 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jessica
Date: 2001-09-25 23:19
Ok, let me start by saying I've never played jazz music in my life... well, that's not true. I played one piece last year, but it was very simple.
Someone at my school decided to start a Dixieland group and they need a clarinetist, so they decided to hold auditions. Me and another girl are auditioning, neither of us have ever played jazz before, and we just got the music today. It is called "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Girl)". Surprisingly enough, I have heard this song before (FYI: I have minimal exposure to jazz music).
Anyway, it looks pretty self explanatory, but I have a few questions:
--Correct me if I'm wrong, but you "swing" the eighth notes, right? If I'm right, how do you differentiate between those and the dotted eight-sixteenth series?
--What is all the F, A7, Dm7 stuff written above the bars? Are those the chords? If so, does that change what I'm supposed to play?
--Going with the previous question, if they are chords, would that change the note I trill to when we have trills (eg. I have an F that I have to trill in the key of Eb concert, but there is an F written above it) ...does that mean I trill to a B natural?
--It says "Solo Ad Lib" on part--does that mean improv? If it does, will I be expected to do this? (Keep in mind I'm being auditioned by two people who know neither me nor the other girl have ever played jazz before)
Sorry to bombard you with qestions. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to help me out.
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Author: Micaela
Date: 2001-09-25 23:31
The "solo ad lib" does mean improv. I don't think they'd expect someone who's never played jazz before to improv at an audition- it's pretty hard until you get the hang of it (I still haven't). You can ignore the chord changes, they're for improvising- you go through the piece again improving off those chords. It doesn't effect trills. As for the swing thing, two swing eighth notes are more like a triplet with the first two notes tied together than a dotted eighth- sixteenth.
The key to playing jazz is listening to pick up the style. I don't know enough about the Dixieland style to recommend CDs, but I'm sure someone here does. Get a good CD and try to imitate the style of playing. Or just turn on your local jazz radio station and listen for a while. Good luck!
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Author: Jim
Date: 2001-09-27 04:16
"Has anybody seen my girl?" is a "standard" that I believe goes back to the 20s, it sure seems to have a 20s feel. It seems old to me, but I guess all these oldies I learned in the 50s are new to many on this board. I've enjoyed introducing some of these to my 17 year old son. I recently bought a cd of Rodgers and Hart songs and have been enjoying them. (It was only after Lorenz Hart died in the late 30s or so that Richard Rodgers began the legendary collabaration with Oscar Hammerstein.)
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Author: Dave Renaud
Date: 2001-09-27 23:01
1) The concept of "swing" eighth notes has evolved through the years.
The modern concept is practically straight eighths rythmicly, but the articulation,
and stress is syncopated. The best way to learn is to listen and to play along.
The melodic rythmn in jazz is often a vocal language concept. For example,
Sum-mer-time sung square dos'nt cut it, the natural language rythmic emphasis
would be impossible to transcribe to paper, but its very natural...and free.
Learning the words to tunes, and conceptualizing the words rythmns is a great
way to free up the feel in a meaningfull way.
2) Yes these are the cords. Knowing them inside out, backwards, forwards, and
in every pattern with the corresponing cord scales is a great tool.
3) One great tool to help learning improv. is to learn, understand, and
reproduce what someone has done.
This is great ear training lifting solos.
And great theory training to analyse them.
I would recomend someone like yourself, who has never done improve before
find a recording, and write out what someone else did. Copy it, play along with
the recording to get the feel. This will show the audition pannel you have initiative
and know where to start. It will give them confidence you will find a way to
cover the part.
Many great players copied everything they could done before them.
Learn 200 tunes, and meoldies begin to coss over between tunes/solos,
lift 200 solos and you build a library of usuable phrases to lean on, and
soon you will find yourself hearing your own phrases in your head
, and chasing them with your horn.
Its a lifes journey, so much left to learn.
Never too early to start.
Cheers
Dave Renaud
DR JAZZ/ Canada
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