Question if you play classical and jazz

[bdengler]

Do any of you play both jazz and classical? If so, could you give me an example of your practice regime? I play primarily in church, pizz style, but there's usually one or two pieces that I'm asked to bow. So I'm trying to figure out a daily practice schedule. If you practice both, what materials do you use?

Thanks, Brian

[BassZen]

Well my practice is mostly dedicated to classical, though I play as much jazz as classical outside the practice room. To me the classical is where you get your technique from and playing with other people is where you get your jazz from. That said I spend a little while on most days improvising (which is my way of practicing new techniques or experimenting) and/or playing tunes with a bass melody. You could also play chord charts or whathaveyou.
Lately I've gotten in the habit of (after warm ups) practicing one classical piece for as long as I can, then improvising and/or playing a tune as a sort of break from the classical stuff, then moving on to another piece. In your case it sounds like you would want to do the other way around (pizz stuff, classical, pizz, etc).

[Aaron Saunders]

I practice a lot and most of it is focused on jazz. Usually I'll have an etude that I'm working on and will toss about half an hour onto that, and just to continue developing the bow, I'll play heads and accompaniment to tunes with the bow as well.


EDIT: Er, yeah. Forgot about the jazz aspect of practice. For the past little while and up until March or so, my practice time is focused on a few very specific tunes because of university auditions. Right now I'm learning the head to Groovin' High for my UoT audition. Soon I'll be working on Billie's Bounce for my McGill audition, and tomorrow night I'm resuming my transcription of Ray Brown's solo from Night Train by the Oscar Peterson Trio. Also, I'll be reinforcing the etude I'll be playing for UoT, McGill, and Humber, and reinforcing Body and Soul and All The Things You Are. I do this by playing the heads, soloing, and walking over the changes, often to accompaniment found here. Should be another few days until I'm solid enough on Groovin' High to take time off to resume learning Billie's Bounce, which is (quite thankfully) only a 12 bar head!

So to keep the classical in there, I've been playing the heads to Body and Soul and ATTYA arco quite often (which isn't classical, but involves classical technique,) as well as sections from Groovin' High (holy crap is that a killer) and will be taking home some sheets from the school's library including March to the Scaffold and some Mozart excerpts.

[conte2music]

When working my way through Simandle book1 I would play the exercises bowed as marked, and then I would play them pizz as a swing tune. It made sure I was using proper technique with my left hand, and some of the lines are kinda fun.

Practice lots of scales and arrpeggios. You'll use them in any style music.

Chris