Discourse on Method: Zenón Style
Today is Leap Day! It's also the day that I took my first lesson of the semester with Miguel Zénon, and walking out of the lesson I had a few thoughts. It was apparent to me that Miguel stressed fundamentals during his lesson—long tones, scales, and scale patterns. He described to me his conception of four "mother scales"—four scales that give a jazz musician the essential content of musical discourse. This approach reminded me of Descartes in Discourse on Method , in which Descartes sets forth a system of thought in which several key principles underpin the entirety of his intellectual explorations: