Jazz Pedagogy When it Comes

Jazz Pedagogy

When it comes to pedagogy, "the art of teaching" (Mish 912), there are many different interrelationships among different theories of knowledge, theories of learning, conceptions of curriculum and approaches of broad inquiry for the purposes of schooling. Every teacher is faced with a challenge to effectively convey his or her message of knowledge and inspire today's youth. It takes a certain amount of passion and consistency to pursue such a career. It takes a certain amount of leadership and guts to effectively captivate the student with subject matter, unless of course the subject is jazz. Jazz has the ability to open the soul, inspire a range of possibility in its creation and remains a rebel among music genres as it continues to bend the rules. Where does one begin to understand the elements of jazz and its fundamentals? How does a teacher instill in the student an open mind, inspiration to take a chance? Jazz embodies dreams, wants and needs while exploring the limits of the confines of music's structure. It takes an artistic spirit to embrace jazz and gain a better understanding of its essence. By having an understanding of how powerful jazz can be, one discovers much about themselves and the world.

This paper will first examine a brief history of jazz. Where did it come from and who influenced the movement? How has it changed and grown over the years? What is the future of jazz in today's market of rap and rock n' roll? The first paragraphs of this paper will look for answers to these questions. Second, this paper will explore the various techniques and fundamentals of this genre. This will require a look at the different types of jazz such as: Swing, Funk, Ballads and Latin Styles. Also by looking at the different sub-genres of jazz, one must take into account the importance of instruments and how each one has a different sound and complexity in the formations of the music. Each instrument has a different role in jazz. Further analysis of articulation, dynamics and phonetics come into play when thinking about jazz and the bare essentials that make music possible. After looking at these elements. One can get a better frame of reference of how to arrange jazz pieces in with relationship to harmony and form. Only after looking at the foundation of jazz can one comprehend the richness and full passion jazz has to offer as art. Once the rudimentary elements are understood, the student can then have the freedom to break the construct and create spontaneous notes using different specialized techniques whether individually, as part of a small band or as part of big band. The possibilities of application are endless and only as limiting as the artistic spirit. Allowing oneself different roles in jazz music also gives the player variation and intensifies creativity on many levels. Having more than one role requires the player to have an understanding of band rituals.

Brief History of Jazz

The history of Jazz music origins is attributed to the turn of the 20th century New Orleans, although this unique, artistic medium occurred almost simultaneously in other North American areas like Saint Louis, Kansas City and Chicago. Traits carried from West African black folk music developed in the Americas, joined with European popular and light classical music of the late 18th and 19th centuries, became the syncopated rhythms of Ragtime and minor chord voicings characteristic of the Blues. Jazz music is among America's greatest cultural achievements and exports to the world community. It gives powerful voice to the American experience. Born of a multi-hued society, Jazz unites people across the divides of race, region and national boundaries. It has always made powerful statements about freedom, creativity and American identity at home and abroad.

Jazz is not the result of choosing a tune, but an ideal that is created first in the mind, inspired by one's passion, and willed next in playing music. Jazz music draws from life experience and human emotion as the inspiration of the creative force, and through this discourse is chronicled the story of it's people. Jazz musicians and those that follow the genre closely, can indeed be thought of as an artistic community complete with its leaders, spokesmen, innovators, aficionados, members & fans.

Jazz Education

Music and all Art is an essential part of the "human experience." A basic understanding and appreciation of Music can only serve to broaden ones character and deepen the connection with those around us. Today, Jazz music is played, studied and taught at private and public institutions around the globe. However, as lower budgets force public schools to cut back, private lessons will not only supplement the school but also may eventually replace it in many areas. This is especially true for Jazz education. Understanding Jazz theory & Jazz harmony provides the basis for Jazz improvisation, fills and soloing. Study improv methods and find Jazz chords, Blues chords, intervals, cadences, turnarounds, reharmonization, tritone substitution and transposing keys. Interact the virtual piano chords to see variations of piano chords, chord voicings, and piano scales, or study the charts for scale degrees, chord progressions, the circle of fifths, or to find Jazz scales and common modes. Guitarists will find shapes for basic barre chords, open positions and root voicings with the virtual guitar chords.

Jazz Ensemble Techniques

The purpose of starting an ensemble is that everyone involved can have a role in making jazzy music together. The beauty of the ensemble is that everyone plays a role and that role can very from session to session. One may find over time, that each ensemble has a different way of doing things so it is important to have an open mind. What technique you may be been taught early on, may not be the technique you use today. There are many schools of thought on technique. There is the attitude of 'technique is the slave of creation' is a pretty good one. This means simply we have to have technique to create, and the greater our technique is, the more creative opportunities we have, but the focus should not be on technique. It should be on creativity. To focus on technique and not enough on creativity is common among a lot of teachers and can create a lack of interest in music in the student easily. It is a good idea to find a teacher who not only takes music seriously but also art. It is important to see how other art forms relate to music and how one can use other art forms in music as inspiration and vice versa. Another word of advice, it is important not to really develop technique as such, but develop ways of thinking, by varying lessons and playing with different notes. This applies as well to the ensemble as a group must adjust to working together. Different exercises to push envelope are a good to encourage improvisation. It is easy for people to feed off the energy of each other's creation. This in turn, helps inspire and motivate people to continue practicing.

Fundamentals of Jazz

Jazz is so flexible in its creation; it takes on different qualities depending on the artist and the influences of the artist. As a result there seem to be sub-categories within the genre that stand on their own. A combination of cultural influence and varied instrument arrangements can change the sound of the classic swing into a Latin beat. It really just depends on the limits of one's imagination. Still it is interesting the relationships between culture and the final product, of how one small decision can change the piece completely. It is this direct relationship that makes jazz happen on so many levels. Each musician has a different way of contributing to the music and will chose the style that best suits him or her. It is also my belief that in modern jazz, one can find it is made up of all the styles, feeding off each other but also making expression seamless. By sticking to the foundation of styles, it is easy to get an eclectic mixture. It is clear that at different times in America's short history styles have flourished at different rates. Swing and Big Band were very popular in the 1930s and 1940s and this reflects the time period of Depression and war. People needed to escape their worries and have fun.

Still it is noted Swing was the beginning of the breakdown of barriers. When people discuss rhythm in jazz, they almost invariably deal with the concept of swing. Whereas syncopation has to do with surprise, swing has to do with the creation of forward momentum, a drive that makes you want to dance to the music. At the most basic level, swing is usually described in terms of the length of eighth notes. If you divide each beat exactly in half, the results are called straight eighth notes. Berendt writes, "our musical instincts used to perceive swing as rooted in the friction between the symmetry of conventional, functional rhythm and the asymmetry of various counter and cross rhythms that above the fundamental rhythm and contradict it" (157). This is not really a typical swing rhythm, however. Jazz musicians almost always play eighth notes straighter than that, except perhaps in the style known as the shuffle. A correct ratio for swing cannot be given precisely. Different musicians tend to interpret swing in different ways. Earlier jazz musicians tended to play with a more exaggerated swing. Some styles of jazz - especially hybrids of jazz with other forms of music - do not use swing eighth notes in this literal sense at all. For example, eighth notes in bossa nova are usually played straight. However, the slight accent on the second half of each beat, combined with other elements of jazz expression, may still convey something of a swing feel:

One of the more notable aspects of jazz in the first place, it resides within the groups seamless melding of traditional New Orleans style jazz fundamentals into playfully organized abstractions. For example much modern jazz represents hybrid, blues/Dixieland/free jazz work, although bands veer off the straight and narrow throughout. Jazz establishes a multidimensional tone poem based on rhythmic patterns and odd-metered changes. The musicians pursue a celebratory vibe, marked by free-form interplay, conventional musings, and a bevy of cleverly enacted diversions.

Fundamentals and Techniques of Rhythm Sections

Jazz can be a contradiction to the standards of esthetics and opposed to standardized esthetics. The instruments are expressive and eruptive, not filtered through any regulations or rules of sound. A jazz musician constantly feels the sound around them and understands the power of sound. Without it, instruments could not be heard. Jazz is flexible as many musicians play multiple instruments to continue feeling the sound. Musicians look to each for answers and even adapt their style to fit the mood.

Jazz rhythms tend to be syncopated, meaning they contain unexpected accents. Also important is the concept of swing, which has to do with creating a sense of momentum and dance ability. Some styles of jazz make use of counterpoint, which occurs when several melodies with different rhythms are played simultaneously. Together, the attributes of syncopation, swing, and counterpoint create a rich rhythmic background that is one of the most important elements of jazz. In the most general sense, syncopation has to do with the creation of rhythmic surprise. The most typical way this is done is through the placement of accents. In jazz, however, accents tend to fall between the beats. If you divide each beat into two parts, the accents in jazz often fall on the second half of each beat. Furthermore, they appear irregularly; one does not tend to see the second half of every beat accented equally.

There are many instruments from which to choose but the trumpet stands out as being most popular and revolutionary as far as manipulating technique and rhythm. Analysts argue that no two trumpeters are the same but really imitating each other. In the Ken Burns' documentary Louis Armstrong is revered as Jazz's most influential musician of all time. It is clear as Berendt explains, "all trumpeters mentioned throughout history actually belong to the immediate Armstrong school" (168).

Jazz Articulations, Dynamics, Phonetics, Arranging, Harmony and Form

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Improvisation

Improvisation is possibly the most important element of jazz, rivaled only by swing in the eyes and ears of most observers. At some point in almost every jazz performance, one or more musicians will be expected to improvise. Improvisation usually occurs in the context of a solo, where one musician is improvising a melody while others improvise accompaniment. Some performances feature group improvisation more than solos, however. In either case, the improvisation is usually the focal point of the performance. How does a jazz musician decide what to play when improvising? It is not as mysterious a process as some might think. In many ways, it is similar to conversation. We start with a basic idea of what we are going to say, and then we find the words to express our thoughts. The topic we are discussing and the people we are speaking with influence what we say and how we say it. There are also rules of grammar that guide our speech. Most importantly, though, we should have something interesting to say.

Jazz improvisation is not all that different. The style of the composition being played and the personal style of the musicians involved shape the overall sound of the performance. The composition itself will usually specify some parameters for improvisation - usually the chord progression on which a soloist is to base his improvised melodies. Ultimately, though, it is the creativity of the improviser that determines what he will play. Whereas style and structure influence improvisation by setting expectations for the soloist to meet, creativity has more to do with the unexpected. More particularly, it has to do with the balance between the expected and the unexpected. Things that are unexpected are not necessarily creative in themselves. In the absence of familiar stylistic or structuring elements, music can be perceived as uninteresting in its randomness.

Jazz Repertoire for Big Bands

The larger the ensemble, the more important it generally is to plan an arrangement in advance in order to give each player a well-defined role, and indeed most larger ensembles use written arrangements. Most commonly, large ensembles organize their groups into sections. Each section contains several players of the same or similar instruments. The parts for the players within a section are usually similar rhythmically, so the section is heard to be playing as one, although they may actually be playing in harmony rather than in unison. The various sections can then be used independently in a call-and-response fashion, or to create counterpoint. The different sections can also be used in an alternating fashion for timbral variety. One section might be featured for one part of an arrangement, and then a different section featured for the next part.

The role of the rhythm section does not differ substantially from when they are playing in a combo. However, since the other sections are handling much of the chordal accompaniment, pianists tend to play more sparsely than in other situations. Often, arrangers will give the rhythm section specific parts to play in order to fit in with the rest of the accompaniment.

Jazz Ensemble Concert Techniques

Jazz is characterized by an emphasis on improvisation. This means that much of what a jazz musician plays is not precisely notated or specified as part of the composition. But although there are freely improvised performances in which there is no composition at all to guide the performance, most jazz performances are based on composed material to some extent. Rather than specify every note of the performance, a jazz composition typically provides an outline that contains one or more notated passages and some areas left open for improvisation, as well as guidelines for the improvisation itself. The notated passages are called themes, and the outline that specifies when to play a given theme and when to improvise is called an arrangement. A written or learned arrangement may also specify things like an introduction, the order of the soloists, an ending, or other compositional details, but these matters are just as likely to be decided upon during the performance.