earth relative to it's imaginary AXIS) and can be found for any day of the year by consulting a "Declination Table" and from this, if you know your latitude ( find this on your iphone or gps, map or internet),  you can calculate the "height" or "altitude of the sun at Noon
                90º  - Latitude + Declination    =    Altitude of the Sun 
Very handy if you are building a skylight or building overhang and want some control over where the shadows fall at specific times of year.
   Here it all is graphically - notice that Mr. Red who lives on the Tropic of Capricorn, has to look straight up to see the sun at noon.  Mr. Green on the Arctic Circle is in 24 hours of darkness as the Earth turns on its axis.  Mr. Mauve is in 24 hours of daylight on the Antarctic Circle.

Winter Solstice Dec 22, 2011

    BELOW, From a Local perspective, at noon, it is clear that the sun is low in the sky for Mr. Blue, looking South to his horizon.  Mr. Blue is observing from 40.73º Latitude in salt Lake City ( 40.73º north of the Equator). Here, at noon, the sun will appear 25.8º above the horizon,  on Dec 22, the bottom of its downward path, then heading back up for 6 months with a gradual lengthening the days, to replenish our souls and give us a reason to celebrate.  Mr. Green will be in total darkness, in theory, but in reality, right at the Arctic Circle it is still possible to see the sun on the horizon because of the refraction of the sun's rays.  Early polar explorers were somewhat surprised by this when their calculations didn't seem to be working.    Happy Solstice and congratulations if you made it this far in the blog post and this far into the Winter to witness the turnaround of the Sun.   (And some trivia - the original circle for these graphics were drawn with a pencil tracing along the bottom of a tuna fish can. )

Local Altitude at Winter Solstice in Salt Lake City, not exactly to scale

 

The Sweet 16 Voicings

    I know what's on everyone's mind - "I always fall into playing the same old Boring Chord Voicings out of sheer habit -  How can I possibly break out of this rut?". While it may not matter in the slightest to the general public, it matters a lot to those of us who are energized by the subtleties of harmony (a small group of us, no doubt).
    Typically, on piano,  we grab onto a Root and Fifth  OR  Root and Seventh in the left hand and put the other notes in the right hand in our standard position, maybe throw in an extension or two,  and we do this on every chord we come across,  for our whole lives, even longer if we pass that concept on to our students.  By getting away from the root on the bottom, and spreading out the notes methodically, we see a much more interesting world of sound and voice-leading open up, filled lots of refreshing possibilities. 
   This study below is a way to shake your voicing world up a little and add some real musical interest to your playing or arranging.   We split out the notes of a basic 4-part chord into its 16 open-voicing possibilities - a universe where any of the 4 chord tones is equally likely to fall on the bottom or top of the voicing.
   I use an Em7(b5) chord for the example here, but this should be practiced with all of the basic 4 part chords in all keys - that would be:
                             Maj7,  Min7,  Dim7,  Min7(b5),  Dominant 7,  Min(maj7).
Granted, it is a daunting project, but the rewards are immensely useful for players, arrangers and composers.
  Just the 6 basic chords alone, doing the 4 exercises, each with 4 voicings, in 12 keys would be

                                               1152 new voicings       ( 6x4x4x12).

Add in 4 additional chords with altered 5ths: (Dom7(b5),  Dom7(#5),  maj7(b5),  maj7(#5))  and you're now looking at
                                               1920 new voicings       (10x4x4x12)

Don't let these numbers put you off, though - the brain can handle this, as there's a lot of transferred learning that happens between the different chord types.  Listen, sing along, experiment and practice to incorporate these into your aural vocabulary and always voice-lead into and out of these voicings if you want them to really work....

      (contact me if you want a full-sized file of this)






 

Broken Open-Voicing Inversions of Em7(b5)

New York Voices - Four Part Voicing for the Harmonically Obsessed

A Short Course: How to Accompany Singers 101

Listen to Mike Renzi.    THE END

Mike Renzi is a singer's pianist, a pianist's pianist.  He has a stunning mastery of the instrument and has the uncanny ability to always play the right thing in the right spot and play it absolutely beautifully.  The list of singers he has supported over the years is a Who's Who  -- here's a short list:   Mel Torme, Bobbi Baird, Blossom Dearie,  Maureen McGovern,  Peggy Lee,  Lena Horne,  Cleo Laine,  Jack Jones,  Ruth Brown,  Diahann Carroll,  Eartha Kitt,  Grady Tate..... and the list goes on and on.  And yet how many have heard of Mike Renzi?  His 10 year stint as musical director for Sesame Street which won him an Emmy ( among many other Emmy's) and gained him some notoriety but generally he seems to be in the shadows of the greatest singers and a bunch that are not so great.  But the important stuff is always in the shadows so I'm hoping to shine a bit of light in there....

   Most of the recordings I can find find of Mike feature his trio in a supporting role for a featured vocalist,  and only a very few showcase his uncanny abilities as a solo accompanist ( piano and voice ).   He makes the piano sing and plays with a harmonic fluidity and pianistic tone that sets the bar extremely high for the vocalist he's accompanying and for all of us who play.  If he ever puts out a solo recording I will be the first in line. 

   Two CD's he made with Maureen McGovern showcase his solo accompanying skills and are well worth hearing.  His ability to differentiate the tunes, to bring something new and distinctive to each arrangement and to play with a fluid sophistication and finesse, tone and heart-felt interpretation are very rare. 

    Another Woman in Love     HERE   at Amazon with sound clips
    The Pleasure of His Company    HERE    at Amazon with sound clips

Renzi with Maureen McGovern

Here is a YouTube cut of Renzi with a mature Jack Jones -  listen to the shadows, there's a lot going on there that might go unnoticed.  While this doesn't showcase his considerable Jazz skills, it is one of the few YouTube examples I could find to get a glimpse of his remarkable taste and finesse.