The following is the text of Page's senior study from Goddard College. It was first "kindly made available to readers of the net" in 1992 by then-fan (later employee) Shelly Culbertson, who posted it to the then-nascent Phish.net mailing list, and is now reposted 19 years later in celebration of the 24th anniversary of its submission.

THE ART OF IMPROVISATION

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Goddard College
Page McConnell
December 19, 1987

At the age of four I began taking piano lessons. For the next twelve years I studied with four different teachers. They attempted to teach me to read music, a skill I never fully developed. My dyslexic tendencies made the process very difficult and a good ear made it easier for me to play by ear. In my early years of lessons I had no problem playing the pieces that were assigned to me as long as I had heard my piano teachers play them for me. As the level of difficulty in the pieces I was playing increased, I was forced to learn how to read. I struggled with the process and didn't entirely enjoy it, though the ones that I did learn stretched my technical abilities. The most difficult piece that I learned was Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag."

During my ninth grade year I stopped taking piano lessons. It was during this next stage of my playing that I began to really enjoy playing. Obviously this was because I was playing for myself, not for my piano teachers or parents. I spent much of the next year listening to rock albums, playing what I heard, and taking my improvisation more seriously. Often I was just improvising the voicings to the songs that I was playing, but my ability to do blues improvisation increased also. My first introduction to the blues was a book I received in first grade called Jazz and Blues for Beginners. This book introduced me to blues progressions. These are progressions that alternate between the 17 and the IV7 chord and generally end with a V7-IV7-17 progression. Both rock and jazz find their roots in the blues, and in fact rock has never really left. The majority of rock songs written are a variation on the 17-IV7-V7 progression. Many do not vary at all.

I suppose that my main motivating factor for practicing during my high school years (other than the fact that I enjoyed it) was that...

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David Calarco, a.k.a. “Mr. Miner,” is perhaps the most well-known Phish blogger. Since 2008, Dave has been blogging about Phish on his very popular Phish blog, http://phishthoughts.com/, though he got his start writing about the band in 2000, reviewing Phish shows from Japan (and elsewhere) for JamBase.com. Dave's opinions on shows are highly regarded by many fans and, whether you enjoy reading his work or not, "Mr. Miner" knows his Phish, having seen hundreds and hundreds of shows since his first show in 1995. As you likely have already heard, Dave has published a 600+ page book, Mr. Miner’s Phish Thoughts, and he agreed to speak with me about it. It is available for purchase here, and it would make a great gift for the Phish fan(s) in your life. Happy holidays. -charlie

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Welcome to the 78th Mystery Jam Monday here at Phish.net. After the Blog's triumph last week, we will be playing for TWO MP3 downloads this week, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). The hint will come on Tuesday and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Tuesday Hint: No hint needed this week...

Thursday Answer: According to our setlists, it is the "Jam" out of the 12/12/97 "Caspian." So, we have two "correct" answers, each given within 7 minutes of the other. What to do, what to do? Well, as luck would have it, we have two downloads to award this week, so the Blog is unilaterally declaring the first Mystery Jam Monday Co-Champs... Congrats, ghostboogie and Blackeyedsloth. See you all on Monday.

Fan website CashorTrade.org has had an incredible year developing a "face-value community", with nearly 12,500 members and 26,000 posted trades of tickets, rides, lodging, artwork, and handmade goods. To show their gratitude, founders Brando and Dusty are running a massive New Year's Eve ticket giveaway: 2 tickets to 7 different bands playing on New Years Eve 2011, including Phish, Furthur, Widespread Panic, Umphrey’s McGee, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Yonder Mountain String Band, and Moe.

The site continues to develop, including a new API program that allows users to import their Face Value Trades directly into any website, blog, or Facebook. All Phish.net members can now access CashorTrade.org posts directly in Phish.net by visiting The Phish.net Trades page! CashorTrade.org has integrated the Phish.net API into their site as well: Phish.net recent setlists, reviews, forum, and personal show lists are directly presented under the Phish.Net tab on the CashorTrade.org homepage. CashorTrade.org members can feel free to add shows to their list as well as post directly to the Phish.Net forum while remaining on the CashorTrade.org website.

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On WIZN's "Blues for Breakfast" program on Sunday, December 11, 2011, Phish archivist Kevin Shapiro visits the WIZN studio to spin tracks from the seven-cd box set Hampton/Winston-Salem '97. Tune in from 9:45am-11am EST. Live stream at: http://www.wizn.com/wizn_live_stream.html.

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I'm the chooser of what we're going to play. I wonder how it got to be that way. I guess it's just my personality. To me, it's like composing, and I really like composing and I don't get to do it when I'm on the road, so it's my little way of making little suites every night. I usually plan something out before we go on stage, and then we change it when we get on stage. It's very rare that we stick to the whole songlist. Or any of it, for that matter. But I choose it, partially by what we haven't played for a couple of nights before.

We consider the community aspect and the communication aspect of what we do to be the whole point of it, the whole fun of it. That why we like playing live so much better than making albums. Though I do like making albums a lot, I could see myself getting to a point in my career where, if we could get to a situation where we had a studio near our homes — which we’re working on, we’ve actually built the building, and we’ve started buying equipment — it won’t be long until we have a studio in Burlington. At that point, I could see going much more into the album end of things. But the communication thing is definitely where it’s at.

Our partners at GlowStickWars.com ("GSW") are sponsoring a special glowstick war to fire up the band at the moment the lights go down for the first set of the NYE run at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, 12/28.

Here's how it will work:

As soon as the house lights go down inside MSG, the GSW organizers are going to RAGE the first ever pre-show (that is, pre first note) glow stick war!

The idea is that lights go down, glow sticks go up, the band walks out to the most emphatic crowd response and proceeds to just murder the show with a ferocity we've all been waiting for. This energy will carry through the entire run.

GlowStickWars.com will donate $0.10 to The Mockingbird Foundation (www.mbird.org) for each of the first 3,000 confirmed attendees!

GlowStickWars.com will also be contributing five Show Sticks (soft, thin and super-bright glow bracelets) to this cause for each of the first 3,000 confirmed attendees! GSW plans to hand them out outside of MSG before the show on 12/28, with a little note detailing these shenanigans.

GSW has setup a couple of special discounts specially for this event:

5PHISHNY - Receive a 10% discount and FREE shipping on orders of 5+ tubes!

25PHISHNY - Receive a case of Show Sticks (25 tubes, aka 2,500 glowies) shipped to your door (or hotel) for $150!!

Order now at https://glowstickwars.com/store/products.html.

Further information at the GSW Facebook page here.

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...Aaaaaaaand we're back! Welcome to the 77th running of the Mystery Jam here at Phish.net. As usual, we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). The hint will come on Tuesday and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Tuesday Hint: Two hints for the price of one -- It's not "Bowie" and it's not from '94. Oh, one more thing...WHERE'S RABELDY?!?!?

Wednesday Answer: It's Paaaaarrrrrrrrtttttttyyyyyy Time at Phish.net HQ!!! The Blog wins the Mystery Jam! The Blog wins the Mystery Jam! The Blog wins the Mystery Jam!!! The correct answer, n00bs, is the 10/15/98 "Reba." I should also point out that this particular MJ was hand selected by @Icculus to "punish the users and make them come to dread the MJ." Of course, this is not the first MJ he's suggested, so make of that what you will. Either way, we'll be back on Monday playing for two livephish.com downloads.

It’s kind of silly when [fans] are making pie graphs about set list openers. But then, I always liked a good graph.

If you're doing your holiday shopping online with Amazon, start with these links and as much as 15% of your net purchase will go to the Mockingbird Foundation, including Amazon's Cyber Monday Week and Toys' List (both good until Dec. 3rd) and their Holiday Toy List (good until Dec 24).

Even if you buy nothing from those lists, at least start there to support music education for kids, and your own Phish.net.

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The submissions have been tallied and we are pleased to announce the results of our Super Mystery Jam!

This was a very tall order using some obscure tracks so everyone who answered really had to put in some work. In all the entries were TWO people who got the Mystery Jam 100% correct...

Congratulations to @RabeldyNugs and @pauly7917 who identified all 5 songs and all 5 dates

1. Split Open and Melt - 1994/06/21
   
   
2. Tweezer - 1992/12/12
   
   
3. David Bowie - 1994/12/02
   
   
4. Antelope - 1994/05/16
   
   
5. Weekapaug - 1993/03/27

Amazing ears on these users. They have a special gift.

More information including the random draw winner after the jump

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For the last ten years, The Everyone Orchestra and its ever-rotating cast of characters has pushed the envelope of improvised music across the world. Musicians from many of the greatest bands of our time have entered Matt Butler's world of conducted improvisation and the results are always entertaining. Jon Fishman of Phish has been part of the EO experience many times, and was enlisted by Matt for the first-ever EO studio project, The Brooklyn Sessions.

Matt assembled a masterful collection of musicians in a Brooklyn recording studio in January 2011 for two days of conducted improvised jams. In addition to Fishman, the stellar group includes many players associated with Phish side-projects. Along with Matt as Conductor, the lineup is: Jon Fishman (Phish), Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band), Al Schnier (moe.), Reed Mathis (Tea Leaf Green) Steve Kimock, Marco Benevento, Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band), Jamie Masefield (Jazz Mandolin Project) and Jans Ingber (The Motet).

I asked Matt how the studio experience differed from being in front of a live audience. "While we didn't have the audience energy to feed off of, the environment was relaxed and intimate which brought out really interesting performances from all the players. I let solos run even longer than usual and let jams go on a little longer too. I focused on letting these master musicians interact and have a really fun time while we created the music. I also pushed the envelope musically and we tried pulling off some really difficult concepts. Some worked better than others, but as a group process, since we weren't 'performing' it was all valid efforts in our time in the 'creative sandbox'."

The completely self-funded project is near completion, but needs additional financial support to reach the finished product. Here is Matt's introductory video for the Kickstarter project, which includes some nice jam segments:

If you donate to the project, you get at minimum a free digital download of the CD when it is released. Higher donation amounts come with even more goodies. For more information, additional behind-the-scenes video and to donate to the project, click here.

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