If you’ve been following Jovino’s live seminars on harmony and voicings, make sure you check out his latest, “Envisioning Musical Trails.” It seems to bring together all the various ideas from the earlier sessions, at least it does for me. I especially like his idea of how improvising a melody is like a journey where there is no fixed path and no return. You begin with a note and as you move up and down with intervals of varying size, each choice suggests the next possible direction. Play around with the four-chord progression he suggests. You’ll come up with some interesting results.
Thanks @jovino!
His journey metaphor is so much like that expressed in some verses from “Proverbios y Cantares” in the collection Campos de Castilla (1912) by one of my favorite Spanish poets, Antonio Machado (1875-1939). Here’s an excerpt with the transliteration. The English version doesn’t really capture the beauty of the sounds and rhythm of the original, but it’s pretty well done.
Caminante, no hay camino
Se hace camino al andar
Al andar se hace camino
Y al volver la vista atrás
Se ve la senda que nunca
Se ha de volver a pisar
Caminante no hay camino
Sino estelas en la mar
Walker, your footprints are
the path, and nothing more;
walker, there is no path,
the path is made while walking.
By walking a path is made,
And by returning your sight back
you see the path that is never
to be stepped on again.
Walker, there is no path,
but trails on the sea.
Joan Manuel Serrat (1943), a prolific Spanish (Catalán) singer/songwriter, wrote “Cantares,” a musical adaptation of the poem. I won’t put a link, but you can easily find it if you’re interested. Enjoy!
It’s definitely on the list for me to watch
I have an 8 months old baby so lately, I only manage. to spend 30/60 minutes on the Piano at night. At well that’s life, at least he will be better then me on the Piano when time comes
I’ve just added the chapters for this seminar @scott1 - so if you’d like to check it out again it will be easier to navigate through the contents. I agree there’s so much great insight shared.
Here’s the link to the archived seminar with chapters and slow down controls:
Vimeo - our live streaming service - is having an audio/visual lag issue when I download the archived version of the seminar, and so I am currently unable to add the light-up keyboard in my editing software.
As soon as Vimeo have fixed the tech issue I will add the light-up keyboard to give more visual clarity into Jovino’s demonstrations and performances.
July’s seminar listings will be up on the site today or tomorrow at the latest.
I finally fixed the sync issues with Vimeo and I have added the light-up keyboard for Jovino’s latest improvisation-themed seminar.
The production quality is now much better and it’s easier to absorb the concepts with the light-up keys and note names:
I have also done the same with Jovino’s previous seminar on “Non Linear Chord Voicings”; it’s fully synced with light-up keys above the actual keyboard:
They are both great sessions with a tonne of useful insights.
I’ve been using OBS recently and the multiple sync issues if you are using chordieapp and several cameras at once are considerable, although once you’ve solved them it’s awesome how everything fits together.
Myself and the other teachers are currently using MimoLive which has a simple user interface and it was easy for me to set up the templates, add the layers, and pull in the various input sources.
Another handy piece of software is LoopBack:
I use this to route the Ravenscroft piano audio from Logic and into MimoLive for my live streams.
2020 was my most productive year to date for learning new software, partly due to the confinements and also starting the live seminars last summer.
