Day Three: Workshop Let's Improvise, Paul Driessen
After a quick stroll to the other side of the Artez building we ended up at Paul’s. This time we worked a bit with the chord progression of Manha de Carnaval by Luis Bonfa. Paul had a great knowledge about the musical theory around chord progressions, scales and modes.
Unfortunately I did not know that much, ;-) In my impression Phrygian had something to do with a region in the classical Greece, which is far from a modal name in music theory.
Long time ago, I started to read in a book about musical theory by Theo Willemze, a well known teacher on the Enschede Conservatory (which is Artez Conservatory now). I soon lost my way, music theory can be quite complex, and put the book aside.
I found out there is Music Theory for Dummies and even A Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music Theory. They would make a nice start, because a bit of skills in music theory comes in very handy in improvised music. It seems weird I guess, but improvised music is built on spontaneity and a thorough knowledge of the musical material.