Jim Funnell

Lateral finger stretching exercise

2012-02-11T23:56:00.007+01:00

I use this routine as a warm-up pretty often when I sit down at the piano (Alain Mallet first showed it to me during my time at Berklee.) Please perform it slowly...

→ view exercise (PDF)

As you can see, it consists of a four bar harmonic progression transposed a semitone up through the chromatic scale, which means it can be used rather effectively as an ear training exercise too (in other words, try looking at the first four bars and transposing them instead of reading the whole thing); enjoy the workout!

Pentafriko

2012-01-18T01:51:00.007+01:00

If you really want to know about me, please read this!

2012-01-07T00:00:00.001+01:00

I don't care much about making a good living from music, I care about living to make good music. My ultimate goal isn't to draw crowds to my shows, but rather to succeed in bringing the music I love to the people!

(my definition of "good music"...)

To "listen" means to give one's full attention to a sound or a word. "Good listening" thus naturally seems to be a necessary prerequisite to the thorough assimilation of a piece of information, which in turn is essential to avoid misunderstanding and conflict (in music and life!) That's why, in my opinion, training the ear is key to establishing Harmony.
Therefore, my aim is, on the one hand, to contribute to promoting the fundamental three-step process of [1) discovering sound → 2) assimilating sound → 3) expressing sound in a personal way], and, on the other hand, to foster interaction (that is to say proper dialogue) amongst musicians, artists and people in general!

"Imitate, assimilate, innovate." Clark Terry

(and finally, a short note of intent)

Since 2007, I have been striving to nurture these values through performance, recording, research, publishing and education, and to encourage Franco-British, European, and global artistic collaboration. I shall, of course, pursue this endeavor for as long as life permits me to!

Yours sincerely,
Jim

Scale Sir practice

2011-12-31T21:08:00.003+01:00

Here's an exercise in 15/8 time based on a section of a tune I wrote called Scale Sir.

→ view exercise (PDF)

In the right hand, we have arpeggiated quartal voicings (stemming from the respective scales from which the notated chords are derived) going up and down the keyboard diatonically.

In the left hand, I constructed simple 3-note chords using the guide tones (3rd - or 4th in the case of the sus4 chords - and 7th) and an added note (the root - replaced by the 9th on the Cma7(#11) chord - or the 5th). These chords are voice-led smoothly and are played according to the rhythmic pattern played by the bass in the D section of the tune.

→ view original score (PDF)

I hope you enjoy it! There will be plenty more in 2012...

Phrase #2

2011-12-18T19:17:00.003+01:00

A good one to practice block chords in drop 2 over Christmas break (I threw a lower chromatic approach in there too.)

→ view phrase (PDF)

Enjoy!

Spirit Of The Snail

2011-12-13T16:23:00.001+01:00

Fuji

2011-11-28T23:43:00.006+01:00

Phrase #1

2011-11-27T14:38:00.001+01:00

This morning I was practicing and I noticed a recurrent phrase in my playing... I remembered a piece of advice I once got from a musician (can't remember exactly who): "If you find yourself playing a phrase over and over again in your solo, practice transposing it in all keys!"

→ view phrase (PDF)

Asteroid B612

2011-11-22T02:28:00.004+01:00

Brief biography

2011-11-03T14:47:00.001+01:00

Franco-british pianist Jim Funnell studied performance and jazz composition at Berklee College of Music (Boston) with professors such as Joanne Brackeen, Laszlo Gardony, Hal Crook, Joe Lovano, Danilo Perez, Mitch Haupers, Greg Hopkins, Alain Mallet... In the United States, he notably performed and recorded with David Fiuczynski’s KiF (eastern-exotica-western-exstatica!) and a quartet lead by trumpeter Tiger Okoshi. He also shared the stage with Yellowjackets members Russel Ferrante and Marcus Baylor, Meshell Ndegeocello, Marcus Miller and Dave Douglas. Now based in Paris and London, he leads his own trio, Word Out, and co-leads a brand new African-influenced improvisational world grooves project, « AfuriKo », with percussionist Akiko Horii. He has recently won the 1st composition prize at the “Trophées du Sunside” in Paris and has toured Mexico and Japan several times sharing his own music with local musicians and audiences. Jim is also active as a composer, arranger, and freelance educator and is a member of SACEM.

Jazz postcard from California

2011-04-27T10:47:00.000+02:00

On tuesday, April 26, I attended a jam session hosted by the Nick Mancini trio at the Blue Whale, a jazz club in downtown LA's "Little Tokyo" district. It was also Nick's birthday so I got to play Happy Birthday after Bye Bye Blackbird (in the same key). Here's a non exhaustive list of other standards performed that night:

Isfahan
a duo version of Lôro featuring pianist Otmaro Ruiz
an arrangement of a tune (I forget the title) in 2+2+3+2+2+2 clave
What Is This Thing Called Love at an extremely fast tempo
Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
Cheek To Cheek

I met Otmaro and we had a wee chat. He recommend me to check out Brazilian pianist and composer Fabio Torres, who leads the Trio Corrente.

On sunday, May 1, Mark Levine was playing at The Jazzschool in Berkeley in a quintet setting. They performed Stella By Starlight with a latin twist at the end (instead of the original last 4 bars) that went "C#mi7 F#7 ⎢ Cmi7 F7 ⎢ Bmi7 E7 ⎢ Bbmi7 Eb7" a couple of times I think before hitting the Emi7(b5) chord at the top. I thought that was hip. Anyway, on the next day, I was lucky to hang out with the author of the famous Jazz Piano Book. He was really cool and drove me around San Francisco.

On wednesday, May 4, I returned to the Blue Whale to hear Boorbaar, "a percussion ensemble that's actually not lame" as Mike Robbins, member of the wicked trio, defines his own band.

That's about it!

How to input clear jazz chord symbols with Finale

2011-01-10T23:30:00.000+01:00

(In this post, I'm specifically referring to the 2008 version of Finale, but I reckon it should all work in a similar fashion with other versions of the software...)

I don't find the basic chord symbols from the "Chord Suffix Selection" scroll box fully satisfying... Thankfully though, Finale does offer a better alternative to input clear jazz chord symbols! Just follow these simple steps...

Click on the "CHORD TOOL" button in the "Main Tool Palette" and make sure "Manual Input" in the "Chord" drop-down menu is ticked. Click on a note or a rest in the score and the "Chord Definition" box pops up.
In the "Chord Symbol:" field, type the root of the chord you want to input (e.g. "C") followed by an "x" (for example... all I really did here is choose a chord suffix that isn't common.) Then press the "OK" button and the following message pops up: "Could not find suffix "x". Would you like to add it to the chord suffix library?". At that point, click on the "Yes" button and the "Chord Suffix Editor" box pops up.
Click on the "Set Font..." button and the "Font" box pops up. Select "JazzCord" from the "Font:" scroll box and input "20" or "21" in the "Size:" field - I tend to use "21" for "ma7" chords and "20" for all other chords (if I'm using the "triangle" symbol for major chords, I set the size to "20" too) - then click on the "OK" button.
Finally click on the "Symbol" button ("Chord Suffix Editor" box) and a whole collection of good looking chord symbols appears! Choose the one you need and click on the "Select" button. To finalize your choice, click on the "OK" button ("Chord Suffix Editor" box) and there you have it!!

Now the good news is: your newly created chord symbol will now figure at the very end of the "Chord Suffix Selection" box (which you can access by clicking on the "Select..." button under the "Suffix" section of the "Chord Definition" box).

Enjoy the newly acquired clarity of your lead sheets!

Composing what I can't improvise...

2010-01-22T16:45:00.001+01:00

As I was working on an arrangement of Tom Bahler's hit song "She's Out Of My Life" (which was made famous by Michael Jackson) I realized that I particularly enjoy writing music, which I wouldn't yet be able to improvise. That way, composing is a process of pushing the boundaries of the inner sense, trying to reach for musical ideas I most likely wouldn't attain in a playing situation, where the music would have to blossom in the moment. Composing thus becomes a mental workout, preparing the mind to fetch more distant material faster, and teaching the soul how to feel it and appreciate it...

Five progressions from the tango "La Mariposa" by Pedro Maffia (lyrics by Celedonio Flores)

2010-01-05T08:08:00.001+01:00

[In this post, I'm referring to the version with Edmundo Rivero on vocals, which can be found on the album Aníbal Troilo - RCA No.12 (1948-1949)]

9 and b9 resolve to 1, b13 resolves to 5. #5 can resolve to b5 in the context of a dominant chord (think of the whole tone scale.) These voice leading rules are all illustrated in a single background string line that runs from 1'32 to 1'39. Here are two progressions that stem from the latter, which I suggest one may practice in various keys:

1) Imin9 Imin V7(b13) V7 Imin9 Imin

2) III6 III V7(#5)/V V7(b5)/V V7(b9) V7

For your consideration, here are three additional progressions, directly transcribed or inspired from the song:

- Instead of having a I chord for a long time, here's a way of adding some motion:

3) I IImin7 #IIo7 I/3

(This progression happens to also be used in blues a lot!)

- Descending from I to V:

4) Imin Imin/b7 Io7/bb7 subV7/V V7

- Ascending from V to I:

5) V7 #Vo7 VImin7 V7/3 I

Enjoy and happy new year!

My reading of (excerpts of) Hazrat Inayat Khan's Mysticism of Sound and Music

2009-12-05T07:46:00.000+01:00

Summary of "Music, XXI. The Healing Power of Music"
Life is health. Its absence is illness. So all illnesses come from one reason: absence of life. Life in its physical form is called "prana" in Sanskrit, which means "the central breath," capable of attracting from space all the different elements, which are necessary for healing. That's why mystics, healers, magnetizers have always had the culture, the science of breath.
By the use of a medicine, a certain vibration, which has the right intensity, is created in the body (to compensate for the element(s) lacking therein) or a certain rhythm (cf. blood circulation) is brought about. So health is a perfect condition of rhythm and tone; therefore, healing is to put oneself into a state of harmony, regulating the body through rhythm and tone.
Music has the power to tune the soul, provided one knows what particular rhythm and tone are needed to help a troubled person. Health of the soul brings health to the physical body (the opposite isn't always true, thus the limits of the material science of medicine) since often the cause of illness is within: what brings illness is the thought of it rather than illness itself. If one has prepared his heart with love and sympathy, which God teaches, one is able to produce music which has the power to exalt the mind and make it rise above the thought of illness, so that the latter is forgotten.

Summary of "Cosmic Language, II. Impressions"
Places, minerals, plants and animals act as "talking records," continually expressing what has been impressed upon them by man throughout history. The voice of these records can be heard if one's intuition is open enough to feel the vibrations they produce, the atmosphere they create. The same goes for man's impressions on other human beings: when two people associate, they both impress feelings on each other, and vibrate the feelings they have received from each other. So they too act just like records, and it is possible for a careful listener to hear these particular melodies.

Quotes from "Cosmic Language, II. Impressions"
"There is a great wisdom in the saying that a person is known by his associates."
"In every person, however wicked, there is a good string somewhere; you must know where to find it."
"The cloud is much smaller compared to the sun, but often it can cover the whole sun from our sight."

Summary of "Cosmic Language, V. The Life of Thought"
Because "God is omniscient, omnipotent, all-pervading, and the Only Being," life is continuous and death is merely a change. Thus once given birth, every "elemental" (a thought, a word, an action, or a feeling) continues to live, just like the resonance of a bell which has been rung (the longevity of the thought depending on the energy the mind has put into it.) Elementals, created by man, turn into huge lives: human intelligence, working mechanically, indeed directs the whole working of nature. So the responsibility of each human being is great since God laid his trust on man to bring about harmony in the world. When one begins to feel this responsibility, the soul is born again and enters the kingdom of God. From then on, one realizes that every moment of one's life is creative and not a second is wasted. Indeed, if an elemental is sent out only to be spiritualized at first, it will ultimately materialize once the time and conditions are right.

Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Mysticism of Sound and Music, Shambhala Dragon Editions

Taking a shot at etymology!

2009-12-03T18:55:00.000+01:00

In the portuguese language, the verb "decorar" has two meanings: "to decorate" and "to learn by heart." When I first became aware of that fact, strolling across the gardens of the Rodin museum in Paris in the company of my good Brazilian friend - and, for the most part, Portuguese teacher - Flavia, I was quite shocked! How could a verb possibly admit two definitions, which apparently are not related whatsoever? After thinking about it a lot, here's an explanation - maybe a rather poetic than strictly scientific one, i admit... - I would like to submit for your consideration.

When one moves into a new flat or an empty room, bringing in the indispensable, functional pieces of furniture and utensils is of course of prime necessity, as far as settling in is concerned. But in order to really feel "at home," one needs to spend some time decorating the place.

Now, what is "learning by heart?" Well, it's definitely a deeper process than simply "memorizing" (there exists a word for that in Portuguese: "memorizar") since the latter doesn't necessarily involve understanding or feeling the piece of information to be memorized, it simply involves being able to repeat it.

So "to decorate" and to "learn by heart" is in essence the same thing: making a place, an object, a piece of art or an idea one's own, bringing it closer to one's soul and finally being able to dwell in it.

Postcard from São Paulo

2009-12-01T14:22:00.000+01:00

Sunday, 1st of November 2009

The last piece the "escola" played was the "samba de enredo" for the upcoming 2010 carnival. During the performance, after having heard the catchy melody a bunch of times already, I seriously considered leaving the place where the rehearsal was happening. It looked like a large, empty storage facility with a corrugated metal roof. The walls were nonetheless decorated with about a dozen big paper butterflies proudly boasting the colours of the school, a giant print of the lyrics on which one could cast a glance to follow the song, and in somewhat majestic capital letters at the back of the room above the entrance, the name of the institution: "PEROLA NEGRA." So I was about to make my way towards these letters and that very entrance (which obviously also served as the exit) when I thought to myself: "Why don't you just wait until the end of the song?" At the time, I had no idea the practice of the same number would go on for another hour or more! But the groove suddenly kicked in and picked up fiercely, which struck me and made me stay until the very end of the rehearsal, in some kind of a mild and serene trance, tapping my feet and singing the chorus happily every time it came along:

"O céu clareou, a Vila chegou
Pérola Negra me abraçou
Ah, sou brasileiro com orgulho e muito amor
Abro a gaveta pra mostrar o meu valor."

Although the sound of the "harmonia" (the band up on an elevated platform, including guitars, cavaquinhos, bass, a lead vocalist and his backing crew) was all mushy, amplified through terrible sounding, greatly distorting speakers, I was stunned how much I was able to appreciate the incredible energy coming from the "bateria," pounding the drums with determination, the singers, blasting out the words with unbelievable endurance, and all the people dancing!
From this experience, I will certainly retain a very valuable and down to earth approach to rehearsal: playing a song over and over until the groove really hits... But most importantly, an incredible sense of community, somewhere between that of a football club and a music school, which seemed to encompass all ages and social classes, was tangible and comforting. Definitely my best sunday afternoon in São Paulo so far!

My reading of Plato's Symposium

2009-09-19T09:03:00.000+02:00

Eros' (Love's) role is to transform one's aspiration, one's attraction towards the "beautiful" and the "good" into perpetual possession through procreation (relating to both body and soul.) He achieves this transformation by inspiring one to contemplate the intelligible and the beautiful. This contemplation (assimilated to "birth giving divinities") in turns gives birth to beautiful speeches about knowledge and virtue (philosophy), nice verses (poetry), etc... Indeed, education is no longer seen as the acquisition of a skill relative to sensible, material things, but rather as a conversion: the teacher helps the student to look at the world of ideas (made up of "intelligible forms" which are considered to be the real truth) as a model of which sensible things are merely images. So finally, procreation gives access to immortality on two levels: on the species level (related to the body) and on the individual level (related to the soul.)

Postcard from New York - What's behind 1st avenue?

2009-08-17T05:34:00.000+02:00

Jean-Claude Henriot, my classical piano teacher back when I was studying in Evry, was always telling me about the importance of each note, how each of them should be played with intensity in the sound (whether soft or loud). Danilo Perez, one of the jazz piano teachers I studied with at Berklee, tried to get me into really singing a melody, having it float over a steady groove.

Now here's the basic concept (which I'll try and develop in later posts) I'm trying to get to: in my opinion, sound and groove are the two dimensions of music, the realm within which music can be made, within which harmony can be found. Sound is aetherial and exists in each note whereas groove is earthy and has something to do with the way all the notes are connected together. Grooving is musically expressing love for music, just like making love is physically expressing love for a person (for more insight into that, please refer to Guillaume Lagrée's article - in French - Jazz et Erotisme, l'exultation corps et âme). That's why groove has this earthiness, just like any other form of expression of love in the material world. What I call singing a melody from the heart (you know, that kind of melody that's so deep and penetrating, and just floats over the accompanying rhythm) is also a kind of groove since, in my opinion, it involves this same kind of love.

Recently, in Paris, I met three girls who have a forró (dance music from Brazil) band together called Trio Sinhá Flor." They're always down for making some music, you can feel how much they're into it just hanging with them for a couple of days (people with this kind of attitude will always be a strong influence on me!) The expression of love for music is all up in their playing, so they just groove their asses off. That's what I'm looking for with Word Out (my jazz trio) and in all the music I play. Now, I'm not expecting to definitely find that in Brazil rather than anywhere else (for sure, there are musicians who play with such intensity all over the place, although I do feel this whole thing about really loving music for music is somewhat less deeply rooted in occidental cultures - especially outside the circle of so-called "professional" musicians). But you've got to understand this: moving to South America is also the "materialization" of a big turn in my life, a personal change of attitude towards many things...

I've always felt attracted to Brazil and I remember my piano teacher Alain Mallet (who really got me into Brazilian grooves at Berklee) once told me in an email that I'd just know when it'll be time for me to go there. And I believe the time is now.

Kurt Rosenwinkel on practicing changes

2009-01-19T02:55:00.002+01:00

With a bunch of friends, we once got the chance to speak to the guitarist for quite a while at the end of a concert he gave at the Regattabar in Cambridge, MA. He told us he used to lock himself up in a practice room at Berklee and shed improvising over one single chord for hours!! That way, he would really get into the sound of the chord scale from which the chord derived.

I'm bringing up this anecdote because I've found it efficient to work like that myself, and to share this tip with my jazz students. It's really easy (and worthwhile!) to program a single-chord loop in GarageBand or Band-in-a-Box to play over... Experiment with all sorts of phrases and motifs, covering the whole range of your instrument, using wide and narrow intervals, etc... As long as all the notes you play belong to the chord scale you decide to work on.

A student once told me he would have thought such practice wouldn't result in getting anywhere... The exact opposite is true: before you start connecting one chord to the next, you need to have deeply assimilated what notes to play on each chord.

Postcard from Bonnie Scotland

2009-01-05T03:18:00.000+01:00

30th of December 2008 to 4th of January 2009

Traveling is a formidable way of letting one's mind breathe in fresh influences. Treading on a foreign land is a formidable opportunity to welcome the spirit of it, which seems to be carried by the wind, sweeping up the preoccupations gathered like dust through one's daily routine, leaving space and time for serene reflection on subjects otherwise hardly ever brushed. Space permits detachment, time permits depth of thought.

Postcard from Heraklion

2008-12-22T19:54:00.001+01:00

Monday, 15th of December 2008

I'm half-sitting-half-lying-down on the bed with a bad flu I caught in Paris a couple of days ago. Good souls have been insistingly trying to save mine with rakomelo and I've been politely affirming that the warm liqueur was doing me good. TV is turned on, blasting music video clips interspersed with adds in Greek. I'm throwing used tissues (well, in fact, pieces of a roll of toilet paper provided by the hotel) into - and mostly next to - the bin standing in a corner of room 104. In about an hour, I'll be playing some jazz at a Heraklion club called Pagopoieion, with Ravy Magnifique on drums, Chico Freeman on saxophone, and Dominique Muzeau on bass. A hot and spicy mix of cultures...

Bob Mintzer and the proper changes to Stella By Starlight

2008-05-18T01:32:00.000+02:00

On Thursday, May 15th, the saxophonist gave a two-hour clinic at the Centre des Musiques Didier Lockwood in Dammarie-lès-Lys (France.)

What he had to say sounded somewhat like a condensed summary of what I have learnt at Berklee. By all means, it was comforting to hear such familiar discourse and to feel it resonate inside me.

Here are some of the topics he covered:

- The importance of the melody and how to learn one checking out the lead sheet and several recordings (it's always important - I remember that from my high school history classes - to gather and cross-compare information from several different sources.)

- Checking out our heroes' heroes.

- The importance of the quarter note in swing and being able to hold a basic drum set pattern for a long time.

- The "proper" (well, at least much better sounding...) changes to Stella By Starlight:

Measures 13 and 14: FMaj7 Dmin7 | Gmin7 C7 |

Measures 23 and 24: Bbo7 | BbMaj7 ||

On the last A section, a fancy downward chromatic motion of II-Vs is also possible:

Emin7(b5) | A7(b9) | Ebmin7 Ab7 | Dmin7(b5) G7(b9) |

C#min7 F#7 | Cmin7(b5) F7(b9) | BbMaj7 | % ||

Check out Miles Davis' version of Stella on My Funny Valentine and Bill Evans' version on Conversations With Myself.

At the end of the bridge (measures 23 and 24), here is what Bill does:

BbMaj7 | Gmin(Maj 7) ||

SENECA LVCILIO SVO SALVTEM

2008-02-23T03:11:00.000+01:00

Here is what I remember (and still try to apply to my daily life!) from the few Moral letters to Lucilius (Seneca) I have studied...

About friendship: you should be able to say anything to a true friend. You should talk to a true friend in the same way as you talk to yourself.
About knowledge: it is useless to have more books in your library than the ones you are actually able to read and digest.
About material things: you should be able to treat dishes made of clay as if they were dishes made of silver, and dishes made of silver as if they were dishes made of clay.

Vale.