Jam Session!

Here I find myself in a familiar situation. Writing out chord charts for our upcoming Jam Session on Friday, February 7th! I always forget that it can be a lot of work to get everyone prepared (including instructors) for something that takes focused coordination. If you're unfamiliar with what I am talking about, we at Matt Burk Music Studio have many performance opportunities for our students. Jam Sessions are a relaxed way to develop what I call "ensemble awareness". It is the idea that it is helpful to play in a group for many reasons. A player must listen when performing with others to keep "in the song". A performer can truly experience the fluctuations that can occur in a group as well. Also, it helps our students meet each other and develop a music community within the studio! While I like to complain about the difficulties of making chord charts (the revisions alone can take days to catch!), truthfully, I enjoy it. I like seeing the students start the songs and hearing what they sound like on the night of the performance. I know they work hard all year but these are my times to literally see the progress! I often end up playing in the groups as a bass player; we have a couple but there's always a bass-shaped hole to fill.  I am impressed by their musicality. I think that everyone, even those with no wish to perform in front of a crowd, should witness the performance at least once to see how Matt Burk Music Studio helps students reach their musical goals!

If you or someone you know is interested in private music lessons custom-tailored to their interests, please check out the rest of our site or stop by one of our convenient North Texas locations in Allen and Frisco! Matt Burk Music Studio: Learn, Create, Perform!

Get In the Session!

Once again we're gearing up for another great Jam Session for the studio! As per usual, it will be held at the Jam Station in Plano, Friday, August 16th, starting at 7:30 pm! We're doing two songs, one new, one old: "Since U Been Gone" and "Walk Away Renee." This will be our first Jam Session with students from both our Allen location and our new Frisco location performing! The other instructors and I have been working out the parts, including guitar/piano lead sheet and drum notation written out from scratch! Now I know I've posted about this before but I cannot stress how much of a positive impact it can have to work with others when composing, arranging, choreographing, and writing lyrics. Take, for example, the older song "Walk Away Renee", which is in the key of A for both recordings we've referenced for the lead sheets. Our version will be in G to be more accessible to both male and female singers. At first we had a very simple four-bar intro all prolonging the G major chord. This was fine for at-home performance but I figured it would be a bit more interesting to the players and the listeners to transpose another harmonically engaging part into the intro. Now, I know for some of you this is a bit too much music jargon but the end result will be that the song sounds good and is fun to play! Since we're doing drums from scratch, I wanted to give the performers a lot of leeway in regards to the beats, fills, and cymbal accents. I have begun creating a "skeleton key" of sorts that shows important areas where the ensemble moves together rhythmically or when an accent or fill is absolutely needed. The rest will really be up to the players taste, which I believe helps with improvisation and listening in the group atmosphere. The players must be more aware of what is happening in order to not become lost in the song. Guitar has been smooth sailing with the help of one of our piano/guitar instructors. We've even been able to revise each other's work to keep mistakes at a minimum (and save some ink and paper to boot!) which makes it that much easier to concentrate on the students' performance and fun!

If you are a current student and have been on the fence about performing in the Jam Sessions, I strongly encourage you to sign up! They are very laid back, with no pressure or expectations. We're just there to have a good time and enjoy playing music together. Still not sure? Then just come by and see what it is all about! Not a current student but you're interested in what we do? Matt Burk Music Studio offers private music lessons tailored to the student! We find out what engages YOU and go from there! We offer lessons in piano, guitar, drums, bass, voice, songwriting, and audio production. Matt Burk Music Studio: Learn, Create, Perform!

Mixing the Old and New

I've stated before how many different genres of music that I hear throughout the week at Matt Burk Music Studio. I think the eclectic nature of the lessons keeps interested minds open to sounds and melodies that they might not initially enjoy. This can be seen particularly in the song choices for our student Jam Sessions. The instructors are involved with the decisions and take heavily into consideration the requests and interests of the students. We perform one modern pop song and one classic pop/rock song. This helps the student identify common progressions, repeating  patterns, and influences that perhaps are overlooked during the intense focus of the lesson. The atmosphere during the jam session is very relaxed:  The teachers are there to support our drum, keyboard, bass, guitar, and vocal students. Students are there to develop ensemble awareness, meet new players/peers, and have a good time! Learning from the experience is just a side effect of the overall goal; something I discussed in my last post, "Performance Panic".  The main thing to remember is that we always have something to learn from music from any era!