Love your posts, man!
Now the "Jazzman" collects Lamborghinis and is a major Hollywood film composer.
Now the "Jazzman" collects Lamborghinis and is a major Hollywood film composer.
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Thanks.
Reliving this part of my life puts everything in context when I'm dealing with guys who are the same age as my niece's at work.
Also going thru the 40-something deal where I'm remembering and going back to who I was as a kid that fueled singular focus and drive.
OP, find a good private teacher and stick with that teacher. Unless you are going to a performing high school, you really want individual mentoring and shaping of your particular strengths and weaknesses. Not too many kids can get that in a generic high school.
PS My private teacher got a gig with Beach Blanket Babylon and that's where he settled out. Bought a house in San Francisco doing it, so that's something to be proud of.
PPS I have friends that are post audio or music content pros. It's an actual job, the loving it part was something high school and college music programs doesn't usually enhance. It's up to you to play out and find your own happiness on your own. FWIW those guys collect Ferraris, vintage VWs, Nova's, ex wives, alimony child support, awards, accolades, fame, kids that hate you, etc. Real life happens in an ugly manner.
Yep. This is where you should focus your time. Even the grade 5 music meant for advanced high school and college ensembles will have written bass lines.
^^^^ This. I was in my high school jazz band, and everything was written out. Luckily, I knew how to read as I was a saxophone player first. It wasn't difficult to move from treble clef to bass clef. Our instructor also played recordings of the song arrangements before we attempted to play anything, so using my ear while reading along with the music helped. Remember that all the horn players will be reading notation as well and probably come from a more classical background. The arrangements for a high school jazz band are pretty strict, and those horn players won't deviate from the music in front of their faces.
Thank you so much for your helpful reply, and thank you to everyone else who has replied. Your advice is outstanding and incredibly useful, thank you.
Contact the band director at the school. Ask if you can get the folder the band will start with to take home and work on. Once you get the folder, come back and ask specific questions.
As others have said, the purpose of school/teachers is learning/teaching. The teacher can't expect you to show up on day one and blow through every song with ease. Relax. Have fun. I got my start in high school jazz band too. It's a great place to start!
As others have said, the purpose of school/teachers is learning/teaching. The teacher can't expect you to show up on day one and blow through every song with ease. Relax. Have fun. I got my start in high school jazz band too. It's a great place to start!
Hey! Okay, a little context: I only play the electric bass and have been for a while. I am not interested, at least for the moment, of learning to play another instrument. Also, there are auditions, and I have met with the band director, although it was a while ago when I was just starting to think about auditioning. He gave me a few songs that they have played in the past and told me that they already have a few bassists. He also told me there probably wouldn't be more than one other kid auditioning for bass.
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I actually just got a private teacher, and it has been going really well. Without him, I wouldn't be able to read bass clef at all (still can't do it that well, but I'm getting there).
Yet another reason to see if you can get the music for the beginning of the year. If your private teacher can teach you using that music, you'll walk in on day one all set.
Study and practice hard, you are in it for the long haul.
The other bass players are not your rivals.
Earning your seat about about what you are willing to invest in yourself.
Keeping your seat is harder than passing an audition, there are so many distractions in high school like imagining a 3-some with the chick trumpet players while the class is buthering Sing Sing Sing.
I was never a good sight reader. Boss knew it, yet we won a number of jazz festivals. No one is sight reading on stage.
No one is making you spelling bee onstage.
It is the single skill I can point to if you want to sit in the 1st row bc you get up to speed faster.
You end up having more time working on the nuance of your part instead of bringing up the rear struggling just to make it thru with accuracy by showtime.
Sight reading while onstage happens, unless you've never counted out full bar rests. Kinda embarrassing when someone in your section starts a sixteenth early and throws off the rest of the line.
It is the single skill I can point to if you want to sit in the 1st row bc you get up to speed faster.
You end up having more time working on the nuance of your part instead of bringing up the rear struggling just to make it thru with accuracy by showtime.
Sight reading while onstage happens, unless you've never counted out full bar rests. Kinda embarrassing when someone in your section starts a sixteenth early and throws off the rest of the line.
By the time we got to jazz festivals we'd practiced the songs so many times I could play them in my sleep.
For high school jazz band? Not very. For reading gigs (big band, musicals, etc)? Essential!
Sight-reading in HS jazz band is important, but only so far in that your director wants you to be able to play the music all the way through the first time so they can start working on details instead of "hand feeding" the music to the group. But, your director (should) also know that isn't going to happen. In fact, unless the group has a performance in just a few days, if my group can sight-read a piece of music with very little problems, I put it away and find something harder. Remember this is coming from a current band director who has done 20 years worth of jazz band teaching (and has had award winning groups). I really wouldn't worry too much (right now) about sight-reading. The rest of the members (at least the wind players - sometimes know as "horns" in jazz parlance - and the bass players who are coming from orchestra) will probably have developed sight-reading skills since that is essential to wind band playing (in Texas, we even have a yearly competition involving sight-reading for bands, orchestras, and choirs). The piano player will probably have some sight-reading skills, but unless they are really strong, they are still going to struggle with play the song all the way through the first time. The drummer will probably have an easier time of it since most drum parts in jazz music are pretty easy and repetitive except for the fills. The guitar player will probably be a horrible sight-reader unless they are very well versed in jazz chord structures. Their heads usually explode the first time they see a G+7(b9) over a bunch of slashes. This common even in easier charts.
Bottom line, do your best to learn to read music and know the fretboard and the sight-reading will eventually take care of itself. You just don't "learn sight-reading". Sight-reading skill comes from learning to read music and play your instrument.
Thank you, this is super helpful and informative. Another question if you're up for it: How important is knowing scales and arpeggios? Should I focus on learning them all now, or is it not worth it? I do have some basic knowledge of this subject, but nothing past the fundamental level.
this^ (many years ago) I was in the high school jazz band and from day one we were following charts. If you can't read bass charts and sight read for competition then you're probably SOL
Some of this advice has already been offered, I'll just confirm it:
School jazz combos almost always read from the chart. Now, if you have just started sight reading, your success will entirely depend upon how quickly you learn to read a chart and show up for rehearsals and performances competent and confident in your ability to play the piece through without a bunch of clams.
Your success also depends upon how badly your jazz band teacher needs a bass, and how many other bass players are competing for the slot.
It all goes go hand-in-hand.
Don't worry if you aren't the fastest sight reader right now. You will need to be competent enough to read through a piece at home, even painstakingly slow, and commit it to memory so that you only need the chart for reminders along the way. If you can get up to a pace where you can spend a few evenings studying the chart and reproducing it faithfully, you have a shot.
That is, if there are no other bass players competing for the slot who are faster, better, and more consistent than you.
Even then, many jazz band leaders like to keep a primary and an alternate at their disposal.If you are serious and motivated, there are two details to address immediately if you haven't already:
First, I hope you are working with an instructor who will save you a lot of time and frustration by providing strategies and exercises for being a better reader. Also, you can bounce ideas like this one off him and get his feedback and suggestions. There are a lot of relatively complex rhythms and time signatures in the jazz pieces you will see, even at the middle to high school level. As a bass teacher, I helped many students get up to speed and acquire a slot in their high school jazz program.
Second, you will need to approach your school jazz band teacher when he has a little time to talk and share your aspirations. He also has great advice and suggestions. With any luck you can impress upon him your maturity and sincerity, and he will provide a few sample pieces for you to take home, study, and practice with. Most band teachers I know will do this, especially if they think the candidate may warrant an audition.
Keep in mind this is not like your regular school "concert band" music classes where the teacher is partly responsible for your musical education. Jazz band leaders will do a bit of academics, but only as it pertains to performances; school jazz bands are almost always public performance-driven, and often competitively so. You need to come in with an appropriate skill set and motivation to be a valuable asset to his program, which means you need to work with your instructor and do your homework.
Where there is a will, there is a way. I have had many first- and second-year bass students (all beginner to intermediate readers) work themselves up into a primary slot in the school jazz band. And few things grow you faster as a musician than that kind of responsibility and scheduled performances.
I hope this has helped, and good luck with it!
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In my experience, they are more important to the bassist than the rest of the group (unless there is a lot of improvisation going on). They are important for these two reasons:
1) They help you to understand the fretboard better and where the notes are. All of the "basic scales" (major and minor) follow a pattern and (except for a few) can be played in more than one position. The jazz and blues scales are just variations on those.
2) Most of the time (but not all) you will see chords symbols over the measures (G7, Amin, etc). Many times there will be more than one in a measure. If you know your scales, it will help you to play the music easier because music under each of these chords is based upon a corresponding scale (or a slight variation of it). The bass parts in jazz band usually follow a walking bass structure. This means that the notes are constantly moving, but the are are moving in a logical pattern, usually within the notes of the scale. Know your scales and "walking the bass line" will be much easier. Sometimes the bass lines are just arpeggios, which are "broken up" chords and are just taken from the corresponding scale.
My only waring on learning scales is to not just rely on learning the pattern. I know a lot of players who can "play all of their scales", but don't actually know what they are playing. They know the pattern, not the notes within them.
There are two textbooks that your jazz band might use. They are "Essential Elements for Jazz Ensemble" and "Standard of Excellence Jazz Ensemble Method" (there is a bass book for each). I suggest contacting your director and ask if they use either of these and get the one they use (or borrow it). They are good at explaining how scales/arpeggios/chords work in the jazz setting and have good examples of walking bass lines. Plus, they teach jazz style and gets you used to the jazz sound. If the jazz band doesn't use a textbook, get the "Essential Elements for Jazz Band". My middle school jazz band uses it, but the high school jazz band uses it as well. You can easily work through this while still learning the notes and how to read music (it starts pretty simple). It even teaches improvisation. It also comes with a CD with all the tracks. Just a warning: these books are in standard notation, but they will help you learn to read music better.