Build Your Own Jazz Combo David Gueulette Ashbury College Ottawa, ON

Why a Jazz Combo? Helps to strengthen your jazz band by developing a strong core of improvisors Can become self directed, thereby taking the onus off you Highly “transportable”. Great for taking out into the public and promoting your program. It’s fun!!

Instrumentation 1 to 4 horns: Good combinations include tpt/alto, tpt/tenor, alto/tenor, tpt/alto/tenor, tpt/alto/tenor/trombone Bass: An upright is great, but an electric will do ONE chordal instrument: piano or guitar Drums

Listening, Listening Get at least one recording of each tune you are working on Students should know (and have listened to) at least five players of their instrument A great way to develop a sense of style and generate improvisation ideas iTunes and emusic.com are great (and inexpensive) resources

Pre-published or design your own? Repertoire Pre-published or design your own?

Jazz Combo Paks Hal Leonard: arr Frank Mantooth Parts for C, Eb, Bb, BC Fully notated parts for piano, bass, and drums Three-part arrangements Scales for improvisation included Includes CD 30+ volumes published, each with 4 tunes Tunes are often too difficult for beginners

The Real Easy Book Sher Music: Stanford Jazz Workshop Published for C, Eb, Bb, BC. Most tunes work well with beginners Include sample bass lines, piano voicings,and guitar voicings Scales for improvisation Two volumes available Melody only, no arrangement, backgrounds, etc No CD Included Paino voicings are sparse Bass Line is repetitive

The Real Easy Book

Real/Fake Books Huge library of tunes Usually published for C, Bb, Eb and BC Price ranges vary Contains only melody and chord changes No recordings

What’s The Form? Intro: last four bars, drum set-up, rhythm section only Head In: Once or twice, harmonized, backgrounds Solos: one or two choruses, backgrounds, trade fours (with drums) Head Out: Ending: tag the last four

Improvisation Keep it simple: start with tunes that require only one (or two) scales The blues scale works well on blues tunes and a number of other simple tunes Gets students up and running quickly Does NOT teach students to listen

Blues Scale Tunes Blue Monk (Bb) Tenor Madness (Bb) Bessie’s Blues (Eb) Sonnymoon for Two (Bb) Now’s The Time (F) Mercy, Mercy (Bb) Doxy (Bb) Watermelon Man (F) Song For My Father (F) Equinox (C) Blue Trane (Eb)

Other Scales

Other Simple Tunes: Black Orpheus: A dorian Impressions: D dorian and Eb dorian So What: D dorian and Eb dorian Blue Bossa: C dorian and Db Major Dear Old Stockholm: D aeolian, F major, C mixolydian (all versions of the same scale) St. Thomas: C pentatonic

Improvisation Resources

Jamey Aebersold Countless volumes of tunes and exercises. Comes with play along CD Cannot change speed or key Many volumes are beyond beginning improvisers

Band In A Box PG Music Comes with a huge library of pre-programmed tunes, styles, solos, harmonizations Easy to program your own tunes and input melodies Speed up, slow down, change keys Easy to generate lead sheets Export to CD or MP3 Lists for around $80.00

Band In A Box

SmartMusic Intelligent Accompaniment Large library of pre-programmed jazz tunes Works well with Abersold. Allows tempo and key changes. Melody lines not included Recording allows export to MP3 Requires annual subscription fee ($60.00) Difficult to create your own files (requires Finale)

SmartMusic

Augmenting or creating Your Own Arrangements Writing bass lines Writing piano voicings Ideas for Drumming Playing The Head Guide Tone Writing

Walking Bass Lines Play the root of the chord at the change (sometimes the third). Try to connect across the bar lines with a whole or half step. Avoid leaps across bar lines (except for 5ths and octaves) Use chord and scale tones to “connect the dots”

Walking Bass Lines Major 7th: Major Scales Dominant 7th: Mixolydian Scales Minor 7th: Dorian or Aeolian Scales

Latin Bass Lines Latin bass lines are easier to write, and easier for students to learn. Use mostly roots and fifths.

Piano Voicings “Beginning” jazz pianists will not know how to voice chords Voicing in 4ths is very effective Major 7th chords: voice down in perfect 4ths from the root or the fifth Dominant 7th chords: voice the treble down in perfect 4ths from the root or fifth, use the 3rd and 7th in the bass.

Piano Voicings Minor 7th chords: voice down in perfect 4ths from the third, or voice down in perfect 4ths from the root with 3rd and 7th in the bass. When writing a progression, keep common tones in the same voice.

Comping: When writing piano for piano, just provide the basic voicing. Avoid writing rhythms. Instead, provide a list of “suggestions”. Allows students to develop a better sense of time and style. Basic voicings become:

Working With The Drums The Essential Equipment: Ride cymbal, high hat, snare drum. The basic swing pattern: quarter notes line up with the bass line. Most drummers overuse the stock pattern: Booooooring! Mix up the ride cymbal pattern:

Playing The Head Many tunes in fake books are written with very straight or non-swinging rhythms. Syncopation: Accenting beats other than the fake book version.

Playing The Head Some standard alterations

There Will Never Be

There Will Never Be

Writing Backgrounds Guide Tones: Use 3rds and/or 7ths of the chord. Works best with standard type chord progressions. Can be smooth or rhythmic:

Doxy

Print Music Retails for $80.00 Up to 24 staves Part Extraction Numerous templates Easy to use Free Version: Finale NotePad

What’s On the CD Blue Monk Mercy, Mercy, Mercy Equinox Doxy Blue Bossa Birk’s Works Dear Old Stockholm Song For My Father PP Presentation Desert Island list of Jazz CDs.

International Association for Jazz Education January 9th – 12th, 2008 Toronto,ON www.iaje.org

Questions, comments, suggestions, complaints? dgueulette@ashbury.ca