The FriNJE Playing Notes
(1) Playing Jazz (Traditional or New Orleans) Style
-R. Mark Lambert
30th January 2002
What is it?
Sometimes it’s called “New Orleans Jazz”
Sometimes “Dixieland”, “Traditional” or “Trad”.
Those of us who are first and foremost band players, or classically trained musicians,
tend to associate playing music with reading it off a score.
The arrangements we are using take this as a starting point.
Band playing from scores requires accuracy, commitment and self-discipline, and this
training is not immediately put in the waste-bin when moving into the world of
improvisation, the gate-way to playing jazz credibly.
Improvisation takes place in many types and traditions of music and is not automatically
synonymous with jazz. I’ve just been reading a very good book on this subject:-
IMPROVISATION ITS NATURE AND PRACTICE IN MUSIC – by Derek Bailey.
I find that trad jazz is an enjoyable vehicle for starting to be creative partly because
its
harmonic progressions are accessible to anyone with a background in
conventional
western classical music, (mostly "functional harmonies").
The other key element to get the hang of is the swing rhythm.
(Illustration).
Before the advent of rock and roll in the 1950s this was the dominant form of most
popular music from the USA.
The FriNJE Playing Notes
(2) How To Practice
I’m only saying here what has worked for me so far.
Practice and playing for a musician ought to mean the same thing.
Always try your best to make a good sound.
Do it with commitment, when you are fresh and alert.
First thing in the morning is the best time.
Ideally, if you are doing a gig in the evening, spend the whole morning in bed;
then prepare slowly and thoroughly to get to the gig on time;
(save the playing for the gig).
Don’t rush around like an idiot.
If you are blowing, don’t eat a big meal beforehand –
save it ‘til later, you’ll only get indigestion;
(-this may apply to other instrument players too).
Don’t drink alcohol when you’re playing – it never helps.
I know some people use it to relax,
but you need to keep your brain active to play properly –
-it doesn’t make you more creative or lucid, despite what some people claim –
“The drugs don’t work” either -(Paul Weller).
Try to learn to deal positively but honestly with performance nerves.
We all make mistakes.
Playing in a band is the best kind of practice.
But when I’m playing on my own,
I find that a drum machine, or at least a metronome is indispensable.
One of the biggest mistakes, made not only by beginners, I think,
is trying to learn the notes without reference to real time.
Treat it as music, even if you are sight reading it for the first time.
Never struggle to play something too fast-
Playing it once correctly and in time is much better than playing something wrong ten times,
(and thenceforward probably every time).
Bad practising can be worse than useless.
I use a tape-recorder, which is conveniently portable.
I have a collection of rhythm tracks and backing tapes at various speeds.
Just hearing vamped chords to a swing rhythm helps to get into improvising solos etc too.
Mainly, I adopt what I call “The real music method” –
I practice stuff I like, and mostly what is usable at a gig;
life’s too short to do exercises for only academic reasons.
When it comes to developing instrumental technique, this should be enjoyable too.
Playing scales and arpeggios to a Dixieland progression is one way to go.
(Getting familiar with the three diminished seventh chords on your instrument is also useful for jazz).
Having said this, there are many different sorts of performance contexts, all worth thinking about.
In other words, whenever you pick up your instrument, you are performing;
whether it is practicing for an examination, or busking in the park.
Reference: Bailey p.98. John Stevens’ observations about learning to play an
instrument
accord with my own experience. This is a very illuminating chapter.
The FriNJE Playing Notes
(3) Learning to Play by Ear.
I think this can be something of a mystery to a student who has followed a course
of
study based entirely on reading the dots. Reading music is a great skill to have
and
essential for most band playing. But a student who has worked hard to gain a
grade v,
when asked to play an improvised solo will still ask “so what are the
notes?”
The answer is that I don’t know.
Think of it like this:
When as a child you first learned to sing at school, you didn’t ask, “what are the notes?”
or say “show me the score”. You just.......well how did you do it?
Aurally!
So in a sense you’ve already proved you can do it, but perhaps forgotten how in all
the
struggle to turn yourself into a highly sensitive human record player – which is
in fact what you’re doing when you play notes recorded on the manuscript paper!
“Be like a child” – (Paul Weller again.)
Try this –
Think of a song you like, and pick out the tune on your instrument.
You’re now doing something aurally and from memory;
I think you’re also exercising your brain in a way that you may have hitherto neglected.
Music played like this, rather from written dots, can actually feel different
when you do it.
Don’t worry, I include myself among those band musicians who neglected this
important
side of anyone’s musical development.
Now this is where using the backing tapes comes in useful, because, with practice,
you
are able to hear the harmonies as you play.
In order to be able to improvise, or compose in a genuinely musical way,
you will be able to play the music in your head,
rather than simply what you read from the printed page.
Again, I’m only saying what has worked for me so far.
But it does work.
R.Mark Lambert.30th January 2002.
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