A Workshop with Jazz Pianist & Guitarist, Greg Membrez!
Greg is founder, leader & arranger of the Twin Cities jazz ensemble the
Ellington Project, and the newly founded Manouche Jazz Hot Club.

While watching a jazz ensemble "fake" its way through a piece of music, have you ever wondered, "how do they do that?" This workshop is designed to answer that very question! The workshop will be presented in two sections:

Section 1:

Step 1. Plato's Ion: what is improvisation?

Step 2. The secret of ii-V-I: uses of scales and chords in improvising.

Step 3. What Bach, Mozart and Chopin can teach us: embellishing a melodic line.

Step 4. Transcription: stealing ideas.

Step 5. The secret of success: how to practice.

Step 6. Making it your own: throw the book away.

Practice and Refreshment Break

Section 2:

Putting It All Together: This is our chance to actually try out improvisation. We will all get a chance to use what we have learned in Section I. Section II will not only be a chance to try out musical improvistation, but will itself be a meta-improvisation in that the Section will "run itself" as commentary on improvisation as a creative act.

This workshop assumes a working knowledge of scales and chords.

Wednesday, June 27nd - Schmitt Music Roseville

- 9:30am - 12:30pm   |   $20 at the door

- Please RSVP: Call 651-636-0804 or Email the Keyboard Department

More about the instructor:

Greg Membrez studied classical piano with Carolyn Britton at the University of Wisconsin and with the late Paul Freed at the University of Minnesota. He is a performer with Thursday Musical and plays classical music in various venues. As the founder, arranger and leader of the Ellington Project he produced a CD in 2002. Greg has appeared on the Morning Show and the Jazz Image on MPR, on KBEM with the Ellington Project and has performed in many clubs including the Dakota.

In addition to jazz piano with the Ellington Project and jazz guitar with the Manouche Jazz Hot Club, Greg also has studied Arabic music on the Oud (an Arabic lute) with oud virtuosos Sakher Hattar and Simon Shaheen and participated in a concert with Mr. Hattar at the Cedar Cultural Center (fall of 2006). Most recently, Greg has been working as Music Director with CB Productions and has directed the music for both The Red Badge of Courage (fall of 2008) and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (spring of 2010).