style – rhythm section – improvisation...bass lines must be reinforce the harmony but still be...

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Get off to a Great Start with your Jazz Beginners

A Clinic by Mike Steinel Professor of Jazz Studies, Emeritus – University of North Texas

Shall we ask the most important question?

“What do great jazz band educators do?”

They break music up

(They teach Rhythm, Melody, Expression and Style)

They show where it comes from (History) They show how it works (Theory)

They are models (they sing and play) They show how great music can be (CDs)

They are organized They use words students can understand

They make it fun (there is a sense of play)

Today: Three Important Topics That Trouble Us The Most:

Style – Rhythm Section – Improvisation

Jazz = Language Jazz Style = The Accent of the Jazz Language The Problem = Our Accent is Invisible to Us.

The Secret to Developing an Authentic Accent for any Language =

Modeling through Emersion (Active Listening) + Objective Assessment (Taping) +

Repetition

Get Off to a Great Start with your Jazz Beginners

2

Breaking Jazz Style Down: The Seven Basics

1. Attacks and Releases are much different in jazz (“Du-it” instead of “Tah”)

2. Beats 2 and 4 are Accented 3. Connected Notes = Sing “Do and Bah” 4. Separated Notes = Sing “Dit and Dot”

5. Swing 8ths look much different than they sound 6. Long Note/Short Note Paradox

7. Last Notes are Detached and Accented

Sing Everything First – Then Play Evaluate on a Regular Basis

(Challenge Sections – Praise Success)

Traditional (Classical) vs. Jazz Style

It is important to understand the similarities and differences between dancing and marching. Jazz is best when it dances.


3

Jazz Drumming like many things in jazz, is upside-down.

Rock Drummers provide PULSE with the Bass Drum/Snare Drum

Jazz Drummers provide PULSE with the Hi Hat/Ride Cymbal (Snare and Bass Provide Interaction = Conversation)

Some Important Things to Address with Young Drummers:

Kit Set Up

Hand Position and Grip of the Sticks Foot Technique

Swing Rhythms on the Ride Cymbal Comping (Accompanying) Rhythms

Coordinating the Limbs Reading a Drum Part

Playing Figures and Fills

Kit Set Up – Make sure everything is comfortably “in reach”. Hand Position and Grip – Traditional or Matched?


4

Swing Ride Patterns – Dancelike Rhythms are most natural.

Comping Rhythms – Snare and Bass Drum

(Must be conversational)

Introduce Basic Chord Theory – Don’t Avoid It!

Jazz Chords are built from scales.

There are five basic seventh chords


5

Constructing Bass Lines Problem: Bass lines only using roots or chord tones are boring. Bass lines must be reinforce the harmony but still be melodic.

Two basic “walking melodies” (below) are much more melodic and can be applied to any chord type.


6

Constructing Jazz Voicings for Piano and Guitar


7

These same voicings work great on guitar.


8

Improvisation?

Keep It Simple!

Remember these basic formulae:

Improvisation = Musical Memory + Musical Imagination

Musical Imagination = Ability to imagine something different. (rhythm, pitch, lyric, inflection)

(If you have ever made a musical mistake, you have imagined something different and you improvised!)

Improvisations are often just mistakes that “worked out”.

There are three types of Musical Memory:

Intellectual

Aural Kinesthetic

Intellectual – the memory of scales, chord tones, etc.

Aural – the sound of the song in our mind’s ear Kinesthetic – the feel of the notes in our instrument


9

Jazz History provides a Great Model Trajectory for the aspiring improviser.

Style Period Early Jazz (1917-1930) (New Orleans, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, etc.) Swing Era (1930 – 1945) (Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, etc.) Bebop Era (1940 – 1955) (Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie Thelonius Monk, etc.) Cool/Modal Era (1955 – 1965) (Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, etc.) Modern/Post Modern (1960 – Present)

Primary Melodic Material Song Melody (Countrapuntal)

Chord Tone Soloing Riff Melodies Chord Tone Ornamentation Chromaticism

Scale and Mode Soloing

Eclectic (Bits of everything)

The first jazz improvisers started with MELODY. They didn’t even call in improvisation – they called it playing it “hot” or “ragging” it.


10

Improvisers primarily improvise on Melodies. Song Melody is the best place for beginners to start. Eventually they will come to learn that there are many melodies implied in a tune:

Melody of the chord tones Melody of the scale tones

Melody of the color tones like the 3rd and 7th Melody of the Riffs that fit with the tune.

Once we have a melody to imagine differently we

can only do one of two things to it:

Reinvent It or Ornament It.


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12

Here’s an example of all seven techniques put in practice.

The Benediction:

They break music up (They teach Rhythm, Melody, Expression and Style)

They show where it comes from (History) They show how it works (Theory)

They are models (they sing and play) They show how great music can be (CDs)

They are organized They use words students can understand

They make it fun (there is a sense of play)

style – rhythm section – improvisation...bass lines must be reinforce the harmony but still be...

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