understanding jazz

[ole Jason]

When people ask how to play jazz my first question back to them is "what kind of music do you listen to?" I feel like so many people want to play jazz without ever listening to, or enjoying, jazz.

One of my favorite drummers to play with actually started playing in his mid-40's. The fun thing is that he's been a lifelong jazz listener so what he lacks in chops he makes up for by knowing tunes like the back of his hand and he understands how important it is to listen to the other players.

 

[Ed Fuqua]

Or, you can just say "jazz is genre of music that emphasizes improvisation, is primarily rooted in the blues, and typically uses a theme-and-variation structure."

That describes a lot of 60s rock music as well and doesn't really approach how jazz improvisation is different. I don't think you can really classify oh let's say Hank Mobley's solo on IF I SHOULD LOSE YOU as "theme and variation"...

 

[Wasnex]

I am smitten by this song by the seatbelts called adieu. link below.

its mostly a vocal and piano song but the double bass is there and fills in the chords nicely.

I'm having a problem understanding how to play it. I used an app to roughly map out the chords and can play the root notes easily with the song but there are many notes I just can't seem to grasp.

How do I learn this?

You should be able to learn that song note for note without understanding the underlying theory.

My last two years of high school I was asked to play in a university big band. I could read standard music notation, but had almost no understanding of music theory. Also I had no idea how to read and interpret jazz chord notation, and the bass parts for at least half of the tunes were written primarily with chord notation.

The band director provide music and also recordings of the actual arrangement. I learned the recording note for note at first. Then I learned patterns well enough that I could use them freely over the changes. This is possible because in the form of a song, the changes tend to be organized into sections that repeat over and over again. For example you might have a form like AABA or ABAA. There are of course also sections were the form might be broken, so I had to play those sections note for note.

Later when I went to college I took three semester of classical music theory. These semesters covered harmonization of diatonic 7 chords in the major and minor keys, and how to write smooth voice leading with four part harmony. Diatonic means only the notes that belong to a key signature are involved, so there are no chromatic or altered tones. Knowing what notes to consider diatonic in jazz chord progressions can be tricky...but you don't need to delve too far into that right now.

My foundation in classical theory gave me what I needed to learn how to read and interpret jazz chord notation. One of the young jazz guitar instructors on staff mentored me on how to read jazz chord notation, answered my questions, and jammed after hours once a week, so I had a chance to learn and grown.

In it simplest form, a walking bass line is just the root note played in quarter notes. As you get more complicated you start adding chord tones. First add the 5th 1,5,1,5 |CGCG|. Then try using the notes of the triad 1,3,5,1 |CEGC|...or |CCEG|...or |CEGG|. The ideas is you should explore all the possibilities...however, One rule to start with, usually you start the downbeat of a measure on the root of a chord, but this is a rule you can learn to break later. Continue developing by integrating all four notes of the 7th chord 1,3,5,7 |CEGB|. Are you might want to try a major 6th chord. |1,3,5,6|1,6,5,3,|1 |CEGA|CAGE|C You should recognize this as the bass line to Glenn Millers' "In the Mood"...also many 50 era songs use this bass line.

The next step can be adding diatonic none chord tones. For example if you are playing I to V, you might play something like |1,2,3,4|5...| |CDEF|G...|Note the 5 is actually the 1 (root) of the V chord. Essentially you are walking up from the I chord to the V chord. Note that 1,2,3,4 is what I call a linear line; when you play 1,3,5,7 it is what I call an arpeggiated line.

You can also throw in chromatic notes that are not diatonic. For example if you were play I to IV you could play |1,3,5,b5|4...| |CEGGb|F...| Note the 4 is actually the 1 (root) of the IV chord. Some might think of this as |1,3,5,#4|4...| |CEGF#|F...| The #4 and b5 are the same tone, but have a different name. When different notes are actually the same pitch, we call them enharmonic.

If you want to to learn how to improvise this sort of bass line, you need to know the major and minor keys; the diatonic 7th chords and the major and minor 6th chords; and how to read jazz chord notation. I also suggest learning harmonization of the major and minor keys up to at least the 7th chords.

Harmonization in this context basically means you know the shape of the seven diatonic 7th chords in major, natural minor, harmonic minor, and jazz/melodic minor. Having this knowledge helps determine how each chord functions within the progression. The idea is to analyze a chord progression and decide which notes are diatonic. Jazz tends to wander around instead of staying firmly in one key center, so it tends to get pretty complicated.

The hardest part about reading jazz chord notation is there are multiple ways to write out most chords and you have to be able to instantaneously recognize and interpret all of them. For example D minor7 can be written D-7.

Here's an online resource that you may find useful: [Bob magnusson] the_art_of_walking_bass_a_method_(book_za.org)

 

[jallenbass]

I'm trying but my ear isn't that good. knowing the roots are good but the chromaticism are tougher.

Cool. Keep trying. At first, it's hard but it'll get easier.

 

[GreggBummer]

I kind of have issue with it. Jazz is normally all kinds of progressions (though ii V I is the most common) and non chord tones are played ALL the time to add color and illustrate whatever is happening in the rest of the harmony or improv.

Also why on earth are we telling people who are looking for advice to practice partial scales???

Well, I don’t know the bassist I quoted personally. However I think he gave a the OP some solid ground work for learning bass. I’m sure you’re a more advanced player, and I won’t argue your point only to say that I don’t think the advanced player was malcom35’s target audience.
Music and how we approach it is open to interpretation of course.

 

[ClusterFlux]

That describes a lot of 60s rock music as well and doesn't really approach how jazz improvisation is different.

"A lot" meaning what, three Pink Floyd songs and the typical Grateful Dead guitar solo during a folk-based song?

I don't think you can really classify oh let's say Hank Mobley's solo on IF I SHOULD LOSE YOU as "theme and variation"...

"Theme and variation" is a compositional structure, and yes that tune is absolutely using that structure.

C'mon, man. If you give someone who isn't a musician a twenty-page essay on The True Nature of Jazz, you've lost them. If you tell them "it's a theme and variation, listen to how the chords repeat, and how they improvise over the chords," then it makes it much easier to follow, and much less intimidating.

 

[coyote1]

I kind of have issue with it. Jazz is normally all kinds of progressions (though ii V I is the most common) and non chord tones are played ALL the time to add color and illustrate whatever is happening in the rest of the harmony or improv.

Also why on earth are we telling people who are looking for advice to practice partial scales???

Except that non-chord tones are NOT a starting point for the beginner.

 

[InhumanResource]

Except that non-chord tones are NOT a starting point for the beginner.

They are if you are beginning jazz. And the part about practicing partial scales stands.

 

[Doug4321]

A little tangent.

When I noodle around it sounds pretty blues-rock. I know it’s generally minor pentatonic stuff.
With Scott on Scott’s bass lessons, for example, he often noodles around and it sounds to me “Jazz.” I’ve often wondered what scales or phrases people use when they sound Jazz. Anyone have an answer..?
A whole tone scale sounds jazz, but I know it’s not that.

Also, when Pino Palladino played with The Who he sounded pretty “jazz” in places.

 

[coyote1]

They are if you are beginning jazz. And the part about practicing partial scales stands.

He’ll be on to secondary dominants and tritone substitution within a week.

 

[Spin Doctor]

A little tangent.

When I noodle around it sounds pretty blues-rock. I know it’s generally minor pentatonic stuff.
With Scott on Scott’s bass lessons, for example, he often noodles around and it sounds to me “Jazz.” I’ve often wondered what scales or phrases people use when they sound Jazz. Anyone have an answer..?
A whole tone scale sounds jazz, but I know it’s not that.

Also, when Pino Palladino played with The Who he sounded pretty “jazz” in places.

It's not really so much about playing any particular scale, as it's about the way the lines are phrased and the intent with which you play them. Take somebody like Jimmy Haslip who played with the yellow jackets for over 30 years up until recently. His solos and overall groove are almost always diatonic to a major key with one or maybe two outside notes in a whole solo. But it's the way he plays it that makes it jazz. The tension you create and then the release is what it's about a lot of the time. This is a pretty big generalization, but I think it's true for the most part. You don't have to play a lot of outside stuff to be killing it.

So then if you hear something that tickles your ear, you ask yourself how does that work? Then you transcribe it and then take it apart, turn it upside down and just play it over and over and over so it becomes a part of you. Then you do that a bunch of times and then pretty soon you're playing jazz LOL. Now obviously there's a lot of steps in between all of that and a lot of groundwork to do first. But once you get that somewhat sorted out, everything you need to know about playing jazz is already there in the recordings that have come before us.

 

[JoeWPgh]

To get a grip on jazz, I recommend a beginner to focus on only 2 "songs". The 12 bar blues, and I Got Rythm - AKA 'Rythm Changes'. Learn the many common chord substitutions for each of these "songs". These translate through much of standard jazz.

 

[thmsjordan]

Just FYI you couldn't have picked a prettier tune. Yoko Kanno is such a treasure and so versatile.
A few of her other tunes that I just love:







She is so creative and has written so many pieces that should really be celebrated as master works.

Here is a long sample for those who are interested.

 

[ComeHomeShane]

@ OP. Well, I hope you’re not scared away from the slew of how-to master jazz posts....

IMO, you have a few simple options to begin learning...

- If you want to just learn this specific song first; download a free app called AnyTune. Like current jazz musicians do, you can slow down and loop segments of the song which will allow you to transcribe the bass part by ear in small, achievable chunks.

- If you want to develop you’re understanding of walking bass lines, and in turn, lay a foundation for jazz theory, I love Ed Friedlands book ‘ building walking bass lines ‘. I hand this book to my freshman bass players and they do great!

- if you want to choke yourself with jazz theory and becoming a master by tomorrow, well, good luck.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Jazz bassists (at least good ones) think like musicians, not just bassists. The melodic aspect is more important.

 

[Doug4321]

Thanks Spin Doctor. Scott touches on that too in the lesson below. Phrasing not scales I suppose.
When I noodle around a major scale, it sounds like dorky baroque music or something. !!
Below Scott does that kind of jazzy noodling for the first 20 seconds, then goes over major scale, intervals, arpeggios. But never quite gives away the secret!

 

[Ed Fuqua]

"A lot" meaning what, three Pink Floyd songs and the typical Grateful Dead guitar solo during a folk-based song?



"Theme and variation" is a compositional structure, and yes that tune is absolutely using that structure.

C'mon, man. If you give someone who isn't a musician a twenty-page essay on The True Nature of Jazz, you've lost them. If you tell them "it's a theme and variation, listen to how the chords repeat, and how they improvise over the chords," then it makes it much easier to follow, and much less intimidating.

OK

 

[J_Bass]

A friend asked me how I would explain jazz to someone who wasn't a musician, analogy was pretty much the only way to approach it, for me. I said to her that most rock music, Western classical music, etc. was very much akin to a play - the various actors do the same lines and the same action with the same sets and costumes every time that play is performed and they try to communicate meaning and emotion to their audience with their interpretation of character, invoking the feelings and emotions of each character in such a way that the audience feels it in a very real and visceral way. and if you send a copy of that play to another group of actors, they can put their own "spin" on it , but the words and the actions are the same, they don't change.

Blues, and some of the rock and country music that has at its base the blues, bluegrass and a few other forms of music in this country are akin to telling stories - the basic plot and characters remain the same, but the details, perambulations, digressions, etc. all depend on the skill, life experience, and the ability of the storyteller to speak to his/her specific audience; some audiences want long, detailed stories, some just want to hear how it all worked out.

But jazz, particularly post-bop jazz, is much more akin to a conversation, a deep conversation, in which the direction of the conversation can twist and turn and embrace a multiplicity of subjects and directions all surrounding and relating to, and ancillary to whatever the original topic of conversation happened to be. All contingent on the depth of knowledge, breadth of vocabulary, and most importantly the intent of those who are involved in the conversation.

The basic premise for playing is this - you have a melody. That melody is supported by a harmonic framework (the chord progression), that the composer chose. When you hear those two things, what do YOU hear that you want to play in response? Yes, the bass is there to supply the foundation for the other instruments, but your line should be a melodic response that defines the harmony AND propels it forward to the next chord. And the next and the next. My former teacher described it with the analogy of learning to drive; when you start out, you aren't really looking much past the windshield and the car in front of you. When you get some experience, you're not looking at anything, you're seeing the whole picture - the car in front of you, the cars ahead, the intersections, what's behind you, etc.

So, sure, scales, arpeggios, yada, yada. That's not vocabulary, that's getting some familiarity with the instrument and working out solutions to fingering and position shifts. The skill set that really means something is to be able to HEAR those things with enough clarity that when you hear that song that you can play the roots to, you can hear not only what the chord quality is (what those other notes are), but you can hear internally what notes you want to play as a response and where those notes are on your instrument. As I've said before countless times, the 3 legs of the tripod are TECHNIQUE (physical approach to the instrument, how to play without tension) UNDERSTANDING (music theory, how functional harmony works) and HEARING ( ear training, being able to identify, sing, and play the intervals, triads, chords with tension etc.).

Fantastic.

 

[Spin Doctor]

Thanks Spin Doctor. Scott touches on that too in the lesson below. Phrasing not scales I suppose.
When I noodle around a major scale, it sounds like dorky baroque music or something. !!
Below Scott does that kind of jazzy noodling for the first 20 seconds, then goes over major scale, intervals, arpeggios. But never quite gives away the secret!

Yeah it's learning those sequences, the arpeggios, and the pentatonics that live inside the major scales that is part of the groundwork that I was talking about. It's really about learning how to manipulate a scale and not just play it up and down. And then you learn to harmonize the scale and then you can learn to manipulate all the notes that live inside those chords. That's the fundamental groundwork. That's really what takes the most time.

But regardless of what kind of music you play, learning to harmonize a scale is like the key to the kingdom. If you can do that effectively, you can pretty much learn any pop tune in minutes.

But the secret he didn't give away is just really learn to manipulate the major scale so that it becomes second nature and you don't have to think about it. The major scale is the Rosetta Stone.

 

[31HZ]

A friend asked me how I would explain jazz to someone who wasn't a musician, analogy was pretty much the only way to approach it, for me. I said to her that most rock music, Western classical music, etc. was very much akin to a play - the various actors do the same lines and the same action with the same sets and costumes every time that play is performed and they try to communicate meaning and emotion to their audience with their interpretation of character, invoking the feelings and emotions of each character in such a way that the audience feels it in a very real and visceral way. and if you send a copy of that play to another group of actors, they can put their own "spin" on it , but the words and the actions are the same, they don't change.

Blues, and some of the rock and country music that has at its base the blues, bluegrass and a few other forms of music in this country are akin to telling stories - the basic plot and characters remain the same, but the details, perambulations, digressions, etc. all depend on the skill, life experience, and the ability of the storyteller to speak to his/her specific audience; some audiences want long, detailed stories, some just want to hear how it all worked out.

But jazz, particularly post-bop jazz, is much more akin to a conversation, a deep conversation, in which the direction of the conversation can twist and turn and embrace a multiplicity of subjects and directions all surrounding and relating to, and ancillary to whatever the original topic of conversation happened to be. All contingent on the depth of knowledge, breadth of vocabulary, and most importantly the intent of those who are involved in the conversation.

The basic premise for playing is this - you have a melody. That melody is supported by a harmonic framework (the chord progression), that the composer chose. When you hear those two things, what do YOU hear that you want to play in response? Yes, the bass is there to supply the foundation for the other instruments, but your line should be a melodic response that defines the harmony AND propels it forward to the next chord. And the next and the next. My former teacher described it with the analogy of learning to drive; when you start out, you aren't really looking much past the windshield and the car in front of you. When you get some experience, you're not looking at anything, you're seeing the whole picture - the car in front of you, the cars ahead, the intersections, what's behind you, etc.

So, sure, scales, arpeggios, yada, yada. That's not vocabulary, that's getting some familiarity with the instrument and working out solutions to fingering and position shifts. The skill set that really means something is to be able to HEAR those things with enough clarity that when you hear that song that you can play the roots to, you can hear not only what the chord quality is (what those other notes are), but you can hear internally what notes you want to play as a response and where those notes are on your instrument. As I've said before countless times, the 3 legs of the tripod are TECHNIQUE (physical approach to the instrument, how to play without tension) UNDERSTANDING (music theory, how functional harmony works) and HEARING ( ear training, being able to identify, sing, and play the intervals, triads, chords with tension etc.).

I came here to say that this is the best single encapsulation/simile post that I've ever read on this -- and maybe any -- forum.

Thank you, @Ed Fuqua !