Music lessons! (piano or saxophone)

lessons@vincentstephenong.com

In addition to performing, I also teach piano, saxophone, composition, and theory lessons out of my downtown studio (located near Guy/St-Mathieu and René-Lévesque, H3H 2S5). My rate is $25 for the first 8 one-hour lessons, and $30/hr after that.

Student Recital 2011

I have been teaching since 2003 at a number of different schools, including the Montreal Academy of Music, Lasalle Music Academy, and Collège Jean-Eudes. I now teach entirely via private lessons.

Why take lessons with me?

• Experienced multi-instrumentalist jazz musician
• Instruction available for all styles of music, all levels, all ages, and in English or French
• Improvisation, composition, and jazz theory lessons available to players of all instruments
• Emphasis on universal skills and musical concepts while custom-tailoring lessons based on your requirements and strengths
• Yearly student recital (optional but strongly recommended to all students!) including the opportunity to play with a backing band of professional calibre.

Whether you are interested in learning piano or saxophone in any style of music or are looking for lessons on jazz theory, my years of performance and teaching experience will be adapted to serve your needs.

---

En plus de mes performances sur scène, j'enseigne également le piano, le saxophone, la composition et la théorie de mon studio situé au centreville (près de Guy/St-Mathieu et René-Lévesque, H3H 2S5). Mes tarifs sont $25 pour les premières 8 leçons d'une heure, et $30/hr après ça.

Recital d'étudiants 2009

J'ai été enseignant depuis 2003 à plusieurs écoles, dont l'Académie de Musique de Montréal, Académie de Musique Lasalle et Collège Jean-Eudes. J'enseigne maintenant entièrement en leçons privées.

Pourquoi prendre des leçons avec moi?

• Enseignant est un musicien de jazz professional, multi-instrumentaliste
• Enseignement disponible pour tous styles de musique, à tous niveaux, à toutes âges, en anglais ou en français
• Cours en improvisation, composition, et théorie de jazz disponible pour joueurs de n'importe quel instrument
• Emphase sur les compétences et conceptes musicales universelles en même temps adjustant les leçons pour tes besoins et abilités personelles.
• Concert annuel d'étudiants (optionel mais fortement recommandé à tous) incluant l'opportunité de jouer avec un band d'accompagnement formé de musiciens de calibre professionel.

Si tu cherches apprendre le piano ou saxophone dans n'importe quel style de musique, ou si tu cherches des leçons en théorie de jazz, mes années d'expérience sur la scène ainsi que comme prof seront adaptés pour vos besoins.

lessons@vincentstephenong.com

Scientific Analysis of Swing Ratio

My friend Andre Majaes brought this paper entitled "Jazz Drummers' Swing Ratio in Relation to Tempo" to my attention. It provides a scientific look at the ratio of the long-short pairs in swing 8th notes.

What is not known is the exact relation between the long and the short note. It is not specified in the score and music students are often advised to learn it by listening to recordings. Such knowledge would contribute to the understanding of the perception and production of music. It would also be useful for generating synthetic performances on a MIDI sequencer, as well as being helpful for students who wish to learn how to swing.

The essential conclusions they come to are that:

• Swing 8th notes are not triplet-based nor are they dotted-8th and 16-note pairs. The feel varies from drummer to drummer and, as is obvious to the ear and well-known, becomes more straight as tempo increases.
  
  
  
  
  It is interesting to note that Jack DeJohnette, compared to the other drummers used in the study, actually stays closer to a 2:1 triplet ratio regardless of tempo than the other subjects.
  
  
• The length of the shorter 2nd note of each pair seems fairly constant regardless of tempo- around 100ms. According to the data provided, it appears that the length of the 2nd note only deviates from this fixed amount at slower tempos.
  
  
  
  
  

(note: images above from the original paper)

I'm glad to see there is finally somewhat believable scientific evidence that swing 8ths really do vary from player to player and are not absolutely triplet-based.

I do think this study could be done better, however.

• Better Data Visualization. More data points per drummer, or per-drummer breakdowns, instead of lumping all drummers together. Yes it is visible based on the shape of the data point, but it's had to get a clear picture from it.
  
• Control Cases. Comparisons with the same drummers playing straight 8ths and triplet-based feel to use an accuracy baseline.
  
• Don't average lengths, but average ratios. I think it is erroneous to average out lengths of notes over the context of an entire song, since variations in tempo (i.e.: speeding up or slowing down) will skew the data. Perhaps this is already done in the original study, but it's not specified.
  
• More data. I'd like to see more drummers included in this, and comparisons of relative 8th note feels in different contexts. Also, why not include other instrumentalists as well? I'd also like to see the same drummer at the same tempo, but from different recordings. Perhaps we'll have a clearer justification for why certain recordings "swing like a MOFO" more than others.
  

It might also be interesting to see a second study exploring the use of accents in swing feel.

[ source: Jazz Drummers' Swing Ratio in Relation to Tempo ]

Best. Present. Ever.

About 2 years ago, my parents moved out of their house in NDG, which was my childhood home, to move into a condo located downtown. Part of this move included throwing out lots of "old junk" deemed no longer necessary. In fact, the cleaning process started years and years ago, even before they decided to get a condo. Those who know my parents know that they have a dark and quirky sense of practicality and uber-foreplanning- some say fatalistic others say realistic. My dad explained the cleanup: "We want to throw out all this junk now so that, after we die, you don't have to go through all of this".

Unfortunately, one of the items deemed "junk" was a Casio VL-1 VL-Tone, which was my first ever musical instrument, and whose demo song was the first piece of music I ever learnt how to play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVDw7uPnfa8#t=29s

Not exactly the hippest thing ever, but back then I couldn't get enough. I mean, christ, I eventually got so good at playing the theme that I would play the melody while switching the rhythms and sounds around at the right spots.

If you've never heard of the VL-Tone, but hear something in it that sounds familiar, it may be because you've heard songs that have used it. The most famous is probably German band Trio's song "Da Da Da".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15YZUXL_ULU

Anyway, so, like I said, my dad threw it away and I was shocked and horrified- partly nostalgia but also partly because I've had the idea in the last few years to start a project that would integrate retro electronic sounds, and the VL-1 was going to be absolutely integral to it.

Fast-forward to tonight, when I was over at my parents place for dinner. Due to age and my dad's illness, I've been helping out with various chores and repairs that would have previously been trivial, and so, after dinner, I headed downstairs to pick up the mail. There was a package waiting for us.

Suddenly I realized why my dad had been asking me questions about eBay for the last couple of weeks without the slightest idea it was for this. Best present ever.

Also, thankfully I did manage to stave the hand of junk-disposal before they got to my old Transformers toy collection.

Before Music Dies

I'd heard about this documentary about the current state of the popular music industry, that is to say, marketing-driven music, as opposed to music and musician-driven music, a while ago, but never got around to watching it. My loss. Contains some great insights although it comes off as a bit of a commercial spot for ATO Records at the end of it.

You can watch the entire movie here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPZztrRWjZ8


Features interviews with record industry execs, random music fans, and lots of famous and not-so-famous musicians such as Erykah Badu, Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, Branford Marsalis, and ?uestlove. Also contains an amusing insta-popstar creation using the dude who wrote Jewel's big hit, a 17-yr-old model, and of course the wonders of autotune.

This also contains the famous quote from Branford Marsalis about the state of students today, that has been floating around the webtersphere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rz2jRHA9fo


I've seen Branford speaking out on various subjects a bit more recently, and he seems to have a similar combination fire, controversy, and intelligence that Wynton has, but I tend to agree with his opinions more. Kinda like my feeling on their music too, haha.

Here's a clip of him talking about race and the objectification of women:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJiUi3dcOp0


One of the more bizarre/hypocritical parts of the documentary, though, is hearing Erykah Badu talk all about how the music-industry today is all about image over content, but she is doing this while wearing her very notable but very fake afro wig. Hrm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92GM851j20k


Found via Zakari's post on Peter Hum's Facebook wall.

(updated on 2010/12/01 with link to video of Erykah Badu's comments, and updated link to movie)

merry christmas!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2XVHUBEG8o&fmt=6

cd now available!

So, as many of you know, I've been working on a debut CD for the last few years, and finally, after numerous delays, it is DONE and finally available!  It's composed entirely of original material, written and arranged by me and my co-conspirator on this project, Tom Eliosoff.  There's a fair amount of experimentation with colour and time, but all within a certain "modern jazz" framework.  I'd say that the clearest sources of musical inspiration would be Greg Osby, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Henry Threadgill.

The album features myself and Tom, as well as Miles Perkin on bass and Mark "Bucky" Wheaton on drums, but I wrote some tunes and arrangements integrating a string trio on a number of tracks, and Tom added trumpet, trombone, and Rhodes to help fill out the group.  I could try to describe what the music sounds like but, as Frank Zappa famously said (according to legend anyway), "Writing about music is like dancing to architecture", so I'll invite you to check out the album on the website of my newly-founded record label and universal music/musician resource, Bagarap Records:
http://bagarap.com/records/

Let me know if you have any issues listening to the music through the player there.  Not much to see on that website at the moment aside from links to buy the CD and/or MP3s, but I'll be expanding it slowly over time.

If you like it and want to buy it, the best option is to catch me at a show or simply to let me know personally and I'll set aside a copy for you.  We can figure out a meeting time/place to deliver the CD.  This is the cheapest option for you, and the most profitable option for me, so it's the way I prefer to go, in general.  Assuming it's easy enough for me to arrange a delivery, the price is $15, when purchased this way.  You can also purchase the CD (or Digital Download it as DRM-free MP3s) from the Bagarap Records website.  The physical CD and MP3s are also available on CDBaby (http://cdbaby.com/cd/vincentstephenong) and the Digital Download version will be available on a number of other popular sites (iTunes, Amazon, Napster, etc) shortly.

Check it out- I hope you like it.