Re: Jazz

["G." <gigs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<quote>
Date: Fri, 09 Jul 2004 18:30:40 -0400
From: Pierre <slavio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Jazz

Now that I can do overbow on holes 4, 5 and 6 I would like to try some jazz
or something jazzy.
Are there any particular scales I can learn to get started? or should I
learn some standards like autumn leaves? what would be good first steps.
In terms of phrasing, I listen to a lot of jazz but I don't really
understand how you make something sound jazzy. Anyone have any  real basic
tips for this aspect. Are there certain notes to emphasize? timing?, ...
My cash flow is kind of low right now, are there any good sites that can
provide some help?
Thanks,
Pierre,
</quote>

Hi Pierre,
 I'm a Jazz enthusiast and may be able to point you to a few useful thigs.
I've written an article on playing Jazz on chromatic harmonica, but for the
most part it applies to learning any music on any instrument.  What is Jazz
specific are the details on songs, and resources available for the style.
http://tinyurl.com/suit/gonjazz.html

Aebersold material is excellent for learning to play Jazz and learning.
Visit this site immediately:
http://www.jazzbooks.com/jazzhandbook/Default.htm
and order your free copy of Jamie Aebersold's Jazz Handbook.
It doesn't matter where you are in the world they post it to you free of
charge.  They also have the entire book along with a few reference charts
including useful scales to learn to play Jazz on their site in PDF format,
if you don't have Adobe Reader, get it.
I have listed Aebersold's books which focus on theory, improvising, and
learning to play Jazz - the greater proportion of their books are
transcripts of key Jazz players with play alongs to practice them over -
there's another approach to this

Band In A Box is a very powerful music education and practice tool.  It can
play over any progression, any song, in a huge range of (Western) styles.
Just about all the Jazz standards you can name are already available for
free on the internet.  Theres a couple of sites where people have gathered
around 3000 Jazz standards that you can download and get stuck into.

Another approach is to get a fake book with the songs you want to learn, and
buy the CDs of the great musicians playing those songs.   Then practice with
them, and practice reading the head while they play it.

With sounding "Jazzy" it all comes down to learning to play by ear, and to
begin with the most important thing is not the notes, but the timing, rhythm
and feel.   Listen to the Jazz music you have, put your harmonica away and
simply tap your feet, click your fingers and hum along with it until you're
nailing the rhythm and feel of what they're playing - practice is the only
way to achieve this.
  In your practice sessions strive to play by ear - listen, then mimic, over
and over until you get it - record yourself and listen to it the next day,
and the next week so you can objectively critique yourself, pick one
weakness in your playing that needs work and focus on improving it through
your practice sessions.

Learning the theory and putting into practice is a means to an end - learn
enough theory to enable you to get on with playing, and focus on putting it
into practice - but to do this well, you need to have nailed timing, rhythm
and feel to make good use of it.

If you practice playing what you hear regularly and consistantly eventually
you won't need to think of where the notes are, you'll be able to go
straight for them.  If you learn to play by ear, you will be able to play
what you feel and hear inside you - and only when you can do this can you
truely improvise and make music.

I say more on my websites so I'll stop here:
http://tinyurl.com/suit/gonjazz.html
http://tinyurl.com/suj1/exercise.html

- -- G.