Getcha Some Productions Podcast Episode 31

https://reverb.grsm.io/GetchaSome

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_nc0nleQ5Yk_eKuNpkDFvQ

A podcast covering all things related to music production: from the first note to the last fan and everything in between. Our mission is to create music and to inspire others to do the same.

Not your typical podcast, each episode is a live business meeting. We are in the process of building a media empire (a music production company) and listeners/viewers come along for the ride. This is a chronicle and archive of our progress.

This podcast is always candid and unrehearsed.

In this episode we discuss:

This is another podcast with Raja.

Raja “No Honorific” Azar is our esteemed guest. A distinguished guest with a fancy room. Raja was also a guest on episode 29. That was the episode where we discussed possibly doing some Jazz stuff. We finished that episode with an assignment for me to find some repertoire for ourselves.

Also with Daniel “The Meat” Kutcher

I started off the assignment (to select songs to learn) by putting some questions out feelers out on Facebook. There was a lot of feedback that beginners should start with certain songs like All the Things You Are or Autumn Leaves. But, there were a ton of other songs suggested. I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume and variety of the suggestions so I realized I had to narrow it down somehow.

The first thing I noticed was that, because jazz is a repertoire of songs, there is a lot of variety in song form. So songs can be AB, AABA, ABC, etc.

So I broke it down by saying that the few songs we select have to cover most of the basic tonalities and what I would estimate to be the most basic forms. Here are some of the basic and most common recommendations that I culled from my research. Here are the most common recommendations from actual jazz musicians.

1. Blues
2. A Song in a minor key
3. A ballad
4. Rhythm Changes

All the other most common suggestions were actually just specific songs. Very common evergreen standards.

When I was done with my research I discovered that the most obvious choices were a Blues, the song Body and Soul as a ballad, a Rhythm Changes song and some kind of minor song. That would cover the major tonality, the dominant tonality, A ballad and a minor tonality song. I just was having difficulty selecting a minor tonality song.

Then I found this book in my own library:

Barry Galbraith, Jazz guitar study series #3, Guitar Comping

Please use the affiliate link here to buy the book:

https://amzn.to/3eclPbP

This book actually has a blues in F and a blues and all 12 keys. It has a minor Blues. It also has the song Body and Soul. And finally it has several versions of rhythm changes. So, this book by itself covers all the bases for a beginner outlined above.

So, after I explain all the above, I the guys ask for some feedback.

Raja says that it’s cool the chords sound good. And important bit of feedback was that he said that he would’ve been comfortable just doing a simple I IV V blues.

Raja also says that it’s good in that the chords sound pretty cool so after we get them under our fingers we can mess with them a lot. I guess that’s kind of the idea. Start with something that’s written but gradually build on it and alter it until it becomes our own.

Start with something that’s written and gradually build on it and alter it till it becomes our own.

Dan’s feedback was a little different. He’s just a bass player with no drummer so whatever makes us happy is fine he’ll just play some low notes. Maybe it’s worth it to record the chords and have a drummer improvise over those to give Dan something a little more fun to play along to.

Dan doesn’t seem too enthusiastic about it. It’s just quarter notes. If only there were some device that you could program that could take the place of a drummer. But, there isn’t so will just have to deal with no drummer.

I make a joke that we could just use a cardboard box and a pan from the kitchen as a drum set but Raja actually has a personal anecdote about this. He has a friend who has a portable drum set that fits in sort of a large Tupperware container that has all the elements of a drum set except for the bass drum and for the bass drum he just put his base pedal up against the side of his boat and hits the beater against the wall.

So, as we’re chatting we’re starting to have ideas about how do collaborate. So I introduce the next topic which is, now that we’ve decided what we’re going to work on, how do we work on this. I bring up the issue that I learned an étude by rote and I’m playing something that’s pre-written. However jazz is inherently improvised so I’m not improvising when I’m playing something that’s pre-written. I bring that up to brainstorm about how to turn this into Improvised music.

One idea I had was that we just start with the first measure. It happens to be an F13 cord going to a Gb13 cord. What if I just vamp on that and try to create as many variations on that as I can and send that to Dan and Raja and they can improvise on top of it.

Raja has the idea to start with just the first 12 bars. He would record the chords for me and I would record the chords for him and we’ll trade off.

Raja likes the idea of combining synth bass with real bass. Raja feels that he and Dan should definitely combined the powers of their instruments to come up with some low end juiciness.

I was just having a dream about one iteration of this group. I was imagining a very traditional jazz sound. Like a typical jazz quartet that would consist of drums, bass, guitar and a horn. However, I’m imagining that instead of the horn it’s Raja on his synth playing a typical synth sounds.

Raja is still waiting for his Moog synthesizer to come back from the factory because of some voice cards that had been faulty. Raja’s synth actually has 16 voice cards in it I guess. And three of them were faulty. He had to go through a diagnostic process with a text.

On a positive note, Moog‘s customer service is top notch. He’s never had such a pleasant experience with people.

Kitty kitty

Raja’s current project is called Downtown. Links:

https://thisisdowntown.bandcamp.com/album/headhunter

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCRCpU0dp8C9erLLyD7fJ8mA

https://instagram.com/downtown_the_band?igshid=16660q56sniit

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