Here are some samples of how String Jams has been used in different musical settings including students who have just started playing cello, music teachers, and even orchestral. Enjoy these creative explorations and keep on jamming!
Visit https://www.bryanwilsoncello.com/summer for a special 25% discount on all digital books until July 5, 2023!
Go to bryanwilsoncello.com/summer for 25% off!
I hope this message finds you immersed in the joy of creating new melodies and harmonies. As the summer season sets in, I wanted to bring some extra inspiration your way through an exciting promotion!
For a limited time, I'm thrilled to offer you an incredible 25% discount on all of my digital books.
To unlock this exclusive discount, simply click on the link below:
Summer Promotion 25% Off All Books
Hurry, because this offer is only valid until July 5th, 2023.
While you're exploring my books, I wanted to share some exciting news of my own. I've been diligently working on a captivating new album of Vietnamese music, set to be released later this year. I'm thrilled to share it with you and can't wait to hear about your own musical endeavors.
Wishing you an unforgettable summer filled with harmonious jam sessions and moments of musical brilliance!
Keep on jamming!
I'm really happy to share a very positive review of my String Jams books by the esteemed American String Teachers Association.
I'm proud of these books and I'm glad that more string teachers will be introduced to them! Many thanks to ASTA for the kind review and I look forward to teaching my workshop at the national conference in Atlanta in March!
String Jams Chop Contest:
Okay so here's the contest!
Take any piece from either of my String Jams books and add some chopping to it.
Be creative! It could be a different version of the melody with some chops, chops during the solo section, or anything you can think of!
Record a video of yourself playing and upload it to Facebook and/or Instagram with the hashtag #stringjams
You can upload it to YouTube if that's easier for you and send me an email with the link.
First Prize: Two Free 45 minute lessons plus the sheet music/backing tracks to my first album, Oso Perezoso.
Second Prize: One Free 45 minute lesson and sheet music/backing tracks to Ice-9 and Swins
Third Prize: Sheet music/backing tracks to Ice-9 and Swins
Contest ends at 11:59 EST on May 7th, 2021.
After the contest ends, I'll send an email with a link to all the submissions and you can vote for your favorite (it could be yourself).
The best cello case in the world designed by my student, Danielle Windram!
If someone told me 10 years ago that I'd be teaching a truck driver over the internet while he's in the cab of his 18 Wheeler in god knows where USA, I probably wouldn't have believed you.
Or how about a gentleman who started playing cello when he was 70 years old? He's a devoted Franciscan Friar who has lived his life across the globe in Japan, Kenya, the USA, and more.
Or how about a female personal trainer who is all of 5 ft tall (1.5 m) and can literally bend steel bars with her bare hands?
I am constantly astounded by how different my students are from me.
Sure I can teach you about cello technique, improvisation, composition, production, and more.
But what I find so interesting is what drives people to want to learn cello.
And what from their background will inform their playing?
You see, music to me is not a sport. It's not about who can play the fastest or the most in tune.
It's about taking your life and turning it into sound.
Sometimes I'm making a stuffed animal talk in an Australian accent to engage a young student. I used to think teaching children would be challenging, but now I enjoy it. They make me laugh, even if they say I look like I'm 55 years old.
But that's exactly what I love about teaching.
I learn so much from my students, whether they're a kindergarten teacher in Germany or run a plant nursery in Hawaii.
Nobody can play the same way as you and nobody has the same thing to say as you for the simple fact that we are all different.
Now I know it might sound cliche, but it's true.
Which is why I've always shied away from the traditional classical music mindset of making everyone play something the same way it's been played before.
All of my students came to me to learn more about music, but honestly, beyond teaching the technical aspects, what I really enjoy is seeing someone's creativity blossom.
That's why I do it.
All of a sudden those years of being on the road in your truck, spreading the gospel in Africa, or leading people in a grueling exercise regime have an outlet for expression.
All of those people have something different to say.
And it's my passion to help them build the tools and confidence to say it.
The more I teach, the more I'm amazed by the diversity of my students, but also charmed by the fact that we all share this innate desire to connect and express ourselves in this medium.
As always, I'd love to know what you think about this and if you're up for a really fun and engaging musical challenge, check out String Jams.
Have fun, be yourself, and keep on playing.
I wanted to share with you a video playlist of my musical collaborations from this turbulent COVID year: A COVID Music Retrospective.
But first - a little backstory.
My birthday is March 13, which coincidentally was the last day before lockdown in my town of Teaneck, NJ in 2020.
That day I had a small jam session at my house and by the time people were leaving, I was getting notice that my town was going into quarantine.
I was supposed to be playing a wedding gig in 2 days, but called the contractor and told him I couldn't do it.
A year later and I just celebrated my birthday in Puerto Rico while hiding out here for the winter.
This ordinarily wouldn't have been possible, but given that there are no gigs to play and everything is online, we decided we could at least go to a beautiful place where we could be outside.
When the pandemic started, I decided to offer some free workshops on improvisation using my new books, String Jams, to try boost some morale.
People signed up so fast I had to add more.
I was so happy that people were genuinely interested in the topic and that I had an outlet to focus on other than the doom and gloom of the virus.
Then my wife suggested that I collaborate with some of my Vietnamese musician friends (we lived in Vietnam from 2018 - 2019).
That spawned a number of collaborations with Vietnamese, Scottish, Puerto Rican, and American artists that I'm really proud of.
For me, the music has a wide variety of feelings and moods: joy, sorrow, contemplation, anger.
What do you hear?
Not to get all sappy, but music has always given me a sense of purpose, and boy did I need it after such a difficult year.
I hope these videos inspire you to write your own music and do your own collaborations.
COVID sucks, but it did help me create some cool music, so I guess that's looking at the bright side?
Let's hope things continue to get better.
I am very humbled and thankful to share something that my first ever music teacher, Larry Marino, created using one of my songs. Larry has been the strings teacher in Teaneck for over 25 years and was the first person to ever put a cello in my hands. We still play gigs together to this day.
He showed me this video that he made to help recruit students going into 4th grade to play musical instruments. Ordinarily, there is a school assembly where teachers demonstrate each instrument, but obviously this year everything is virtual. At the end of the video after each teacher has demonstrated his/her instruments, all of them jam on my song, Lotus, from my book, Advanced String Jams.
It's really special for me because this is where it all started for me many years ago and now my music is being used to help promote something that has made a huge difference in my life. It's truly touching and I'm honored to have my music used in this capacity. I am in the process of adapting the music for string orchestra as well as band instruments to help create excitement and promote creativity for new musicians.
Thank you very much to:
Lee Ann Newland - French Horn
Reggie Pittman - Trumpet
Dan Bassett - Trombone
Larry Marino - Violin, Viola
Joseph Hochgesang - Cello
Jessica Bergen - Clarinet, Flute
Luke Short - Vibraphone
Since the pandemic started and everything got shut down, I have been running free Online Improvisation Workshops for String Players. With the release of my new books, String Jams, I wanted to give people a glimpse at what the book offered, but also to give them concrete steps they could use to practice improvisation. Let’s face it, I’m not a doctor, nurse, or grocery store worker fighting for the safety everyday out there. Nevertheless, I did want to give something back to help boost people’s morale and the only real skills I have are cello and teaching, so I thought it could at least be a drop of positivity in a seemingly endless stream of scary news.
I have done 3 workshops so far and have been blown away by the support from the participants. Essentially, I give everybody the sheet music for a piece from my Advanced String Jams book as well as the improvisation loop track that comes with it. I then outline about ten different ways that they can go about improvising such as doing nonstop improvisation, limiting note choices, leaving space, etc. Everything I’m saying is detailed in the beginning portion of both String Jams.
It really is humbling and inspiring to have a workshop with people from across the globe in one Zoom meeting. I’ve had participants from Finland, Vietnam, Australia, Brazil, USA, Germany, and more. This past workshop I had my grandfather attend. He’s a saxophone player and like I mention in the book, he’s the reason I started music and the inspiration behind creating these books. At the end of the lecture, he told a story about the first time he taught me how to improvise when I was around 9 or 10 years old. It was a story I hadn’t thought about in a long time and it was really special to have him remind me and the other attendees.
It’s been a really positive experience for me to run these workshops and connect with string players from across the world. It’s a very strange time and I doubt that live music gigs will return this year. Nevertheless, having the ability to connect with others virtually and offer something useful has been helpful in keeping me focussed and grounded.
I’m going to try to offer more workshops, concerts, collaborations, and music in the future and hopefully we will pass through this time safely.
Thank you all for the support.
The world is in quite a crisis at the moment as some of us are quarantined and scared to go out. Since this is a tumultuous time, I want to give back to help restore any semblance of peace of mind that's possible.
I will be offering a FREE 40 minute online workshop on Monday March 23rd at 8PM (EST) to string players across the world on improvisation. I'll be using my new books, String Jams, as material and will go over various approaches to improvisation. In addition, everybody in the workshop will receive sheet music and a backing track to one of the songs from my new book, Advanced String Jams.
Make sure to register now because there are only 15 slots available. To register for the FREE class please visit: https://forms.gle/sK2MTiuQaZgxEdG69
I hope that this workshop is helpful to string players across the globe and can offer a some positivity in a time of uncertainty. Remember to use art, music, and creative expression to boost your morale.
Check out this amazing sloth cover art done by the superbly talented artist and architect, Zach Veach (https://zacharyveach.com).
I am really proud to announce the launch of TWO new books that I wrote on March 2nd, 2020: Advanced String Jams and Beginner String Jams. It took me 9 years to publish another book after Cello Chords and let me tell you, it might take me another 9 to do the next one. It’s a LOTTTTTTT of work, but I am very happy I did it.
So what exactly are these books?
Both String Jams books are an opportunity for violinists, violists, and cellists to go beyond classical music and start exploring contemporary genres! For Advanced String Jams, I composed 16 original songs in 15 genres including Hip-Hop, Hard Rock, EDM, Pop Rock, Latin, Synthpop, Film Score, Indian, and more! The book includes sheet music and high quality backing tracks for every song. It’s like you’re playing with your own band every time. This book is recommended for players with at least 5 to 6 years of experience on their instrument.
Even better is that each song has a space for improvisation as well. No experience is necessary with improvisation, I break down how to start going about it and provide cheat sheets in terms of scales and chords for every track. I want students to start diving into creating their own solos, songs, tracks, symphonies, whatever! Just get creative with it. I feel improvisation is a necessary and key element that is lacking in mainstream string education.
Every song has practice backing tracks as well at slow, medium, and performance tempo. Plus there is an improvisation loop track to practice jamming just on the improv section. Finally, I recorded myself playing all the melodies so you have the full tracks as a reference. But I really want students to explore and make these songs their own.
Beginner String Jams is comprised of 8 simplified songs from Advanced String Jams. The keys and melodies are easier, the range of notes is smaller, there are minimal extensions, the improvisation sections only use one scale, and there's no shifting! Beginner String Jams features backing tracks that come in Very Slow, Slow, Medium, and Performance Tempo, so you can practice with the backing track from the very beginning! This book is recommended for students with at least 2 to 3 years of experience on their instrument and again, no improvisation experience is necessary.
I really can’t express how excited I am about these books (also how much work they were to produce, haha). If you want to preorder the books, you can get over a 20% discount before March 2nd, 2020. You can do so here: http://www.bryanwilsoncello.com/stringjams
Thank you all for your support! I am sure you are going to find this book not only super fun, but also really educational.
