 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2009-02-19 15:51
Hey all. I'm deployed with my band right now and I have recently been tasked to form and lead a dixie group. So we formed one, we have a few tunes (the first six packs of Hal Leonard's Dixie paks), and we have our first gig in five days.
What I'm wondering right now is the best setup for the gig. We have an unusual group due to the players available to choose from, so we have a bunch of army/classical players (I put "army" in there as in we all know how to play a march!), and our current outfit consists of myself on clarinet, a trumpet, trombone, sax, drum kit, and electric bass guitar subbing for the tuba.
So in regards to setting up, I was wondering whether it'd be more "authentic" to stand for the gig (just two half hour sets), or whether we should all take seats, and where in relation to each other.
How we've been practicing is myself on the far right, trumpet, sax, trombone, drum kit, and bass guitar and amp to the left of the kit (this is given as though you were in the ensemble - looking at it from the audience would reverse the left/right).
Any tips for better arrangement or ideas on whether to stand/sit? I figure our bass guitar will be sitting, so it'll be more "dress-right-dress" (sorry! Couldn't resist!) if we all sit, however I feel as though that might take away from sound projection as this will be an outdoor gig in a populated area.
Thanks.
Alexi
PS - I'm enjoying playing the written hal leonard stuff, and I'm trying to fiddle around and mess with the melodies and backgrounds a bit to change it up a little. And I'm glad I'm in this as one of my goals this deployment was to work on improving!
US Army Japan Band
Post Edited (2009-02-25 15:47)
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Author: DixieSax
Date: 2009-02-19 19:36
For an outdoor gig with the instrumentation listed, I'd probably put the bass and the drummer right next to each other in the back row, and then stand the "front line" (the other four guys) in front of them so you have.
Bass Drums
Bone Trumpet Clarinet Sax
Bur really whatever you want to do for a 6 piece combo will be fine as long as you can all hear each other. Your bass player and drummer will need to be tight, since you don't have a keyboard or banjo to give you supporting chords.
Have fun
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Author: ned
Date: 2009-02-19 22:03
Yes - an unusual instrumentation for ''dixieland'', but not for ''bop''.
It's hard to place you all, given the setup and outdoor location, however I guess you should all squeeze together as close as is comfortable so that you can at least be able to hear each other. The lineup suggested by ''DixieSax'' seems to be about right - it does not matter if you stand or sit - this side of it is purely for show basically.
Standing/sitting close together will enable the other three in the front line to better harmonise behind whomever is currently taking the solo spot at any given time, given that you won't have chord backing.
Is there on one who can at least add some basic chords - say a part time piano player? If not, I'd advise your bass player to play as much walking bass as possible, so at least provide a solid harmonic backing. If he's a ''modernist'' player he will need some encouragement possibly, to keep it simple and melodic.
May I also enquire as to who is Hal Leonard and what are these ''dixie paks''?
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Author: DixieSax
Date: 2009-02-19 22:12
Actually not unusual at all for dixieland. My dixieland combo uses the same lineup, plus piano, and with a tuba rather than a bass guitar.
Alexi, I'd say that you are on the right track. As your group gets more comfortable playing together, encourage your players to improvise and harmonize around their written parts, and eventually even try some simpler tunes without the music. Most of the common stuff is built on blues patterns, so it will come naturally to some of your players. There are some good dixieland fake books available without googling too far that will get you the rest of the way.
Can your bass player play an upright bass? That would be a little bit more traditional.
Remember, in small combo dixieland style music, what's written down is only a suggestion. 
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2009-02-20 02:56
Well, our bass player is really a percussionist who plays bass just for fun, and he has a little bit of a tough time sight reading notes (as he plays mostly tablature), but he's doing a great job so far, ESPECIALLY considering he's a part-time, hobbyiest bass player. Quote:
Remember, in small combo dixieland style music, what's written down is only a suggestion. I know that, it's APPLYING that philosophy that is tough for us! But I know after a year of this, we'll all be a lot further along!
And the publisher "Hal Leonard" has 18 dixie paks, which are packs of about 4 tunes each with each part written out (minus the solos usually). Which is great for us. I just take what's written, omit some notes and add in others. And see what happens. And I've a feeling that after a year, we'll all be a little better in the group and at least more confident in playing dixieland and jazz than we are now!
Thanks for the advice guys. It's much appreciated.
Alexi
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Author: ned
Date: 2009-02-20 03:51
DixieSax writes: ''Actually not unusual at all for dixieland. My dixieland combo uses the same lineup, plus piano, and with a tuba rather than a bass guitar.''
It is unusual for a ''dixieland/new orleans/traditional'' NOT to have the services of a chord player - this was the point I was attempting to make. Other than this, the instrumentation which has been chosen is fairly standard.
With regard to the Hal Leonard ''paks'', I come from a ''head arrangement'' background as it happens, so I have reservations regarding the playing of this style of music by dots.
My personal view is that jazz knowledge is absorbed gradually, to the point where one can rely solely on memory. Therefore charts of the type that sfalexi describes, are probably best utilised in rehearsal mode rather than be relied upon whilst on the job. Jazz (particularly of this type) is meant to be, more or less, an improvised performance.
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2009-02-20 12:06
I worked with two Dixie bands for many years and having an arrangement was pretty rare (ala the "head" arrangements just like Ned). To use a chart always seemed a bit weird as the notes never quite matched the sound we desired. But then, in both groups, I was working with guys that had many, many years of playing experience, really got around their instruments, and knew the style (we were very Chicago-style).
It was pretty much "arrangements while you wait" with ensemble, solo choruses passed around - clarinet, trumpet, bone, rhythm, ensemble, and home (with some pretty amazing extended endings). Maybe a modulation or two. The trick was the guys knew all the tunes (I'm still amazed at how many songs I know but I can't tell you the standard key since I have done every tune in so many ways).
But then, I do the same stuff in combo jobs still. The leader says "Laura in 3 down (meaning 3 flats) as a bossa nova" and kicks it off. You've got to know the tunes and as Ned so correctly says that on the job, everything is "more or less, an improvised performance."
HRL
BTW Never had a sax and clarinet in the same group but I always doubled. And always chords from keyboard or a banjo.
Post Edited (2009-02-22 16:31)
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2009-02-21 14:25
Eventually, I will be working myself down to playing off of lead charts. However for right now, being very inexperienced with improv, I like to have that safety net of having something written down that IS in the key and just playing around with it. But yes, I definitely would like at some point in the future to be able to just play off of chord changes, or (ultimately), just straight out of my head into the horn.
Alexi
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Author: dgclarinet
Date: 2009-02-21 14:53
I started playing dixieland in high school, using those awful books (whether by Hal Leonard or whoever). We played at a theme park called Lion Country Safari, where people would drive around and look at lions and elephants. Yes, it was pretty weird, but learning how to play dixieland paid for my music degree.
Get out of those books as soon as possible. Do anything but read the notes. Listen to all the recordings of good dixieland you can and try to mimic that. If it sounds ok, keep doing it. If you can learn how to play using chord changes and all that (Jamie Abersol) that's great too. I was 16 and had no clue about chord changes or lead sheets, but with a lot of time, even I got to where I (a legit clarinet player) could play it well enough to make pretty good money.
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Author: chris moffatt
Date: 2009-02-21 16:54
there really isn't any one placement that works best for all occasions. However one thing you need to be careful is that the clarinet doesn't get overpowered by the other horns. I'd suggest experimenting with clarinet and trumpet in the center and sax and trombone at opposite ends. It depends too on how many microphone you'll have. If only one, as often happens at outdoor gigs, place it between the trumpet and clarinet. If the horn players all stand it's easier to move toward or away from a microphone to keep things better balanced esp. if riffing or playing obbligatos behind a solo. Another thing to know is whether you have some kind of backboard or not as this will make a big difference to the sound too. You might experiment and have someone not in the group check how it sounds from various angles. With outdoor gigs it's easy for sounds to get lost if placement is not optimal.....good luck. PS watch some dixieland bands on youTube to get ideas for placement - you'll find there's a lot of options
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Author: BobD
Date: 2009-02-22 11:08
Alexi is not suggesting that his group will sound like Preservation Hall and his audience wil probably be appreciative even if they are out in Left Field. I'd try to find someone who can play banjo and keep the clarinet up front. Casual audiences are quite lenient and appreciative about the authenticity of "DixieLand" music as I can attest from my "Steel Mill" retirement party group days.
Bob Draznik
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2009-02-22 17:04
What usually happens in these gigs (or what happened last time), is people will ignore the posters put up in the dining facilities and MWRs. But we'll play at a crowded place (like a PX, or Recreation tent, or AT a dining facility), and people will walk by, stand around for a few tunes cause they weren't expecting music, and then walk off and continue doing what they were doing. But it's those people that stay and have something to talk about later on, "Hey. I was going to Taco Bell for lunch today, and there was some sort of like jazz thing going on outside. It was kinda neat" that we play for. And most of the time, we DO get that person or two who come up afterwards and says something along the lines of, "I just got in from three days outside the wire and man it was nice to kick back and listen to something different. I appreciate it." It's THAT guy we play for.
So seating arrangement probably won't affect them that much, but it might help US out (as a group) if I can hear certain people over others. I like the ideas I got here and I'll be putting the bass guitar and drums behind the group and sitting in front of the drum. I'll be next to the sax and trumpet with the trombone next to the trumpet on the other side (although I'll probably switch the trumpet and sax as the trombone and sax tend to do a lot of playing together in unison or at least the same time . . .) We had a good rehearsal tonight and I think we'll do OK for our first gig and for only about two and a half weeks of rehearsing.
And best of all, I think (GASP!) that our group is actually ENJOYING playing it! Cause everytime I say, "Alright. Time for us to go home", they just start to go over parts of tunes and play around for a while after rehearsal has "ended". And I'm happy they're enjoying it enough that they don't really seem to want rehearsals to end!
I'll be back in three days telling you all how the gig went. Thanks for the tips!
Alexi
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2009-02-25 15:58
Well, we had out gig. Some things went well, some things didn't. Yes they had an outlet right by the stage to plug in the bass guitar, but they neglected to tell us that we had to coordinate to have it turned ON by another company. Sigh. So we grabbed a tuba player from another rehearsal and dragged him to replace the bass guitar. Lesson learned.
The gig went "ok". I think we sounded a lot better in rehearsal than we did on stage. I attribute my part to nerves and lack of sleep (had to work a night shift in addition to my daily duties those two days so I was running on 1 hour of sleep for about 36 hours by the time the gig came around). But it's part of being over here in the desert.
I wasn't a good MC. I need to engage the audience a little more. And I'll be working on that. Good news is that a few people stuck around and listened to the concert, and a few people were talking about how great it was to hear some music and how they loved Dixie. So we made a difference in some deployed soldiers' lives. And that's what we're here for.
So we'll see how we do on our next gig.
I don't want to fill the board up with posts about gig after gig after gig, but if anyone is interested in hearing how they go, how we progress, what we've been up to, just email me (I'm going to make sure my contacts page is updated correctlt) and I'll put you on an email list and let you know how future gigs go. THanks Mark and GBK for keeping this board running. You'll be receiving my donation soon (I've tried to do it every year and I will continue to do so as THIS board and the guidance I've received off of it IS the reason I have the opportunity to do what I do as an army musician)
Alexi
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