Hans Glawischnig – Bass

I keep coming back to these Miguel Zenon charts because I love what I am hearing but these compositions are so intense that it is impossible for me to get a handle on what is happening for more than a few moments at a time. I guess that is part of the learning – you approach it and get what you can from it which you have the capacity to understand and process. It may be that, one day, when you have moved on a little as a player, you can return to the piece and start to comprehend details that have previously eluded you.

This transcription is the first 40 odd seconds of the tune ‘Seis Cinco’ from the 2006 Migeul Zenon album ‘Jibaro’. It is as far as I could get before it unravels before my eyes and I can no longer count (one of the issues with Zenon is that a lot of his compositions are in weird time signature like 11:8 or have a piano playing five notes over each crotchet in an bar (is that 20:8?). It can sound magical but, when you try to count it, it constantly trips you up). Think is it as a reading etude. I couldn’t even work out what key it is in – that keeps moving as well. Just work though it slowly and see what is happening before you attempt it at speed.