School starts again next week for me and I’m anticipating hearing hours of placement auditions to the Lamont Jazz Studies program ensembles.  I think its a good time to write a little about what those of us on the other side of the audition want to hear.

First, remember that the people who listen to auditions generally hear the same stuff from every player, for hours and hours, so do what you can to make your audition as painless for them as you can.  That means taking care of all of your business; prepare the music as directed (don’t ask to play something that is not on the list of things to play), check your intonation before you begin, complete any forms, dress like you want to be employed (not like you just rolled out of bed), and observe any particular requirements (for example, I don’t allow cases in the audition room because it takes time to take out and put away instruments and that causes the audition to run long).

Then, consider what they actually want to hear.  What is that you say? Well, here is what I want to hear, in the order of importance.  I hope it is helpful for you.

Tone

The sound you make is the most important thing.  Always strive for the most appropriate tone for the musical situation.  I don’t want to hear a “one size fits all” sort of sound.  I want you to demonstrate your musicianship to me right away by modulating your sound to accommodate the music.  Also, if you play a very directional instrument (e.g., brass instruments) or potentially loud instrument (electric guitar) make sure you’re not “blasting” right at the listener.  You may play with a beautiful tone, but if it is painful to hear, you won’t make the positive impression you desire.

Time

The most important thing for me after tone, is time.  Thirty years of music teaching has led me to believe this is the most foundational aspect of musicianship – and the one that is almost impossible to teach.  If a player does not have a solid internal pulse, all other aspects of their musicianship are at risk.  Playing with a secure pulse, even though you might play the audition a little under tempo is extremely important.  I can work with your technique to get the piece up to tempo if you can demonstrate you have a solid time feel, but without that feel there’s not much I can do for or with you.

Intonation

Right, so you’ve checked your intonation with the piano before you began and you’ve warmed up so that your instrument is playing in tune with itself.  Now, make sure you continue to take care of the foundational technical issues to be able to play in tune.  Of course, this always begins with listening – to yourself and to the way you are playing with others.

For wind instruments and vocalists the most common technical cause of bad intonation is not supporting the air column.  This is understandable because your natural physiological reaction to stress situations causes erratic breathing.  You must strive to overcome this natural reaction.  Fortunately, one of the best ways to calm yourself is to take a deep breath (after exhaling, you don’t want to explode!).

For all musicians, there is a tendency to carry tension in our upper back and shoulders.  Make sure you are in a relaxed and ready physical position before you begin your audition – back straight, feet on the floor, head erect and relaxed.  Getting your body in the right condition to play will assist with performing with good intonation and just performing well.

Phrasing

The next thing on my prioritized list is phrasing.  By this I am generally referring to attention to articulation issues, and dynamic shaping.  Musical clarity, and in fact, music meaning itself is very dependent on the character of articulation.  There are differences between a staccato, tenuto, slur, accent, “house-top” accent, etc. and I need to hear those differences.

In regards to phrasing in improvisations, what I want to hear are lines that have a sense of forward motion, change directions in interesting ways, and use a variety of rhythmic values – including silence.  (Notice, I didn’t say “rest.”  I think “rest” is the most unfortunate musical term, it should be called “highly active silence,” but that would be clumsy!)

Notes

Now comes the lowest priority item on the list – the notes.  This should not be a surprise because if you’ve taken care of playing with a good sound, playing with good time, in tune, in a stylistically accurate way, you’ve obviously dealt with the notes.  Also, if you miss a few notes for technical reasons, I can help you with that but if you don’t have the other items together… well I think you get the picture.

I hope this helps with your auditions now and in the future.  And remember, auditions are like other things in music – you get better at them with practice.

It seems that blues would be pretty easy to play, and play convincingly.  After all, there is basically just three chords – the tonic (I), the subdominant (IV) and dominant (V).  And in many cases and styles, it is stylistically appropriate to play one scale over the entire form.  However, like the very simple game of “go,” where there are few rules there is great complexity in the choices available – and some of those choices sound better than others!  Since there are so many choices to make, this essay will focus on one small corner of them – the harmonic choices in measures four, eight and twelve.

Jazz blues, as a form, is almost always twelve bars long and is divided into three phrases of four measures each.  The general harmonic texture of these phrases are; a sense of rest, a brief rocking away and back to that sense of rest, and another brief excursion to some tension before resolving back to the tonic chord.  You see from this description why it is possible to play one scale during the entire form – there’s really not much going on here except stating the key and briefly feinting either up or down a fourth to create a little tension.  That’s why the transitions between these sections are so important and are the tell-tale indicators of a player who really knows what’s going on in a jazz blues improvisation.

Suggestions for Practicing

I suggest developing or borrowing good jazz phrases that fit the chords in question, and then practicing them in context.

A player should first master a phrase or two so you hear them completely and accurately and you don’t have to think about the technical details of performing them.  Then put on a play-along of some sort and wait until that moment of the form to apply them.  Many times we get involved in other ideas if we improvise on all of the form and we forget or misplace the phrase we are trying to apply.  I know this sounds tedious, and it actually is, but you shouldn’t have to do it very long if you’ve spent time perfecting the performance of the phrase.  Remember, this is the second step of practicing application.  This routine can be applied to the other transitions/linking measures.

Getting to the IV Chord

I’m going to begin, not at the beginning of the form but moving from the fourth measure to the IV chord in measure five.  This IV chord is one of the formal markers of a blues and it is when the harmonic structure momentarily “rocks away” from the tonic.  Regardless of what went on the previous three measure, and a lot can go on, what the player does getting from measure four to five is the first indicator that they know how to handle the jazz blues form.

There are two very common chord structures in the fourth bar; a ii7-V7 motion in the key of IV (e.g., for a blues in the key of C, the chords would be Gmin7 – C7) and/or an V7 chord with some “tensions” or “alterations,” such as sharp and flat nines, sharp elevens, and raised fifths.  Listen in detail to your favorite jazz improvisers, transcribe what they do at this point and practice the most interesting phrases.

Getting to the ii7 Chord

One of the most frequently overlooked, and strongest indicator of a player’s grasp of the blues form, is negotiating the transition from the tonic in measure seven to the ii7 in measure nine.  Measure eight, the link to the third phrase of the blues is another tell-tale chord change.

In jazz blues the ii7 chord is very common to play at the beginning of the third phrase.  However, in a minor blues the bVI7 is frequently heard and the V7 chord is also common.  Given the variations available, I’m just going to offer a couple of categorical options from which you can choose.

For a resolution to a ii7, try a ii7 – V7 in the key to which you are resolving.  It is important to indicate in your melodies the key and mode your are moving towards.  For example, if the resolution in the ninth measure is going to be the ii7 chord, a good choice would be to use a line that reflects are minor-seven-flat-five chord built on the second scale degree of the ii7 chord.

For a resolution to a V7 you can use a dominant-seven chord a half-step above the chord in measure nine.  If you like the sound, you can even embellish that dominant-seven chord by proceeding it with a ii7 chord in that key.

Regardless of the musical situation or the path you choose, you should practice the application as described above.

Getting Home

The last important transition point is the return to the tonic chord at the beginning of the form.  This is frequently accomplished by a ii7 – V7 but sometimes the motion starts earlier.  Typically there is a resolution to the tonic in measure eleven of the form.  But players can increase a sense of motion back to the top by starting a cascading sequence of ii7 – V7 chords, beginning on the third scale degree of the key.  In any event, it is important to develop good jazz lines for this point in the blues and to practice applying them in context.

After you’ve made yourself aware of these important transition locations, practiced good jazz language, and applied them to the form, you’ll find your improvisations will have a new feeling of freedom and direction.

An Interesting Idea

Recently, I was having a conversation with a retired band director and he told me he could identify the moment that music programs, specifically band programs, started losing numbers. He recounted how, early in his career, many “5A” bands in the Denver Metro area were marching 180 to 240 students. And some of those were not marching freshmen classes of close to 100! There was a very strong band community that is not present now and had a theory about why this happened.

Now, before I let you know what his theory was I want you to know that I don’t believe there was any bias associated with his comment. I don’t know him THAT well, but from what I do know of him, I think his comment was not motivated by anything other than an interpretation of the forces that played out at this time. OK, with that little disclaimer out of the way – here’s his theory.

He believe he could trace the decline in music program enrollment specifically to the enactment of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The crux of the law is that there shall be no discrimination based on sex (I understand that to be biological gender, but I may be wrong) under any educational program receiving Federal financial assistance.  His opinion was that schools interpreted this law to apply mostly to sports, though athletics is not specified in the law.  That interpretation caused a ballooning of varsity and jr. varsity sports, especially in the fall, from “three to eleven.”  He also lamented the ancillary result that coaches of those sports further occupied the student-athletes’ time with extensive conditioning routines when their sports were not in session.

It was an interesting assertion and I don’t know if it was true or not, but for the sake of discussion lets assume he is correct.  It implies there was something provided by athletic programs that was not provided by music programs, and that extra something caused the students to choose athletics over music.

A woman in the discussion offered that the extra something may have been parental encouragement.  Many parents encourage their children to pursue athletics in hopes of financial success – either through collegiate athletic scholarships or lucrative careers in sports.  She is probably correct – though it is quite easy to demonstrate that outstanding musicians receive handsome music scholarships and the likelihood of a career in professional sports is less likely than a professional career in music.  However, perception is frequently not related to facts – so I’ll acknowledge parental encouragement toward athletics had some roll in the declining music program enrollment.

The Question Begged

And yet, I think there is something else that was much more important.  I believe that athletics provided students with a thrill, a charge.  Students got their jollies from participating in athletics that music did not provide and therefore left music for athletics.  And I think the heart of the “jolt” that motivates teenagers so well is competition.

I understand how competition became vilified in music education.  I heard too many jazz ensembles working the same three contest pieces for months, polishing their performance for the festivals they hoped to “win.”  Too many bands rote learning pieces so they could earn a “I” at competition.  And I understand how directors became motivated to pursue this path – sometimes for the sake of saving their own jobs!  All that time spent and very little music learned – and the experience very frequently resulting in young musicians who did not continue participating in music.

However, the reaction to these abuses was frequently an over-reaction of removing all forms of competition from the educational experience.  Competition in music was made into a dirty word – and yet as a professional musician I know that competition is always present in my professional life.

The misconception is that musicians compete with each other as we perform music – that we are trying to “win” a performance as if it were a sporting contest.  Musicians don’t compete with each other as we play.  However, we do compete to have the opportunity to perform music together.  This distinction needs to be made and needs to be present in our educational programs.

There are many benefits to competition, most obviously competition motivates young musicians to work harder.  Competition highlights the aspects of our technique or musicianship that need improvement and therefore is a brilliant pedagogical tool.  And the success of gaining the higher chair, the opportunity to play a solo, or the coveted chair in the top ensemble provides that thrill that athletics also provide.

How to Construct Positive Competition Experiences

Before continuing I need to stress we must make a strong distinction between competing TO perform and performing AS competition.  We need not reinvent the wheel, there are several practices that can be revived within this new context:

Chair “challenges” – providing opportunities for young musicians to advance to a higher chair.  This will help in many ways, one of the most obvious is an advanced level of ability that will save much more rehearsal time than is taken by hearing occasional “challenges.”

Regular auditions – the prime arena of musical competition in the professional world.  We should make regular auditions part of the educational experience, and those auditions should occasionally be conducted in a “blind” environment.

Jazz Jam sessions – can have that “cutting session” quality that brings all players to a higher level. They also let truly motivated and advanced players shine and provide them with an opportunity to judge their abilities.

Many other positive competition experiences are possible but it is crucial that the positive benefits of competing TO perform are always distinguished from the negative effects of performing AS competition.

It is true that music, by large measure, is a communitarian and cooperative activity.  But musical growth can be encouraged through competition.  And who knows, if music had “competed” with athletics for the hearts of youth in 1972 we might have a different present than we see – and more importantly hear, now.

Welcome to the first entry of the Lynn Baker Jazz Blog. I hope to engage a growing musical community with discussion about jazz, jazz education, and related musical and business concepts.

I’ll be posting on several different threads to allow the discussion to somewhat compartmentalize – however, I’m sure there will be times and topics that need to cross lines and I welcome the conversation. I’ll be posting as topics arise in my life; new challenges teaching jazz, new composition ideas, new improvisation schemes, exciting music I’ve heard, business opportunities – what-have-you!

For now, the topic is welcome – and I welcome you to the blog!