 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: lidasman
Date: 2004-10-22 02:26
I have "The Definitive Jazz Collection" published by Hal Leonard Publishing Co. that I have had for over a decade. As far as I can make out [my music theory is infantile] the chords written above the bars are in the same key as the clarinet. If this is so, is it standard practice? Or do some of the books have chords for accompaniment. Secondly I have a couple of books that come with CD accompaniment. I often think how much better it would be if those books would have the chords entered in so that I could play along with BIAB as well as with the CD.
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Author: ned
Date: 2004-10-22 05:03
Does the book say specifically Bb clarinet? If not I would assume that the chords are for piano, guitar..........etc........(ie) they are concert pitch. I have heaps of this stuff and it is all for piano - we call them ''fake books''.
What do you mean by BIAB, by the way?
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Author: allencole
Date: 2004-10-22 05:39
The chords are most likely set to match the notes that you actually see on the page. If it's written for a transposing instrument like the clarinet, the chords are most likely transposed as well.
I rarely see concert-key chords placed over a transposed melody. One way to test this, is to see what key the song is in (presuming that key signatures are used) and check the name of the song's final chord. Most songs end on the I chord. (the chord with the same name as the key signature)
Allen Cole
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Author: buedsma
Date: 2004-10-22 10:27
BIAB
band in a box : music program worth to buy when training on impro and chord structures
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2004-10-22 14:43
Most fake books are sold in several flavors. You've got yer treble clef in the key of C, yer treble clef in the key of Bb, yer treble clef in the key of Eb and (usually but not always) yer bass clef in the key of C. Those combinations cover virtually all of the instruments used in the "combo" style engagements. (All of those hot jazz English horn players just have to learn reformed notation, hack it in the key of C or lump it...).
Whenever I get a "fake book" setup, I've had the most trouble coming up with the version in Eb. The "normal" set up uses piano, bass, drums, occasionally guitar, and a Bb "color" horn like tenor sax, trumpet or clarinet, so it seems that most of what is shipped is of the treble clef in C and Bb. Hal Leonard is good in that their stuff is a) readily available on order, and b) comes in all four flavors so that your trombonists and alto players can join in the fun without a lot of transpositional grief.
I may be unusual in that I prefer to field a combo style group with an alto/clarinet/flute/soprano/baritone player in lieu of the ever popular tenor honker. I also have an excellent vocalist who is a great trombone player. In either case, the customer gets a lot better experience for their money with one of the two of them than they do with a "smoky room" tenor player. Of course, virtually everyone prefers our cute little Anissa as a female vocalist to the best of instrumental playing that I can "add on" to the traditional piano/bass/drums instrumentation, but what are you gonna do?
(Vocal lines are, of course, contained in all books. Vocalists are presumed to be pitched in the key of C, but I've known a few who seemed to come in the A# minor flavor. Anissa's more like a keyboard with a pitch wheel, flexible all up and down the line. Too bad she's only five footish in height...)
Some of the "secret, bought only in an alley from a guy with a paper bag full of music" fake books are strictly limited to the C and Bb treble variety. There are a couple that I've looked into getting only to find that there's no Eb to be had.
We had a youngish alto player sit in with us one time who had pretty well mastered one of the Leonard fake books, working on her own. She was impressive in her improvisation skills but for one problem: she learned them all off of a Bb book. Bummer...rote learning can be an ugly thing in the music world...
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Author: hans
Date: 2004-10-22 15:04
Terry,
"Too bad she's only five footish in height".
Can you clarify; i.e., what's wrong with that?
Hans (whose wife is 5'2")
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2004-10-22 16:57
Anissa is a powerhouse entertainer, with wonderful stage presence, good looks, plenty of va-va-voom in the...uh..."pultritude" department. (Check out my website at www.sotsdo.com for some photos, and you'll see what I mean.)
She has a great vocal range, knows how to hide her few weak spots with typical performer tricks, and has a wide repertory ranging from show classics from the '20's and '30's to the rock stuff of only yesterday. (Imagine a girl who can do Black Coffee, Over The Rainbow, and Love Shack equally well, and in different character for each one. And, she's a living doll in every sense of the word.
But, she's so short (I am literally eye to eye with her when I am seated) that she gets "lost" on a stage with typical decorations and the like. It also makes a difference with duets and the like. Unforgettable is much more effective when the woman is looking into the man's eyes instead of at his chest hair...
We've had to "redecorate" bandstands at charity benefits when we found that the potted plants and other foo-fa actually cut off the view of our little pocket vocal powerhouse. And, let me tell you, there's nothing more irate than a committee chair for decorations when you tell her that the ferns she so agonized over are going to cut off the view of a third of the audience.
One customer actually had trouble figuring out who was doing the bang up vocals on R-E-S-P-E-C-T; she saw the two "backup singers" standing there (and, usually, not singing) and wondered where the dynamite lead vocal was coming from. Only when she moved from her place at the "head table" and walked over to talk to a committee member at a less exalted seating location did she see little Anissa, Tina Turner-ing her heart out.
BORING MUSICAL ANECDOTE FOLLOWS:
I do the "doofus loudmouth male" part for our version of Love Shack; neither of my regular male vocalists is brash enough to pull it off. Part of it involves some stage business with the girls. (It's during the "Band, bang, bang, on the door ba-buh!" section, for those of you following along at home.) They are spaced out in front of three mike stands (for the wiggling dance moves during the vocals), and I "stunt" around and through them as part of the presentation.
For the longest time, we had trouble with the size issue, as the same "moves" with the other two girls (my lovely wife Joyce Ann and Karron) just didn't work with little bitty Anissa. In the end, we decided to go with playing up the "I can't hear you!" aspect of my four lines in that section by going from the little (Anissa) at low volume on up through my wife (the tallest, and with all three singing at full volume), all with the more or less spoken "Talk a little louder, sug-ga!" lines, then finishing with me doing the last "screamed" "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" in front of the three of them while they continue their little dance moves, all before circulating me back to the other end of the line (Anissa) so that she can act like a little girl getting called on at school for the "Tin roof...RUSTY!" line. The words (or the "story line") make absolutely no sense (to me at least), but the "stage business" works in the end, the customers have loved it each and every time,. and that's what matters.
(A year ago, if you asked me if I thought I every would be up on stage "singing" in a solo role, I'd have laughed in your face. Now, I not only have to do that, but also have to (in an intentionally clumsy way) participate in the pelvis pivoting moves that the ladies do during the sixteen bar bass solo immediately preceding the above-mentioned section of the tune. I've gone from "To me, a B-52 is an obsolescent bomber type that almost killed me once when I was in RVN" to "Throw your hips this way, girls! Just like they do in the B52s" in a very, VERY short time...)
END OF BORING ANECDOTE
When I first started learning about music, I thought that theory and perfect performance were all that mattered. Dress up nice, do your job, and you're home free.
Only now, while in the "pro" end of things from a management standpoint, I have I learned that stuff like following is what really matters:
• Vocalist size (Anissa is great, but I've got to watch out for the details or she gets "lost" on the stage)
• Getting everyone to wear the "right" thing for the job. As hard as it may be to believe it, I actually had a trumpet player (a pro guy, by the way) show up in the virtual equivalent of "bunny slippers" once since he had injured a toe. He didn't think that he would be noticed, being on the back row and all. Suffice it to say that he was...and that warm and fuzzy brown doesn't mix well with formal dinner jacket and black tie.
• The mesh gauge of fishnet hose. Small size netting as found in the regular stores doesn't "show up" from a distance; we found that Frederick's "theatrical hose" work the best for visability, costume changes, durability, availability and the like; one "side" gets damaged so you replace it with a half of a pair...very economical in the long run.
• Van/trailer load-out and capacity. We move over a ton of equipment (non-instrument stuff like music, stands, sound system, fifty pounds of various cables, piano, lights, the Pennsylvania 6-5000 bell and what have you) every time we set up and tear down; for a good part of the time, music has become like being a stevedore with no one willing to come from the ILA when the ship's in port. Getting it all organized, loaded, and transported in a form that can be erected in one and a half hours and down and packed and on the road in less is a real accomplishment, right up there with mastering the cycle of fifths.
• Where the trombone players have gotten off to. They like to head for the toilet at the end of the ten minute break rather than at the beginning, and none of them seems to have any bladder capacity worth speaking of. There are times I have thought of hooking them all up to a rubber hose drain system. It must be the slide motion that does it.
• Sucking up to socialites (who all are accustomed to deference in the nth degree). They don't see you as an artistic problem; instead you are viewed as part of the furniture, like the caterer or the florist. I've found that flattery does a great job with 99% of these women, so I just bite my tongue and lay it on with a trowel. Then, when they are "pleased" with the final presentation, you act gracious and humble and they'll want you back again next year.
Mundane items like these are my main concerns. The music part of it always flies by in an instant (and takes care of itself, a sign of the professional nature of the folks who work for me), but having an angry entertainment chairperson tugging at your sleeve and wanting you to make a 180° programming turn RIGHT NOW due to some external reason under her control but not under yours will eat up your whole evening if you're not prepared in advance.
Thank God for low cut black cocktail gowns and the women who wear them; some nights that's all that gets me through to the end...
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
Post Edited (2004-10-22 17:18)
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2004-10-22 17:11
Or, as I found out ...
Being 5' 2" (if I hang upside down for a while ...) and playing electric bass was always a trip for the audience ... never was quite their expectation ...
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Author: hans
Date: 2004-10-22 17:19
Thanks Terry. You lead a very interesting life and I enjoy reading about it.
Regards,
Hans
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Author: clarinetwife
Date: 2004-10-22 18:16
lidasman --If you enter the chords as written to BIAB, can the program then transpose them back for you to play along? If so, that should work fine unless you are playing with others who are playing intsruments with different pitches.
PS, I am 4' 10"-and-a-fraction and proud of it.
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Author: allencole
Date: 2004-10-23 04:57
Amen, Terry!
These have always been the questions that persisted for me.
Do they know the titles I want?
Do they have uniforms?
Do they have a good-looking girl?
Can they keep the volume down?
Can they be out of my place within an hour of stopping?
I think that most of the better bands maintain musical quality more for their own satisfaction, than for the chance of real appreciation by the customer.
Allen Cole
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