Lessons For Jazz Combo
These are lesson ideas for pedagogues teaching jazz combo performance skills. If I were teaching a class to prepare students for the real-world challenges they’ll likely encounter on the bandstand as professionals, these would be some of the lessons.
1. Have the group set up in the middle of the space, in a circle with their backs to each other, and any amplifiers pointed outside of the circle. Avoid “monitors” for anyone. Have players remain with their backs to each other for the entire rehearsal and try to prevent any eye contact with each other. If you can, do this exercise more than one day, and don’t let anyone end up in the same place/order in the circle next time. Be sure to play a ballad or two in this configuration and separate the rhythm players from each other (consider putting amplified instrument players across the circle from their amps). Most places where music is performed have odd/bad acoustics, and if players are used to relying heavily on hearing some other instrument, or themselves, this will point it out to them and they can work to get by without it. You’ll need to know how to keep playing confidently with your group even when you think you can’t hear yourself, and when you think you can’t hear other players.
2. First study and learn to play six to twelve “styles of jazz”. Each instrument will need to do things differently for each style and each player should be able to articulate what they do differently to bring each style to life on their instrument. “Swing” and “Latin” are not styles. Foxtrot, Lindy Hop, Walking Ballad, Gypsy, Cool, Bossa, Cha Cha, Bolero, Nanigo, Tango, Waltz, Disco, Rumba, Samba, and Mombo are examples of styles. There are plenty more. Pick ones you can break apart and study down to their essence. Create a way to order your styles randomly. You might make a card with each style written on it that can be shuffled or use software to do it. Now pick out as many jazz compositions or “standards” as you have styles and put them in a fixed order. Just before each tune is played, randomly select a style to play it in. Yes, “The Girl from Ipanema” can be played as a waltz.
3. Pick out five ballads (or you may want to use the same one each time). Play the first one as a Bolero, as slow as you can stand to, and don’t let its tempo slip up into a Rumba. Play the second one with an even eighth-note 1970 soft-rock kind of pulse (drummer plays cross-stick on 2 & 4). Please the third one with a slow 12/8 pulse (drummer plays cross-stick on 2 & 4). Play the fourth one with the straight-eighth pulse under the A sections, and the 12/8 pulse under the bridge (drummer stirs with brushes now). Play a waltz with a swing feel during the melody, then switch to a straight bossa nova feel for solos (drummer plays with brushes). These will show the importance of the rhythmic undercurrents that make or break a jazz ballad, and how subtle changes in rhythmic pulse influence the pace and feel of the musical storytelling under the melody/soloist.
4. Players of electric bass, guitars, and keyboards should be able to adjust the dynamics of their amplified instruments without adjusting the volume. They should also be aware of just how much effort and focus those playing acoustic instruments need to use when playing in quiet or acoustically challenging environments. Ask all players of amplified instruments to keep volume settings on their instruments, any pre-amps, and their amplification systems at 50% to 70% of the total volume. Ask them to play like this while keeping their instruments’ contribution to the total group’s sound at a dynamic level that’s consistent with the piece of music and blend of the group. Have them do this in a few different styles and tempos. Use a desible (DB) meter and try to keep things below 85. If the vocalist, reeds, brass, and drummer can play quite dynamics, then they can too. The tone and timbre of their instrument should be different when played softly than when played loudly, and players of amplified instruments need to experience this and become less reliant on artificial dynamics, especially during performances when the band is playing quietly. It’s rarely the instrument that’s too loud, it’s much more likely the technique of the musician.