The Scale Syllabus App ships!

I've been quite busy of late. One of the things I've been working on are several more apps for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices.

The Scale Syllabus app is designed to assist improvising musicians learn their scales and work on applying them over chords. It is a complete study assistant where you can see, hear and play along with all the jazz chords and scales. This app lets you interact with chords and scales in unique ways.

This app transposes for all instruments and includes a play along mode where you can make music over the chord and a metronome.

It is a complete environment for learning jazz scales and chords.

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DronePlayer for iOS releases!

I'm very happy to announce the release of DronePlayer for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch!

DronePlayer is a fun, interactive practice assistant for improvising musicians. Playing over extended tonalities is a great way to develop your ears as well as your musical ideas.

Long, sustained tones are generally known as drones. Drones have proven themselves quite useful for practicing. Many people use them to assist with intonation. Some enjoy playing scales over them. I personally have found them useful for practicing improvisation and improving my ears.

Muting one of the drone voices is a great way to play with just a fundamental pitch. You can then improvise over this and focus on hearing how what you are playing relates. Adding a second drone voice just adds to the fun.

Rotating DronePlayer to landscape orientation invokes a Drone Sequence mode where you can play evolving tonalities. These are excellent for challenging your improvising skills and having fun while doing so!

Full details with demo videos are at www.tingjing.com/apps/droneplayer. You can find DronePlayer at the App Store http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/droneplayer/id442007897?mt=8.

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Odd-meter improvisation

Trumpeter David Cooper's blog is really great. Even I, a lowly saxophonist, have enjoyed browsing his musings about trumpet and music. He recently wrote an article about how to approach odd-meter tunes. Since he played on my CD Carswell, he was kind enough to include some propers about that. You can read it here: http://www.allthingstrumpet.com/learning/technique/odd-meter-improv/.

I feel compelled to defend myself and this whole odd-meter "trend" in jazz. I've heard a lot of older cats, especially teachers, complaining that today's students only want to play in odd meters. Basically, they're saying that the young players aren't interested in swinging or paying their dues.

I can respect that point of view. We all need to study the tradition. I certainly spent a long time living within the foundations of music by Bird, Diz, Monk, J.J., Sonny, Coltrane, etc.

For me, Carswell and other tunes on that recording are all about "escaping the bonds of Bebop" - specifically, trying to move beyond the musical language from that time.

When I got the gig with J.J. I quickly discovered that no matter how much I might study the Bebop tradition I would never play with the depth that people from that era do. That music evolved within their experience. We, as improvising musicians, must find the music of our time. For me, that's what this is about.

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Nice press for Carswell

Here's a nice, brief writeup about the new CD, Carswell, from Jeff Berkwits over at the Illinois Entertainer. http://illinoisentertainer.com/2010/07/around-hear-july-2010/

"Imagine hanging out late one night at a smoke-stained jazz club like the Green Mill, listening to proficient players enjoying a fun jam session. That's the intoxicating effect of Carswell, the latest 10-tune recording from sax-man Tom Gullion. While standout numbers include the energetically improvisational "Monkey's Tale" and the evocative electric piano and flute of "Right On Time," every cut is consistently captivating."

Thanks Jeff for the great review. I know how difficult it is to condense thoughts into such a tight space but I think he did an excellent job.

I was also contacted by BRAVA magazine in Madison (a magazine for "women of style and substance") that they're recommending Carswell in their August issue. All right! All you "women of style and substance" need Carswell on your iPod. :-)

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Apr 23 and 24 at Magnus (Madison, WI) gig retrospective

Last weekend was incredible! We had a great time performing at Magnus in Madison. The crowd was really great, the staff at Magnus were really kind to us. All good. All very good. :-)

I am so fortunate to be able to make music with these incredible musicians: Tim Whalen (piano), Mark Urness (bass) and Dane Richeson (drums). But you don't have to just take my word for it, give these tracks a listen.

Excerpts from Apr 23, 2010:

Augn San Suu Kyi (Wayne Shorter, arr. Dave Douglas)

I Didn't Know What Time It Was (Rodgers/Hart, arr. Tom Gullion)

Excerpts from Apr 24, 2010

Carswell (Tom Gullion)

A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing (Billy Strayhorn, arr Tom Gullion)

Overflowing (Tom Gullion)

Ting Jing (Tom Gullion)

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OW Oshkosh residency

I had a great time working with students at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh in December, 2009. Special thanks to professor Marty Robinson for the great hospitality and for building such a great jazz program. It was delightful to play with the band, chat with the music business class, teach a few lessons and hang with the cats after the concert! The only downside was the blizzard raging outside limited the audience. Those that did attend certainly earned their stripes!

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Carswell Songbook now available online

Ok, this took longer than expected. Finally, we have published all the songs for Carswell. It's available as a free download at http://www.tingjing.com/tg/pdf/TomGullion_Carswell_Fakebook.pdf or just click the image below. Note that it's rather large - a 66MB file!

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