Changing reality!

Today on @yamahamusicusa #silentbass and @laklandbasses Friday, I am going to give u an exercise I have given to students privately and in ensemble classes for many years. It is called "changing reality". Basically, take a tune and change the style/genre/instrumentation/etc. while still keeping the essence of the tune intact.  I have found that this exercise can help you to break away from what u know and always play and use music fundamentals to convincingly reconstruct the tune. Ok..as usual...how? As I said, choose a tune..one u like...one u know...anything...change it. I mean CHANGE IT!. Is it metal? Make it a samba...is it classic rock? Make it a jazz standard...etc. Push the envelope. Use music fundamentals to do so...look at the chords, the form. Modify the melody if needed (not too much) to fit the new genre. Be as legit as possible. You will be amazed what u will learn as u will be applying music in an unfamiliar way and will see that (for the most part) music is music...u dig? Once ur done.. perform it. With ur band...friends...use a DAW... iRealPro...anything. Record it and see how u did.  I have done this many times myself for performances as well as study. Back in the day, I rearranged 2 hard rock tunes for big band and they were well received by players and audience alike...and I learned a ton in the process! So, the goal here is to be able to compose/perform/understand music in any situation by bringing urself back to the basics and working from there. It is a sound thought process IMO and u will be amazed what u can discover.  As always, I invite your insights. #yamahamusicusa #makewaves #pirastro #glasserny #uptonbassstringinstrumentcompany #laklandbasses #sitstrings #tsunamicables #philjonesbass #basslessons #remotelessons