 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2007-01-07 22:30
Interesting that once a music becomes codified and "instructable" and even "syllabized" that it tends to wither outside of that environment.
Also interesting that folk music is taught in a similar manner in other countries (mostly previously commuinist-based) but is taught along with classical music. My Bulgarian friend was taught theory and classical music on his folk instrument, the gadulka, in addition to the usual folk repertoire. However, other than the general omnipresence of western pop music, it seems not to have been affected in a similar manner to classical and jazz music here.
No solutions, just observations, I'm afraid.
Katrina
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Author: clarinetwife
Date: 2007-01-07 23:49
Interesting topic.
I know several local band directors who have scrambled to learn how to teach a beginning guitar class because that is where the kids are. They do this in addition to their band and general music duties. Jazz is not a fluent musical language for these kids any more than classical music is. That being said, I learned more about rhythm in two years of jazz band than I did in six years of the regular band program.
I think the issue of apprenticeship and mentoring in folk music is also key. This setting WORKS and has for centuries, both for adolescents, who crave positive adult influences in their lives, and for adults, because many find this setting more comfortable.
Speaking of jazz being a fluent musical language, my father is a big band drummer from way back who learned by wearing out 78 rpm records and going to performances. Once jazz music moved out of the dance hall and into the club it became less accessible and eventually too self-absorbed for him( a very clumsy term, but it probably best reflects how he would put it). So, he went to see traveling revivals of both Tommy and JC Superstar with us when he was in his 60s, but the jazz scene somehow left him behind.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2007-01-08 15:07
IMO the way to 'learn' to play jazz is not to sit in a classroom, it is not regurgitating other players' licks out of a transcriptions book, and although it may start with playing along to Jamey Aebersold recordings, it certainly doesn't end there. You have to LISTEN to lots of jazz to get the feeling and sounds in your head; and then you have to go out and PLAY jazz -- the best venues are jam/open mics sessions, clubs, that sort of thing. "Big bands" which play almost exclusively written charts and have very few soloing opportunities (except for the lead tenor sax, lead trumpet, and maybe the rhythm section) are NOT a good way to learn to IMPROVISE, which is the heart and soul of jazz playing.
Unfortunately, it seems that real jazz jam sessions are getting more and more scarce -- and when they do pop up they're so crowded with hungry players you hardly get a chance to stretch out!
"Academic jazz" (as I call it) isn't jazz at all, at least to my ears. Sorry to sound like such a negativist grump, but the situation is getting worse and there's no solution in sight.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2007-01-08 15:24
I've spent some time over the last couple of years playing with a swing band. In the fall, I toured western states and visited some music colleges --where I practiced (or tried to). Several had classes going in jazz playing.
Omigod, they were awful.
Students in the practice rooms might be able to put in a few good licks, but could not keep a consistent swing going.
When i go back to school at 70, I'll probably avoid that part of the cirriculum.
SHUDDER
Bob Phillips
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Author: DougR
Date: 2007-01-09 11:42
As the article implies, the music is still there--it's just the infrastructure surrounding it that's changed.
Today's music schools, with their applied jazz curricula (even down to the community college level, for pete's sake!) ARE the territory bands, touring bands, radio orchestras, hotel ballroom bands, and local-dive combos of yesteryear. Where else are these kids going to go to learn how to play anymore? Where else are they going to get the opportunity to pursue musical excellence for its own sake, to live-eat-breathe music 24/7 in a culture dedicated to that pursuit?
Take away jazz instruction in an academic setting, with all its supposed imperfections, and whaddeya got? NADA.
As to students not being able to swing, well...I think that's why they're called STUDENTS.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2007-01-09 11:51
David Spiegelthal wrote,
>>IMO the way to 'learn' to play jazz is not to sit in a classroom, it is not regurgitating other players' licks out of a transcriptions book, and although it may start with playing along to Jamey Aebersold recordings, it certainly doesn't end there. You have to LISTEN to lots of jazz to get the feeling and sounds in your head; and then you have to go out and PLAY jazz -- the best venues are jam/open mics sessions, clubs, that sort of thing. >>
Chris Potter said something similar, in his delightful, rambling discourse with music at the 30th International Saxophone Symposium last Saturday (George Mason U., in Fairfax, Virginia). He discovered his parents' collection of jazz LPs as a child, listened to them over and over, played along, tried on his own to do what he'd heard, went to live performances as often as possible and started playing gigs when he was too young to know that he was too young to play gigs. He did get academic degrees, but before he got them, he'd already learned by doing. Same story I've heard from so many of the truly excellent jazz musicians.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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