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Build Your Own Jazz Combo

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Build Your Own Jazz Combo David Gueulette Ashbury College Ottawa, ON Why a Jazz Combo? ... Improvisation Blues Scale Tunes Other Scales Other Simple Tunes: ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Build Your Own Jazz Combo


1
Build Your Own Jazz Combo
  • David Gueulette
  • Ashbury College
  • Ottawa, ON

2
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.
  • Its fun!!

3
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

4
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

5
Repertoire
  • Pre-published or design your own?

6
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

7
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

8
The Real Easy Book
9
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

10
Whats 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

11
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

12
Blues Scale Tunes
  • Blue Monk (Bb)
  • Tenor Madness (Bb)
  • Bessies Blues (Eb)
  • Sonnymoon for Two (Bb)
  • Nows The Time (F)
  • Mercy, Mercy (Bb)
  • Doxy (Bb)
  • Watermelon Man (F)
  • Song For My Father (F)
  • Equinox (C)
  • Blue Trane (Eb)

13
Other Scales
14
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

15
Improvisation Resources
16
Jamey Aebersold
  • Countless volumes of tunes and exercises.
  • Comes with play along CD
  • Cannot change speed or key
  • Many volumes are beyond beginning improvisers

17
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

18
Band In A Box
19
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)

20
SmartMusic
21
Augmenting or creating Your Own Arrangements
  • Writing bass lines
  • Writing piano voicings
  • Ideas for Drumming
  • Playing The Head
  • Guide Tone Writing

22
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

23
Walking Bass Lines
  • Major 7th Major Scales
  • Dominant 7th Mixolydian Scales
  • Minor 7th Dorian or Aeolian Scales

24
Latin Bass Lines
  • Latin bass lines are easier to write, and easier
    for students to learn. Use mostly roots and
    fifths.

25
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.

26
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.

27
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

28
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

29
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.

30
Playing The Head
  • Some standard alterations

31
There Will Never Be
32
There Will Never Be
33
Writing Backgrounds
  • Guide Tones Use 3rds and/or 7ths of the chord.
    Works best with standard type chord progressions.
  • Can be smooth or rhythmic

34
Doxy
35
Print Music
  • Retails for 80.00
  • Up to 24 staves
  • Part Extraction
  • Numerous templates
  • Easy to use
  • Free Version Finale NotePad

36
Whats On the CD
  • Blue Monk
  • Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
  • Equinox
  • Doxy
  • Blue Bossa
  • Birks Works
  • Dear Old Stockholm
  • Song For My Father
  • PP Presentation
  • Desert Island list of Jazz CDs.

37
International Association for Jazz Education
  • January 9th 12th, 2008
  • Toronto,ON
  • www.iaje.org

38
Questions, comments, suggestions, complaints?
  • dgueulette_at_ashbury.ca
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