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Jazz Band Techniques
for the non-jazzer
FMEA Convention
01/09/10
Presented by
Chris Sharp
Director of Instrumental Music: Santa Fe College Gainesville,
Florida
Russ Weaver
Director of Bands Osceola County School for the Arts
Kissimmee, Florida
Special thanks to….
Jack Wilkins USF
Russ Weaver teaches at:
The Osceola County School for the Arts.
Located in Kissimmee, Florida. Grades 6-12
Chris Sharp teaches at:
Santa Fe College
Located in Gainesville, Florida.
Survey questions….
How many directors have limited or no jazz
performance experience? Reasons?
How many directors had no college
coursework in jazz pedagogy?
How many directors do not currently have a
jazz program but would like to start one?
Would you start a program if you were more
comfortable with the genre?
What specific training might help with this?
Focus Points
• Does playing a non-traditional jazz
band instrument keep directors from
starting jazz programs?
• Non-traditional jazz band instruments
can be used effectively in a
traditional jazz band.
• Some MS and HS level charts use or
can incorporate non-traditional jazz
band instruments.
Publishers providing jazz music for
non-traditional instrumentation.
Alfred
1st year charts for jazz ensemble, Young Jazz
Ensemble, and Jazz Band series charts include extra parts
for flute, clarinet, French horn and treble clef baritone.
FJH
Beginning Jazz Ensemble and Developing Jazz
Ensemble series charts include extra parts for flute (oboe),
clarinet, French horn and treble clef baritone.
Getting familiar with Jazz
Listen to jazz recordings.
When learning a new language, the best way is to
hear it spoken by a “native.”
Refer to MSBandDirector handout for
recommended listening. Place these documents in
each student folder at the beginning of the school
year.
Then, expose your students to these recordings.
Very Important!! Do not attempt to teach the jazz
language without suitable aural references! This is
where an understanding of both style and
interpretation are born for players of ALL
instruments.
Getting familiar with Jazz continued
Listen to jazz recordings.
Use reference recordings provided by publishers to
assist in the understanding of performance practices
after the students have attempted to read the
chart.
Avoid applying concert band performance practices to
jazz music -- work to establish a clear delineation of
styles (“left-brain/right-brain”)
Where to find reference
recordings from publishers.
jwpepper.com 1000s of recordings
Smartmusic Users of this program have incredible access
to program recordings from the publishers.
Individual publishers
alfredpublishing.com
fjhmusic.com
halleonard.com
kendormusic.com
sierramusicstore.com
walkingfrog.com
barnhouse.com
Resources for continuing jazz education
Workshops for educators in
many areas of jazz education
including pedagogy.
MSBandDirector.com has forums and resources
covering all of these topics:
•How to properly set up a jazz band.
•Beginning jazz handouts.
•Forum topics including jazz improvisation.
•Best recommended jazz music list (charts) with
links to recordings!
•Recommended jazz listening list for students.
•Access to active jazz composers/arrangers.
•Opportunities for collaboration with experienced
jazz educators Worldwide!
•Appropriate Educational videos with worksheets.
•Free jazz charts through collaboration and networking!
Jazz Artists who create jazz
on Non-Traditional jazz
instruments:
•Rich Matteson: Jazz Euphonium
•Marc Dickman: Jazz Euphonium
•John Allred: Jazz Euphonium/Tuba
•Dave Gannett: Jazz Tuba
•Joe Murphy: Jazz Tuba
•Nat McIntosh: Jazz Tuba
Jazz Artists who create jazz
on Non-Traditional jazz instruments:
•Julius Watkins: Jazz French Horn
•Giovanni Hoffer: Jazz French Horn
•Maynard Ferguson: Jazz French Horn, Valve Trombone, Baritone
•John Luc-Ponty: Jazz Violin
•Stephan Grapelli: Jazz Violin
•Paul McCandless: Jazz Oboe, English Horn (Oregon)
•Paul Hanson: Jazz Bassoon
•Jean "Toots" Thielemans: Jazz Harmonica
•David Baker: Jazz Cello
•Valve Trombone: Bob Brookmeyer
•Valve Trombone: Rob McConnell
Jazz Warm-ups
Warm-ups for developing Jazz Ensemble
by Chris Sharp
What Were You Thinking?
Straight Eighth note style is best to begin with for the
younger jazz artists.
Most student listening has been in this area.
Latin or Rock style works best.
Uniformity of Articulation is easiest to establish.
Swing style should be dealt with after the ensemble
begins to perform well together.
Let’s Play!
From Straight to Swing!
If your group is having swing interpretation
issues, here’s a method for addressing it:
1. Instruct the ensemble to play the line slurred, with no triplet subdivision.
2. Once they are able to perform the line in a smooth and connected fashion,
reintroduce the triplet subdivision.
3. Teach the players to slur into the downbeat notes from the offbeat notes, while
maintaining full duration notes on the downbeats.
4. Encourage players to emphasize the offbeat notes using the syllables “doo-
dah”.
5. Select certain notes at high points within the phrase to emphasize, to produce
authentic jazz inflections.
The Bass
Arrange the 4 notes.. Blues!
You can place this on the board, memorize ASAP.
Limited chord tone movement
Here’s the music!
Eventually this should be in everyone’s folder. Limited movement.
Start a Jazz Band Rhythm Section
Concepts
JAZZ Concept Review
•Drums: Swing! “Play” with the rhythm and keep
great time.
•Bass: Straight Quarter notes and drop the egg
occasionally. Work with drums for locked in groove.
•Horn Players are now ready to learn the “Head” or
melody of C Jam Blues in Bb by ear. In case you
forget the rhythm of the melody…
C Jam Blues
Place on your I-pod
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOlpcJhNyDI
If learned by ear, they will “Recall” the information from which you will build.
What Next?
Form
1. One chorus of Blues w/just rhythm (section)
2. Horns Play the head 2x through. Harmony?
3. Solos w/backgrounds (blues scale)
4. Have 2 people solo at same time…
(overlapping dialogue or trading 4’s)
5. Build into final “Head” 2x
6. Button Ending or Ellington Ending
(taught by ear)
Empowering your learners through teaching by ear. Now you have your first tune and no printed music!
Blues Scale Improv
Self Expression through Improvisation
1 b3 4 (b5) 5 b7 1 and back down. Teach it by ear…
• A scale that sounds bluesy and covers the entire form
for beginners.
• Backgrounds are created from it.
• Students can’t make an Improvisation mistake using this
scale. Let their ears guide them.
• Builds confidence in your performers… from day one.
•http://www.jazzbooks.com offers the complete scale syllabus for free
download as a .pdf file. I recommend that everyone use this resource to
better educate your students. It’s really very comprehensive and free to
everyone interested.
Soloing vocabulary from Jazzbooks.com (free download)
Place this in
Your folder
To assist with
Remembering
What to play
For call and
Response.
Teach concepts!
Place in Student Folders
When you believe them to be
Ready.
Where from here?
1. Great way to do your Bb scale warm
up each day.
2. Blues scale warm-up after that.
3. Everyone improvises together
(softly) for vocabulary practice.
Do call and response with your students
4. Make it become what students like to do when
they enter jazz band rehearsal.
5. Find more videos or recordings to reinforce.
For most this is less than 10 minutes at beginning of rehearsal, time to input attendance, etc..
Scale Syllabus from Jazzbooks.com (free download)
Allow
Each
Student
The
Key to
Understanding
Chord/scale
Relationships.
Tuning the MS Jazz Band
1. Bass and Guitar come to rehearsal already
tuned with digital tuner. (for starters)
2. Check the pitch of the piano against the bass. Have the
bass/guitar tune to the piano if need be.
3. Next tune lead players to the piano. Lead Alto, Bone and
Trumpet tune with each other.
4. Each of these players tunes their section as a whole or down
the line individually. They are in charge of this daily.
5. Don’t be afraid to stop and go through this procedure
several times during rehearsal as temperatures change.
Some Thoughts as you rehearse.
•Try and rehearse the same time each week.
•Begin with a Bb blues chart to reinforce what
has already been internalized. There is a
free chart on Cyberwindsmusic.com entitled
Kissimmee Blues
It is a grade 2.5 chart that can function like a
March… please allow for this explanation:
Blues conventions are similar to
march conventions in concert
band.
Choruses of blues can be interchangeable, as
they are all 12 bars in length.
For the most part, bass lines can work over
any chorus of blues, Provided the chords are the same.
If your students can not handle the shout
section of any chart (Kissimmee Blues), leave it out
and rearrange it in a sensible fashion.
With a minimum of arranging skills and score
analysis, blues charts can be rearranged to
meet your band’s needs.
Jazz!
Allow your students to
explore American Music
through the freedom of
getting off the page.
Improvisation IS the freedom in Jazz Music.
Useful technology
•SmartMusic: Contains Great Jazz Charts plus
access to Aebersold play alongs for students
to practice improvisation.
•Band in a Box: Allows intuitive students to
create their own accompaniment tracks so that
they can practice their improvisation solos at
home.
•Finale: Allows students access to a notation
program for writing music and creating
smartmusic accompaniments.
•MSBandDirector.com: allows directors to
share information via internet 2.0.
MSBandDirector.com
•Interactive answers to your questions regarding ANY subject in
middle school band.
•Collaborative literature lists that allow you to hear the selections as
you browse the list. Google: best middle school jazz list
•Unparalleled professional networking among just Middle School
band directors.
•Free! Access to free quality charts. You find a free chart, let them
know, within minutes everyone has access to this download.
•Free all-county jazz audition material complete with play-along
tracks. It’s never been easier to start an all-district jazz band. The
audition material is a free download to all your students via the
internet at their homes. They practice and play along with the
tracks on their own to prepare for the audition. At the audition,
simply use a laptop and audition the students.
•Over 100 hours of relevant information dealing
MSBandDirector.com
Questions?
What kind of culture do you have in your
jazz rehearsal?
What are the conceptual expectations?
Are you playing “with” you students each
day or each week?
Do your students have the freedom to read
and understand chord symbols and to
address chord symbols as improvisers?
Taking a Band To FBA Festival?
Before taking a jazz group to FBA, please consider
Reading through Don Zentz’s powerpoint on the
Subject. It is available at:
www.Zentz.org
along with many other helpful handouts and Powerpoints,
all on the subject of programming Jazz charts for festival.
This is the definitive presentation on this subject and should
not be overlooked.
Great Reference!
DVD
By J.Richard Dunscomb and Dr. Willie L. Hill Jr.… continuing lessons
are available here, including follow up activities to today’s lesson.
All of Today’s Materials are
available for reference at:
MSBandDirector.com
Join the largest network of
Middle School Band Directors in the World.
Doubling Instruments
1. Do not double the Lead part in any
section.
2. For 6 saxes: TS1, AS2, AS1, TS2,TS2, B
3. For 7 saxes: TS1, AS2, AS2, AS1, TS2, TS2, B
4. Trumpets: Double lower parts, not 1st or 2nd
5. Bones: Double lower parts… 3rd or 4th.
6. Work for exact instrumentation. Rotate Players in and
out if there are too many.
Selecting Middle School Jazz
Literature
#1 Collaborative reference is on
MSBandDirector.com
Take notes on your programs as you listen at
FBA and other festivals. Save these for future
chart ordering.
Check the Midwest Clinic and Conference
website and see what has been played there.
Avoid ‘dance’ tunes such as In the Mood, A
String of Pearls, Penn 6-5000 as well as pop
tunes of the day.
Selecting Middle School Jazz
Literature
All directors go through this process each
time we
begin a new semester, quarter or school
year.
Technology gives us easier access to
information.
SmartMusic is a great way to listen to charts
that
the good folks at Smartmusic believe
everyone should be performing. You can
request for them to add selections!
Remember, just because it is no SmartMusic
does
not mean that it is suitable for FBA festival.
Selecting Middle School Jazz
Literature
Middle School Directors need a place to go on
the
Internet that provides them a list of
suggested jazz
charts for JUST middle school level.
MS Directors need to be able to hear charts
without switching websites or tabs.
Directors would like to save precious time and
minimize the amount of time it takes to
consider new programming for their bands.
Directors need access to other directors in an
internet 2.0 setting that allows them to
discuss
any subject, as it pertains to middle school
All of Today’s Materials are
available for reference at:
MSBandDirector.com
Join the largest network of
Middle School Band Directors in the World.
