serious help playing/trying out for jazz band

[Stumbo]

You might want to check out the links in my sig. below for more great learning TB learning opportunities.

Good luck.

[milkman-27]

Originally Posted by caeman

Did this teacher offer up an apology for unloading their personal opinions on you like that? That is a horrible thing to do to such a young psyche.

He changed his tune by the end of the year, as a matter of fact he gave me the most improved player award at our year end awards ceremony and bragged on how far I had came since the first of the year.

[ryco]

Here is a place with some good FREE info on jazz and how to start playing/stuying this style of music.

I also recommend his Vol I Book. Cheap!

Have fun!!

1st of all I don't read music on bass and I play in a jazz band. As far as I'm concerned you don't need to read to do it (although I'm sure there are many and large advantages to reading) but I wouldn't let it hold you back. The main thing is can you walk? That means reading the changes (chords) and going from there.

I studied for ages and didn't feel any confidence was coming from it. Then one day I took the plunge and decided to apply for a local jazz group. I practiced leading up to it using all the theory and still felt like I couldn't do it. With about two days to go, I just decided to blag it, and guess what? I could play walking bass. If I just used my ears and intuition then I could do it. I blagged the first audition (to be honest I wasn't that bad), and since joining that band my playing has improved more in a few months than in the year previously.

Don't be put off by people that say you shouldn't jump in the deep end. You should. As long as you do what it takes to get up to speed as quickly as possible once you're there you're doing as much as you can. You will progress fast if you keep moving out of your comfort zone, and as far as I'm concerned, a few weeks under high pressure with others achieves more than a year of studying by yourself.

If you go to the audition and you fall on your face well and truly, then that's good too. It gives you a 100% concrete experience of what you need to learn, and don't believe what people say about wasting other musicians time. 99% of what you do as a musician is wasted time. A musician's time is not precious - sure lots of musicians get annoyed about their time being wasted, but that's their problem dealing with a fact of life. Try going on tour! Don't be precious, get involved, and don't be afraid of failure, and you'll do well.

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by afromoose

1st of all I don't read music on bass and I play in a jazz band. As far as I'm concerned you don't need to read to do it (although I'm sure there are many and large advantages to reading) but I wouldn't let it hold you back. The main thing is can you walk? That means reading the changes (chords) and going from there.

In the US, a high school jazz band is a fairly well defined entity. It is a "big band," and typically plays from written arrangements. Many of these arrangements are written specifically for school instruction, and involve note reading for the bass. Many older charts have notes only, and no chord symbols, in the bass part.

To the OP: Work hard on the audition tunes and give it a shot. If other electric players are auditioning, they are probably in the same boat. If you get in, treat it as an opportunity to work your butt off on reading and take away a valuable skill.

I was in the opposite situation. I could read, but had never played bass or jazz when I joined the school jazz band. But teh band teacher knew that I could play cello, so he put me in the jazz band, and I had a summer to get an electric bass and figure out how to play it.

[tranceFusion]

I love how many people on this site defend not actually learning anything and just using some sort of magic that apparently pops up at the right time to put your fingers on notes that don't sound like crap..

Oh sorry I didn't know the context of the high school jazz band thing. If there's no chord symbols and just written lines then that's completely different to what I thought.

Also, I wasn't advocating 'not actually learning anything'. If I do defend 'not learning anything' I'll write it more explicitly, but I'd appreciate you not putting words in my mouth.

[ryco]

My high school Jazz Band charts in the USA were 50% chord charts, sometimes with snippets of suggested bass lines over certain parts or some rhythm patterns; and 50% written lines - that usually needed a lot of "improvement'! That is: you could come up with way better lines yourself!

But this was in the early 70s. Yeah -- I'm older than dirt!

[Geek Bassist]

I had basically the same problem. Jazz band tryouts, didn't know how to read notes for bass. Luckily for me, I already played trombone (another bass cleft instrument), so I just took home the music and my trombone and played it on my trombone, then played it on bass. Not the perfect solution, but I made jazz band and I'm learning to read bass music now. And jazz band is the SHIZZ!