Emile

Showing Tag: "jazz" (Show all posts)

DailySing - 185 (8.3.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Saturday, August 4, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Tonight's session was created from a snipet of a sound... Tooky-tooky!

A funky little groove surrounded my "tooky-tooky" sound at first. Then I added a percussive bridge before coming back to "tooky-tooky". By now, chest claps are my snare drum, and I start soloing in my upper register, sometimes on a jazz riff, sometimes on a 6/8 bell or clave, and even around Nayabengi. I call it the "We Will Rock You" rhythm.

Towards the end of the jam, I played with polyrhythms by combining VP with BP durin...
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DailySing - 175 (7.24.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Wednesday, July 25, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Wide ranging... That's what I call tonight's DailySing. I started in one rhythm and feel, and abruptly changed to something rhythmically different, while keeping the melody or a variation thereof.

I began with a laid back 4/4 , then went into a 4/4 rock steady feel. Later on, I was basically switching between a rolling 6/8 feel and the 4/4 rock steady beat. Those were my two interpretations of the melody I set up. I had a lot of fun jumping back and forth between the melody and my various solo...
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DailySing - 147 (6.26.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Wednesday, June 27, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
The drone idea was there with much more syncopation than the other night.

I did a good job of keeping it together as far as the exploration was concerned. The section where just the vocal percussion takes over and we follow some cross cultural rhythms was exhilirating.

Toward the end I fell into a jazzy swing-feel bridge which dropped into the main melodic groove.

To listen to DailySing - 147, click here.

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DailySing 145 - (6.24.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Monday, June 25, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
A funky little energy ball took over just as I opened my mouth tonight, and you can hear the result on the recording.

It was a field day for learning to keep the groove interesting and fun on the fly. 
I juxtaposed radically different rhythms together, divided by sections. The first split was into a slow jazz thang with swing, then I explored variations on a funky theme before coming back to the main melody. The next departure was into a tribal 6/8 PV groove, before dropping back into the 4/4 o...
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DailySing - 135 (6.14.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Friday, June 15, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
I did it again... Got so lost in it that I went over by almost a minute before I realized that I could stop.

I originally let a fast paced jazz idea be the launching platform, once it was sufficiently developped. I felt the need to move into a solo from my upper register. I found different melodies to use in my next solo, and even went into a bridge. That was so much fun, I then decided to indulge myself with a vp solo before getting back to the main melodic line, with variations of course.
 
Af...
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DailySing - 114 (5.24.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Friday, May 25, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Distant... is how I felt while singing tonight's DailySing. I was in a standard jazz headspace for the longest time, and explored all kinds of permutations for solos. 

I then felt the need to change everything and got into a quick highlife beat which devolved into a funk default that I often use. I followed that with a reggae groove which slid into a ballad-like solo. I wound up at another funky default that uses some vocal percussion then back to ballad-like solo, to funky groove, to Afro fun...
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DailySing - 111 (5.21.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, May 22, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
What struck me first about tonight's DailySing was the smoothness of the transitions from one idea to another. I always expect them to be tight, but tonight they felt inspired.

The second thing that struck about tonight's session was the arc of the improv. There was a beginning, middle, and end with several bridges and side trips into various modes of improvisation.

The rhythmic application of non percussive vocal sounds, the beat established by the use of my hands drumming on my chest even whi...
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Dailying - 104 (5.14.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Tuesday, May 15, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Tonight's DalySing started as a fast jazz oriented walking bass line which quickly morphed into something a little funkier, and after several permutations , my solo voice sang sotto voce and building to a bluesy passage.

I sang in the living room while my wife sat by and spun yarn. I wasn't embarrassed nor was I using her as an audience to work that energy up in myself. However, I think her presence affected my performance in some subtle way.

I played with rhythm a lot, yet, I was able to balan...
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DailySing - 68 (4.8.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Monday, April 9, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Wow, my first DailySing in a couple of days! I'm still shaky but over whatever it was, for the most part.

Tonight, I went on a travelog to stretch a little, switching from blues to jazz to Afro-Cuban to spoken word, and finally to vocal percussion. My wife listened to me and suggested that I sing standing up instead of sitting at a desk or on the couch. The dynamics would be different, she says. She's right. In fact, I should try doing my DailySing practice at different times of the day, to ri...
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DailySing - 65 (4.5.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Friday, April 6, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
What an interesting journey this DailySing was...
 
Once again, I finished the day's duties around 11: 30 pm, and got to "sangin'"! When I was finally able to express/channel/flow it felt like a dam springing a leak, which slowly built until the pool of creative ideas broke free and I went from some funky little ditties to the land of jazz by way of Jethro Tull's Cross Eyed Mary through speed Ska around Island riffs over Nigerian rhythms which powered my  stream of consciousness soundings. Ther...
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DailySing - 49 (3.20.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Wednesday, March 21, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
This DailySing was a little more coherent than the last one. I was so sleepy last night that I couldn't string together two simple thoughts, let alone describe what was going on in my inner musical landscape while I was singing.

Tonight, I explore my voice as "jazz singer", as another instrument in the band, as a tonal center. Kurt Elling, Al Jarreau, Frank Sinatra or Harry Conick Jr, all can sing in the same register in which they speak, so I tried it. I attempted to keep my throat and chest ...
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DailySing - 44 (3.15.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Friday, March 16, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
Tonight''s DailySing was about the unmitigated joy of unapologetic exploration! There are some really juicy moments and some good idea development going on. I picked up the shakers and started using them, and pretty soon it became a game of "how far can I keep going?". 

The first part was mostly setting up a melodic pattern, then I added shakers and slowly slipped into riffs I grew up with, from Pink Floyd and Grand Funk Railroad. I kept jumping back and forth between a 6/8 feel and a square r...
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DailySing - 42 (3.13.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Wednesday, March 14, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
My iPod has rebooted and all is now well. I sang to celebrate, after an exceedingly long day and found myself drifting off as I was singing. I didn't find any gaps in the playback, but my focus was elsewhere at the time I was singing.
I found myself juxtaposing disparate elements like a jazz rhythm and melody in a chorus while the the verses have more of a blues feel, and the bridge sounds African. 
And I seem to be casting my net far and wide this evening, as I listen to the playback. I go fro...
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DailySing - 26 (2.26.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Monday, February 27, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
OMG!!!!!! 
I had so much fun with tonight's DailySing! I sang through a kids toy called an Echo Mic. I got one for myself and one for my daughter India earlier today. She loves it, and I apologize profusely to my wife Billie for the sounds my daughter insists on sharing, but it's a stellar addition of my arsenal of unique sound toys. It's basically a Lion's Roar but the size of a thick-ish mic, with a curved bowl in the top of the mic to create an echo effect, and a spring in the base to ampli...
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DailySing - 14 (2.14.2012)

Posted by Emile Dyer on Wednesday, February 15, 2012, In : Daily Sing 
One good thing I am doing is staying true to the spirit of improvisation when I do these DailySings. I know this because I am always surprised at where I end up, whether it be on a harmonic tangent, in a percussive interlude, or at the end of the whole piece. I never know where I'm going from one second to the next. Some very happy accidents happen this way. In fact, I'd say that a good portion of new innovative musical ideas are the result of unexpected occurences, "mistakes", my piano teach...
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If you can talk, you can sing


Emile Hassan Dyer I believe that singing is our birthright, and that it is good for our brains, bodies, and spirit. Singing releases oxytocin in the brain, and many studies have shown a correlation of oxytocin with human bonding, increases in trust, feelings of calmness and security, as well as reductions in anxiety. In other words, SINGING IS GOOD FOR YOU! I get high making up music on the spot. I get high(er) when I can do it with several people at once. There's nothing like riding the crest of a creative wave, linked harmonically and rhythmically, supporting, leading, following, creating, coaxing, cajoling, p-l-a-y-i-n-g... THAT'S MY BLISS! Singing for 15 minutes a day means trusting yourself. It means clearing your mind, opening up and discovering what sounds can come out through you, if you allow it. To listen to each of my daily sings, click on the "songs" link on the left in the grey field above the most recent post or on the link at the end of each post.

Categories

My DailySing practice is inspired by Will Hewett's Sing15 practice.

You can learn more about Sing15 at www.willhewett.com.

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"creative wave"percussive lyrical vocal solos melody "richard bona "sing out loud 'vp guy" riffs sounds patterns 4/4 4/4 feel 4/4 time 6/8 6/8 bell 6/8 feel 6/8 time a cappella a cappella thang abandon accented beat accents act of singing actors adaptability addendums aeolian african vocal delivery afro blue afro funk afro-cuban air flow alive ambient apex approach arc arc of the improv architecture arrange arrangements arranging art artless aspect of music atmosphere attacked the singing audience backbeat background hum balance ballad ballad-like bass bass line bass lines bass llne be the sound beat beatbox beatboxing beats berimbaus berzerker bird song birthday birthing the melodies blog blues bluesy body percussion body rhythms bp brain brassy bre bridge bridges burst carlinhos brown catchy tune cd channel chant chants choices choir chops chorus clapping claps clarity classical clave climactic crescendo codification of play cohesion color compose compositions concert conduit 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play samurai cowboy sang scale scales scating scatting sculptors senses sensitivity session shakers silence simple sing sing big singer singing singing a pattern singing out loud singing universe singing when asked to singing with no map ska sleep slow lazy riff snare solo soloed soloing solos song song play songs songwriting sonic sonic region sonic vibration sonic wall sotto voce soul song sound sound wavews sounded rough sounding soundings soundproof sounds soundscape soundscapes soup of living sounds source spaces speed spirit spirit of improvisation spiritually sated spoken spoken word spoken wordsung lyrics sting story stream of consciousness string strings style sublime sung sung words surge swat sweet sweet child in time sweet in the morning sweet jane sweet spot swing symphonicities syncopation tabla taught teachers tears technique tell my feet tempi tempo tenor text the groove the opening the sweet spot the voice the waters of march the zone thematic idea theme themes thought debris thoughts throat timbre time time dilation time signature time signatures tonal tonality tone tones training transition transitions tribal trippy true trumpet truths tune turn tv un-musical unique sound toys upbeat upper range upper register val vamp variation variations varied verses vinx violin violins vitality vocal vocal drum vocal drum riffs vocal embellishments vocal exploration vocal improv vocal percussion vocal percussion interlude vocal percussion interludes solo rhythmic approach vocal percussion land vocal range vocal travel log vocal trek vocalist vocalizing voice voice qualities voice-dance voioce vp wah-wah pedal walking walking bass line warm rhythms wave weird percussive noises west african music whistled whistling will witching word words words from the heart zimbabwe