LZ Band Blog

Berklee Playalong site

2011-11-23T16:57:00.001-08:00

Again, found an really great site devoted to learning jazz standards. Who needs to buy a bunch of playalongs. Check out this site: http://learningresources.berklee.edu/public/PFD/
It's got tunes written over 45 great jazz standards. You can swtich between whatever instrument you want to and playalong tracks come up on their own. It is super user friendly and a great resource!

GREAT Jazz Site

2011-11-02T15:14:00.000-07:00

So you don't have money to buy a bunch of playalongs or real books. This site is for you. Talk about a really great way to study tunes and to learn them. It has playalongs, changes for Bb, Eb, or C instruments and youtube videos with many great versions of the standard tunes. If you like to learn jazz-go here:
http://www.learnjazzstandards.com/

2010-2011 LZ Band Year in Review

2011-05-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

It's time for me to blog again! It's been too long. I think it's probably good to reminisce a little about the past year in the Lake Zurich HS Band. It was a very rewarding and enjoyable year for me, filled with many solid performances and a great trip to San Diego.
Band camp in August was a great beginning. We have some of the best students and it was very apparent with their hard work and willingness to try new things. We actually spent time learning parade turns, and while we did not end up using them this year, it was good to stretch our marching abilities. I hope that continues. Our 3 drum majors-Krystyna, Julie and Rachel were outstanding this year-and they really set a tone for excellence at band camp. They also did a good job of making everyone feel like an important part of the band. Our shows this year were the Beatles & Superheros, culminating in our 14th annual dance at halftime of the Homecoming show to the rock beat of Aerosmith's "Spiderman."
Our football team extended our season greatly again this year-fortunately, the extra 2 home games turned into another great trip downstate (unlike the year before, where we were one play short of going downstate). It's always great to perform in a college stadium and our students were once again one of the best bands to perform all weekend. I'm also so proud of how they want to cheer and support our school and team. So much so that the administration and students decided to add bleachers on the track for us to perform from during the games so we could be an even bigger part of school spirit. I think the student favorite pep band tune was "Dynamite." I finally tried my hand at arranging for the marching band, and it turned out alright...I hope to do it again next year to help keep the tunes we play as current as possible.
We also flew across the country to perform at the Holiday bowl in San Diego, CA on December 30. We also performed in the Big Balloon Parade through downtown San Diego. The weather was cold all week, but beautiful for the parade and the game. It was a good thing we weren't there a week earlier when the stadium flooded, but we enjoyed going to the game between Washington and Nebraska. It was fun connecting with the band director from Nebraska, Carolyn Barber, who was a doctoral student at Northwestern when I was an undergrad. I even played on her conducting recital. Playing at halftime was cool and loud, though it was really hard to hear the bands over the din of fireworks and the sound system. What are you going to do?! It didn't take away from the trip-just like the year we marched the London New Year's day parade in a rain storm, it was still a great trip. The zoo, the beach, Sea World, Disney and the air craft carrier were all highlights of the trip.
While we did not win the state championship title in football, our bands' focus then turned to concert band season. The wind ensemble hoped to be able to return to U of I for the Superstate Concert Band Festival in the beginning of May. While we did not eventually achieve that goal again this year, we still had many highlights and played some amazing literature at a high level. This year's focus seemed to be on classical transcriptions-we played a number of them, with the highlight being Shostakovich's 5th symphony, movement 4. Ever since my own high school in Westerville Ohio performed this as part of our competition show when I was in the band, I've always wanted to conduct a band performing this transcription. But it requires a very deep group of musicians and outstanding woodwind and brass soloists. I felt like we finally had that this year, so we went for it. It went well and we put it on a CD this year entitled "Wings to the Mind." The title came from a quote by Plato that says, "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." Our students made the final decision and the CD was a nice memento of our year.
One of my favorite things this year was our annual Wind Ensemble Invitational Concert. This year's concert featured a friend of mine, Matt Kastor, and his band from Lakes Community HS in Antioch. We also brought our neighbors from down the road who we have not done enough with in the past, Jeff Slepak and the Stevenson HS Wind Ensemble. I have great respect for both of these outstanding teachers and their programs and was delighted to share a concert with them. It was a great evening of sharing music and I look forward to year number 6 of this concert next year as we bring in Buffalo Grove HS, directed by Ed Jacobi and the Wheaton College Symphonic Band, under the direction of Timothy Yontz. Once again, I am excited to showcase to programs under directors that I have the utmost respect for. It will be great fun I'm sure!
Another fun thing that happened this year is the 3rd place trophy for IHSA Music Sweepstakes. This is an annual competition that awards points for Solo & Ensemble Contest and Organizational Contest each year and determines a state champ. We were excited to get this as it is an indication of a well-balanced music department. You can't win this award without a solid band, choir and orchestra program. I think it was good for our students to get some recognition for all their hard work.
We also performed the world premier of a new work by Michael Markowski entitled "Dreamland." The students enjoyed the challenge of mixed meters, interesting percussion and melodic lines and eerie colors and sounds. It was also fun colaborating with the composer to find little mistakes and things that could be notated differently to improve the reading of the piece. When all was said and done our students did a really nice job with the piece.
It has been a pleasure to work this year with such great colleagues, Nick Juknelis and Serge Penksik, as well as our fine department chair Angela Fortune. But I think the most important member of our LZ team is Sheri Conover, my assistant director, to whom I owe my sanity and my family owes my presence. Her time and dedication to the program have allowed me to balance work and home in a way that I cherish-the Lake Zurich program would not be what it is without her!
A few more weeks and we're on to 2011-2012, but it has been a great year and I want to thank all of the seniors that have made this year a great one and without their 4 years of dedication and leadership, the program would not be what it is. Congrats on your graduation and best of luck in the future! Stay in touch!

Reflections of San Diego

2011-01-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

Great trip to San Diego with the marching band. They did very well in the parade winning their class and caption awards for Drum Majors, Auxiliary, Music and Marching. The halftime show at the Holiday Bowl sounded great except that the whole thing was just very LOUD! It was a great group of students to travel with and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. Highlights were the San Diego Zoo, Disneyworld and the beach. Lowlights were COLD WEATHER-actually it wasn't that cold, just that no one was dressed for it!

It was great fun seeing all of the traditions of two outstanding college marching bands in Nebraska and Washington. I enjoyed seeing a fellow Northwestern alum in Nebraska's Director of Bands, Dr. Carolyn Barber.

Lake Zurich got some TV time after the parade. I saw a feature on the parade where our version of "Superman" became the sound track behind all of the sights and sounds of the parade. Our drum majors were interviewed as well in this video clip.

All in all it was a great trip!!!

To San Diego Holiday Bowling

2010-12-16T05:57:00.000-08:00

It's off to the Holiday bowl on December 27! It will be nice to get out of this weather-Why do we live in Chicago? Perhaps the most asked question there is. Got a good group of 160 going this year. Not the most musically rewarding trip, not like when we get to perform with a concert band, but it is much easier when everyone only has one instrument. It's bad enough what the airlines want to transport instruments-we're shipping 3 pallets worth of instruments tomorrow. It will be nice loading and not having to think about equipment. I just hope it makes it there!

If we don't see you-Have a merry Christmas!

Do Hard Things!

2009-08-25T15:01:00.000-07:00

A new year of school is upon us. My motto for the year comes from a book I've been reading about two teenagers who write about "the Myth of Adolescence" The book (and my motto) are "DO HARD THINGS." In other words, I'm trying to encourage students to have higher expectations for themselves and to try things that they don't think they can do. How often do we work toward goals that we feel are unachievable, only to find that we can do it. George Washington was leading troops prior to the Revolutionary war when he was 14! The word teenager did not appear until the 1940s. Prior to that kids went straight from youth to adulthood.

It's going to be a great year!

LZ Jazz CD-"Blow It Out" 2009

2009-05-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

Well, We're going to do another CD. I'm really happy with the way the bands are sounding and I really want to archive it for the future. Legacy Productions is going to record us and we have to sell 120 CDs to break even. The CD will feature Feels So Good, In Her Family, All That Jazz, La Suerte De Los Tontos, and much much more! It will have the Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Lab Band, and Funky Premier-jazz combo on it and will sell for $20. We just want to break even-making a CD is an expensive proposition.

Interested in getting one-contact me!

New Orleans 2009

2009-03-30T20:37:00.000-07:00

If I was a really big time blogger, I'd be going to town this week. So many cool things are happening on our Jazz Bands trip to New Orleans. Today we dropped off donated instruments to the Tipitina's foundation that will be used to help supply some needy kids here in NOLA. We also did an exchange concert with the band kids at Cohen High School.

We showed up around 2:00 and went into the band room to set up-their band kids were already there sitting around for our performance. As in any new environment, there was an air of uncertainty, but as we began to play everyone began to settle down and start to have fun. When we finally got to The Jody Grind, the Cohen students began to clap along a little bit and you could tell some of them were starting to enjoy it. At that point, we convinced some of their percussionists to join us on a Second Line groove tune. They like playing loud.. but they were having fun and enjoying it-breaking down more of those walls. Then they got up to play for us. The band is much more marching band influenced and they began to play with the biggest sound that I have ever heard 30-35 students put out, especially considering most of them have been playing less than 2 years. After 3 sitting down tunes, they begged their director, Mr. Brimmer to stand up and show some of their moves. There was great pride in what they were doing. This was the first year since Katrina that the band from Cohen was able to participate in the Mardi Gras Parades. Afterward, we had pizza and drinks for all the kids and while there was still some uncertainty, they were able to talk to each other and have some fun together. A couple of the Cohen students did some step dancing for us. Then they thanked us for coming and one of their students said "We can't end this until we pray." So we all circled up and he thanked God for our visit and for safety for us. What an emotional time-with all these people in New Orleans have gone through over the past 4 years, faith has played a huge part in helping these people through these times. We hear all the stories, but it's the pictures of the kids from after the storm that make it so real. How do you make it through this horribly tragic situation when you are 3 or 6 or 8? How has it affected them? What kind of nightmares must they have had for years afterward? Now all these students are in school, some in high school, so days like today help pull them out of the for just a little while.

After we left, the emotion of the exchange took over. I can't think of a time when I've been more proud of my students. It took me to tears. I knew I had great kids, I just didn't know how great. Yeah we have great musicians and a great music program, but there is nothing less valuable about what they are doing in their program. It's all music and it's all making the lives of these kids richer. Today it brought two groups of very different students together in a common way. And all of them walked away knowing a little more about where the others are coming from. It was an awesome day and we haven't even started building yet!

Filling In at NU

2008-12-21T10:39:00.000-08:00

We were the fill in pep band at Northwestern University on Dec. 15th for their game vs. the Univ. of Miss at Kansas City. The 'cats took it to them and we had a great time. Here's a bunch of photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/papajazz1973/NUPepBandDec152008#

Free Sight-Reading Practice

2008-11-07T07:45:00.001-08:00

Alright, For those of you out there that desperately want to be able to sight read better, you have to try this site. You can pick the difficulty of rhythms, different meters and set the tempo. Then you can play them on your own with your own metronome, or play along with the computer demonstrating the right rhythm. Best of all, It's FREE!
http://www.practicesightreading.com/index.php
Improving your sightreading is 98% about your ability to read rhythms.

Playing the Blues

2008-10-29T12:46:00.000-07:00

I've always taken it for granted that my students would learn the blues scales, but what I'm learning is that they don't really KNOW them. Actually, they don't really KNOW most of their scales in general. They can figure them out, but they can't move up and down and around and through them with very much ease. I've been teaching my students out of Greenblatt's book on the blues http://www.shermusic.com/new/1883217385.shtml and he makes it so easy to blow over the blues, using the major and minor blues scales. If only the students could master these scales, they could really start to blow! The other issue is that, while they may know a one octave scale, knowing these scales over the entire range of your horn is quite another thing, especially if they're not starting on the root. If you're looking for a great beginning to intermediate improv. book, this is great... it comes with a couple play a long CDs and is available in Eb, Bb and C versions. I highly reccomend it.

OLD LZHS

2008-10-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

Last one: The old Uniform Room (MAXXED OUT!)

The old PAC (400 seats, the symphonic band couldn't fit on the stage with 70 members, can you imagine 100!)

Our two lovely practice rooms!

This one has the piano that I redesigned and auctioned off as a piece of furniture...

2008-10-16T12:44:00.000-07:00

Some more old LZHS:
The music hallway (now it's like Business or something!)

The choir/orchestra room-oh soooo roomy!

The band room: (actually it was a lot closer to the football field for marching practice, and windows?!, what a concept!) The column in the middle of the room was convenient too, especially for sleepy percussionists..

If you look in the back of the room, the door in the middle is the MIDI LAB!!

The old Days!

2008-10-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick trip down memory lane for you (if you were here prior to 2003).
The old midi lab....

The Music library

The Music office (it used to be just for 2 people)

Jazz Improv solutions

2008-10-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

So today I found a bunch of great stuff for jazz improvisation practice. If you really want to get serious.... First of all, Band in a Box is the standard for learning to play over the changes of any tune. I use it to create playalong tracks for my bands for any solos that they have. There is no substitute when it comes to developing your ear, you just have to hear the changes over and over.
It's normally $129 at pgmusic but you can get it a lot cheaper at Kelly's Music. Academic price is only $89!! You just need the basics... It's a little pricey, but it's all you'll need-yes, Aebersolds and Hal Leonards are good for play-a-longs, but you can do all that and a lot more with this program. You can then fine massive amounts of standard tunes and extra styles on line, from other users like This Site and This Site

So it's great to have tunes to play over and a way you can plug in your own changes to work on (ii-V7-Is) or other groups of chords, but did you know that you don't have to play a new scale for each chord change? Most turn arounds and chord progressions actually have one scale in common (ex. ii-V7-I) and others (blues). I just found this great program for $20 that lets you plug in Band-in-a-Box files and analyzes the whole tune so that you have fewer scales to think about. You can check out the demo before you buy it. While at first it seems a little confusing, it really does a great analysis and makes the process simpler. This is one of those things that the pros and people with good ears do automatically, but it's really cool to figure this out sooner rather than later. Check out this site!!! It has a ton of other stuff too.....

Jazz Scale Suggester System (JSSS)

Working ii-V7-I

2008-10-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I didn't get the kind of jazz education I needed in high school. College got me going, but since jazz wasn't my major, I missed some of the nuts and bolts. Now that I'm teaching it everyday, I've been working my way through a number of different elements of jazz that I could hear, but not understand. One of those is the ii-V7-I progression, found everywhere in jazz. There are plenty of ways of working through the changes, and it happens in bars 9-11, and 11-12 in a blues progression (not the most basic blues, though). I've put on my site a couple play-a-longs over ii-V7-I that you could practice over. Find them at

http://www.lz95.org/lzhs/music/jthompson/Jazz%20Web/Improv%20tools.htm

Just start by playing the scales over them (concert G dorian, C Mixolydian, F Mixolydian) and then get creative, working from a chord tone of one to a chord tone of the next.... Post if you have a question or thought....

T

Getting Started

2008-10-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

I just hope to let you in on what I'm learning and finding online and off. Hopefully, you'll find some of what I find interesting! No promises.....
T