An Instrumental Approach to Jazz Singing

ANNE FARNSWORTH

JAZZ VOCAL TECHNIQUES

An Instrumental Method

By Anne Farnsworth

JazzMedia Press 2461 Coolidge Ave

Los Angeles, Ca 9 0 0 6 4 310.770.3015

www.jazzmediapress.com

Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to my fellow faculty members at the University of SouthernCalifornia Jazz Studies Department for their positive support of this project,especially Dr. Thom Mason, founding chair, who was gracious enough to answermy email questions and read pages.

My voice teachers down the line - Janice McVeigh in Vocal Arts at USCThornton School of Music, who not only improved my voice but helped me toimprove the voices of my own students. At New England Conservatory, therewas Bernard Barbeau on the classical side and Dominique Eade in Jazz Studies(So pretty! So talented! Alas, too nice to hate!) Prior to that, there were thecountless ladies I went to in my search for whatever it was a vocalist did,including the leathery former Big Band singer who blew smoke rings in my faceas she coached my singing.

On piano, oh boy, what a list of luminaries - how come I’m not smarter? Inreverse chronological order we have Hal Galper, Bill Cunliffe, John Clayton (‘heteaches piano?’, everyone asks. No, he teaches music), Terry Trotter (agentleman and a gentle man).

In Boston, there was George Garzone, tenor man and visionary, whokicked my butt both at the Conservatory and on the stand. Thank you, George,if it wasn’t for you I might still be pulling shifts at the Cambridge Hyatt. JerryBergonzi, another great tenor player (‘after all, nobody’s human’). Jeff Covell,Mike Marra, who I met while wandering the halls of Berklee one late afternoonvowing to find myself a piano teacher, and stayed with for three years. Myneighbor and friend, Bruce Katz, who gave me a few pointers not only inplaying but in pedagogy, and the vocalists who hired me, especially SharonJones, (Brown Sugar to you New Englanders), and Dick Short, two wonderfulsingers who taught me how you put on a show, honey.

In Syracuse, in my other life as a classical pianist, there was Dr. Bishop, awonderful lady who gave her all to her students. Before that there was Mr.Diameco, my teacher from seventh grade to twelfth, whom I also discoveredwith my hall wandering technique after we moved to another town. And myvery first teacher, Mrs. Fuller, who, after giving me my seven A.M. lesson, wouldmake me breakfast and drive me to school.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I INTRODUCTION 1 - 8 What is a Jazz Singer; Gender Issue?; Jazz in the University;Importance of Piano; Rhythm; Swing Feel; Improvisation;Repertoire; Jazz Singing and Singers;

II INTERVALS, SCALES, & CHORDS 9 - 2 3Intervals; Scales; Enharmonics; Triads; Progressions; Diatonic relationships; Modes; Ear training; Exercises;

III WHERE ARE WE? 2 4 - 3 3Form; Sections; Bridgeless Standards; Bossa Nova;Rhythm Changes; Twelve Bar Blues; Four Bar Phrases;Examples;

IV DID YOU BRING YOUR CHARTS? 3 4 - 4 8Sitting in; Your Book; Casuals; Fake Books; Transposing;Chord Symbols; Key Signatures; Circle of Fifths; T i m eSignatures; Signs and Terms;

V A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BLUES 4 9 - 5 8Beginnings; American Folksong; Harmonic Development;Modern Blues Form; Lowered Seventh; Substitution Chords;Jazz Blues Form; Blues Variations; Minor Blues; Rock & Roll;

VI IMPROVISATION ON THE BLUES 5 9 - 7 7Common Tones; Solfege; Scat Syllables; Blues Exercises;Modes and the Blues Form; Blue Notes; Blues Scale; Motives;Passing & Approach notes; Building a Solo;

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VII HARMONY IN JAZZ STANDARDS 7 8 - 1 0 0I-VI-II-V Progression; Turnarounds; II-V-I’ Progression; Tonal Centers; Parent Scales; Soloing over II-V-I;Analysis: Satin Doll; Lady Is A Tramp; Sub Chords i nTurnarounds; Lady Is A Tramp Bridge; Arpeggios on Lady Is ATramp; Step Down Progression; Text-Focused Improv; Shou tChorus; Exercises;

VIII INTROS, TAGS, AND CODAS 1 0 1 - 1 1 1Intros; Rootless Voicings; Counting off a Tune; Tags;Tritone Substitution; Bossa Nova Codas;

IX ADVANCED IMPROV 1 1 2 - 1 3 5Transcriptions; Vocalese; Upper Structure Chord Tones; BebopStyle; 7-3 And 9-5 Resolutions; Approach Notes; Bop StyleMotives; Sideslipping; Sequences; Quotes; Using Modes;Analysis: Bossa Nova harmony; Analysis: All The Things Y o uAre;

X ALTERED CHORDS AND SCALES 1 3 6 - 1 4 2Altered Dominants; Al tered Scales; Bebop Scales;Minor II-V-I; Upper Structure Piano Voicings;Altered Bop Motives; Phrasing;

XI YOU ARE FEELING VERY RELAXED... 1 4 3 - 1 5 2Relaxation Exercises; The Jaw and the Tongue;Breathing; Open Your Mouth And Say Ah; Support; Visualization; Singing Principles; Scatting Exercises;

XII I NEED A GIG! 1 5 3 - 1 5 8Where The Gigs Are; Who to Call; Equipment;

GLOSSARY OF TERMS 1 5 9 - 1 6 0DISCOGRAPHY 1 6 1 - 1 6 2INDEX 1 6 3 - 1 6 4

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WHAT IS A JAZZ SINGER?

What makes a singer a Jazz singer? Is it the repertoire she chooses? Doesshe scat? Is it her swinging beat? A good sense of time? A Jazz singer isdistinguished by all of these things. But the best are more accurately defined asJazz musicians. Jazz musicians play Jazz - whether they do it with a trumpet, atuba, a kazoo, or their voice. They speak a common musical language, learn therules of theory and harmony, and, if they’re creative and far-sighted, breakthose rules to expand the Jazz universe for the rest of us.

Is a Jazz musician born or made? You may listen to Sarah or Ella groovingon one of their masterful scat solos and tell yourself, ‘No way could I ever dothat’. You may not even be sure what ‘that’ is - you just like the sound or feel oftheir style of music. Maybe it’s the profound passion and intimate delivery ofBillie or Bessie that moves you. You relate to their strong feelings but are notsure how to express them yourself.

Jazz musicians are born and made. Born in the sense that your culturalsurroundings, aptitudes, and an attraction to music are characteristics that youland on the planet with. But that is only the beginning. The journey from thereto becoming a master musician is made by you. If, when people ask you whyyou picked music as your vocation, you reply, ‘I didn’t pick music. Musicpicked me’, you are a musician. Because you will do whatever it takes to reach

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your goals - artistic self-expression and the joy of sharing yourself and yourgifts with other musicians and the world.

GENDER ISSUE

Whether in the academic arena or out in the trenches of the performingworld, we are faced with the unfortunate fact that singers are often not treatedwith the same level of respect that instrumentalists accord each other. Andsince, at least so far, the majority of singers are female and the majority ofinstrumentalists are male, this could be construed as a gender issue. Onceagain, the patriarchy keeping women down? Not exactly.

Look at it this way: say a boy, maybe twelve or thirteen, picks up aninstrument. He then proceeds to spend the bulk of his teen years sitting in hisbedroom learning how to play. Maybe in high school he starts a band withsome other guys who have been sweating it out on their instruments as well.They realize that to compete in the marketplace, that is to nab the senior promgig, they need a singer. There’s a pretty girl who likes to sing and can carry atune so they take her on. She memorizes the lyrics and the melody to a few ofher favorite songs, cops her favorite singer’s licks, and she’s on her way.

They start to rehearse and it’s not long before the guys realize that theyare conversing in a musical language of which she is completely ignorant. Sothey talk around her, planning arrangements, choosing keys, and she becomemarginalized. Multiply that scenario by the thousands and you have theformative experience that ingrains in the player’s mind a prejudice, aprejudgment, that singers are not ‘real’ musicians. You guy singers out theremay be given the benefit of the doubt because, well, let’s just call it a guy thing.But that benefit will only buy you about five minutes on the bandstand if youshow yourself to be just another pretty voice.

Today, more and more girls are stepping out of the traditionally femalecircle of piano, flute, or violin, picking up saxophones, trumpets, and guitars.They’re playing in high school jazz bands and heading off to college to continuetheir musical studies. These young women are groundbreakers, tiny islands offemininity in a deep sea of maleness and when you ladies out there lookunprofessional or just not serious about what you are doing, it makes it harderfor them.

So it is a gender issue to some extent, but one with an easily remediedsolution. How? By learning to read music and developing an understanding of

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basic theory and harmony. This allows you to step onto the bandstand as anequal partner, possessed of a musical training on a par with your colleagues.

JAZZ IN THE UNIVERSITY

The average vocalist enrolling in a university level Jazz Studies programenters woefully unprepared in comparison to his/her fellow students majoringin piano, saxophone, or guitar. One exception may be drummers, who, likesingers, can reach a certain level of skill and participate in a group playingsituation without having to read music.

Entering university as a music student without a basic working knowledgeof reading and writing music is like going to college to study English literatureand not being able to read and write English. How can you understand what theinstructor is talking about? What they write on the blackboard? How can youdo your homework?

Jazz in the academic world is a relative newcomer. Most Jazz StudiesDepartments exist under the umbrella of a classically oriented music school ordepartment. This ancillary status means that the Jazz major is required to studythe core Classical curriculum - history, harmony, oral skills, etc., in addition toher Jazz studies. You’ll find yourself sitting next to whiz kids who have beenplaying their instruments and reading music for most of their lives, and theclasses will move at their speed, not yours. It’s in your best interest to beprepared before you plunk down that hefty tuition payment.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PIANO

Even if you have no plans to study Jazz in an academic setting, you’ll stillneed to learn your craft. A lot of people studied piano when they were young.If you were one of the ‘fortunate’ kids dragged kicking and screaming to pianolessons while your friends played ball, call your parents right now and thankthem! You’ve got basic music reading skills. If you’ve never taken a pianolesson in your life, start now. Sign up for private lessons or take a beginningclass at your local community college or music store. Recycle grandma’s oldupright, rent a spinet, or buy a used electronic keyboard. Do whatever it takesto get your hands on some keys and start practicing!

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You don’t need to be a great pianist. After all, your practice time islimited and your main interest is singing. You just need to be able to readmelody lines in order to learn new tunes, maybe play some basic chords toaccompany yourself. If your piano skills are already in place, so much thebetter. In a short while you could find yourself doing solo work, singing andaccompanying yourself in a small club or restaurant. It’s a great way to gainexperience in front of an audience while you work out arrangements anddevelop your own personal style. Think of it as paid practice.

Most serious musicians, whether in Jazz, Classical, or Pop, play piano inaddition to their primary instrument. Sarah Vaughn and Aretha Franklin playedso well that they often sat down at the piano in the course of a concert toaccompany themselves. Composers and arrangers write at the piano, musicstudents use it for their harmony and ear training studies, singers use it tovocalize and learn new material. The piano is the musician’s desk; it’s where wedo our work. Having the ability to practice, learn new songs or write your owncharts gives you control over your musical growth. You’ll also save a lot ofmoney by not having to hire rehearsal pianists or arrangers.

We’re going to discuss theory in this book. That’s how the instrumentalistslearn improv and that’s how you can, too. Don’t be afraid - if you can add, youcan figure it out. But it’s one thing to understand it on the page; it’s another tobe able to hear it. That’s where the piano comes in. The keyboard can guide youwhile you develop your ear.

RHYTHM

There are two components that distinguish Jazz from other styles of music -rhythm and improvisation. Jazz rhythms have the element of swing, asyncopated pulse that puts accents on the second and fourth beats of the bar,known as upbeats, rather than on the more traditional first, the downbeat1, andthird beats. This accent on ‘two and four’ shifts the rhythmic base, creating asense of forward momentum that energizes the music.

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1 The terms downbeat and upbeat refer to the conductor's arm movement as he describes a 2/4, 3/4 or 4/4rhythm. The conductor swings the baton downward on beat one and back up on beat two.

Clap the accented beats while you sing the followingexample. How does the 'feel' of the rhythm change?

Ex. 1.1

Sing as you clap on beats one and three

Row row row your boat Gently down the stream _________

Now clap on two and four

Row row row your boat Gently down the stream____________

Don’t feel a difference? Try it at a faster tempo.

SWING FEEL

Put identical pieces of music in front of a jazz player and a classical playerand they will play the notes of the melody with different rhythms. The classicalmusician will play the rhythms as written, a precise division of the beat, whilethe Jazz player will alter the quarter and eighth notes in a triplet/rest fashion.This rhythmic alteration is what we call swing feel, also known as jazz eighths.See next example.

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Ex. 1.2Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

'Straight Eighths' - sung as written

'Jazz Eighths'

Hint: Say the word "choc-o-late" slowly and evenly three times in a row. Thisis eighth note triplet rhythm. Now clap on the first and third syllablesof "choc-o-late" in the pattern and you'll have this rhythmic figure.

REPERTOIRE

The repertoire of material played by most Jazz musicians traditionally hascome from outside of the jazz world. Broadway show tunes, Tin Pan Alley, evenpop and rock tunes have been appropriated to become what are called J a z zstandards. But once in the hands of a Jazz musician they share onecommonality. They swing.

IMPROVISATION

Improvisation is the other key element that defines Jazz. In the early 20thcentury, when Jazz was born, no other style of music incorporated improv as anintegral part of performance. In centuries past, European classical musicians

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learned to improvise and were expected to use that skill in their performances.Remember the famous 'cutting contest' between the young Mozart and theolder Salieri in the movie "Amadeus"?

Over time, that ability declined in performance in deference to thecomposer’s vision. Musician-composers like Bach and Mozart wrote out theirimprovisations under the rubric of Theme and Variations. The implicitsuggestion was that the performer play the composer’s ‘solo’, and refrain frommaking any additions of their own.

This ‘play it as written’ mentality continued into the nineteenth centurywhen there was strong public opinion against ‘flashy’ soloists who veered off ontheir own flights of fancy. Thank goodness we have the outlet of Jazz withwhich to express ourselves. A Jazz musician is an instantaneous composer,writing on the spot and expressing the mood of the moment.

JAZZ SINGING AND SINGERS

When Jazz was in its infancy, the distinct sounds created by horn playerswas due, in part, to the musicians’ attempts to replicate the phrasing and tonesof the human voice, specifically the styles and sounds the early AfricanAmericans brought from their native lands. Blues intonations, field hollers, thechurch-centered testifying and shout choruses, all were incorporated into whatwe now identify as a jazz sound.

As singers began to appear in the late ‘20s and 30s, they turned theconcept of singing around by replicating the sounds of the jazz horns. Thuswas born a more ‘instrumental’ style of singing. Even if they never used scatsyllables, they enhanced the melody, embellishing it with new notes, throwingothers away. The rhythm of the melodic line was also an area ofexperimentation, delaying the start of a line and catching up later. This iscalled singing behind the beat, a technique that Billie Holiday developed to suchan extent that every singer who follows her is in her debt when they play withthe rhythm in their singing.

This melodic and rhythmic rephrasing of the original melody of a vocalsong is called text-focused improvisation. Nat King Cole was a master of thissubtle type of improvisation, as are more contemporary singers like DianneReeves and Diana Krall. Their smooth, swinging delivery adds excitement to themost mundane melodies and the creativity in their execution ensures that wenever hear them sing the same way twice.

The storytelling, conversational aspects of the Blues add anotherdimension to Jazz singing, creating an intimate connection with the audience.7 .

This connection comes out in ad-libbed asides such as ‘hear me tellin’ ya’,interjections that add a sharp rhythmic excitement akin to a drummer’s rimshot. Joe Williams spiked his fluid, sophisticated delivery with many suchshouts and cries, and the audience responded in kind to this heightenedemotionalism.

Scat singing, creating a melodic line spontaneously with syllables andsounds, is more closely linked to the instrumental solo. This is called abstractimprovisation2, the most challenging of vocal styles. Just as withinstrumentalists,when it’s good, it’s magic, but when it’s bad, well, better not to hear it at all!

Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan are the undisputed leaders of this typeof improv, forging a style that is the gold standard of scat. Betty Carter, withher driving, hard bop approach, transformed every piece of music that she casther talents on, stretching standard intonation and opening our ears to newpossibilities. Tania Maria melds her sharp, percussive piano playing with anequally percussive scatting style. Among the men, Al Jarreau’s early albumsshow him to be one of the modern masters of abstract improv, along withBobby McFerrin with his unique gift of instrumental mimicry. Mark Murphy’smuscular approach is aggressively masculine yet at the same time supremelysensitive.

The compendium of great Jazz singers is too long to list here, spanning asit does the breadth of the twentieth century. The important thing is for you toget hold of their albums or CDs and wear them out! If you’re not alreadyfamiliar with these singers, ask for referrals from Jazz-loving friends ormusicians. Use the discography in the appendix of this book as a guide.

Remember, Jazz is an aurally transmitted art form. What you see on thepage isn’t what comes out of the singer’s mouth and you won’t be able to speakthis special language with authority without hearing the accent of the natives. Aconscientious and wide-ranging study of established masters is probably themost important element of the young jazz musician’s education. You’ll get thetheory, you’ll learn the tunes, and you’ll conquer your stage fright. But first,you need to get the sounds in your ears.

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2 The terms TEXT-FOCUSED IMPROV and ABSTRACT IMPROV were coined by Dr. Thom Masonof the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. Of late, he has dropped abstractimprov, replacing it with THROUGH-COMPOSED, a label conceived by his colleague at USC,Professor Shelton Berg.

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INTERVALS, SCALES, & CHORDS

Let’s do a quick overview of intervals, the distance between two pitches. Ifthis is all new to you, get a basic theory book and start studying. Ask yourprivate instructor or a musician friend to sit down with you at a piano andanswer any questions you might have. The concepts are not difficult but theyare easier to visualize on the keyboard.

The unit of space from one key on the piano to the very next one,whether a black key or a white one, is called a half step and the interval is aminor second. Two adjacent keys comprise a whole step, a major second. Theamount of half and/or whole steps between two pitches determines the size ofthe interval.

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Intervals smaller than an octave are called simple intervals. Intervals largerthan an octave are compound intervals. For example, the interval between C andits adjacent D is a major 2nd, but between C and D above the octave C is a 9th.You can make a rough estimation of the size of an interval by counting the keysbetween the two notes. From C to E, for example, a major third, you count C, D,E, three notes. But B to D is a minor third(B-C -D); therefore it is important to be aware of the amount of half steps in aninterval.

A good rule of thumb is that major and perfect intervals are those foundin the major scale and minor intervals are the minor scale. This rule does notapply to diminished and augmented intervals. But it is easy to think of a‘diminished’ interval as being shortened by a half step. Conversely, the‘augmentation’ of an interval involves adding one half step.

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Some of the intervals found within the C octave:

C to C Minor Second 1 half stepC to D Major Second 2 half steps

C to E Minor Third 3 half stepsC to E Major Third 4 half stepsC to F Perfect Fourth 5 half stepsC to F Augmented Fourth 6 half stepsC to G Perfect Fifth 7 half stepsC to G Augmented Fifth 8 half stepsC to A Major Sixth 9 half steps

C to B Minor Sixth 10 half stepsC to B Major Seventh 11 half stepsC to C Perfect Octave 12 half steps

Ex. 2.1 SIMPLE INTERVALS

m2 M2 m3 M3 P4 aug.4 dim.5 P5 m6 M6 m7 M7 P8

COMPOUND INTERVALS

m9 M9 m10 M10 P11 aug.11 m13 M13

SCALES

The intervals above refer to pitches that are sounded together. Intervallicrelationships between two consecutive pitches work on the same principle.Scales are pitches arranged in patterns of whole and half steps in an ascendingor descending order. Starting with the tonic , also known as the root, sevenpitches are played and the tonic is repeated one octave away. These pitches,called degrees of the scale, are numbered 1 (root) through 8 (the root oneoctave above). The fourth degree of a scale is known as the sub-dominant andthe fifth is the key’s dominant.

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Major and minor scales have fixedpatterns of whole and half steps.

Ex. 2.2C Major Scale

W W H W W W H

C Natural Minor Scale

W H W W H W W

Note that the patterns of whole and half steps are different in thetwo scales. This difference is what gives each scale its special sound .

MAJOR SCALES - WWHWWWH

MINOR SCALES - WHWWHWW

Play the examples on the piano. See if you canfind Major and minor scales in other keys, us ingthe same formula. If the pattern is played correctly, they should sound the same - just higher or lower depending on your starting pi tch.

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A scale composed of half steps only is called a chromatic scale.

Ex. 2.3 C Chromatic Scale

Scales made completely of whole steps are called whole tone scales.

Ex. 2.4 Whole Tone Scale

Other scales that Jazz musicians use are alterations of the Major and minorscales. We’ll look at some altered scales in Chapter X.

ENHARMONICS

Some of these intervals have two designations, because pitches can havetwo different names. These are called enharmonics - a term meaning same pitch,different name. For example, E flat and D sharp are the same note, as is F sharpand G flat. C to C sharp is a minor 2nd as is C to D flat. An augmented 4th (C -F sharp, e.g.) sounds the same interval as a diminished 5th (C - G flat).

Minor and diminished intervals are also known as flat, as in aflat(ted) 7th.

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Which enharmonic we use depends on the key signature - flats with flats andsharps with sharps, although, in common practice, jazz charts allow for moreflexibility in this area.

TRIADS

A chord’s quality refers to it’s tonality - whether it is major or minor andwhat, if any, extra pitches are added to the basic triad. A triad is a three notechord, containing the root, 3rd, and 5th. The root is the most important pitchand the one the chord is named for. Next in importance is the third, for it is thepitch that determines whether the chord is major or minor.

So, when we talk about a triad being made up of the root, 3rd, and 5thdegrees of a scale, can you see what those intervals are? Jazz chords nearlyalways add the 7th, as well as upper structure pitches (compound intervals) suchas the 9th, 11th, and 13th. These pitches can also be flatted or sharped, furtheraltering the chord’s quality. The pitches that make up a chord are called chordtones . When they are used in an improvised line, they can also be calledconsonant tones.

The player or composer’s choice of pitches and where they place them inrelation to each other is how they ‘voice’ the chord, hence a chord played in acertain way is called a ‘ v o i c i n g ’. The term derives from early classicalcompositions written for four to six voices. Each melodic line movedindependently in a vertical direction, the voices sounding simultaneously in apleasing manner. If you took a horizontal sweep of all the voices in one spot,the notes would constitute a chord. That assemblage of pitches is the chord’sparticular voicing.

You can also think of these chords as a series of major or minor thirdsstacked on top of each other. A major triad is a minor third sitting on a majorthird; a minor triad is a minor third below a major third. Adding the 7th to thechord gives you a ‘third’ third above the triad, major or minor depending onwhether the 7th is major or minor. A diminished chord is minor thirds stackedon top of each other.

Ex. 2.5

Major Triad Major 7th Dom. 7th Minor Triad Minor 7th Dim. Triad Dim. 7 t h

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PROGRESSIONS

Jazz musicians often work with chord charts. Instead of the traditionallyarranged piece of sheet music with a fully realized piano accompaniment, achord chart contains only chord symbols laid out on a graph representing themeasures, with or without the melody. The musician learns what kinds ofchords these symbols represent, as well as hip voicings to play. The chords in ajazz chart are referred to as the changes, as in ‘the chord changes to this andthen it changes to that’. A series of changes is known as a chord progression.

Let’s look at a basic progression using the tonic (root), sub-dominant(4th degree), and dominant (5th degree). These changes are the foundation ofall western music. Everything else is just an elaboration of this basicprogression.

Play the c h ords on the piano. Memorize the sound of the root movement .

Ex. 2.6

C : I IV V I

N.B. We identify the intervals of a chord with Arabic numbers . When we want to number the c h ords in a progression, we use the same intervals but with Roman numerals .

So the numbers work two ways:1. Vertically (individual chord tones - Arabic numbers)2. Horizontally (progression - Roman numerals).

Chords in root position, which are voiced with the root at the bottom, canbe awkward to execute and make the progression sound disjointed, not flowing.That is the reason we play inversions, changing the placement of the basicpitches.

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Here is the same progression in inversions.

Ex. 2.7

C: I IV V I

Play it and compare the sound wi th Ex. 2.6.

DIATONIC RELATIONSHIPS

If you take a scale and build chords on top of each pitch without addingany sharps or flats (accidentals) you are working within the key, or diatonically.Each chord will have a specific quality that remains the same no matter whatkey you are in. See Ex. 2.8.

Ex. 2.8

I ii iii IV V vi vi i M7 m7 m7 M7 dom.7 m7 m7b5

N.B. Minor chords are designated with an ‘i’ and alower case v, instead of I and V

Here is a description of each chord:

NAME DESCRIPTION

Major 7th - Major triad with a major 7th (I, IV)Minor 7th - Minor triad with a minor 7th (II, III, VI)Dominant 7th -Major triad with a minor 7th (V)

Minor 7 5 -Minor triad with a lowered 5th & 7th (VII)3

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3 Also known as a half diminished chord.

Minor keys have another harmonic progression in accordance with thescale’s different formula of half and whole steps. When working with minorharmony, the seventh degree of the scale is raised, creating what is known asthe Harmonic Minor Scale. This raised seventh is the third pitch of the five chord,making the chord a V7, rather than a v7 (minor 7).

Here’s a example in C Harmonic Minor (E , A , B is the regular key s ignature4)

Ex. 2.9

i ii +III iv V VI vii m +7 m7-5 Aug7 m7 dom7 Maj7 dim.7

Tonic is the most important chord in a progression. It is the ‘home’ chordand sounding it gives the progression a sense of completion. Dominant is thesecond most important, for it leads to tonic and subdominant leads us to thedominant. All of the other chords in a progression are stepping stones to orfrom tonic to dominant to tonic.

In most styles of music, except for classical, any major triad with a minorseventh is referred to as a dominant seven because it only occurs naturally, ordiatonically, on the fifth degree of the scale. These are also known as V7 chords(pronounced ‘five-seven chords’) for the same reason. They might not be theactual dominant of the key but are called dominant sevens nonetheless. Is yourbrain overheating? Hang on, we’re almost through.

MODES

You’ll need to be familiar with major and minor scales and their keysignatures in order to use modes , special kinds of scales. Often called church

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4 You can opt to use the flat or raised seventh in your soloing, but when writing progressions you'll want to use the raisedseventh (third of the V) in your V7 chords.

modes, they were developed in the middle ages for chantsinging in the Catholicchurch .

You can think of modes as alterations of the major and minor scales. Theyare used in jazz improvisation because they make a good match over differentchords without the excessive use of accidentals.

Using the keyboard again as a guide, think of a scale played only on whitekeys from D - D. That is the Dorian mode and it works perfectly over a Dm7chord which is also only white notes. The Mixolydian mode (G - G, e.g.) iscomparable to a major scale with a lowered seventh, just like a Dominant 7thchord which is a major triad with a lowered seventh. This is far easier thanlearning each mode’s distinct pattern of whole and half steps.See Example 2.10.

Ex. 2.10

You’ll find the seven modes and their names on page 23. My advice is tobecome acquainted with the modes and their names and then set them asidefor now. There are easier ways to think modally and we’ll talk about that inChapter V.

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EAR TRAINING

Part of a musician’s education is ear training. Although important for anystyle of music, it is critical for a Jazz musician to be able to identify intervalsand chord qualities by ear since we do most of our playing ‘off the page’.‘Playing by ear’ has a pejorative connotation to non-musicians, implying as itdoes that no real work is involved, the musician was just lucky enough to beborn with the ability to play anything that they hear. Nothing could be fartherfrom the truth, for ear training can be as much if not more difficult than music-reading skills and technical mastery of an instrument.

But this in an area where you, as a singer, can shine. As a matter of fact,it’s an area where you n e e d to shine, for you don’t have the security of beingable to look at your instrument and pick out by sight the pitches that you havelearned to use over a particular chord. If you’re serious enough about singingto have purchased this book, you probably already possess the necessary tools -a pleasing voice with good intonation and the ability to replicate pitches thatyou hear. Non-singing musicians study ear training diligently but their voices,unlike yours, may not be as reliable, may not respond as readily to what themusician asks it to do.

Sit down at your piano and learn the intervals by playing and singingthem until you have each one’s particular sound memorized. Many studentsuse a ‘cheat sheet’ of well-known songs to help them get started. For example,the first two notes of ‘Here Comes The Bride’ constitute a perfect fourth. Thesignature tones of the NBC callsign are a major sixth going down a major third.

You can have fun with this, finding little melodic bits of songs that yourecognize as you study intervals. It won’t be long before the interval soundslike what it is, and not just the first two notes of Love Story (minor sixth). Makeyourself a tape with a series of intervals and listen to it away from the piano, inyour car, at the beach, wherever you can. Intervals are the basic building blocksof chords and progressions and you need to make them your best friends.

Complete the following exercises.Check your work on the piano.

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A. Build diatonic seventh chords over these scales.Label them with Roman numerals below and chord names above. Remember to use the accidentalsfound in the key.

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B. Build chords based on the Harmonic Minor scale.

NB: The raised seventh allows for a Dominant fifth chord r ather than a minor fifth chord .

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C. Fill in the seventh chords in each progression, using the Roman numerals as a guide. Write the names of the chords(C Maj7, F7, etc.) under each one. When you have finished,play them on the piano to hear how they sound.

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THE SEVEN MODES

1. Ionian - Identical to the major scale

2. Dorian - Natural minor with a raised 6th ( 3, 7)

3. Phrygian - Natural minor plus flatted 2nd ( 2, 6, 7)

4. Lydian - Major scale with raised 4th ( 4)

5. Mixolydian - Major scale with a flatted 7th ( 7)

6. Aeolian - Identical to the natural minor scale ( 3, 6, 7)

7. Locrian - An altered minor scale ( 2, 3, 5, 6, 7)

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III

WHERE ARE WE?

Question: How do you know when a singer is knocking at your door?

Answer: Because she can’t find her key and she doesn’t know when to come in.

Ouch. That old musicians’ joke hurts - mainly because it is so often true.An improvised solo is created out of the scales and chord tones available withinthe harmonic framework of a song. This framework is known as the song’s form.

Form is an integral part of the language of Jazz that you must learn beforeyou join in the musical dialogue. There is an exception, called Free Jazz, butthat style of playing is only done well by master musicians who have learnedthe rules thoroughly enough to toss them away and paint their musical picturesoutside of the lines. We’ll look at improvisation in Chapter VI. First, let’s talka b o u t form.

FORM

The length of the improvised solo can be short or long but it is governed

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by the form of the piece, that is the progression of chords that the composerhas chosen to make up his composition. One time through a song frombeginning to end (excluding any intros and/or codas which are played justonce) is called a chorus. The first chorus is played with the lead instrument(s)or the vocalist stating the melody, with or without the lyrics. This is called thehead. Singing or playing the melody as written is called stating the head.

Subsequent choruses minus the main melody are then repeated while thesoloists take turns playing their improvisations. Then we have a final chorus,often referred to as the out chorus, where the melody is restated. Usually a coda(special ending) is added to the out chorus and the tune is finished. Think ofthe head or main melody choruses as bookends enclosing the solos of theparticipating players.

You do not start or end your solo at any spot that you choose! There arefew things more jarring than a perky (and clueless) vocalist jumping in andabruptly cutting short an instrumentalist just as he or she is building up a headof steam. Inadvertent as it may be, it’s as rude as interrupting someone in themiddle of a sentence. Unless something different is planned, either with awritten or orally agreed upon arrangement, solos begin at the ‘t o p’, orbeginning of the chorus. Their ending can be either at the bottom of thechorus or, as is common practice when the song features a vocalist, just beforet h e bridge. This is a standard protocol that allows the next soloist to prepare forhis or her entrance or for the head to be replayed and the tune ended.

SECTIONS

Okay, where’s this bridge and how much is the toll? Most Jazz standardsare written in a format called AABA or ‘song form’. This is a 32 bar (measure)chorus broken up into four eight-bar sections. Duke Ellington’s Satin Doll andTake the A Train are two classic examples. The first group of eight bars (A)contains a melody and progression identical to the second one. The lyrics aredifferent but because of the melodic and harmonic repetition, this secondsection is also designated as A, often referred to as the ‘second A’. The thirdsection of eight bars is different both melodically and harmonically, hence thelabel B, or B section. This section is also referred to as the release, or lesscommonly, the refrain or chorus.

Why chorus? Isn’t that the whole piece one time through? It is now, butwhen many of these tunes were written in the ‘20’s and ‘30’s, especially

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Broadway show tunes, there was another section that preceded the chorus. Overthe years this section, the original verse of the song, was dropped and overtime, forgotten. Now what was once the chorus of the longer song is consideredthe entire piece.

Why these verses are not more popular today is a mystery, for many ofthem have beautiful melodies and poignant, well-crafted lyrics. One reasoncould be the fact that verses were often played tempo rubato, that is, at no settempo, or just more slowly than the chorus, and didn’t set the right mood whena bandleader wanted something ‘lively’ to wake up the crowd. Also, in the caseof Broadway tunes, the lyrics of the opening verses tend to be very specific tothe plot of the show while the chorus relates a story or mood that is moregeneral in nature.

It’s not hard to dig up these lost verses in older anthologies or single-songsheet music and well worth the trouble. Including one or two of these fullyrestored songs into an evening’s performance adds a refreshing diversity toyour program, and following an unfamiliar verse with a well-known chorusnever fails to delight the audience.

BRIDGELESS STANDARDS

Some compositions fit the definition of a bridgeless standard in that they have,you guessed it, no bridge. Their form can be defined as being AA or AB, forexample and they are often composed of two sixteen bar halves. Some well-known bridgeless standards are My Romance, Just Friends, The Days of Wineand Roses, and Autumn Leaves.

BOSSA NOVA

Bossa Nova is a Brazilian style of music that became popular in the UnitedStates in the 1960’s. Frank Sinatra recorded many Bossa Nova songs in concertwith one of the style’s main composers, Antonio Carlos Jobim. Sometime later,the saxophonist Stan Getz recorded an album, Getz a Go Go, with a Braziliansinger named Astrid Gilberto; this album cemented Bossa Nova’s popularitywith the Jazz audience and Bossa Nova was immediately enfolded into therepertoire .

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Bossa Nova songs generally follow the standard AABA format, but oftenwith harmonic distinctions such as chromatic and step-wise modulation (moreabout that later). The main characteristic of Bossa Nova is the rhythm,specifically the bassline. The term Bossa Nova means ‘new bass’ in Portugueseand it was truly a brand new thing to American ears.

In Chapter I, we talked about jazz eighths, the swing feel thatdistinguishes Jazz from other styles of music. Bossa Nova is one of the few sub-genres of Jazz, Jazz-Rock Fusion being another, that incorporate straight eighthr h y t h m s5 .

You can count out the triplet feel of a swinging eighth note beat like this:1 (e) a, 2 (e) a, 3 (e) a, 4 (e) a (“one (ee) ah, two (ee) ah” etc)6 .

The basic quarter note in straight eighths is divided into four segments,sixteenth notes counted like this:

1 e & a - 2 e & a - 3 e & a - 4 e & a. (“one ee and ah...”)

The Bossa Nova bassline centers on beats one and three, but the second‘hit’ is anticipated, that is played on the second half of beat two, with anotherhit on beat four. The pitches played are the root and fifth.

Ex. 3.1C Maj7

You are probably familiar with many Bossa Nova songs, such as The GirlFrom Ipanema, Meditation , and How Insensitive.

Unfortunately, these wonderful songs have gotten a bad rap from overuseby lounge performers and their smooth style seems to have ingratiatedthemselves with the programmers of elevator music. But there are many moreless overdone Bossas, Trieste, Gentle Rain, No More Blues, to name a few. Pick

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5 Dixieland Jazz, the first jazz style, also uses a straight eight as did some uptempo big band arrangements, suchas ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy’, by the Andrews Sisters.

6 Remember, the 2nd part of a triplet in jazz eighth feel is felt, not articulated.

up the Stan Getz album or one of the many recorded by Jobim and you will fallin love with the style.

RHYTHM CHANGES

Rhythm Changes refers to a group of Jazz compositions that use thechanges (chords) originally found in the old standard, I’ve Got R h y t h m. Somepieces written on rhythm changes are Oleo, a Sonny Rollins composition, andCharlie Parker’s Anthropology . The Flintstones Theme Song is also looselybased on rhythm changes.

The form is AABA, but sometimes there is no melody written for the Bsection (Oleo is an example). That means that when playing the head of arhythm changes song, the soloist improvises on B and goes back to the melodyfor the last A section.

Rhythm changes tunes are popular sit-in selections for the same reason asTwelve Bar Blues; the form or progression is the same, the only variable beingthe key. Someone may call ‘rhythm changes in B flat’, for example, and startplaying any number of heads.

TWELVE BAR BLUES

The prevailing Blues form used by Jazz musicians is the Twelve Bar Blues.Just as the name implies, a chorus is twelve bars long, significantly shorter thanthe AABA form. There are eight bar and sixteen bar Blues formats as well,though less common in the Jazz repertoire. A Blues piece also has adistinguishing harmonic progression that is more structured than in the AABAform. We’ll discuss the specifics of Blues harmony in Chapters V and VI.

When considering the poetic form of the lyric, Twelve Bar Blues can bedescribed as AAB. The first line, extending over four bars, is repeated in thesecond four bar section. The final four bars have a different line which rhymeswith the first two lines.

Unlike the AABA Form, which usually contains only one set of lyrics, aBlues song can have a number of verses exploring a certain situation or state ofmind. Song Form, which sprang from Tin Pan Alley in the early part of thetwentieth century, is a relative youngster when compared to its cousin, theBlues. Because of this long history, most Blues songs are associated with acertain singer or group, the original composer having long faded into the mistyrealms of the past.2 8 .

This makes the Blues a more fluid form compositionally speaking, withsingers playing with and adding to the lyrics, passing these nuances down tot h e next generation.

So, the bulk of the Jazz vocal repertoire draws from these forms: AABA,the Blues, and Rhythm Changes. But there are exceptions. Summert ime , apopular standard from George Gershwin’s opera, Porgy and Bess, has a discreteform that is not quite AABA and not quite Twelve Bar Blues, though it bearssimilarities to both.

The harmonic format of Here’s That Rainy Day, written by Jim VanHeusen, is ABAC. Johnny Mercer’s Autumn Leaves is AABC.

FOUR BAR PHRASES

All of these examples share a four bar foundation in their composition.Just as in Western classical music, the four bar grouping is a basic phrasingunit, a rhythmic and harmonic building block of the form. As your saxophoneplayer heads into his thirteenth chorus you may find yourself beamingbeatifically while your foot is tapping like a jackhammer and your brain isfrying as you frantically count bars. That’s okay, for with practice you will soonbe able to ‘feel’ four and eight bar phrases, even whole choruses. This authoronce played behind a singer who actually dozed off during an instrumentalsolo, only to have his subconscious timekeeper jerk him awake at the top of thetune!

One last joke:Just before they were to begin their nightly gig, the pianist says to the

vocalist: "OK, this is how we're going to do the first tune. We play the first 8bars as usual, but add a beat on the last measure of the1st ending. On therepeat, go back to 4/4, but modulate up a minor 2nd. Skip the last bar of thesecond ending and go straight to the bridge in 3/4 and modulate up a minor3rd. Modulate back down a major 2nd on the second bar and I'll take a solo. Onthe 5th bar of the bridge you come back with the lyrics, skip the last '8' and godirectly to the coda, but only the first 3 bars. Then go back to the first 8 barsand end in the 7th bar with you singing the flat 9th on the MAJ 7th chord. Butdon't worry, I'll quickly change chords so you'll be singing a nice soundingnote. Then end it!"

The vocalist, confused, gapes at the pianist and mumbles, "That soundscomplicated, I don't think I can remember all that!"

"Why not?" he replies, "that's how you did it last night!"2 9 .

STUDY THE FORMS OF THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLES

Prom Night BarbieAABA'Song Form'

Count out the eight measure sections. Don't forget to factor in the 1st and 2nd endings. Notice the 2nd set of lyrics in A2. Do you notice any chordal or rhythmic patterns in the 4 bar groupings?3 0 .

12 Bar Blues

STORMY MONDAY

Study the three 4-bar sections. What do you notice about the melody? What is the rhyming pattern of the lyrics?

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Hurry Up and Love Me

Copyright 1996 - JazzMedia Music All Rights Reserved

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IV

DID YOU BRING YOUR CHARTS?

Vocalists, lacking an instrumental range, often transpose the key of a songfrom the one it was written in, known as its standard key. Even if the range of asong rests comfortably within our reach, we may want a certain feel or tone inour presentation. This is comparable to a saxophonist picking up a tenor saxfor one song and switching to soprano for another.

Singing at the top of your range can sound youthful or naive, qualitiesthat may work for a particular dramatic situation but do not always convey theimage you want to create for yourself. Female vocalists, in particular, tend tosing in a lower voice these days compared to singers in the 1940s and ‘50s. Onthe other hand, a song placed too low in your register can sound muddy andrestrict projection.

So we change the key, a perfectly legitimate thing to do. The problemoccurs when we expect our accompanists to do the changing for us, sometimesright there on the bandstand with a restless audience waiting to hear somemusic. Most Jazz musicians are comfortable transposing standards into otherkeys and will do it graciously. But not all musicians have this level of expertiseat their disposal and so, when forced to do so may feel put upon, even angrythat their ‘shortcoming’ has been revealed.

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Let’s look at it another way: you’ve been called up to the stage by a friendin the band to sit in, that is to sing something impromptu and unrehearsed. Yougive the band your selection and the pianist asks you for a key. So far, so good.You mumble something about not being sure. The pianist, nice guy that he is,runs the first couple of bars of the tune in a few different keys so you can judgewhich one is best for your voice. You settle on one and, crisis averted, you turnto face the audience and start the tune.

What do you think is going on in the minds of the musicians behind youas they play? Maybe the pianist is thinking, ‘boy, I had to memorize the melody,the chords, the form, and be able to play it in several different keys. All shehad to do was learn the melody, the lyrics, and a letter in the alphabet from Ato G so she could give us a key’. You have given them an estimation of yourabilities and commitment before you even opened your mouth to sing a note.

‘But I sing well’, you may counter, ‘people like to listen to me’. That’sgreat and the musicians may truly enjoy listening to you sing. But all thatmeans, in their minds, is you are someone with a nice voice who knows a fewsongs. You are not a dedicated musician who deserves respect and honor for allthe hard work you have put into your craft. If you are young, they’ll cut yousome slack, if you’re pretty or handsome, ditto, but don’t expect to be treatedas an equal. You won’t be called for future gigs because you don’t have arepertoire, charts, and experience.

Believe it or not, these are some of the things said by singers toinstrumentalists as they step up to the stage, and the instrumentalists’ (silent)replies:

“What key do I sing in?”(You’re asking me? I’ve never seen you before in my life!)

“I sing in C.”(Every song in the world? You sing them all in C?)

“Here’s my key - [sings] la, la, la, la....”(Oh, brother...)

Sound silly, don’t they? Silly or not, they’ve been said countless times tocountless instrumentalists over the years. It may be unfair but you can see whyyou have to work hard to counter the prejudgments of instrumentalists towardyou.

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SITTING IN

The bandstand is not some happy, flower-strewn land where everybodyloves each other all the time. But it can be, and when it is, it’s the mostwonderful place to be on earth. Quite often though, especially at ‘jam sessions’and sit-in situations, it’s a battlefield. Among instrumentalists, complicatedtunes are called at breakneck tempos to test the mettle of the ‘new guy’ braveenough to step into the fray. As a singer, you have a bit more control, for youwould generally be choosing the song and the tempo at which it would beperformed. But the same attitude of checking out your wares, so to speak,prevails. Believe me, you want to be well armed and well prepared.

So, what do I do, you ask, quit before I even get started? Not at all! You’relearning more about music every day and you don’t have to wait until you’vegotten everything together before you sing with a band. There are a fewtechniques you can use to make your debut with your friendly neighborhoodcombo smooth and hassle free.

Think of the golden rule, or a variation of it: don’t ask anyone to do whatyou can’t do yourself, or could but just haven’t taken the time. In other words,don’t make them do your job (unless you’re paying them to help you). If you’vefigured out a good key for a song at home by plunking out the changes or theroots on your piano, you’ve done some preparation. Now you can give themthe right key with confidence.

If it is a key that is used often, there shouldn’t be a problem. Forexample, Misty has a standard key of E . You need to lower it a little. Do youpick D ? Why, when C is so much more familiar to most musicians? Blues in G ?F is only a half step away and a more traditional key for Blues than G .

Now the musicians know that you know enough to choose commonly usedkeys. I don’t like to get into terms like ‘hard’ and ‘easy’ keys, let’s just say morefamiliar or less commonly used. After all, you’re asking the players to stepoutside of their comfort zone by changing the key in the first place. Why notmake it as easy for them as possible? Nobody wants to look bad on thebandstand and anything you can do to make them sound better makes yousound better, too.

Sitting in with a band at a club or restaurant is the best way to getyourself known in your area. You may find a few ads in music-orientednewspapers but you’re going to have to audition for those jobs as well. Andgetting acquainted with working professionals, people who already have gigs, isa better bet than throwing your lot in with a guy just getting himself togetherand advertising for players. The working band may have a wedding gig next

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week and need a singer. Wouldn’t you like to fill the bill?There are a number of things you can do to make sitting in a positive

experience. If you don’t have charts yet, and truthfully, no one expects you tocarry music around with you when you’re out for the evening, you can have afew songs prepared that don’t require charts. As mentioned earlier, some ofthose songs could be well-known standards that you can sing in standard key orcan be transposed into an equally familiar key. Just by acknowledging that youare asking for something that not all musicians are capable of doing, ratherthan simply expecting it, gives the accompanists their due for the hours they’vespent honing that special skill.

Do some investigating to find those songs that you can sing comfortablyin the standard or ‘book’ key. Here is where the guys have it a little easier,more standards seem to fit their range than they do for the ladies. But there aresome out there.

Another great option is having a few Blues heads in your repertoire.Asking for a twelve bar Blues in F or C or B , to name a few common Blues keys,is perfectly acceptable. Musicians do it all the time. You just need to know themelody and the verses, count out a tempo, and you’re on your way.

YOUR BOOK

So you’re getting experience in the evenings interacting with a band andperforming in front of an audience. What are you doing with your free timeduring the day? Writing your charts and building your book.

A singer’s book is a collection of charts written out in her key. They canbe elaborately arranged or just basic chord charts, the melody with chordsymbols, also known as lead sheets. Simple or complex, your book shows thatyou’ve done your homework and are committed to making the experience aseffortless and enjoyable as possible for all concerned.

Unless you are part of a start-up band, you probably won’t get a lot, ifany, time to rehearse for an upcoming gig unless you want to pay thebandmembers for their time. Local jazz gigs, called club dates, are usually done‘off the cuff’, that is either by playing standards that everyone knows orworking from charts for vocal pieces or original instrumental compositions.The nature of a Jazz musician’s study, learning the standard repertoire, chordsymbols, voicings, developing the ability to sightread and transpose, enableshim or her to be performance ready with little or no rehearsal.

As you book more engagements for yourself and your band, the ensemble

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playing will begin to gel and arrangements will develop over time. This is whyyour book is so important. The more charts you have, the more versatile youcan be in planning your sets.

But even if you are calling the same guys for your gigs and really gettingcomfortable with them, you must be prepared for the unavailability of a certainplayer or last minute substitutions. Unlike many up and coming rock or popgroups who play together exclusively and sometimes even share living quarters,jazz musicians do not generally throw their lot in with one band; there’s justnot enough work in the jazz arena to sustain them. A good player is going to bein demand and you will find yourself calling your favorite sidemen first, butoften working down your list to fill out the date. Having your music charted outis essential.

CASUALS

Another good reason to have your book together is the always availablebread and butter work playing weddings, private parties, and other one-timespecial events. Called casuals on the West Coast, general business (or morecommonly, “GeeBee”) in Boston and New York, outside gigs in Philadelphia, theyare commonly booked by special music agents called contractors , who putplayers together for a performance. A contractor can range from a musicianwho hustles casual work for his or her own band to a corporate entity bookinghundreds of musicians over the course of a busy weekend.

Getting yourself on the roster of some or all of the contractors in yourarea is a great source of steady income as well as a venue for gaining invaluableexperience working in impromptu situations in front of a live audience. You’llmeet new musicians at each date and learn to follow various bandleaders’ cues.Although playing casuals is not a stated career goal for any ‘serious’ musician,even the most mundane wedding gig can garner you a couple of hundred bucksand dinner for a few hours work. If you live in or near a large city, you mayfind yourself playing art gallery openings, movie premiere parties, and otherhigh profile gatherings full of interesting people and possible professionalcontacts. Many casual musicians can earn a week’s income over the course of aweekend, leaving them plenty of free time with which to pursue their loftiermusical goals.

When presenting yourself as a prospective employee to a contractor, thefirst thing they will ask is how versatile you are, for casual work can range fromjazz standards to pop and rock tunes in the course of a single performance. The

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second thing they will ask to see is a songlist and your book.

FAKE BOOKS

You’ll need some reference material to find copies of the tunes you wouldlike to perform. Fake books are compendiums of jazz compositions written outwith the melody and the chord changes. You’ll want to get a vocal fake book soyou can get the lyrics as well. Although not perfect, some of the changes arewrong, the Real Vocal Book (fake book - real book, get it?) is the first one youshould start with. You can purchase it at most music stores that sell sheetmusic. Another good one is the New Real Book (Sher Music). Of course, the bestway to get charts is to do a transcription from records. We’ll talk abouttranscribing in Chapter IX. Once you have selected a song, you’ll need totranspose it into your key.

TRANSPOSING

How do you transpose keys? It’s easy. In Chapter II, we looked at intervalsand how they relate to chord progressions (the horizontal relationship of theharmony). Transposing is taking the music that you want to chart out, figuringout the intervallic relationships of the harmony and just moving thoserelationships to a new key. You can do it by figuring out the Roman numeralsof the original progression (i.e. II - V - I) or just make the transition from letterto letter using your piano to help you.

Remember, Jazz musicians only need chord charts to make music, that isthe melody with chord symbols. You won’t need to write out basslines for thebassist to play or chord voicings for the pianist. Though you may find theprocess slow going at first, it will become easier with practice.

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Here’s an example:

Ex. 4.1C Ma7 Dm7 Em7 A7 Dm7 G7 C Ma7

I ii iii VI7 ii V I

Fill in the chords of the progression in the new key of F Major

I ii iii VI7 ii V I

If you don’t want to use Roman Numerals you can t ransposethe chords directly. The next example is the first eight bars o fAutumn Leaves in E minor. Try taking them down a whole s t epto D minor. Be sure to check your work on the piano.

Ex. 4.2 Autumn Leaves

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Write in the chords in the new key.

Autumn Leaves

Do you want to transpose the melody as well? Move t h e notes down a major second just as you did with the chords.

Ex. 4.3 Autumn Leaves

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CHORD SYMBOLS

The symbols we use to designate the different types of chords do not havea precise methodology at this time. Jazz theory and the conventions that applyto this young style of music are still in a state of growth and flux. You’ll need tobecome familiar with several different ways of writing a particular chord’ssymbol. In your own charts, it is recommended that you use one type of chorddesignation to maintain consistency.

Here are some commonly used chord symbols:

Major 7 : C, CM7, C Maj7, Cs,C6Dom. 7 : C7, C dom7, C9, C11, C13Minor 7 : Cm7, C min, C-7Minor 7 5 : Cm7-5, C - 7 5, CÓ

Dim. 7 : C dim7, C Ì7

Note the two chords, C6 and C13. One asks you to add the sixth to thechord and the other asks for the thirteenth. If you’ve been studying yourintervals you know that the sixth and thirteen degrees of the scale in C are bothA - an octave apart from each other. So, why the difference?

If you see a C6, it is telling you to add an A to a Major seventh chord. Ifthe chord is named C13, you add the A to a Dominant seventh chord. Likefigured bass, it is a situation where more information is being conveyed thanmeets the eye. Another example is C2 and C9, both asking for a D to be added.C2 is often a pop tune chord symbol used with an arpeggiated no-frills triad orblock chord (a triad with the root doubled on the top). A general rule would bethe higher numbers added to the chord indicate a flatted seventh (9, 11, 13)while the lower numbers ask for a major seven or a triad (2, 4, 6).

The designation ‘Diminished 7’ is clouded in confusion, for there areconflicting theories on exactly what it signifies. A true diminished chord iscomposed of stacked minor thirds, resulting in Root, 3, 5, 7. The ‘ ’ iscalled ‘double flat’ and refers to a pitch being lowered two half steps instead ofone. Therefore, a C diminished 7th chord would spell as C, E , G , and B , Bdouble flat being the enharmonic of A. This is a true or fully diminished chord.Another school of thought asserts that since C dim. is a fully diminished triad,

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adding the 7 instructs the player to sound a regular 7. This is also known as a‘half diminished', as in only half of the chord is diminished, signified by a circlewith a line through it. Other strict fundamentalists (the musical kind, not thereligious kind) insist that a Cm7 5, which describes exactly what the chord is, isnot a real chord, whatever that means. So beware, be clear, and be consistent inyour choice of symbols.

Another troublesome area is the use of the delta after a letter to designatea Major 7th chord. It is common practice but not recommended. If written byhand, it can look like a 7 or a circle, which of course will change the chord.This is also true with the use of a minus sign to write a Minor 7th chord. Youcan use the common large ‘M’ or small ‘m’ to show Major or Minor but, again,your manuscript must be very legible or problems can occur. The abbreviationsMaj., Min., and Dim. are your best bet.

Keep in mind that many times you will be throwing a chart in front ofyour accompanists with little or no practice. It is in your best interest to havethe symbols clearly written and unambiguous. Sightreading is challengingenough without having to figure out what you want played and not all potentialdisasters (also known as ‘train wrecks’) can be anticipated. This author oncewrote out her charts in festive red ink only to have them disappear into a blankwhite page under the red stagelights at that evening’s performance!

As you become more experienced at writing your charts you may want topurchase a computer music writing program. The charts in this book werewritten with the Overture program but there are several on the market. Onceyou become familiar with the application, it is fast, convenient, and as cleanand easy to read as commercially printed music. And transposition into otherkeys is readily accomplished with just a few clicks of the mouse.

KEY SIGNATURES

If you are writing a simple chord chart without the melody you don’tneed to use a key signature. But as you become more adept at this practice, youwill want to use the melody and its corresponding key signature.

There are twelve key signatures for the twelve Major and Minor keys.Each Major key has a corresponding Minor key which share the same keysignature. They’re ‘relatives’, harmonically speaking, and that’s just what wecall them. G Major, which has an F in its key signature is the relative major of EMinor. A Minor, with no sharps or flats, is the relative minor of C Major.

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For organizational purposes, the twelve keys are classified into a circle offifths. Looking at the keyboard again, start at C (no sharps or flats). Move up aperfect fifth to G with one sharp (F) in its key signature. A fifth up from G is Dwhich has two sharps (F,C) in its key signature. As you continue around thecircle you will keep adding a sharp to each key signature until you get to F (6

sharps) where you can switch to its enharmonic, G , which has six flats.Continuing on in the flat keys, you now remove one flat with each key until youare back to C. The Minor keys also can be grouped in this fashion, starting withA Minor and moving around the circle.

Ex. 4.4 CIRCLE OF FIFTHS C Maj (no sharps or flats)

A Min F Maj G Maj (B ) (F ) D Min E Min

B Maj D Maj (B , E ) (F , C ) G Min B Min

E Maj A Maj (B , E , A ) (F , C , G )

C Min F Min

A Maj E Maj (B , E , A , D ) (F , C , G , D ) F Min C Min

D Maj B Maj (B , E , A , D , G ) F Maj (F , C , G , D , A )

B Min (F , C , G , D , A , E ) G Min D Min

(enharmonic) G Maj/E Min (B , E , A , D , G , C )

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N.B. The keys of G and D are more commonly used i nJazz compositions than their enharmonics, F and C .

One interesting thing to note, as you move up from C Major the 7thdegree of the scale is raised, adding a sharp to each successive key. As weround the bend into the flat keys, the 7th degree is again raised, naturalizingone flat each time as we work our way back to C Major.

The sharps and flats are organized on the staff in a diagonal pattern inthe order that they appear in the circle of fifths sequence. In other words,writing a key signature in A Major (3 sharps), you first put the F , then the C ,followed by the G . With the flats you can work backwards, which is a circle offourths, starting from the key of F Major - B , then E , then A , and so forth.

Ex. 4.5

When discussing keys with other musicians, it is perfectly acceptable torefer to them by the number of sharps or flats that they contain rather thantheir name. Designating D Major as ‘two sharps’ or G minor as ‘two flats’ iseconomical and efficient, most musicians know whether a particular standard iswritten in a major or minor key. In some cases, it can be preferable, for it saves

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confusion in calling tunes that fluctuate between a Major key and its relativeminor, such as Autumn Leaves or All The Things You Are.

TIME SIGNATURES

You will also want to put a time signature at the head of your first staff.Even if you are only charting chords without the melody, a time signature helpsthe musicians identify the meter immediately. If nothing is marked, theassumption would be that the piece is in 4/4 time, also known as common time.The use of a large C to represent 4/4 time is common practice.

The first or upper number in a time signature refers to the amount ofbeats in a measure. The second or lower number tells us what note gets onebeat. So in 3/4 time, also known as waltz time, there are three beats in ameasure and the quarter note gets one beat. Waltz time with a swing feel iscalled jazz waltz. ‘Six-eight’ time is six beats per measure with the eighth notegetting one beat.

Another helpful addition to your charts is a note regarding the rhythmicfeel or style of the piece. In the upper left hand corner you could write ‘BossaNova’ , ‘Uptempo Swing’, or ‘Ballad’, whatever the case may be. You can alsouse descriptive terms such as ‘airy’ or ‘dark’, whatever you think best describesthe mood you had in mind for the arrangement. Anything you can add to yourchart to help your accompanists understand what you want is a plus, especiallyin unrehearsed playing situations. The perfect chart would be one that youplace on the music stand with no explanation needed, just count it out andyou’re off and running. If you are fielding a lot of questions from themusicians regarding your chart or the arrangement, you may need to look at itagain.

SIGNS AND TERMS

Were you one of those singers who followed the form of the song byreading the lyrics? Now you won’t have to.

The repeat sign is a double barline with two dots to one side. Repeatsenable you to save space on your chart when one identical section followsanother. They come in pairs, often with first and second endings. The two dots

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go inside the repeated section, that is, the first repeat has the dots on the rightof the barline and the second has the dots on the left. If there is no otherindication, you only repeat sections once. You can request more than onerepeat by writing a large X with the number of times to be played just below therepeated section - such as 3X.

First and second endings allow us to repeat a section that has a variationat the end of the progression, used often for A sections in AABA form.

Ex. 4.6 REPEATS

These four bars would be played twice

Ex. 4.7 FIRST AND SECOND ENDINGS

The first time through, stop at the repeat sign. This is the first ending. Thesecond time, skip the first ending and play the second ending. If there is norepeat sign at the second ending, continue on to the next section.

The following are some other common symbols, signs and terms found incharts:

Da Signe al Coda means ‘from the sign to the ending’. It is oftenabbreviated as D.S. al Coda. When you see D.S. al Coda at the end of a chorus,instead of going back to the first bar, you go to the bar with the sign and playfrom there.

The sign looks like this:

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A coda is a special ending. It only happens once. The sign that alertsyou to jump down to the coda (at the outchorus, or end of the tune) looks likethis:

The coda section can be marked with this sign:

Da Capo al Signe tells you to go back to the first bar for your repeat andcontinue until you reach the signe, or sign.

Why all the Italian terminology? The first musical printing press wascreated in Italy in the early part of the sixteenth century. For a brief while,every piece of printed sheet music in Europe came from Italy. Any directiveson that music were given in Italian. It wasn’t long before the rest of thecontinent figured out how to print their music but by then the use of the Italianlanguage for guides such as ritardo (slow down), forte, (loud), or Da Capo alSigne (from the head to the sign), had become a tradition.

We will look at options for codas and intros in Chapter VIII. For now, youhave all the tools you need to write some basic, solid charts. Check your workcarefully on the piano, making sure that the chords have the same roots andqualities as in the original key. When the chart is error-free, copy it out neatlyand put it in your book. Give it a number as well as a title. It’s easier to call anumber on the bandstand than its title. You’re on your way!

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V

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BLUES

Blues, a musical genre, a style of performance, as well as a discreteharmonic form, not only predates Jazz, it is a major component of the Jazzidiom. No study of Jazz can be complete without a recognition of the Blues’importance and a familiarity with its sound and style.

The Blues genre evolved from an amalgamation of European and Africanfolksong tradition. As is the manner of folkways, the history and exact datingof this uniquely American music is a matter of conjecture based on the study ofearly published compositions and the recordings and recollections of its firstpractitioners and their listeners.

For Europeans of the Middle Ages, mostly illiterate, tucked away in smallfarming villages or laboring on noble estates, the traveling bard, or minstrel,was their main source of information on current events taking place outside oftheir isolated environment. Along with the musical stories of kings and battles,songs of love and hardship mirrored the day to day travails of the workingclass.

The early settlers brought this musical tradition to America. Historicaccompanying instruments like the lute and the fife gave way to the banjo,guitar, and violin. The age-old stories of love and hardship conveyed with afull-throated and emotionally sincere style became the roots of Bluegrass,

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Country and Western, and the modern folk music that we hear today.The African griot, or master musician, fulfilled a similar function as the

European minstrel, being the vessel of historic memory for the tribe. Some wereindependent, others were attached to the tribal chieftain or a king’s court and,like the European court composers, wrote and performed music for officialcelebrations. Historian Eileen Southern, (The Music of Black Americans7)

recounts the observations of a seventeenth century English sea captain, RichardJobson, on the similarities of the independent African griot and what he calls an‘Irish Rimer... sitting in the same manner upon the ... ground, somewhat remotefrom the company’8, relating the adventures of kings and celebrated warriors orspontaneously composing songs to praise members of the company or highlightthe purpose of the gathering.

The itinerant nature of the early African American Bluesmen followed theperipatetic tradition of the European and African traveling musicians. Theperformance arenas were usually public gathering places; rail stations, fairs,and street corners. The Bluesman sang of misfortune, tribulations, and love lost,as well as political realities that translated into personal hardship for theAfrican American community. When performers moved indoors around theturn of the twentieth century, it was to the honky tonks and bordellos; theBlues was not a favored entertainment of the Black bourgeoisie.

Southern’s book contains a wonderful, well researched history of theAfrican foundations of American Blues and Jazz. Another great resource isGunther Schuller’s Early Jazz - Its Roots and Musical Development9.

AMERICAN FOLKSONG

T h e chordal outline of the Celtic folksong that became the basis for theTwelve Bar Blues form had a slow harmonic rhythm, relying on tonic andsubdominant for the most part, with a brief change to the dominant. Frankieand Johnnie, an American descendant of the Celtic model, is a good example ofthis early form. See Example 5.1.

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7 W.W.Norton & Co., 1981, New York8 Ibid, p. 99 Oxford University Press, 1968, New York

Ex. 5.1 FRANKIE AND JOHNNY

The tradition of multiple verses repeated over the same f o r mincreases the repetition of tonic. Following measures 11- 12 wi th1-3 gives us six measures of C; a very slow harmonic rhythm, the rateat which chords change.

Ex. 5.2 FRANKIE AND JOHNNY

N.B. The C7 in measure 4 leads us to the IV chord. C Dom7 is the V of IV ("five of four").

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HARMONIC DEVELOPMENT

As the Blues progressed, the harmonies became more complex with theaddition of chord changes that enhanced the progression without changing itsbasic nature. In the case of Frankie and Johnny, one change was theintroduction of the dominant to lead into the tonic in measures 1, 3, and 7.

Ex. 5.3 FRANKIE AND JOHNNY

THE MODERN BLUES FORM

Let’s go back to the original progression of Frankie and Johnny.

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Innovations such as the addition of the subdominant in measures 2 and10 and the I - VI change in measures 7-8 improved the somewhat ploddingharmony of six measures of tonic followed by three measures of sub-dominant.Also, in measure 12, the dominant is added to the repeated verses to lead usback to the I chord at the top of the chorus.

Ex. 5.4

LOWERED SEVENTH

Lowering the seventh on all of the Major chords is the most importantstep toward the modern Blues form, giving it the distinctive sound that is thefoundation of the genre. So distinctive, in fact, that lowering the seventh ofMajor chords in any type of song gives it a ‘bluesy’ sound. The flat seventh is anAfrican American contribution, based on African modality.

Ex. 5.5

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SUBSTITUTION CHORDS

Jazz musicians like the challenge and creative opportunities of a fasterharmonic rhythm (more chord changes) to improvise upon. One of the mostcommon ways to speed up the rhythm is the insertion of substitution chords.As the name implies, a substitution chord is a chord that replaces all or part ofanother chord’s space in a progression.

A substitution chord (commonly referred to as sub chord) must complywith at least two criteria to be placed correctly in a progression.

1. The sub chord must share at least two common pitches with the original chord .

2. The progression’s basic sound and outcome must not be altered.

JAZZ BLUES FORM

In the case of the Blues form adapted and adopted into the Jazzrepertoire, substitutes such as the II-V progression in place of the V, and a I-VI-II-V turnaround at the end of the chorus add harmonic variety. In Chapter VII,we’ll look more closely at the whys and wherefores of these ‘mini’ progressions.

Play the progressions, with chords or just the root, in Examples 5.5 and 5.6. Compare the difference in their sounds .

Ex. 5.6

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In measure 4, a G minor 7 is substituting for two beats of C7. This worksfor two reasons - firstly, a II7 chord can be inserted as a lead-in to itscorresponding V7 chord. Also, G min.7 and C7 are the II-V of the F found in thenext bar, therefore functioning as a ‘II-V of IV’.

BLUES VARIATIONS

There are many alterations of the Twelve Bar form. Charlie Parker’suptempo Bebop classic, Now’s The Time, uses a diminished chord (B dim.), aninversion (F7/C), and a II-V (Am-D7) to G minor to embellish the basicprogression.

Ex. 5.7 NOW'S THE TIME

An example of an eight bar Blues is a ballad, Tell me Where To Scratch,written by the great Blues singer Joe Williams; recorded on the album, “JoeWilliams Live” in 1973 for Fantasy Records. See Example 5.8.

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Ex. 5.8 TELL ME WHERE TO SCRATCH

(You’ll have to buy the record to find out what all the scratching is about.)

MINOR BLUES

Blues compositions don’t always have to be in major keys. A minor Blueswould have a minor chord as its tonic and use minor scale pitches as the basisof its head.

Stolen Moments, by Oliver Nelson, is a sixteen bar Blues in C minor.The only difference between this particular sixteen bar blues and a twelve barprogression is the last four bars have been repeated, harmonically speaking.

Ex. 5.9 STOLEN MOMENTS

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The head contains some interesting sub chords in mms 8 - 16, butsoloing is done over the standard minor twelve bar Blues progression.

Ex. 5.10 C MINOR BLUES

There are lyrics to this song and nobody sings them better than MarkMurphy, who has recorded it several times (see discography in the index).

ROCK AND ROLL

When Bluesmen traded in their acoustic guitars for electric models andsped up the tempos, they invented something called Rock and Roll.

Johnny B. Goode, written by Chuck Berry and recorded in 1951 for ChessRecords, is a lively Twelve Bar Blues that exemplifies the exuberance of earlyRock and Roll. See Example 5.11.

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Ex. 5.11 JOHNNY B. GOODE

And the Blueswomen? Big Mama Thornton recorded a song calledHounddog in 1953. Three years later, a young white man named Elvis Presleywas so profoundly influenced by not only the song but Big Mama’s spiriteddelivery that he recorded it himself. Interfacing the raw emotional energy ofthe Bluesmen he idolized with the heartfelt sincerity of the Country andWestern singers he grew up with, he forged a personal style that made him aworldwide phenomena.

The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys are just a few of the earlyRock and Roll artists who used the Blues as the basis for much of theirrepertoire, as did later rock artists like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and BruceSpringsteen. And the Blues itself, the granddaddy of twentieth century popularmusic, remains a viable and popular genre, with festivals, radio shows, andnightclubs dedicated to its performance and preservation.

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VI

IMPROVISATION ON THE BLUES

We have looked at the basics of music theory, studied various harmonicforms, and learned how to transpose and write charts. You probably purchasedthis book because you wanted to figure out that mysterious thing known asscatting. When do we get to that? Let’s start now.

Many beginning improvisers, unable to hear the chord tones that makeup the changes in a progression, use their ear to find a few common tones -pitches that can be found in more than one chord. Thus limited, they sing atentative melodic line that if graphed out would look nearly horizontal.Common tones are not a bad thing; on the contrary, they are an integral part ofthe Blues style. The problem occurs when common tones are used exclusive ofany other pitches to create a solo.

The way to overcome this is to get vertical - what we call digging into or

outlining the changes. We do that by learning the chord tones and scales.But you can’t hear a chord tone unless you can first hear the root of the

chord. If you can hear the root and you know the chord’s quality, you can find

any note available in the chord or its corresponding scale.Chord tones are the focal points of your solo, pearls hung on a string of

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scales and approach notes. We emphasize chord tones by singing them on strongbeats, sometimes holding them longer than we do other notes.

SOLFEGE

You may be wondering what syllables to use when singing the exercises inthis chapter. You could use solfege syllables as you learn the triad andarpeggio exercises. Solfege is a good tool when you want to look at where aparticular pitch places on different chords. For example, C in C7 is the root (do)but relative to the IV chord, F7, it is the fifth (sol). This system is called‘movable Do’ and means that Do is whatever the root of a particular chord is.Most Jazz curriculums use movable Do.

Another component of movable Do is the alteration of the basic solfegesyllables - do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti - to represent sharps and flats on the pitches.A raised do, for example, is called di (pronounced ‘dee’), la would be li, and soon. A flatted la is le (pronounced ‘lay’).

Ex. 6.1

In this system a C Major 7 chord would be spelled do, mi, sol, ti, but aC minor 7 would be do, me, sol, te.

‘Fixed Do’ is a system where Do is always C, no matter what chord you aresounding or what key you are in. There are no alterations of the syllables withfixed Do, the pitches are observed diatonically. That means if you are in the keyof A Major, for example, do is C sharp, not C natural. Another difference is theuse of the European si instead of ti for the seventh degree of the scale. Fixed Dois standard in classical sightsinging and is a good system for reading orchestralscores.

Singing numbers is another good learning tool. Singing ‘1, 3, 5, 7’ on theroot, 3rd, 5th, and 7th pitches while keeping the root of the chord in your earwill help you to learn these important intervals.6 0 .

SCAT SYLLABLES

Students are often bewildered when it comes to choosing scat syllables.The anguished cry, ‘But what do I sing?’, sails out of teaching studios across theland as struggling Jazz vocalists rack their brains trying to come up with cleverand original scat.

Here is my advice - stop thinking so hard. As a matter of fact, stopthinking, period. When a small child playing in her backyard hears a wailingfire truck pass by she doesn’t stop and ponder, ‘hmm, what syllables would bestrepresent the sound of a fire truck siren?’ No, she doesn’t think about it at all.She just imitates the sound, ‘rrao, rrao’ and goes back to what she was doing.This technique is also successfully used for barking dogs, honking horns, andmotor boat engines.

Eavesdrop on a group of boys playing together - bombs fall from the sky,machine guns rat-a-tat, trucks roar down a miniature highway. Did they hold ameeting or conduct a symposium on proper sound effect technique before theystarted? No, they are simply vocalizing to enhance whatever game they arecreating for themselves. Most likely, they are not even aware they are doing it.The soundtrack becomes part of the scenario.

Remember, scatting is the imitation of instruments. Listen to horn playersand sing along, reproducing the various sounds and articulations that theymake. How do they sound on legato (connected) notes? What about fast, clippedphrases? Is it a crying tone or does it bite? Is their approach aggressive andhigh energy or muted and introspective? Are they mournful or bursting withjoy?

If you have been singing the arpeggio exercises on Do only, you’reprobably sounding more like Homer Simpson than John Coltrane. To sing alegato phrase like those in Examples 6.9-10, you can use vowel sounds, ah, ooh, ee,oh. Some or all of them could be preceded by a consonant to clarify andseparate the pitches - dee, or bee, or wee, for example. Mix up your vowels andconsonants - Do, bee, ah, dwee, or Do, bah, dah, wa - and focus on theappropriate articulation for the phrase.

Listen to your favorite scatting Jazz artists and copy their sounds. Believeme, just like the little girl imitating the fire siren, Ella Fitzgerald did not stop tochoose what consonant-vowel combinations to use before scatting a phrase ofmusic, whether stating the head or improvising. Like any instrumentalist, shesimply chose what kind of sound she wanted for her solo and made it happen.

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Arpeggios with sample scat syllables over the C Blues. They look sort of silly written out but you get the idea .

Ex. 6.2

You’ll notice in Ex. 6.2 that some of the arpeggios a r einverted (see inversions p. 15) in order to facilitate asmooth transition from one chord change to the other.But it’s critical that you hear the roots of each chord .

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Let’s start our practice with a Twelve Bar Blues .

Ex. 6.3 BASIC TWELVE BAR BLUES

* The chords with an asterisk are non-diatonic. The V chord in bar 4 is minor,creating a II-V of the IV chord that follows in bar 5. The VI chord in bars 8 and11 is traditionally played as a dominant 7 chord rather than the diatonicminor .

N.B. The slashes are used to delineate the beats in each measure. When you have two or more chords in abar you want to show exactly on which beats the chords fall.

Now let’s look at this progression in the key of C Major with the rootsplaced in the treble clef to facilitate singing. Play them on the piano and singalong, keeping a steady four beat count. See Ex. 6.4

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You can sing the solfege syllable Do.

Ex. 6.4 C Blues - Roots

Did you notice all of the chords are Dominant Sevenths with the exceptionof the two minor chords? Remember, the exclusive use of Dominant Seventhchords is another quality that defines the Blues (in major keys), giving it itsown special sound.

When you’ve learned the roots and can sing them easily, add the chordtones that form the triad: the 3rd and the 5th. Sing the pitches in the rhythm aswritten. Don’t forget to swing!

You can use the scat syllables “Dut doo wha”.

Ex. 6.5 Triads Over C Blues

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Now sing them in reverse.

Ex. 6.6 Triads Reversed

Sing the root, 2nd, and 3rd of each chord .Ex. 6.7

Do you notice that you are singing a partial scalewhen moving from C7 to F7 or Dm7 to G7? That’sthe concept of modes.

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Ex. 6.8

Try improvising using only these pitches, both the triads and the firstthree notes of each scale. When you feel comfortable with these exercises andcan hear and sing the pitches, go to Ex. 6.9 where the 7th degree of each chordhas been added. These ‘broken’ chords are called arpeggios.

Ex. 6.9 Arpeggios Over C Blues

Sing them in reverse while you accompany yourselfon the piano playing the roots or shell voicings.

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N.B. A shell voicing is a chord made up of the root and 7th only. You couldalso get a play-along CD, Jamey Aebersold has one just for Blues, and sing alongto a slow or medium tempo Blues.

Ex. 6.10 Arpeggios in Reverse

MODES AND THE BLUES FORM

Let’s expand a bit on the modal idea. There are two types of chords inthe Twelve Bar Blues exercise, a Dominant seventh and a minor seventh.Since a Dominant seventh chord is simply a major chord with a loweredseventh, we could sing a Mixolydian mode over it, that mode being also amajor scale with a lowered seventh. The two minor seventh chords in theprogression would coordinate with the Dorian mode for both are alteredfrom the natural minor scale by flatting the third and the seventh only,leaving the sixth natural.

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Start by singing the scale up to the fifth.

Ex. 6.11 Blues Modes - Root To Fifth

Fitting all of the pitches over the chords is a challenge; just keep thetempo slow and steady. A fast tempo isn’t as important at this point as keepingthe harmonic rhythm correct. Remember, harmonic rhythm is the rate at whichthe chords change in relation to the measures. In other words, you need tomake sure that the scales in the measures with two chords are sung twice as fastas the scales in the bars with one chord. Right now our priority is training theear. Vocal dexterity will come with practice.

The next step is the entire mode over t h echanges. Sing the progression very slowly.Your focus should be hitting each pitch r igh ton target. See Ex. 6.12

6 8 .

Ex. 6.12 Blues Mode - One Octave

Okay, what happened to G minor’s scale in bar 4? This is where modal

theory comes in. The G Dorian mode has one flat, B , just like the G minor

chord. C Mixolydian also has a B . They are the same scale with differentstarting points. So we can sing C Mixolydian over both chords. The same ruleapplies for the D minor - G7 chords. Both D Dorian and G Mixolydian have nosharps or flats.

Ex. 6.13

6 9 .

When you have a measure of II-V, you can sing the scale or mode thatworks over the V chord. But what about measure 11? C7 and A7 are bothdominant chords that use Mixolydian modes. C Mixolydian and A Mixolydiana r e different scales. This is a situation where you can alter the scale to fit theharmonic situation. I’ve chosen the C Mixolydian, over an A7 chord it containsthe altered chord tones 9 ( 3) , 9 (C natural) and 13 (F natural). It’s notperfect but it works for our purposes right now. We’ll take a closer look at thesealtered pitches in Chapter X.

BLUE NOTES

The pitches we call Blue Notes are the 3, 7, and less commonly, 5, of ascale played over a major chord. They have an unstable tonality, which is afancy way of saying that the scale pitches are not as fixed, or permanentlyplaced, as we are accustomed to hearing.

The fundamental unit of the half step that we use is based on a Europeanmethodology passed down from the Greeks. Other cultures, notably those ofancient India and Africa, have their own systems using intervals differentlysized than our European model.

One theory of the origin of Blue notes is that they derive from the Africanscale which contains pitches located between our 3 - 3 and 7 - 7. EarlyAfrican Americans found that by overleafing their traditional scale onto theEuropean Major scale they were able to approximate the tone of theirindigenous music. Sliding from 3 to 3, for example, would give us the pitchbetween those two notes. This is one of the hallmarks of a ‘bluesy’ sound.

On string or wind instruments, as well as with the voice, this slide can beaccomplished easily. A pianist or organist, with their fixed pitch instruments,must slip from the 3 key to the 3 or play them simultaneously.

BLUES SCALE

There are several variations of the Blues scale but they all contain theblue notes 3, 7. A Blues scale that contains all of the intervals in the majorscale as well as the Blue notes can be broken up into two tetrachords. Atetrachord is the building block of our major and minor scales and spans a

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Perfect fourth. The octave divides equally into two perfect fourths. Note thatboth tetrachords in Ex. 6.14 use the same pattern of whole and half steps.

Ex. 6.14 BLUES SCALE

In practice, the Blues scale contains less pitches than those in Ex. 6.14.There are several variations. Ex. 6.15 is one of the most common types.

Ex. 6.15

Because of the unique tonal qualities of Blues ha rmony ,the C Blues scale works over the entire 12 bar form.

Ex. 6.16

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Here is the same scale transposed for each individual Blues Dom. 7 chord.

Ex. 6.17 Blues Scale Over C Blues

Try the scales over the progression. Sing them slowly with accompaniment. You can drop or raise octaves if any of the scales are out of your range.

Ex. 6.18 Individual Blues Scale Over C Blues

Note that in measure 9, the scale is placed over a D min.7 chord. It worksbecause the Blues scale is neither major nor minor but a combination of both.Playing this scale with its flatted three over a dominant seven chord with amajor third gives us that sliding or unstable tonality of 3 - 3 played together.In measures 11 and 12 you’ll find the first half of each scale to fit the twochords/measure harmonic rhythm.

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Sing Ex. 6.18 in reverse. We don’t sing all of ourimprovised lines from low to high and we shouldn’tlimit our practice of scales to one direction ei ther .

Ex. 6.19 Blues Scale Reversed

At this point, you have the roots, arpeggios, and two types of scales inyour arsenal. Go back to Ex. 6.4 and try putting them together into animprovised solo.

Keep it simple and don’t feel that you need to fill up every beat withnotes. Space, in music called a rest, is just as effective as the lines you fill itwith.

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A solo utilizing some of the concepts we’ve discussed:

Ex. 6.20 Sample Solo

MOTIVES

The solo begins with a motive, or short melodic phrase .

Ex. 6.21

N.B. The part of a melody that begins before t h efirst downbeat of the form is called a pickup.

This opening motive, built on the root, third, and fifth of C Major, isexpanded as the improvisation progresses.

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Return t o Example 6.20 and label all of the roots, thirds, and fifths in C major, writing R, 3, 5, abovethe staff. Note how the three original componentsof the opening motive are modified and expanded.

PASSING AND APPROACH NOTES

Any pitches that fall outside of a chord’s tonality, that is, are neitherchord tones nor found in the chord’s mode, can be labeled ‘A’ for approach or‘P’ for passing tone. An approach note10 is a pitch that leads to a target note, achord tone played on a strong beat. The D sharp grace note in the pickup is anapproach note.

A passing tone is an approach note situated between two target notes,connecting them either chromatically (by half step) or in a step-wise m a n n e r(within the scale).

Measures 9 - 10 contain several passing tones.Ex. 6.22

1 1 P 3 5 9 P R 5 11 9 P 3 R 13

Study Ex. 6.20, analyzing the pitches in relation t otheir underlying chord. Identify the pitches y o uhaven’t already analyzed by number - 1, 3, 5, 7, e.g., placing the number under the staff as in Ex. 6.22.Don’t forget the upper structure chord tones.

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10 Also known as auxiliary tones or grace notes.

BUILDING A SOLO

The repetition of a short melodic line is an integral part of the Blues style.These repeated lines, whether in the melody or improvised, are called riffs. InBlues heads, the first and second phrases are identical, mirroring the repetitionin the lyric, with a different melody for the third line.

Here’s an example of a traditional Blues head:

Ex. 6.23

The main theme in Ex. 6.23 contains common tones that work over most orall of the changes. Also, the melodic lines end on tonic, the home pitch, which isanother facet of the blues style.

Using the melody in Ex. 6.23 as a starting point ,sing a few choruses of improv, developingand expanding the lines with rhythmic a n dmelodic variations.

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When a player works and reworks themes in the course of his solo he isdrawing on the stylistic traditions of the Blues. As the solo progresses, theopening motives are elaborated by adding passing tones, scales, and approachnotes, creating a sense of growing excitement. The need for a faster rhythm toaccommodate the denser melodic lines further adds to the excitement. This isthe arc of a good solo, opening with a relaxed statement and developing it as farafield as your taste and ears will take you. The vocal song Twisted, originally arecorded saxophone solo by Wardell Gray on a C Blues, is a great example. Thistechnique is also used for non-blues tunes, giving them what we call a ‘bluesy’or down home sound.

You can present a great improvised solo without using a lot of notes orsinging at a dazzling rate of speed. The tastiest solos are often the simplest,built around basic bluesy motives sung with conviction and a smooth swingingfeel.

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VII

HARMONY IN JAZZ STANDARDS

In the last two chapters we focused on the Blues Form. Now let’s look atsome progressions commonly found in the Song Form. These compositions,though longer and more harmonically complex than the Blues progression areusually based on short four bar segments combined in a set pattern to make upthe whole of the piece. Becoming familiar with these progressions makes it easyto learn tunes and sing improvisation over the changes.

As noted in Chapter II, all styles of European based music, from Classicalto Country and Western are at heart variations and elaborations of the basic I-V-I progression: tonic-dominant-tonic.

I-VI-II-V PROGRESSION

Even if you never studied piano as a child, you are probably familiar withHeart and Soul, written by Hoagy Carmichael, often performed as a duet by twochildren at the piano, one playing the progression while the other plinks outthe melody on top. This progression is I-VI-II-V. See Example 7.1.

7 8 .

Heart and SoulEx. 7.1

Play it a few times on the piano. Sound familiar? You probably recognizethis progression from countless pop songs and Jazz standards.

The A section of Stormy Weather is a good example of a I-VI-II-Vprogression in a standard with a sharp I diminished chord substituting for theVI chord11 in measures 2 and 4.

Ex. 7.2 Stormy Weather

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11 F# dim. and D7 (the VI chord in the key of F) share the common tones F#, A, and C. T h esubstitution of #I dim. does not alter the basic progression, but enhances the root movement -F, F#, G.

TURNAROUNDS

The I-VI-II-V progression is an example of what Jazz musicians call aturnaround because harmonically it turns itself around to where it started, inthis case the I chord, or tonic.

A turnaround repeated over and over is called a vamp. Turnaround vampsare used for intros (think Vegas lounge singer patter with the band vamping inthe background), codas, and open sections (vamping on one or two chords forextended soloing).

The great thing about turnaround vamps is the flexibility they provide,for they are ended on a cue from the soloist. This allows the soloist to adapt thearrangement of a song to fit the mood of the moment - both hers and theaudience’. If the first four bars of a song constitute a turnaround, they can beused as an intro. Using a turnaround as an intro gives a singer a little time toprepare; she can jump into the song when she’s ready, provided she comes in atthe top of the turnaround, or on tonic.

II-V-I PROGRESSION

The II-V-I progression is the basic building block of many Jazz standards.

Here it is in the key of C major:Ex. 7.3

C Major: ii V7 I

Play Ex. 7.3, singing the roots as you play. Payclose attention to the sound of the root movement .

8 0 .

The II-V-I progression is diatonic. In other words, each chord shares thesame key signature. In Ex. 7.3, the key is C major2.

You’ll want to recognize II-V-I and it’s shorter version, II-V, any time youhear it in a composition so you can use key centered scales or motives over theprogression. You’ll be able to do this by learning what the root movementsounds like, in other words, their intervallic relationships.

II and V are a fourth or fifth apart, depending on the direction you take.Combining that knowledge with the sound of the chords’ quality - minor 7,dominant 7, major 7, is an easier way to learn tunes than memorizing eachtune’s specific chord in a specific key. Think of II-V-I’s as members of a family,harmonic cousins, sharing a common background - their key signature.

Ex. 7.4

Bb Major: ii V7 I

D Major: ii V7 I

N.B. People often think of C major and A minor as having no key signature, unlike the other eleven major and minor keys. The key signature of C major and A minor is ‘no sharps or flats’.

When deciding which scales or modes to use over a II-V-I progression, weagain use the key signature. Look at the progression in C major once more, thistime with the appropriate modes over each chord (See Ex. 7.5) .8 1 .

D minor 7 chord and it’s corresponding mode D Dorian, have no sharpsor flats, as does G Dominant 7 (G Mixolydian mode), and C Major 7 (C Majorscale).

Ex. 7.5

D Dorian G Mixolydian C Major (Ionian)

Play and sing the modes with chords o rthe root for accompaniment.

TONAL CENTERS

When II-V-I’s are found in various keys in one composition they are calledare called temporary tonal centers, temporary key centers, or just tonal centers.

Why temporary? Because most songs are written in one key and thereforethere is only one true II, V, and I chord in a composition. Any other II-V-I’s or II-V’s are ‘temporary’. Classical theory is a bit more specific, every V7 chord in acomposition must be classified in relation to its ‘tonic’ and are called SecondaryDominants or Non-resolving Dominants. For example, a C7 in the key of C majorwould be called a V of IV, or ‘five of four’ because C7 is diatonically the fivechord of F major.

8 2 .

PARENT SCALES

As you learned in Chapter II, modes are simply major scales beginning onpitches other than the tonic of the parent scale. The three modes in Ex. 7.5 arevariations of the C major scale. Here is the parent scale over the three chords:

Ex. 7.6

SOLOING OVER II-V-I

Basing your improv on a single scale over a progression gives your lines acoherent arc, what we call singing over the changes. It’s easier to think one scaleor one key signature as you move over chord changes, even if it’s only twochords in a single measure. This is why, when we introduced modes in ChapterII, it was suggested that you learn the general concept without worrying toomuch about every individual mode. As you become familiar with the mostcommonly used modes, you may start to think of D Dorian, for example, as aD minor scale. G Mixolydian could be called a G7 scale.

Here’s a sample solo line over II-V-I in C ma jo rusing chord tones - all found in the C major scale.

Ex. 7.7

83.

It’s a bit dry because there are no approach, neighbor, or passing tones,nor rhythmic diversity. Using supplementary pitches and altering rhythmsmakes your improv line more interesting.

Ex. 7.8

N.B. Augmenting the pitches found in the scale (diatonic pitches) with those outside of the scale is called chromaticism, a hallmark of modern Jazz improvisation that came to the forefront in the Bebop era of the late 1940’s. We’ll take a closer look at Bebop and chromaticism in Chapter IX.

ANALYSIS - SATIN DOLL

Let’s look at Duke Ellington’s Satin Doll, to analyze the tonal centers.Here are the first four measures of the A section:

Ex. 7.9

The first two measures are in the key of C major, the main key of thesong. Measures 3-4 are II-V in D major.

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Ex. 7.10

Measure 5 is G major, followed by one measure of G flat. Measure 7returns to tonic with a turnaround in D in measure 8.

Placing Mixolydian modes over the II-V changes, and a Major scale overbar 7, looks like this:

Ex. 7.11

Sing the scales slowly, accompanying yourselfwith chords or root in the left h a n d .

Why choose Mixolydian for the II chord as well as the V7? Remember, theparent chord is the same for Dorian and Mixolydian if they share the same keysignature and the ‘target’ chord in a II-V progression is the V chord. You couldalso use Dorian mode (the II chord’s scale) or the parent chord of each diatonicgroup. It’s all about choices and the choice is yours to make.

8 5 .

Many AABA type standards go to the IV chord in the bridge and Satin Dollis no exception.

Ex. 7.12

The first four bars of this section sets us squarely in F major, with II-V-II-V-I. The following two bars modulates the II-V progression up to G majorwithout going to G major’s I chord. Then we modulate back to II-V in C majorwhich leads us back into the last A section.

Going from a major chord, whether Major seven or Dominant seven, tothe same root’s minor chord is a common way for composers to modulatethrough several key centers in a composition. The term for this is Step-DownProgression.

And the modes or scales? We can use Mixolydian again over the II-V’s anda major scale and Dorian mode over the major seven and minor seven chords.See Ex. 7.13.

Ex. 7.13

8 6 .

You’re wondering what happened to the flat 9 in the Mixolydian modeover the G7 9 chord? You’re getting smarter with this stuff. Adding the alteredpitches found in a chord to a scale gives us what we call altered scales. Makessense, huh? The ninth of G (same as the second) is A and a flat nine is A . Trysinging the G7 scale with an A , it make’s an interesting change. We’ll look atsome altered scales in Chapter X.

THE LADY IS A TRAMP

The Lady Is A Tramp, written by Rodgers and Hart and popularized byboth Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, feels like a thirty-two bar AABA typetune, but the first two A sections are sixteen bars long rather than eight, whilethe B section and the last A are eight bars each. So, the form is more specificallyAAB, each section consisting of sixteen bars for a total of forty-eight.

If you’re not familiar with this composition, find a recording and get toknow it. The analysis is not going to be of any use to you if you don’t know thesong.

The Lady Is A Tramp doesn’t modulate around tonal centers like thesprightly Satin Doll, remaining solidly in its home key of C major. But there aresome interesting quirks that liven up the harmony.

The opening progression is a variation of I-VI-II-V, with a III dom.7substituting for the VI chord. E 7 doesn’t strictly share chord tones with Am712

but it doesn’t alter the progression’s I-VI-II-V nature.

8 7 .

12 If pressed, we could go way out and align the chord tones of E 7 with the altered tones of Am ( 5, 9).

N.B. The following examples contain the root of the chord. Play and/orsing the roots to familiarize yourself with the progression.

Ex. 7.14

The use of a flat III dominant 7 chord instead of the VI creates a pleasantsounding root movement - E down a half step to D. Also, the addition of a‘foreign’ V7 chord (E being the V7 of A and therefore sharing A ’s keysignature of four flats) gives the progression a harmonic kick, a little variety tospice up our improv.

Ex. 7.15

This progression is repeated in bars 5 - 9, followed by a II-V of the IVchord - F Major.

Ex. 7.16

8 8 .

Remember, modulating from a major chord to its corresponding minor (inother words, the same root) is a common way to move a progression around todifferent key centers. In this case, tonic (C major) changed to a dominant sevenchord (C7 - mm 10) to get us to the subdominant (F major) which thenmodulates to an F minor (mm 12) to lead us back to tonic.

How does F minor lead us back to C major? With a commonly usedharmonic technique we could call a descending cadence, a chromaticprogression.

Ex. 7.17

If you play the chords of bars 12 - 15, you will hear the descent ofthe progression: F major to F minor to E minor, followed by E - A, D - G,then C: III-VI -II-V-I.

Ex. 7.18

8 9 .

Since minor III is a common substitute for major I, you can see that bars13-15 are just our old friend I-VI-II-V again, repeated in bars 15-16 as aturnaround back to the top.

SUB CHORDS IN TURNAROUNDS

III-VI-II-V can be varied in several ways. One possibility is to substitute theVI chord in measure 13 with a III (either a minor or major III works).

Ex. 7.19

If you want a completely chromatic progression, that is descending in halfsteps, you can substitute a flat II for the V chord in measure 14.

Ex. 7.20

Get a lead sheet for this song and experiment with different sub chords inmeasures 13-15 while singing the melody. Mixing and matching substitutionscan be a fun and creative way to personalize your own arrangements.

9 0 .

LADY IS A TRAMP BRIDGE

Now, how about the bridge? It’s fairly straightforward, harmonicallyspeaking, with a little added sparkle in measure 34 in the form of adiminished sharp IV.

Ex. 7.21

You’ll remember from Stormy Weather (Ex. 7.2) that a I diminished chordcan substitute for a VI chord (F dim. for D7). The rest of the bridge is III-VI-II-V in C major, with variations in the harmonic rhythm.

You could play the E min.7 chord in mm. 35 with a G in the bass (the 3rdof E min.) which would give you a bassline of F - F - G - A in measures 33-36.

The last eight bars of the bridge, a recap of the A section, also contain anF diminished chord in measure 44. But since we are back in tonic, C major, theF is a raised fourth, also known as a tritone. The tritone of a chord can be usedas a substitute for the purpose of modifying or prolonging a progression. Thispractice is called tritone substitution and the substituted chord is called a tritonesub.

9 1 .

Ex. 7.22

In measure 48, the last bar of the song, a II-V has been placed inparentheses. This is because the actual chord of this measure is C major but ingeneral practice a turnaround is played for all repeated choruses. You writeyour turnaround chords in parentheses to acknowledge that they are a changefrom the original composition.

You can also leave the measure empty, for an experienced musician willautomatically play a turnaround when going back to the top of the tune. This isfine if the first chord of the piece is the I chord, but many times it isn’t (SatinDoll for example). Writing in your preferred turnaround insures that you willhear what you expect to hear at that particular place in the form.

ARPEGGIOS ON LADY IS A TRAMP

Take a deep breath (you’ll need it for singing) and go over the chordtones of the changes in the form of arpeggios as illustrated in the next example.Sing slowly, aiming for accuracy rather than speed. Outlining or spelling thechanges in this manner helps you to hear the pitches that you will want to usein your improv and familiarize yourself with the harmonic rhythm of the form.See Ex. 7.23

9 2 .

Ex. 7.23 LADY IS A TRAMP ARPEGGIOS

It's not very creative, musically speaking. But it is an important part of thepreparation for improv. 9 3 .

Here’s a sample solo on the A section, us ingarpeggios, scales, and approach notes .

Ex. 7.24

The B section:

9 4 .

STEP DOWN PROGRESSION

A step down progression is a series of II-V-I’s where the I chord turns to aminor 7th or II chord, leading us down one step to a new tonic. Examples ofstep down progressions can be found in How High The Moon, I’ll RememberApril , and the bridge of Cherokee.

TEXT-FOCUSED IMPROV

Now, after all that would you believe that you don’t have to scat on any ofthese songs to be considered a Jazz singer? You can use your creativityimprovising on the melody. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to be familiarwith the harmonic form in your songs, for you must be able to hear where youare and what your back-up musicians are playing. And text-focused improv isnot done well without a solid familiarity with the chord changes.

Check out Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition of Lady Is A Tramp on Ella In Berlin(Verve). It’s exciting, creative, and swinging, all without the scatting improv ofwhich she was an absolute master. She plays with the melody and even changesthe lyrics, transforming the song into a personal statement.

Think of the songs that you approach as if they are people - some arestraightforward, easy to get to know, while others are full of subtle complexitiesit can take a lifetime to fully understand. Learning the lyrics, the melody, andthe form of a song is just the beginning. Finding the song’s core, its specialuniqueness, and melding that uniqueness with your own is the key to creatingan individual style of expression. And that is the cornerstone of Jazz - having adistinctive voice or sound that is exclusively yours.

SHOUT CHORUS

Another Jazz technique inherited from the Blues is the shout chorus. Ashout chorus is defined as replacing the melody in uptempo tunes with higherplaced common tones, usually altered pitches or blue notes, which createsexcitement and a sense of heightened emotionalism. It’s a great method to usein performance, if not used too frequently.

9 5 .

Once again, depending on your own personal style, you may choose notto sing shout choruses. An intimate, laid-back vocalist like Peggy Lee or DianaKrall would probably never use this technique. It’s an aggressive style of singing(and playing - Blues based horn players like Cannonball Adderly used it all thetime) that, if applied at all, works best as a flavoring - not the main course. It ismost effective when used toward the end of the last chorus or just for the coda,for once you ‘go up’, racheting up the mood and the passion in your delivery,you can’t come down again.

Here’s the first verse of Stormy Monday a traditionalBlues head, as the melody is commonly sung.

Ex. 7.25

The same verse with a shout-type melody. As you can see the rhythmshave been simplified along with the melodic line:Ex. 7.26

9 6 .

This technique could be used during the last eight bars of Lady Is AT r a m p.

Ex. 7.27

Why the repetition of the last line? We’ll discuss that in the next Chapterwhen we look at intros and codas.

9 7 .

EXERCISES

Fill in the seventh chords of a II-V-I progression in each of the keys i nthe manner illustrated below. Don’t forget to add the p r o p e raccidentals. You can refer to the chart on page 44 for key signatures.

9 8 .

Analyze the following songs for sections (A, B, etc.), tonal centers , and turnarounds. Define the tonal centers with Roman numerals .

TAKE A TRANE

Purchase a copy of Duke Ellington's "Take The A Train" for the melody and lyrics. Legend has it that Billy Strayhorn wrote the lyrics after Ellington gave him directions to his house.

9 9 .

FALL FOLIAGE

100 .

VIII

INTROS, TAGS, AND CODAS

Satin Doll has a unique intro and a popular tag , or coda. If you are notfamiliar with it, listen to one of the many vocal or instrumental recordings ofthis song made over the years. I’m not going to give it to you here becausedigging up recordings and doing the listening is an important part of yourpreparation work as a Jazz musician.

INTROS

Often, in casual playing situations, the band will vamp on a I-VI-II-Vprogression in a medium or uptempo song’s key for an intro. It’s an easy set-upand, after the last chapter, you should be able to recognize that progression inyour sleep! All you have to do is get comfortable and come in at the top of theprogression, on the I chord.

Better yet, when sitting in, you can specify what intro you’d like to hear.Even if all you can think of is our old standby, I-VI-II-V, asking for it showsthat you speak the language and avoids confusion, both yours and the band’s.Better still, if you’re using charts, is to write out the changes for the intro, againeven if its the old saw, I-VI-II-V. No confusion equals no problem.

101 .

Often, when vamping on a I-VI-II-V, a minor III will be substituted for theI chord as the progression is repeated. In the key of C major, that would meanE minor.

Ex. 8.1

You can see in these root position chords that C ma jo rand E minor share the common pitches E, G, and B.

ROOTLESS VOICINGS

Jazz pianists voice their chords in a certain way to facilitate a smoothmovement from one change to another. They also often leave out the root intheir voicings, leaving the root to either the bass player or to played with thepianists’ left hand. These are called rootless voicings.

Leaving out the root also frees up a finger to play extra pitches in thevoicing, such as the 9th, giving the chord a full ‘jazzy’ sound that you’ll want tobe able to recognize as well as you do the chords in root position.

Ex. 8.2

Play these voicings, comparing the sound wi ththose in Ex. 8.1.

102 .

N.B: When in doubt, listen to the bass player. He will be playing the roots of the chords, anchoring the harmony, as well as laying down the rhythm.

Another standard intro format is to play the last four or even eight barsof the composition. This is an intro that you wouldn’t necessarily have to writeout on the chart - you could just request it before counting out the tune.Autumn Leaves is a good choice in which to use the last eight bars for an intro.The distinctive progression lets the audience know what song you are about tobegin, and the changes bring you solidly around to the top of the tune.

Tunes that start on chords other than tonic, the II chord or the IV chord,for example, usually have an intro that ends with the V7 of whatever is the firstchord of the form.

For Twelve Bar Blues tunes, a whole chorus is usually played as an intro.You give the count, setting the tempo, and let the band play the form one timethrough before you come in. The special rhythm of Bossa Nova works well witha I chord to a flat II dominant 7 (or its enharmonic - sharp I) introduction.Here’s a common intro for The Girl From Ipanema, similar to the last four barsof the song.

Ex. 8.3

103 .

This progression also works for other types of tunes; for example, a slowswing tune like Peel Me A Grape, written by Dave Frishberg.

Ex. 8.4 PEEL ME A GRAPE

I - II7 intro is also a turnaround vamp, because it turns back to tonic andcan be played for an unspecified amount of bars.

To intro into ballads, the band might play a II-V, or just the V chord witha fermata (pause), leaving you to take the pick-up into the tune, with the tempostarting on the first full measure.

Ex. 8.5 MISTY

N.B. Fermata is commonly called ‘bird’s eye’ because of the way the mark looks.

Another way to start ballads is what we call ‘right on it’, meaning the bandand the soloist begin together on beat one, with no intro. You or the bandleaderwould count out one measure and boom, the song begins. Don’t forget to getyour note first! It’s a common mistake with young singers. See Ex. 8.6.

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Ex. 8.6 BODY AND SOUL

Starting a tune ‘right on it’ is also common for fast tempos, also known as‘bright’ tempos. When you begin a fast tune in this manner, it creates excitementright away, sort of like going from zero to sixty in a race car.

Many melodies have a pick-up, and rather than intro with a turnaround,you may want to ‘take the pick-up’, meaning you will sing the pick-up withoutaccompaniment, and have the band come in on beat one of the first full bar.It’s a tricky thing to do, counting out the tempo and taking the pick-up but,with practice, you can learn to do it smoothly and discreetly. An alternativewould be to have one of the bandmembers make the count for you, leaving youto come in at the appropriate moment with the pick-up.

COUNTING OFF A TUNE

While we are on the subject, a few words about counting off a tune. Atune’s tempo is counted off so that everyone begins the song at the same speed.Before you count off, you’ll want to make sure everyone knows what type oftune it is, ballad, swing, Bossa, etc.

There may be a need to describe the feel of the tune as well. This couldmean explaining that a slow tune has a ‘rock ballad’ feel, or ‘12/8’, whichmeans the quarter note is divided into triplets, common with ‘50’s type balladslike You Send Me. Medium tempo rock-type tunes might have a shuffle feel,comparable to a boogie woogie piano style. You might want to experiment anddo a song normally done in one feel but changing to another, like doing Bodyand Soul, a ballad, as a Bossa Nova. You’ll want to be sure that everyone isaware of your change.

So, the feel is set and now all you have to do is count it out. You’ll want togo over a few bars of the tune in your head to remind yourself of the tempoand feel that you like to sing it with. The tempo of the quarter note is what youwant to convey to the band. When you’ve got the tempo set in your mind, youcount it out loud.105 .

For ballads, it is pretty simple. You could just count out the quarter notesin one measure (see Ex. 8.6). Another common way is a count with ‘two bars upfront’, that is a two measure lead-in to the top of the tune, whether with an introor right on it. On the first bar of the count, you count half notes, “1...2...”, thenyou count quarter notes, “1, 2, 3, 4”.

Ex. 8.7

Bossa Novas also can be counted off in this manner, just remember tokeep your count ‘straight’, to accommodate the straight eighths of the BossaNova feel.

When counting off uptempo swing tunes, because of their faster tempo,four bars are given ‘up front’.

Ex. 8.8

Usually, your verbal count is accompanied with a finger snap. You snapyour fingers on beats two and four as you count. Please don’t snap on one andthree - it’s a dead giveaway that somebody is “L 7” (a ‘square’ to you L 7’s outthere) .

TAGS

Tags are also fairly codified, making the transition to ending a tune incasual or sit-in situations sound like the band had rehearsed it for hours. Once

106 .

again the final tonic is often replaced with a minor III chord and the last fourbars are repeated once, twice, or many times in the case of a shout chorus typeof ending. The harmonic rhythm is often doubled in ballads or swing tunes, inother words two measures of III-VI | II-V | before the tonic would double to fourmeasures: III | VI | II | V |.

Here is a tag on Centerpiece, a popular Twelve Bar Blues.Ex. 8.9

An extra eight bars have been added to the 12 bar form. Tonic (F7) inbars 11-12 has been replaced with the III-VI progression, A minor to D7. Thelast line (‘nothing’s any good...’) is repeated two times after the original end ofthe form. The III-VI-II-V progression is also repeated.

Often in the final I chord of a tag, a melody line is added that originallycame from Take The A Train. You’ve probably heard it many times. It’s an easyout but a bit overused.

Ex. 8.10

107 .

Let’s go back to Lady Is A Tramp and analyze another typical tag to anuptempo swing tune.

Ex. 8.11 Lady Is A Tramp Tag

As in Centerpiece , the tonic in bar 48 has been replaced with the IIIchord, E minor. The III-VI-II-V progression is repeated as is the last line of thelyric two more times, once again adding eight bars to the original form.

You’ll notice that a tritone sub progression has been placed at the veryend of the tag, echoing the progression found in measures 45-47 of the form.

108 .

TRITONE SUBSTITUTION

As we noted in the last chapter, tritone substitution is substituting a sharpIV diminished chord for tonic, followed by a descending cadence down to tonic.

Ex. 8.12

As you can see in measures 56-59 in Ex. 8.11, a tritone substitution in thekey of C leads to a progression of | F dim7 F7 | Em7 A7 | Dm7 G7| C |. Youcan alter the substitution chords as we did in Ex. 7.19 in the last chapter.

Ex. 8.13

Using a tritone substitution as a tag is a nice touch, especially in ballads,as long as it is not done too many times in the course of one evening’sperformance.

I Thought About You, written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Mercer,often opens with a tritone sub, creating a haunting and wistful mood. Here it isin the key of Bb major.

Ex. 8.14

Note that although the usual opening tonic chord has been replaced by thetritone sub, tonic is spelled out in the first four notes of the melody: B , D, F, A.

109 .

Compare this with the song’s original I chord as an opener.

Ex. 8.15

A tritone sub used as a coda in a ballad like Here’s That Rainy Day would work like this:

Ex. 8.16

BOSSA NOVA CODAS

You can use the same I - II7 progression for the coda of Bossa Nova tunesas in their intros. The progression lends itself well to an improvised vamp overthe two changes. You can sing the I chord (major) scale over both chords,making F major an altered scale over G 7 .

110 .

Ex. 8.17

Don’t believe it? Here’s a solo line using the F major scale.

Ex. 8.18

You could go on and on with this two chord vamp, adding extra pitches,using your ears to work off the changes as well as injecting altered scales likethe ones we’ll look at in Chapter X.

This subject is one more reason why you should be wearing the groovesout of your old Jazz records. There are a finite number of interesting andcreative intros and codas for standard tunes and most of them have alreadybeen done.

But you can recycle old ideas and make them new again, sometimes justby changing the forum. There is a great and unique intro to Star Eyes that youcan find on a Cannonball Adderly record called The Best Of CannonballAdderly , recorded on the Riverside label. Some years later, Betty Carterrecorded a vocal version of Star Eyes, improvising over the same intro. An oldtreat but with a new package. Jazz is learning from and building on the past,making it new again, laced with your own personal creative style.

Isn’t Jazz fun?

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IX

ADVANCED IMPROV

The preceding chapters have given you a lot of information to assimilateand it can seem overwhelming. But, music isn’t a race, it’s a journey. Take yourt ime.

All the book learning in the world can’t give you what you can get fromcareful and enthusiastic listening to live and recorded Jazz. Each and every oneof the great Jazz musicians who moved this style of music from its infancy tothe sophisticated art form that it is today have something to teach you.

The massive accumulation of Jazz recordings produced over the course ofthe twentieth century is a great big gift wrapped up and delivered to you. Eachtrack is full of passion and skill and deep, measured reflection, the end productof years of honing a specialized craft. You can absorb every ounce of theirexperience and ingenuity with the artists’ blessing. All you have to do is openyour mind and listen.

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TRANSCRIPTIONS

A Jazz musician does a lot of transcribing in the course of his or herstudies. Transcribing, in the musical sense, is the act of writing out recordedmusic. The notes are written down on staff paper with the correct rhythmicnotation, whether a single melodic line of a horn solo or an entire big bandar rangement .

Every good teacher assigns transcriptions to his or her students and theyare an important part of the curriculum of university Jazz Studies programs.Great musicians do them all of their lives, for they know the value of theprocess to their growth as artists.

There are a lot of commercially available transcriptions, like the CharlieParker Omnibook, published by Atlantic, that you can purchase in any musicstore. Using these books as a guide while you learn transcribing can be apositive thing. But if you use them in place of doing your own work, you won’tbe doing yourself any favors. It’s the process that makes you a better musician,not the big pile of transcriptions in your folder.

Transcribing takes a lot of repeated listening and mental concen t ra t ionthat can be very difficult at first. But the rewards are a finely tuned ear, a well-developed memory, great musical ideas, and an ability to speak the language ofJazz like a native.

Needless to say, you’ll have to be able to read and write musical notes todo transcriptions. But even if you are just learning to read now, you can stilllearn solos by heart. As a matter of fact, it’s the best way to do them. Jazz istraditionally an aurally transmitted art form and that should be the heart ofyour studies. You may be a whiz at taking down transcriptions, but if you can’tsing them without reading the music, you haven’t really learned them.

Start small, with a simple Blues line or a vocal rendition of a song that youare already familiar with. Although you know the melody, you may even beperforming it at gigs, there is always something to learn from a great artist’sinterpretation. An improvised line here, a little rhythmic change there; tone,delivery, and feel, are all subtle aspects of a performance that can be gleanedfrom countless listenings.

And there will be countless listenings. Make a cassette recording of thesolo you wish to transcribe and listen to it everywhere - in the car, at the beach,on your morning jog. Sit at the piano and stop and start the tape until youhave figured out each and every note and can sing along with the record like aghostly double.

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The importance of listening to and transcribing Jazz cannot beoveremphasized. And it’s so easy for us compared with the Jazz musicians ofthe past who didn’t have cassette recording equipment, Walkmans, or the hightech stereo systems available to us today. They did their listening on oldvictrolas without stop and start playback, no half speed functions. And theylistened to live music nearly every night, going out to the clubs to hear theiridols and to make their mark at the jam sessions. They grew ‘big ears’ from allthat careful listening and you can, too. And, after all that listening, if someonetells you that you have ‘big ears’ too, say thank you to the compliment, andthank yourself for all the time you put it on your transcriptions.

VOCALESE

Vocalese is a transcribed instrumental solo with original lyrics added andperformed by a vocalist. Probably the most well known vocalese is Twisted,based on a C Blues solo by the saxophonist Wardell Gray with lyrics written byAnnie Ross. She recorded it with her group, Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, butthere have also been interesting renditions recorded by Joni Mitchell and BetteMidler. Moody’s Mood For Love, written by King Pleasure and based on atrumpet solo played on I’m In The Mood For Love, by James Moody, is anotherpopular vocalese.

Eddie Jefferson was one of most prolific jazz vocalists who wrote and sangvocalese. His area was hard bop and his voice, while not traditionally pretty,was fluent, pitch perfect, with a rock solid sense of swing. The vocal groupManhattan Transfer did a number of wonderful vocaleses, most notablyWeather Report’s Birdland , in which the vocalists sing all of the instrumentalparts, with lyrics.

Vocalese lyrics, due the stricture of setting them to an instrumental sololine, run the gamut from the truly inspired to the simply goofy. The realattraction is in the skill required to sing lines created by an instrument with itsmuch larger range and percussive abilities.

This special style is arguably the most important vocal contribution to theJazz repertoire. Every musical genre, be it pop, rock, or classical, has vocalists.But only Jazz has vocalese. It’s fun to sing as well as a challenging venue for avocalist to express herself creatively as a lyricist. And, because it is performedso rarely, audiences eat it up.

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UPPER STRUCTURE CHORD TONES

There is an important aspect that defines Jazz from other styles of music;the use of not only the root, 3rd, 5th, and 7th, of a chord but the upper structurechord tones13 as well - that is pitches that are found above the octave: the 9th,11th, and 13th. These upper chord tones are often altered by raising or

lowering a half step; most commonly 9, 9, 11, and 13, dissonant soundsthat are an integral part of the Jazz lexicon. The 11 on minor chords is usuallyleft natural.

Here are the main tones in three types of C chords -dominant seventh, minor seventh, and major seventh.

Ex. 9.1

Play the chord tones on the piano one at a timewith a root or chord in the left h a n d .

As you can see, the upper structure pitches spell triads of other chords -D major over the C7 and C major7 chords and D minor over the C minor.Placing a chord over another one, rather than just over a different bass note iscalled polychordalism, also known as polyharmony. Polychordalism isn’t only aJazz technique, it is one of the qualities that shaped the sound of twentiethcentury Classical music as well.

Ex. 9.2 shows the superimposed triads that can be found in the upperstructure pitches over the chords in a C Blues.

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13 Also known as extensions.

Ex. 9.2

C7 F7 A7 Dm G

Play the shell voicing with the left hand, holdingdown the keys to let the pitches ring. With the righthand, starting with the 9th, play one note at a time,listening carefully and noting how each p itch soundsagainst the chord in the bass clef. Over each voicing write the name of triad and the parent chord .

N.B. Chords with a bass note different from the root are written with the chordname followed by a slash and the bass note (C7/E, for example). Polychordsare written with the two chords stacked vertically and a straight line dividingthem: C

EThink of tonic as a planet and the chord tones satellites that revolve

around that home base. The farther you fly away from tonic, the more outsideyou are playing. Most musicians use these tones sparingly, spices added to themeat of their solo.

Improvising solely on outside tones is one of the hallmarks of the FreeJazz style, an acquired taste not to every listener’s or performer’s liking. Andfor singers, there is a thin line between singing ‘out’ and just plain singing outof tune.

Staying within the octave in your soloing style, that is utilizing mostly theroot, 3rd, 5th, and 7th, is called playing inside. Either style is valid, it’s just amatter of your personal taste. Let’s go back to the arpeggios over C Blues that we looked at in Chapter VI.

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Ex. 9.3

Here are arpeggios on the third through the ninth. Notice thatthe VI chord, A7, uses the flat 9. Sing them slowly. As you can see,

Upper Structure does not necessarily mean high pitched.

Ex. 9.4

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Shall we continue on to the outer orbits? Here are the chord tones up tothe eleventh.Ex. 9.5

Let’s go all the way up to the thirteenth. Now we are for the most parttotally in the upper structure of the chords.

Ex. 9.6

Crazy sounds, huh? These upper pitches turn the harmony inside out,making us aware of different possibilities and combinations of chords. JohnColtrane made extensive use of upper structure pitches to reharmonizestandards, giving them a unique new sound.

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Listening to people like Coltrane and practicing these exercises will open

you ears. You can’t sing something that you don’t hear.

What do upper structure chord tones sound like in a solo? Here’s a sample:

Ex. 9.7

BEBOP STYLE

Bebop is a genre of Jazz that emerged in the 1940’s spearheaded by NewYork based musicians like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Hallmarks of theBebop style of improvisation are chromaticism, fast tempos, and sharp,angula r14 melodic lines. Lines start and end in unusual places, i.e. starting ahalf beatbefore a barline and/or ending between two beats. Starting and ending phraseson off-beats adds energy and excitement to the sound.

A Bebop line is usually made of eighth notes and eighth note triplets, withshort off-beat rests defining the phrase. There is also extensive use ofsubstitution chords which results in rapid harmonic rhythms.119 .

14 Angularity is defined as the use of uncommonly wide intervals.

Bebop lines have a Baroque quality, in that they turn around onthemselves, moving up a scale in steps or skips and then changing direction.

Upper structure chord tones were brought into the forefront in the Bebopsolo, resulting in a new sonority that permanently changed the sound of Jazz.

All of the styles of Jazz that grew out its the early days are still populartoday, to greater and lesser degrees. Big bands still play their lush swingarrangements, though the genre is kept alive for the most part in high schoolsand universities. Blues and Dixieland, or traditional Jazz, have its fans andpreservationist societies. Jazz-rock fusion, Latin Jazz, all are alive and well inthe clubs and concert halls. But it is Bebop that has attracted and held thegreatest amount of fans and players.

At first glance, a transcription of a Charlie Parker solo would seem to bejust a random aggregate of notes spilling over the staff. But there is a method tothe melodic line, and precise practices. One of these practices is the 7-3 and 9-5resolution.

7-3 AND 9-5 RESOLUTIONS

Pitch resolution is the act of moving from a non or lesser chordal tone toan important chord tone, or a chromatic or step-wise neighbor tone placed on aweak beat moving up or down to a chord tone on a strong beat.

One of the most commonly used resolutions in Jazz improv is the 7-3 and9-5 resolution. That is to say the seventh degree of one chord change movesdown a half step to the third degree of the next change. The same thing occurswith ninth movement down to fifth. 7-3 and 9-5 resolutions are an integralpart of the sound of modern Jazz improvisation. This application usually occurson II-V progressions.

Ex. 9.8

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When you do your transcriptions, analyze them to f ind the 7-3 and 9-5 resolutions. You should find quite a few.

APPROACH NOTES

We looked at approach notes in the Blues solo in Chapter V. Like the 7-3and 9-5 resolutions, approach notes highlight and resolve to important pitcheson strong beats, called target notes. There are several types of approach notes.Stepwise approach means approaching the target note diatonically, within thescale, which would be either by whole step or half step. Chromatic approach is anapproach by half step. You can approach your target note from below or fromabove.

Ex. 9.9

A double chromatic approach is two half steps from above or below.

Ex. 9.10

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Combination approach notes approach the target note from above andbelow. One commonly used combination is stepwise from above and chromaticfrom below.

Ex. 9.11 Combination Approach From Above And Below

This is chromaticism, going outside of the scale, that we touched on in thelast chapter. Adding these tonal expansions to your improvised line gives it theharmonic complexity and circular, Baroque type movement that is integral tothe Bebop sound.

BOP STYLE MOTIVES

Practicing some Bop type motives can give you a feel for this type ofimprovised line. These motives work over a dominant seven chord, G7 in thiscase.

Pick out one at a time to practice and analyze.

Ex. 9.12 BOP STYLE MOTIVES OVER G7

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You can plug them into this cycle of dominant 7th chords.

Ex. 9.13

Want some more? Here are some over C7.

Ex. 9.14 BOP STYLE MOTIVES OVER C7

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SIDESLIPPING

Sideslipping, an improv technique common in Bebop playing, is where youmove chromatically up or down a half step to repeat a motive. You aretemporarily ‘slipping’ outside of the key center.

Ex. 9.15

Because the chromaticism creates altered tones, sideslipping addsinteresting colors to your solo line, but is best used sparingly and at fastertempos.

SEQUENCES

A sequence is similar to sideslipping in that a motive is repeated. But thesequence usually fits diatonically with the changes, and is repeated severaltimes. The use of Pentatonic Scales, that is a scale of five notes in the pattern of1-2-3-5 in Major keys and 1- 3-4-5 in minor keys, is an example ofsequencing.

QUOTES

Quotes are snippets of well known melodies that a soloist inserts in his orher improvised line. The first phrase of songs like Take The A Train or I LoveYou , are two commonly used quotes. Just like sideslipping, quotes are whimsicaland fun when used sparingly, but overuse can sound a bit too precious.

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USING MODES

In the last chapter we looked at tonal, or key centers. Working from keycenters doesn’t mean that you will never think modally or use them in yourimprov. On the contrary, modal playing adds a unique aspect to the sound ofyour solo. There was a modal movement in Jazz in the 1950’s and ‘60s thatbased entire compositions on this practice.

Contrast the sounds of these three differentmodes over a C Maj. 7 chord .

Ex. 9.16

Do you understand the concept of modes more clearly now? Dependingon your choice, and Jazz improvisation is all about choices, you can alter theflavor of your solo by choosing different modes. Modal playing and keycentered playing are both great approaches and not mutually exclusive of eachother. You can mix and match according to your personal inclinations. They areuseful devices to have in your ‘bag of licks’.

Thinking modally can make it easier to improvise over large sections ofsongs. Let’s look at a Bossa Nova-type progression. See Ex. 9.17.

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Ex. 9.17 Zen Thought

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Sing an A Major scale (Ionian mode) over the en t i reA section.

Ex. 9.18

One scale works beautifully over all of the changes. Of course we wouldexpect the parent scale to work over the diatonic changes - II, V, I. But the scaleworks over the chromatic changes, G7, B dim., G , because the pitches in the Amajor scale are altered pitches on these chord changes, 9, 13, etc.

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Here is a sample solo using only A major .Ex. 9.19

Not bad for one little scale, wouldn’t you say? Zen Thought’s bridge is alittle more complicated. In Ex. 9.20, you’ll find some scales that you could useover the changes.

Ex. 9.20

The first four bars of the bridge have different chords but the last fourbars, the turnaround, find us back in A .

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A sample solo:

Ex. 9.21

What about the four bar coda? You can choose some scales for t h a tyourself.

An A major scale over a G7 chord is a type of altered G7 scale. We’ll lookat some more altered scales in the next chapter.

TONAL CENTERS

We explored tonal centers in an earlier chapter. Now, let’s look at how wecan break down a harmonically complex song into its tonal centers.

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Ex. 9.22

Chord Progression of "All The Things You Are"

Please purchase the sheet music for the melody and lyrics.130 .

ANALYSIS - ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE

At first glance, you can see patterns and sequences in both the melodyand the harmony. Also, you’ll note that it starts in a minor key (F) and ends upin its relative Major (A ). But the progression takes a lot of modulatory detoursalong the way. Thanks to the composer’s brilliance, all of the twists and turnsmake sense and they all work beautifully.

If you try to improvise over the changes in this song by memorizing theroot movement only, you’re going to have a harder time of it than you wouldbreaking up the entire progression into its smaller components, the temporarykey centers. Let’s do the breakdown:

The first chord of the progression is F minor. Since the key signature isfour flats and songs often begin on the I chord, we could think of it as tonicmodulating quickly to its relative major, but we can forgo the modulation byanalyzing F minor as the VI chord of A . F minor moves to B minor, up aperfect fourth. This works for two reasons. First, B minor is the diatonic IVchord in the key of F minor, so our ear readily accepts that chord change. ButB minor is also the II chord in the key of A , and following it with A ’s V7chord puts us unequivocally in the song’s major key tonic. A ’s IV chord, D ,moves to G7, a tritone substitution for D , which leads the temporary key ofC Major.Ex. 9.23

A Maj: VI II V7 I

IV VII7 (tri. sub.) C Maj: V7 I

NB: In traditional analysis, modulations are illustrated by starting the newkey on the next line down, with the transitional chord(s) having two numericdesignations.

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Here are some parent scales and modes over these first eight bars. AMajor works with the first five measures, making the scale over D a Lydianmode, a commonly used Jazz scale. G Mixolydian fits over the G7, followed by aC Major scale.

Ex. 9.24

C Major moves to C minor and the opening sequence is repeated -(VI-II-V-I-IV), effecting a modulation to E . Then another tritone substitutionmoves the key center to G Major.

Ex. 9.25

A Maj: III VI E Maj: VI II V7 I

IV VII7 (tri. sub.) G Maj: V7 I I

E Major parent scale works over the first four measures and the tonicscale can be used over A . Following the pattern of the previous eight bars,D Mixolydian is placed in measure six with a G Major scale in the last twomeasures .

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Ex. 9.26

E Major Scale

A Major Scale D Mixolydian G Major Scale

Now on to the third eight bar grouping. The first four measures stay inG Major, a change in progression consistent with a B section. The progressionthen modulates to E Major. Stretching traditional analysis a bit, we could callthe transition chord, F minor, the seven chord of G Major, although thediatonic seven chord of a key is a half diminished rather than a minor 7th( 5 added to a minor 7th).

Putting a C aug.7 chord in the E Major progression is a chromatic ratherthan diatonic progression. It’s a dissonant modulation similar to the tritonesubstitutions we saw earlier and puts us back in the home key - C7 being theV7 chord of F minor. The augmentation of the 5th in the C7 (G / A ), besidebeing the melody pitch, aids the transition to F minor.See Ex. 9.27.

Ex. 9.27

G Maj: II V7 I I

G Maj: VII E Maj: II V7 I VI aug.

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By now, you can probably figure out the parent scales for this sectionyourself. Note that an altered scale has been placed over the C Aug. 7, tailoredto the requirements of the chord. This is ‘kitchen sink’ analysis, part of thecreativity of Jazz improvisation.

Ex. 9.28

G Major Scale

E Major Scale C Aug. 7 ( 6 7 )

The last section of the song is twelve bars long consisting of a recap of theopening progression followed by a descending cadence and a four bar II-V-Iending.

Ex. 9.29

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And the parent scales over the chords? The usual suspects, except for theB dim.7 over which we can use an alteration of the A parent scale - a scale we’lldiscuss in Chapter X.

Ex. 9.30

We’ve gone through the entire composition section by section and now,after some practice, you should be able to improvise intelligently over theentire progression.

This is as complicated as it gets. Any song can be broken down andabsorbed in this manner. Don’t be intimidated by a complex piece full ofchromatic modulations and other harmonic twists. Once you’ve learned theroot movement and the chords’ harmonic relationships, you can focus on thefun part - choosing which scales to use and expressing yourself withconfidence.

Remember, all of the technical information in the world won’t give you anauthentic sound without listening to the music. What is swing? How much swingdo you use? At what point does the tempo become so rapid that swing eighthsbecome straight eighths?

You can pick up all sorts of method books and get opinions on everything.But in the end, they are just words. Jazz needs to be heard to be properlyunderstood. Don’t get too caught up in intellectual pronouncements andtheoretical fervor.

Listen, imitate, practice, and get out there and sing.135 .

X

ALTERED SCALES AND CHORDS

Major and natural minor scales are the meat and potatoes of melodicimprovisation. But, like the culinary artists who have devised hundreds of waysto serve up this basic fare, there are countless variations of these two scales.We’ll look at a few of them in this chapter, along with the altered chords thatthey work over.

ALTERED DOMINANTS

Any scale or chord that has pitches found outside of its key signature isreferred to as being a ltered. Minor chords sometimes have major sevenths, andmajor chords can contain so many raised and lowered pitches as to becomebarely recognizable.

The most commonly altered chord is the dominant seventh and one of themost common altered dominant is what we call a sharp nine chord. See Ex. 10.1.

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Ex. 10.1

The sharp nine chord is blues-based, containing as it does both a majorthird and a minor third (the enharmonic of the raised ninth). As you rememberfrom Chapter V, the sliding between major and minor third sounds a tonalitybetween the two pitches, sonority associated with African based AmericanBlues.

This chord probably developed in the playing of Blues influenced Jazzmusicians and then, as is the usual procedure in all types of music, the theoryguys came running up behind the players and gave it a name. They couldn’tcall it a major/minor chord, that would be too ambiguous for music theorists,who rival taxonomists in their fervent desire to bring order and classification tothe messy fluctuations that occur with an ever evolving art form.

Another commonly used altered dominant is the ‘flat 9 - flat 13 chord’.Sometimes referred to in lead sheets simply as ‘alt.’, as in G alt., or C7 alt.

Ex.10.2

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ALTERED SCALES

An altered mixolydian mode works over altered dominant chords. It iscomposed of an alternating series of half and whole steps and is called a HalfDiminished scale.

Ex. 10.3 C Half Diminished

The half diminished scale has eight pitches (not counting the octave),with both a major third and a minor third, similar to the blues scale. There isalso a flat 9 (enharmonic of a 2) and a sharp 11 ( 4) .

The Whole Diminished scale is also a series of alternating whole and halfsteps, this time beginning with a whole step. It is used over a diminishedchord - root, 3, 5, and 7, or 6.

Ex. 10.4 C Whole Diminished

BEBOP SCALES

Adding an extra note to a basic seven note scale aligns the consonantpitches metrically. An example would be to place a 5 between the 5 and 6pitches in a Major scale. In a Dorian mode, you could add a major 3rd betweenthe 3 and 4. In a Mixolydian, or Dominant 7 scale, you could add the major7th. See Ex. 10.5.

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Ex. 10.5

Here are some variations:Ex. 10.6

Ex. 10.7 Jazz Melodic Minor

Ex. 10.8 Bebop Dominant

MINOR II-V-I

In minor keys, tonic is a minor chord. Therefore, the chords in a minorprogression must be altered in order to be diatonically compatible.

The II chord in a minor key has a flatted 5th and the V chord has a flatted9th and 13th.

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Ex. 10.9

C minor’s key signature is three flats - B , E , and A . The flat 5 of the IIchord (A ) is the same pitch as the 9 of the V chord.

The modal concept, or parent scale, is the same in minor keys. You canthink key signature or use altered scales over the chords.

A half diminished scale works over the altered dominant.

Ex. 10.10

UPPER STRUCTURE PIANO VOICINGS

Jazz musicians who play chordal instruments, piano, guitar, vibes, useupper structure chord tones in their voicings. As mentioned earlier, they oftenvoice their chords without the root, leaving them ten fingers with which toplace all kinds of colors in their chords.If you are working on your piano skills and want to play some hipper, fullerchords, try the voicings in the next example. They are given in a II-V-Iprogression because it is such a common format for organizing these chords inJazz standards. Here’s one way to voice II-V-I chords. Call them ‘A Form’voicings.

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Ex. 10.11 A Form Voicings

C: II V I

With roots in the left hand or played by the bassplayer, we have four notechords in the voicing. The minor 9 chord has, from bottom to top, the 3rd, 5th,7th, and 9th. The dominant 13 chord contains the 7th, 9th, 3rd, and 13th.And lastly, the major 6 chord has the 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 9th.

Here is another way to voice the same pitches. Call it ‘B Form’.

Ex. 10.12 B Form Voicings

C: II V I

Ex. 10.13 B Form In Minor Key

Cm: II V I

N.B. Remember from Chapter IV 13 chords imply a lowered seventh.

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ALTERED MOTIVES

Some Bop-style motives to play over altered II-V’s.

Ex. 10.14

PHRASING

We’ve covered a lot of ground in the last ten chapters. This theoreticalknowledge, acquired through long hours of study and practice, is a challengethat rewards the vocalist with the ability to hold his or her own as an equalpartner on the bandstand with an unlimited freedom expression.

And when it comes to relating to the audience, the singer has a built-inadvantage over the instrumentalist - words. Words tell a story and draw us in,crossing the gap between performer and listener that no melody, no matter howthrilling or heartbreakingly beautiful, can never completely close. Thechallenge for the vocalist is to find that happy medium between pure emotionand studied intellect, forging a personal style that is a unique statement of herown experience.

Keep your presentation personal, informal. Whether scatting or singinglyrics, you want to express yourself in a conversational manner. You are tellinga story. Think about the best storytellers you know. They draw you in, slowly,like gently playing a fishing line. You’ll hook your audience if you give them achance to become interested in what you have to say. Don’t hit them over thehead with your brilliance. Lay back. Stay relaxed. Invite them to share in yourdelicious secret.

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XI

YOU ARE FEELING VERY RELAXED...

Most of you are already familiar with the technical aspects of vocalproduction, the concepts of support and placement. If not, get yourself to aqualified instructor right away! Books are a great supplement to private lessonsin the theoretical areas but there is no substitute for personal coaching in vocalproduction. The instructor doesn’t have to be a Jazz singer. On the contrary, aclassical or ‘legit’ teacher may be your best bet when it comes to developing theright technique and avoiding the pitfall of struggling to unlearn bad habits.

Having said that, if there’s one thing that bears a word or two it is theimportance of relaxation in the upper part of the body when singing -specifically the shoulders, neck, lower jaw, lips, and tongue. This is especiallyimportant because the mental concentration required for a person learning toimprovise, not to mention doing it in front of an audience, can create tension inthe body. It is critical that you refrain from tightening or holding in these areas.

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The muscles of the larynx are divided into two groups:

(a) those inside the larynx which directly control phonation (intrinsic).

(b) those which move the larynx as a whole and keep it suspended in the neck (extrinsic).

If you can keep the outer voluntary muscles relaxed, the inner ones willfollow suit.

RELAXATION EXERCISES

The following are some exercises that can be used before starting yoursinging practice to relax these important muscles:

1) Starting at the hairline and working down to the lower neck, gentlymassage the muscles with your fingertips. Allow the face to fall into as limp acondition as possible. Rub the fingers over your closed eyes. Slacken the jaw.

2) Allow the tongue to hang limply over the top of your lower front teethas if you were unconscious. This means hang, do not push it.

3) The ‘swallowing muscles’ are attached to the mandible (jawbone) fromthe base to the tip, converging upon the hyoid bone at the top of the larynx.Using the fingertips of both hands, gently press the soft part of the throat oneither side of the larynx, starting at the hinge of the jaw and working under thechin and down to the neck. Massage until the muscles are soft and pliable.

4) Closing your hand into a fist, press it upwards against the bottom ofthe jaw while pushing the jaw down in an isometric type of resistance. Continueuntil you feel a stretch in the muscles at the joints of your jawbone. You willfind that the jaw opens more freely with a wider range of movement after doingthis exercise.

5) Take the chin between the thumb and forefinger and move it up anddown. There may be resistance at first, with the muscles of the jaw either

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fighting the movement or making it happen. Not until you are able to performthis exercise successfully will the jaw be completely relaxed.

6) Finish with neck and shoulder rolls and stay loose!

THE JAW AND THE TONGUE

The jaw is a critical tool in vocal production and is one of the mostdifficult areas to relax in the body. Aside from the fact that the muscles of thejaw are extremely powerful, exerting some five hundred pounds of pressure inthe act of chewing food, they are also postural muscles like those of the back,constantly working against gravity. And, as in the back, we tend to hold thetension and stresses of everyday living in the muscles of the jaw.

Why do we need to relax the jaw? Firstly, because that is the aperture ofour instrument and it is a lot easier to push air out of a large opening than asmall one. Check out your album covers and you will see that the best singersoften have the biggest mouths!

We also want our tone to resonate and sound resonates more readilythrough soft tissue, that is relaxed muscles, than it does through the densermaterial of bone, cartilage, and tightened muscles. Remember how it feelswhen you’ve just had a cavity filled, before the novocaine has worn off? That‘stupid look’ where you jaw and tongue just kind of hang there is actuallyperfect for singing. Another way to get this feeling is to imagine that smallweights are attached to your lower jaw, pulling it down gently.

The tongue is the second strongest muscle in the body after the heart, andit extends down to the middle of the neck where it is attached to a clump ofmuscles in the throat. It takes a lot of practice and concentration to keep itrelaxed, especially when producing the varied colors and tones that are used byJazz singers. A good way to check it is to place a thumb directly under the chin.It should feel soft and pliant. Now start to sing. Has it suddenly become a brickwall? You need to keep practicing until you are singing everything with arelaxed tongue.

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BREATHING

After a lesson spent vocalizing with a good teacher, you may find yourselffloating out of the door as if on a cloud. It’s easy to see why, you’ve just passedan hour doing something you love with someone who cares about singing asdeeply as you do. But you’ve also energized your body with a concentratedsession of deep breathing.

Most people don’t give much thought to breathing, after all it issomething that happens naturally. But singers, like all wind players, power theirinstruments with their breath and therefore are more aware of minor dailyfluctuations in lung capacity. Factors outside of our control such as infection,stress, allergies, and smog, can be mitigated with conscious breathing.

Conscious breathing does much more than refresh the oxygen supply inour bodies, it uses the energy of air flow to do the work of singing for us. InIndia, this energy is called prana , a metaphysical concept that encompassesmuch more than simply air moving in and out of the lungs. Prana is the vitalforce that animates our souls. It is literally the breath of life.

We singers are fortunate in that we get to make full use of the energizingand cleansing aspects of deep breathing in the course of our work. When welearn how to breath properly for singing, the technique becomes a natural partof our existence and improves every aspect of our lives - physical, mental, andemotional .

SUPPORT

All sorts of hazy concepts such as ‘using the diaphragm’ and ‘breathingfrom the stomach’ are tossed about when singing is discussed. Let’s make aquick tour of the basics of respiration.

The diaphragm is a thin sheet of muscles that separates the thorax orchest cavity from the abdominal region. When the brain is alerted that carbondioxide must be expelled and oxygen replenished, it sends a signal to thediaphragm. The diaphragm stretches downward, pulling the lungs with it andcreating a vacuum inside the lungs. Air rushes in to fill up this empty space. Tocreate the deep breath and correspondingly deep release needed for singing weneed to stretch the diaphragm to its utmost capacity. We do that by utilizingthe abdominal muscles.

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If you expand your chest when taking a breath, you are not using the fullpotential of your diaphragm. Also, holding air in the upper part of your lungscreates tension in the chest and shoulders and we’ve already learned thattension in the upper body constricts vocal production.

It can a challenge to retrain our bodies out of life-long habits, especiallywhen faced with cultural pressures that adhere to a certain standard of posture.Watch a baby in her crib and you will see proper breathing technique, her tinystomach moving in and out with each breath. As children we breathed properly,only to become stifled as we matured by the admonitions of adults advocatingthe ‘military stance’ - shoulders back, chest out, stomach in, and so forth.

You may find it nearly impossible to expand the abdominals to facilitatethe breath after years of ‘holding in your gut’ and thousands of crunches at thegym. Don’t worry, flexing these muscles in a convex manner will only increasetheir tone.

A good way to practice is by lying down on your back on the floor andbreathing deeply. You’ll feel a greater expansion in the abdominals as it isdifficult to lift the chest in this position. While still on the floor, try singingsomething. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is. Part of that ease is because thefloor is supporting your head which allows the neck and shoulder muscles torelax. But the main reason is that you are breathing deeply.

When you stand up, you’ll have to consciously expand the abdominals asyou breathe to replicate what occurred naturally on the floor. Put a hand onyour stomach and push it out as you take a breath. Another trick is to imaginean opening in your lower back where the air rushes in as you inhale. It won’t belong before you are breathing this way as a matter of course, not only whensinging but all of the time.

Another aspect of the support mechanism is the use of the lowe rintercostals, the muscles surrounding the ribcage. Right around your naturalwaistline, push outward with these muscles, holding that expansion as you takea few breaths. Try this exercise to access the intercostals: breath out in a ‘sssst’fashion, like air leaking from a hole in a bicycle tire. Continue until you arecompletely out of air. You will feel the intercostals tense and expand as theyfight the natural tendency to collapse the ribcage as you reach the end of yourbreath. The intercostals help us, especially in the higher register of our voice,by powering the sound into the upper parts of the head where it needs toresonate .

All this talk of holding and tensing seems antithetical to the relaxationadvised in the beginning of this chapter. You need to mentally separate theupper and lower half of your body and relate to them in two different modes.Everything above the diaphragm should be completely relaxed, just open spacewhere the air and the sound it carries can flow unimpeded. But from the waist

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down you are a powerhouse - sturdy and strong. This ‘fighting stance’ literallystarts from the ground up, where you grip the floor with your toes, balancingyour weight evenly between your two feet. The legs are strong, knees slightlybent, the pelvis opened to accommodate the movement of the abdominals. Ifyou’ve ever studied ballet or karate you are already familiar with this posture.Stand tall, as if a string were pulling you up from the top of your head withoutlosing the natural S curve of your back. Now you’re ready to sing.

VISUALIZATION

Carrying your instrument around in your body can have its drawbacks. Apianist can have a bad cold, but when he or she sits down to play, the pianowon’t have laryngitis. Its tone will sound as clearly as on any other day.

But we have advantages. Just like any other part of our body, our mindscan exert a certain amount of control over our voice. This is where visualizationcomes into play.

You can conjure what kind of sound you want by focusing on the qualitiesthat best describe the tone and timbre that you desire. Think lush, velvety,warm round tones, honey dripping from every rounded vowel. Or maybe youhear your sound ringing out - clear, direct, and clean. Imagine your rangestretching lower and higher.

As the philosophers say, we are only limited by the boundaries of ourimagination. Visualizing how you want to sound is the first step towarddeveloping your own style, the special qualities that distinguish you fromeveryone else.

OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND SAY AH

It may seem like a no-brainer to say you need to open your mouth to sing.But you really need to open your mouth wider for singing than you areaccustomed to for speaking. It’s a lot harder to push sound through a small holethan a larger one.

Look in the mirror and sing something. Can you see space between yourupper and lower teeth? If not, pull your jaw back, not down.

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Pulling your jaw down will distort the vowels you are singing. Remember ,we only sing vowels. Consonants make us able to be understood, but we closeour mouths or aspirate to make them, so you are really only singing (that is,holding a sound) on the vowel sounds in a phrase. For example:

‘A foggy day in London town’

sung is pronounced:

‘uh (ff)ah(g)e e(d)a-ee ee(n) (L)u h(n ) (d )u(n) (t)a -oh(n)’

So it is important that you keep your vowels true, as in properlypronounced. It not only affects the clarity of what you sing, but keeps you onthe correct pitch as well.

Listen to yourself as you sing. It’s amazing how little we actually listen toour sound, as we are almost always focusing on other things - the lyrics, ourdelivery, the audience when we are performing.

Keeping your vowels ‘forward’ in the mouth is an important component togood sound production. The ‘ee” vowel is a naturally forward vowel. due to theshape the tongue makes when forming it. But ‘ah’, ‘eh’, ‘oh’, and ‘oo’ have a flattongue and can be placed toward the back of the throat if we don’t consciouslyfocus it toward the front of the mouth. Keeping energy in the cheeks andupper lip when forming vowels will help in this forward placement.

SINGING PRINCIPLES

Put an ALWAYS before each of these singing principles:

1. Have a clear concept of the pure vowel before you sing it.

2. Think the vowel sound as you sustain the tone.

3. Pronounce vowels in a forward manner.

4. Release each vowel externally. (No holding inside)

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5. Release the tongue.

6. Keep the back of the tongue high and wide. (Touching the upper molars)

7. Rest tip of the tongue against lower front teeth for vowels.

8. Maintain high cheeks.

9. Release the lower jaw.

10. Swing jaw down and back when opening. (Do not pull straight down)

11. Think of the cheeks bouncing up when opening mouth.

12. Keep a space between the back molars when singing vowels.

13. Release the throat muscles.

14. Allow the larynx to maintain a resting position.

15. As pitches rise, allow more space in the jaw and think a stretch in the nasalpharynx .

16. Reinforce body support as pitches rise.

17. Think high resonance.

18. Allow resonance response to adjust for vowel and pitches changes.(Resonance cannot be put in one spot - each vowel and pitch feels differ e n t )

19. Make sure tones feels floaty.

20. Maintain proper body alignment.

21. Breathe expansively and deeply.

22. Maintain body expansion and high ribs throughout.

23. Release upper abdominal muscles.

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24. Think notes on one level.

25. Begin ascending phrases with a concept of height.

26. Let the jaw and lips adjust for vowel and pitch changes - not the tongue andthe larynx.

27. Release the throat, tongue, and jaw on inhalation.

28. Prepare your phrase .

29. Warm up the vocal system gently.

30. Let the brain and the breathe do your work.

SCATTING EXERCISES

There are some exercises you can do to open yourself up mentally to thefree fall of improvisation. They are fun, especially when done in a classroomsetting or with a partner. They’ll build trust and confidence in your individualperformance and help to release the natural inhibitions that we all feel.

Try the following drills on a Twelve Bar Blues, using aslow playalong CD or accompanying yourself on the piano:

1. Ugly/BeautifulFirst, sing a chorus of the worst sounding solo you can muster.Then, sing a chorus of the most beautiful sounding one. Yourthought process is what is important here, not your performance.

2. Create/ImitateGet a friend or your instructor to trade ‘twos’ (alternating two bars each) with you. Copy and improvise on each other’s ideas.

3. Talk/PlaySay something for two bars and then sing for two bars, alternating through the chorus. Talk about what’s going on in your life, talk about your cat.

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4. Bragging Session“Brag on yourself’ for one chorus, telling the class or your partner how great you are, and then scat one chorus.

5. Verbose/LaconicSing one chorus using as many notes as possible. Follow that with a chorus with as few notes as possible.

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XII

I NEED A GIG!

After all the hard work spent learning your craft, you want to get outthere and put it into practice. And that’s just what you should be doing. Thereis no book you can read to prepare you for actual performance situations, nopill you can take to cure stage fright. The only way to learn how to perform ison the job.

Another thing to ponder is the fact that singers are rarely sidemen,musicians hired by a bandleader for a specific date. Young instrumentalistslearn the ropes as sidemen; they keep a low profile, watch and listen. They seehow tunes are counted out, learn the common keys and tempos, hand signals,and body language - all the components of a live, unrehearsed playingsituation. It would be worth the extra money to hire an experienced pro tofunction as your bandleader. It will make the engagement run more smoothly,which makes for happier musicians, and you can watch and learn from him orhe r .

Perhaps you were a theater or music person in high school and havealready done some time under the footlights. All the better, for you may be

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beyond that mind-numbing, fever-inducing, heart-palpitating physiologicalresponse called stage fright.

But there is a big difference between lighthearted school productions andprofessional playing situations, not to mention the added pressure of leading aband, or at the very least, as the vocalist, being the center of attention. Youcan’t hide behind your drumset like that guy way in the back, or ease off thepiano when you are not sure of the changes. You’re out there, babe, right in thefront and when things go awry, guess who gets the strange looks from theaudience? It’s something that every vocalist needs to confront at some point,better now that two years from now.

Don’t think you are ready? You’ll never think you’re ready so don’t letthat stop you. You can spend the rest of your life singing to your cat in yourliving room but it’s not as much fun as sharing yourself with other musiciansand an enthusiastic audience. Find a place to play and some musicians to playwith.

Because Jazz is a communal process, you need to find a community. Thisis one of the side benefits of going to college for Jazz Studies or just music ingeneral. You’re seeing other aspiring musicians every day; friendships andprofessional alliances grow easily out of that milieu of common goals andaspirations. Many well known groups are composed of musicians who startedplaying together in college.

If you are not in school, you’ll have to be proactive in order to findkindred souls. Do you like to go out at night? Hopefully you do, for you’ll needto become a fixture in the local Jazz clubs. ‘Making the scene’ is, for better orworse, a partof the process when you’re starting out. If your spouse, significant other, orbest friend is into Jazz you’ve hit the jackpot, for checking out the scene can beas much of a social occasion as a serious work search.

Don’t be shy. Walk up to musicians and introduce yourself (just not whilethey’re playing!). They may not be in the mood to talk but the majority oftimes you will find a welcoming response. Jazz musicians appreciate people whoare into Jazz - there are so few of them out there.

When the musician asks you if you are a player, tell them that you arelearning to sing Jazz. Depending on the type of show they are doing, there’s achance they may ask you to sit in. Jump on it! As the old saw goes, ‘success ispreparation meeting opportunity’. You’ve been practicing and have learned afew good sit-in selections. Why not?

You are going to need at least one accompanist if you don’t feelcomfortable accompanying yourself on piano or guitar. When you meet guyswho are receptive and friendly, feel them out as potential collaborators. If theyare just starting out as you are, they may be interested in getting togetherinformally to work up some tunes.154 .

Professional players, on the other hand, may not be so open to gettingtogether without some financial remuneration. Pay them for their time - it’sworth it. Hiring a pianist to rehearse with you is as vital to your development asis paying your voice teacher for your weekly lessons. An old hand can help youwith keys, intros and tags, writing out charts for your book, as well as just beinga goldmine of practical information on music and the business. Musicians aregenerous people when it comes to sharing their knowledge and love for Jazz.Your pianist may ‘take you under his wing’, giving you contacts and other helpto get you started.

WHERE THE GIGS ARE

Perhaps making the club scene doesn’t gibe with your lifestyle. You mayhave small children or you may be a morning person who can’t stay awake aftersundown. There are still some performing outlets available to you.

Check into a vocal jazz choir at your local community college. Chancesare they have one. With an audition and for a low tuition fee you could besinging in rehearsals once or twice a week. You’d be meeting other vocalists,building up your chops (the actual physical part of your craft), and improvingyour reading skills. These groups generally give a couple of performances eachsemester, both on campus and off. Being part of a group is a great low pressureway to ease into the act of performing in front of an audience.

If you are a Christian, find a church that features hip music, there arequite a few of them these days, and join. Many of the larger churches payprofessional singers every week or at special holidays to sing at their services.You could be one of those professionals. If you are Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist,Hindi, Pagan, or otherwise; you don’t need to be a member of a church to singthere (but it probably helps).

Christmas is a busy season for musicians of all types. Beside church, thereare singers that get together only at this time of the year to form carolinggroups, both professionally and just for fun.

Early birds can also find daytime work doing casuals. Weddings are oftenheld on weekend days or early evenings. Brides-to-be hire singers for both theceremony and of course in bands for the reception. Some restaurants hold Jazzjams during brunch on Sunday mornings.

1 5 5

You night owls out there have even more options. There are smallrestaurants and cafes that would hire a singer/pianist duo. Larger restaurantsand clubs feature trios and quartets. If you like to sing other types of music aswell as Jazz, you could find work in a pop or dance band that plays the localbars, clubs, or hotels.

WHO TO CALL

That little cafe or restaurant around the corner could use some live musicto perk up the atmosphere; they just don’t know it yet! They need you toenlighten them.Being a freelance musician, and all musicians are freelancers, means you are abusiness concern with one boss, one employee, and a sales force of one - you.This is not an occupation for the shy and retiring. And getting yourself gigs cansometimes take as much time as practicing and rehearsing.

Patronize that little restaurant or cafe and check out the scene. Maybethey already have live music. Is it the same band every week or do they rotateseveral groups? What kind of music do they play? Beside you getting to knowthe lay of the land, owners and managers are much more responsive to pitchesfrom people they’ve seen before.

Once you’ve scoped out the situation, approach the manager or ownerand offer your services. If they are interested, the first thing they will want toknow is where else you have performed. Be honest, but it’s all right to put alittle spin on your resume. If you got up and sang with the band at cousinLucy’s wedding because your mother insisted, well, that’s a place where youhave performed and you don’t need to mention Lucy or mom.

Most likely you’ll be asked to audition or at least proffer an audio tape ofyour performance. This means doing some preparation with the accompanistyou have already been working with. You can make a good tape in your livingroom with some professional sound equipment and a DAT machine. If you don’tmind spending some money, you could make a really good tape at a smallrecording studio.

Don’t let a wily club owner talk you into ‘auditioning’ for the enti r eevening. Doing an hour or so is fine, perhaps you can offer a trade of music forsome food or drink. Unless you’ve hooked up with a fellow novice, you’llprobably have to pay your accompanist - most pros wouldn’t get too excited atthe prospect of hauling equipment and playing for dinner.

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Make one place your focus until you get an outcome - either a gig or adefinite ‘never going to happen’. Then set your sights on another possiblevenue. Even if you have secured a gig, engagements don’t last forever. You’llwant to get something else lined up. And it’s easier to get jobs when you arealready performing somewhere. You can record your performances or invitefuture employers to come and see you.

Getting into the casual scene is also a matter of introducing yourself topeople. If you have met some musicians who do casuals, ask them who thecontractor is and call him or her. Once you get yourself into a scene there is asnowball effect and your name will start to circulate. Then the phone will startringing. You won’t have to sell yourself, your talent and competent work will dothe selling for you.

Check the bulletin boards at the local music stores, some bands put upnotices when they are looking for personnel. And then there are the classifiedsections in local alternative newspapers. Larger cities often have musicianreferral services although you will have to pay a fee to access their lists or haveyour name added to the roster.

EQUIPMENT

Hopefully you have a piano or keyboard at home now to practice with.What about the places that you are checking out? Do they have a piano? Asound system? If not, you will have to provide the equipment yourself.

If a club doesn’t have a piano, your accompanist should have one and anamplifier to support it. You’ll have to pay him or her more to bring their ownequipment, though. The best place to play when you are starting out issomeplace that has all the equipment you need, that way you just bring amicrophone and the pianist just brings him or herself.

Speaking of microphones, that is something you should have at the veryleast. You’ll be acquiring sound reinforcement equipment (called a P.A.) as youstart to work professionally, start with a microphone and cord.

Many people use the Shure SM-58 brand of microphones. They arerelatively inexpensive, you can buy a new one for under a hundred dollars, andthey are practically indestructible. Used SM-58’s can be picked up for half thatamount. The cord, or cable that you use with it should have an SLR connection,that is a three prong connection to accommodate most P.A. mixing boards. Youshould also get a ‘quarter inch’ adaptor for use with older sound systems orsmall guitar amps.

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You could also use a portable guitar type of amp for rehearsals or gigs atsmaller venues. The sound isn’t great for vocals but if you need to lugsomething to a rehearsal, it’s good enough. Music schools don’t always provideamps and sound systems for everyone and you could find yourself trying toshout over your assigned combo. It’s more fun to sing rather than shout andmore respectable to be able to handle your own sound reinforcement needs.

Once you have acquired a mic and an amp, do some practicing with it athome. Microphone technique opens up new possibilities of timbre and tonedepending on how closely you hold it to your mouth. Also, you’ll want toacquaint yourself with the range of the microphone so you learn where to setthe speaker(s) to prevent feedback.

As you become more involved in performing, you’ll want to have yourown sound system. House systems in clubs can range from fabulous toprehistoric and you want to present yourself in the best light possible.Musicians who play electric instruments take great care selecting theirequipment. Youshould, too. Your microphone, mixing board, and speakers are as much a partof your sound as your voice. Go to the music stores that cater to pros and dosome research. If you can’t shell out the money for all new equipment, checkthe want ads after you’ve decided on what you need. You’ll be upgrading yoursystem as you become more experienced. Start with the basics for now; a mic,mic stand, cables, a mixing board with reverb, amplifier (they could be oneunit) and two speakers. As time goes by and you start to make some moneyplaying music, you may want to add items such as a stand alone reverb unit ora better grade of microphone and board. You’ll have to transport thisequipment so think portable or make arrangements to hire a cartage guy to getyour equipment to the gigs. Casual gigs will usually have a sound systemprovided by one of the players who is paid an extra fee for his trouble, all you’llneed to bring is a mic, cable, mic stand, music stand, and your book.

You are embarking on a wonderful new phase to your life, full offrustrations tempered with sweet victories. Think big, stay focused, and don’tsweat the obstacles; bulldoze them out of your way. Is that your face on thenew CD in the record store?

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GLOSSARY OF TERMS

A Section 25 Descending Cadence 89Abstract Improvisation 8 Degrees 11Altered Dominant 136 Diatonically 16Altered Scales 102 Dominant 11Altered Pitches 136 Dominant Seven 17Angularity 119 Downbeat 74Approach Notes 75 Downbeats 4Arc 77 Enharmonics 16Arpeggios 66 Extensions 147Auxiliary Tones 75 Fake Books 39B Section 25 Feel 105Behind The Beat 7 Fermata 104Bird’s Eye 104 First Ending 58Block Chord 52 Five of Four 97Blue Notes 70 Fixed Do 60Book 37 Flatted Intervals 13Bridge 25 Form 24Bridgeless Standard 26 Free Jazz 24Bright 124 General Business 38Casuals 38 Grace Notes 75Changes 15 Half Diminished Scale 138Chops 184 Half Step 11Chord Charts 15 Harmonic Minor Scale 17Chord Tones 14 Harmonic Rhythm 68Chorus 25 Head 25Chromatic Approach 121 Intercostals 147Chromatic Scale 15 Intervallic Relationships 81Chromaticism 99 Intervals 9Circle of Fifths 44 Inversions 15Club Dates 37 Jazz Eighths 5Coda 25 Jazz Standards 6Comb. Approach Notes 122 Jazz Waltz 46Common Time 46 Lead Sheets 37Common Tones 59 Legato 61Compound Intervals 10 Modes 20Consonant Tones 14 Motive 74Contractors 38 Movable Do 60Da Capo Al Signe 48 Non-Resolving Dominants 82Da Signe Al Coda 47 Open Sections 80159 .

Out Chorus 25 Standard Key 34Outlining the Changes 59 Stating The Head 25Outside 138 Step-down Progression 86Outside Gigs 38 Step-wise 75Parent Scale 83 Step-wise Approach 121Passing Tone 75 Straight Eighths 31Pentatonic Scales 147 Sub-dominant 11Pickup 74 Substitution Chords 54Pitch Resolution 120 Superimposed Triads 115Polychordalism 115 Swing Feel 5Polyharmony 115 Tag 101Prana 146 Take The Pickup 105Progression 15 Target Note 75Quality 14 Tempo Rub a t o 30Quotes 124 Temporary Key Centers 82Refrain 25 Temporary Tonal Centers 82Reharmonize 118 Tetrachords 85Relative Major 44 Text-focused Improv. 7Relative Minor 44 Tonal Centers 82Release 25 Tonic 17Repeat Sign 46 T o p 25Rest 73 Transcribing 113Riffs 76 Transpose 39Right On It 104 Tr iad 14Root Position Chords 15 Tri tone 91Rootless Voicings 102 Tritone Substitution 91Rhythm Changes 28 T u r n a r o u n d 80Second A 25 Twelve Bar Blues 28Second Ending 58 Two Bars Up Front 106Secondary Dominants 82 Upbeats 4Sequence 124 Upper Structure Pitches 14Sharp Nine Chord 136 Vamp 80Shell Voicings 81 Vamping 80Shout Chorus 95 Vocalese 114Shuffle Feel 105 Voicing 14Sidemen 153 Waltz Time 46Sideslipping 124 Whole Diminished Scale 138Simple Intervals 10 Whole Step 11Singing Over Changes 83 Whole Tone Scale 13Sit In 43Six-eight Time 46Slashes 63160 .

Sample Discography

Cannonball AdderlyThe Best Of Cannonball Adderly Riverside

Louis ArmstrongLouis Armstrong and Earl Hines Smithsonian

Betty CarterInside Betty Carter CapitolNow It’s My T u r n RouletteBetty Carter Bet-Car

John ColtraneGiant Steps AtlanticMy Favorite Things AtlanticBlue Train Blue Note

Miles DavisKind of Blue ColumbiaMilestones ColumbiaRound About Midnight ColumbiaSomeday My Pricnce Will Come Columbia

Ursula DudziakMidnight Rain Arista

Duke EllingtonDuke Ellington - 1 9 4 0 Smithsonian

Bill EvansThe Second Trio MilestoneSpring Leaves MilestoneThe Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album FantasyThe Village Vanguard Sessions Milestone

Ella FitzgeraldElla In Berlin VerveThe Duke Ellington Songbook VerveFine And Mellow PabloMore Ella Fitzgerald Priceless

Aretha FranklinTen Years Of Gold Atlantic

Herbie HancockMaiden Voyage Blue Note

Round Midnight (Soundtrack) Warner BrosBarry Harris

Tokyo - 1 9 7 6 ZanaduColeman Hawkins

Cool Groove Drive ArchiveBillie Holiday

The Billie Holiday Story ColumbiaBillie’s Blues ColumbiaMore Billie Holiday Priceless

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Freddie HubbardThe Body And Soul Impulse!Straight Life CTI Records

Al JarreauLook To The Rainbow Warner Bros.

Eddie JeffersonThe Jazz Singer Inner CityThe Main Man Inner City

Lambert, Hendricks, and RossThe Best Of Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross Columbia

Tania MariaThe Real Tania Maria:Wild! Picante

Carmen McCraeI’m Coming Home Again MCA

Bette MidlerBette Midler Atlantic

Thelonius MonkThelonius Monk’s Greatest Hits Columbia

Mark MurphyStolen ... And Other Moments 32 JAZZ

Anita O’DayWave Castle

Charlie ParkerBird/ The Savoy Recordings SavoyCharlie Parker/The Verve Years (1952-54) VerveBird On Verve (Vol. 8) VerveBird At St. Nick’s Fantasy

King PleasureT h e Source Prestige

The Pointer SistersPointer Sisters Live At The Opera House Blue Thumb

Bud PowellThe Amazing Bud Powell (Vol 2 ) Blue Note

Flora Purim500 Miles High MilestoneOpen Your Eyes, You Can Fly Milestone

Sonny RollinsSaxophone Collossus Prestige

Joshua RedmanMoodswing Warner Bros.

Mel TormeLive At The Maisonette Atlantic

Sarah VaughanCrazy And Mixed U p Pablo TodaySarah Vaughan and Count Basie RouletteThe Sarah Vaughan Years Roulette

Dinah WashingtonThe Jazz Sides EMS

Joe WilliamsJoe Williams Best Of Count Basie VerveJoe Williams Live Fantasy

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INDEX

7-3, 9-5 Resolutions 120-1 Casuals 38-9, 1 5 7I-VI-II-V progression 78-9 Centerpiece - tag 1 0 7

Intros 101-2 Changes 1 5II-V-I progression 80-2 Chord char t s 15 ,37

Soloing over 83-4 Chord symbols 42-5Minor II-V-I 139-40 Chord tones 1 4

V of IV 8 2 Upper s t ruc ture 115-19

Abstract improvisation 8 Chords, descript ions 1 6All The Things You Are - anal. 130-35 Circle of fifths 44Altered Dominants 136-7 Common tones 59Altered Bop motives 142 Compound intervals 10-11Altered scales 138-9 Counting off a tune 105-6American Folksong 50-52Approach no tes 75, 121-22 Diatonic relat ionships 16-17

Dominant 1 1Bebop style 119-20 Dominant seven 1 7

Bop-style motives 122-3, 1 4 2Scales 138-9 Ear training 1 9

Behind the b e a t 7 Endings, first and second 47-8Blue notes 7 0 Enharmonics 13-14Blues Equipment 157-8

Arpeggios 66-7, 117-18Blues scale 70-3 Fall Foliage 100Building a solo 76-7 Fake books 3 9Derivation of folksong 50-2 Form 24-5Harmonic development 52-4 Four bar phrases 2 9History 49-53 Frankie and Johnnie 50-2Jazz Blues f o r m 54-6 Free Jazz 2 4Lowered seventh 5 3 Gender issue 2 -3Minor Blues 56-7 Gigs, f inding 153-7Modes 65-6, 67-70 Girl From Ipanema In t ro 1 0 3Motives 74-5Scales 70-73 Half Diminished scale 1 3 8Substitution chords 5 4 Half s teps 9Twelve Bar Form 28-9, 53, 63 -7 Harmonic minor scale 1 7Upper struct. chord tones 115-19 Harmonic r h y t h m 6 8Variations 55-6 Here’s That Rainy Day Coda 1 1 0

Bridgeless S tandards 26 Hurry Up And Love M e 32-3Body And Soul - i n t ro 1 0 5Book 37-8Bossa Nova 26-7 I Thought About Y o u - i n t ro 1 0 9

Analysis 126-29 Improvisation 6-7Codas 110-11 Intervals 9 -11Intros 1 0 3 Intros 101-11

Breathing 1 4 6 Inversions 15-16Bridge 25-6

163 . Jaw and tongue 1 4 5

Johnny B. Goode 5 8 Signs and t e rms 46-8Simple intervals 10-11

Key signatures 43-6 Singers, Jazz 7 -8Singing Principles 149-51

Lady Is A T r a m p Sitting I n 36-7Analysis 87-94 Solfege 6 0Tag 1 0 8 Standard key 34-5

Standards 6Misty - i n t ro 1 0 4 Step-Down Progression 9 5Modes 17-18, 2 3 Stolen Momen t s 5 6

Using 82, 125-29 Stormy Monday 31, 96-97Stormy Weather (A sect ion) 7 9

Now’s The T i m e 5 5 Subdominant 11Substitution Chords 5 4

Passing tones 75 Superimposed t r iads 115-16Parent scales 83 Suppor t 146-8Peel Me A Grape - intro 1 0 4Phrasing 1 4 2 Tags 106-8Piano Take A Trane 99

Importance of 3 Tell Me Where To Scratch 5 6Jazz voicings 102-3 Text-focused Improvisation 6, 9 5Upper structure voicings 140-1 Time signatures 4 6

Polychordalism 115-16 Tonal centers 82, 84 -7Progressions 15-16 Tonic 1 7

I-VI-II-V 78-9 Transcript ions 113-14II-V-I 80-84 Transposing 39-41Soloing on II-V-I 83-4 Triads 1 4

Prom Night Barbie 3 0 Tritone subst i tut ion 91, 109-10Turna rounds 8 0

Quotes 1 2 4 Sub chords in 9 0Twelve Bar Blues 28, 63-83

Relaxation 143-5Repeats 4 7 University, Jazz in 3Repertoire 6 Upper structure chord tones 115-18Rhythm 4-5 Visualizati o n 1 4 8Rhythm Changes 2 8 Vowels 148-9Rock and Roll 57-8 Vocalese 1 1 4Root position chords 1 5Rootless voicings 1 0 2 Whole Diminished scale 1 3 8

Whole s teps 9Satin Doll analysis 84-7Scales 11-13 Zen Though t 1 2 6Scatting

syllables 61-2 exercises 151-2Sections 25-6Sequences 1 2 4Sharp nine c h o r d 136-7Shout chorus 95-7Sideslipping 1 2 4Sidemen 1 5 3

164 .