Video transcript
@The Arts Unit Art Bites – Unlocking the potential of the rhythm section – 01. Part 1

[Music playing]

JASON ISAAC: Welcome to this video on the interpretation of rhythm section parts in big band and jazz band music. There's a long history of the way that these parts are written for us rhythm section players, and that stretches back almost 100 years. And, the assumption has always been that the composer or arranger needs to give the rhythm section players - the guitarists, piano players, bass players, and drummers - just enough information to be able to let them do their job, the assumption being that they know their instruments, and what to do in the various styles, better than the arranger and the composer. And so, there's always been this understanding, this relationship between arranger/composer and musician in the rhythm section, where the musician needs to get succinct, clear information in order for them to create the part that they create.

And, the parts that we create in the rhythm section are based on listening to the whole arrangement, or the whole composition, and, very particularly, listening to the inner workings between the instruments of the rhythm section. The drummer needs to listen to the piano player, and the bass player needs to listen to the drummer. All of these various musical forces are always having a dialogue, having a conversation. And so, arrangers and composers have always, since the outset of writing this music for these instruments, have always given on the page the bare minimum, that gives the clearest idea of what should be played, to make the music work, and left the other 90% of what needs to happen up to the musicians themselves, and the conversation that they're creating in the way that they play with each other.

In this video, what I want to do is just give you a brief insight into how it sounds when, for example, a young rhythm section player on piano, bass, and drums, plays exactly what's written on the page of your typical junior high school, late primary school jazz band arrangement. And, I've chosen a fairly standard chord progression, and I've chosen a fairly average tempo, so that you'll be able to hear exactly what it sounds like, when we play the dots, when we play it exactly as written. And, then, what I want to do is give you an example of how that could be interpreted, how it should be changed by the student who's learning about this type of music, and learning the history of how these parts are written, and learning their role in the rhythm section, and in the broader ensemble, in order to make it actually sound like it's intended.

[Music playing]

So, to start with, I'm going to play you a section of this piece of music, just a fairly short section. I'm going to play it exactly as it's written. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3.

[Piano music]

So, what you'll probably notice is that rhythmically, it's fairly vanilla. It's just minims, semibreves. There's not actually much in the time feel that's making the music sound interesting or exciting. One of the first things that most people notice, when they listened to any sort of jazz or popular music or contemporary music, is that there's a lot of syncopation.

And, in the way that that part is written, obviously there is zero syncopation. So, there's Reason 1 to not play the piano part like that, if you're in this band, or if you're a director or a conductor or a teacher, to not let it stop there, not let your students play like that. So, here's Step 2. I'm going to play you the bass part now, and this is exactly as the bass part is written in that same section of the music.

[Music playing]

1, 2, 1, 2, 3.

[Jazz music]

So, again here, it's perfectly functional. You can get away with playing this, but I really do believe that what we need to be learning and developing, when we learn about this music at any age, whether you're 10, whether you're 18, whether you're studying as a rhythm section player at a university or tertiary institution, and by the same token, what we all need to be doing as teachers and directors, in working with students at all of these various levels, is we need to be looking at what's there, and thinking about what's the actual intention. And, there's a whole range of things in jazz band playing, big band playing, that are assumed that the students will learn about, that you'll develop in your playing, but that are not written on the page - things like making dynamic shapes on long notes, and using vibrato, and, of course, all the things that always go hand-in-hand with playing in a group in an ensemble.

Who needs to be the loudest person in the section? That's never written on your music. How loud is forte? What's the style? Is it a strong forte? Is it an exciting forte?

You look at an accent. Is an accent a heavy accent? Is it an accent that has a large explosion at the beginning of the sound and then a quick decay? There's lots of different things that are wrapped up in the style and the personality of that particular piece of music. And, in jazz band music, that happens across the board in every part, in the saxophone parts, trumpet parts, trombone parts. And yet, in the rhythm section, I've always felt like there's many more of those things that have to be understood right from the beginning.

So again, with the bass part, it's perfectly functional. If you play the bass part with the piano part, which you'll hear in a minute, it works. But, does it sound like a jazz band rhythm section? I don't think it even comes close.

And, I want to get back to what I said right at the outset, which was that these composers and arrangers, whether they're writing for professional musicians, for young musicians, the intention, I think that needs to be understood always, is that they're giving you the information that you need in as clear and simple form as possible, so that you're then able to take what's there, and create the part that you're supposed to create as a rhythm section would, having a dialogue between the players in this section.

[Music playing]

[Jazz music]

So, now it's time to move over to the drum kit part, and have a listen to how it sounds if I play the drum kit part exactly as written on the page. And then, we're going to put all 3 of those together, and I think it's going to become fairly clear why it's not a great idea to play these parts exactly as written.

[Music playing]

So similarly, if we were to play the drum part exactly as written at bar 17, we'd end up with not entirely what the composer or arranger intended. Because remember, they're giving us clear, succinct, simple instructions, assuming that we're going to turn it into what should be played. And, their intention is never really for us to play exactly what is written. But, just so I can highlight this point, let me play exactly as bar 17 is written. And, then I'll talk about what we really should be doing. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.

[Jazz music]

So, now that we've heard that, we've had a listen to what it sounds like when we play exactly what's written in those rhythm section parts, let's now explore what we can do with what we're given, in order to bring this music to life, and make it sound like it's intended. And, as a result, if you're a rhythm section player, this is actually where you learn the skills of playing any type of music, I believe, as a rhythm section player. You're always listening to the other people in this particular group of instruments, and you're always trying to make decisions about what works, and what doesn't. But, let's dive into each part separately first. Let's have a look at the bass part.

[Music playing]

So, the bass part has not only this written part, but it also has chord symbols above. And, what I want to do is just play the root of the chord. So, if it's a B flat 9 chord, then we'll just play a B flat. And, we're going to play it as a long note for the entire length of time that that note goes for. And, we'll have a listen to what happens.

Just a quick note. If the chord is F6/C, the slash means that you play the F6 chord, but the lowest sound needs to be C. So, what that means is the bass player plays the C. So, at bar 17 in this piece of music, if we're playing those long notes, here's how it's going to sound. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3.

[Playing bass]

The first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to add, before the next chord, a note that's a semitone above it. So, for the first 2 chords, there's not much I can do. And then here, instead of going down to the F, I'm going to approach the F by playing a semitone above it, G flat. So, I'm going to go B flat, B, C, G flat, F. And, you can do that any bar you like. So, start by just playing the chords as long notes.

[Playing notes]

And whenever you feel like it ...

[playing notes]

... approach the next chord 1 beat early from a semitone above. And then, the step after that, because we want a solid pulse, we want to note on every beat of the bar, because this is a walking bass line - and it locks in with what the drummer's doing - what we want to do is we want to have some note played on every crotchet of the bar. But, we want to try and get some of these - we call them passing notes, notes that pass between 1 chord and another. We want to get some of them in. So, let me show you that.

[Playing notes]

Those passing notes, that are a semitone above, sometimes sound a bit angular. So, instead of doing that, we could try a tone above. So, we're going to stay in the key signature. This piece is in F major. So, we're not going to do anything that's not in the key signature this time.

We're going to stay in F major. And, we're going to approach from either a note above the next chord, or we're going to approach from a note beneath, below the next chord, but always by step - 1 note above, or 1 note below, in the key signature. Let's see what that sounds like.

[Playing notes]

So, you can hear it's a lot less angular. Now, if we mix those 2 together - and bass players, you'll be able to figure this out on your instrument. I'm sorry that I'm playing it on the piano for you.

We mix those 2 together, some that are in the key signature, and some of those semitones above or even semitones below, making sure that we play a note on every beat. And, let's hear how our new bass line ends up sounding. Again, I'm using the chord symbols, not the written notes. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3.

[Playing notes]

[Music playing]

Now, like I said at the beginning, when we play the music as it's written, one of the first things we notice is how lifeless and static, unmoving the music sounds like. So, let's take this approach as a starting point. Let's play the notes that we're given ...

[Playing notes]

... followed by ...

[Playing notes]

... followed by ...

[Playing notes]

But, we're going to syncopate them. So, here are my rules, and these are good ones to start with. Playing between the beats is better than playing on the beats, and gaps are good. So, they are the 2 rules. Play between the beats instead of on the beats, and gaps are good. Leave gaps.

And, you can even leave an entire chord out. So, I'm going to just play bar 17, 18, 19, and 24 bars. And, I'll play them as written first, and then I'll straightaway repeat those 4 bars, and play them in a way that makes more sense in this music. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3.

[Playing notes]

And again, just using the written notes, this way of playing these chords - the term is voicing - just using this voicing, I'm going to syncopate, make the rhythms funkier, dance more. And, we're going to say how much better it sounds. We'll put it with our new improved bass line, and we'll see what we come up with. 1, 2, a 1, 2, 3, 4.

[Jazz music]

So, hopefully you can hear straightaway that, with that improved bass line, that's based on the chord symbols, but has the necessary note plus some passing note movement, either a step above, a step below, or those semitones we talked about leading to the next chord, that's giving the bass line some kind of forward momentum, some forward drive, as well as it having something on every beat because it's a walking bass line. And, now we've added this vibrant, dancing, rhythmically syncopated, bubbling, rhythmically bubbling piano part, just based on the written notes in the right hand. And, we've already got something that sounds more like a piano player and a bass player would in a real jazz band, and it's all there on the music for you. You just have to know what to do with it.

[Music playing]