How to maintain your jazz repertoire.

I recently attended a Q&A with Lynn Seaton, bassist, and Regents Professor from North Texas State University. My question to him was on how he maintains his repertoire when jazz gigs are no longer 6 nights a week.

His answer.

1. I have a list of memorized pieces to work from.
2. At the end of every practice session, I play a 45 minute “set” from the list by playing with play along recordings of Jamie Aebersold or iReal pro phone app.
3. I cycle through this repertoire in a methodical way, by focusing on difficult tunes, not the simple tunes. I don't waste my time.
4. I consider a tune memorized when I can write out a chord chart from memory. 

​What a great answer. After he practices, he rehearses from his list. How simple is that?  My plan is to follow his lead for a year and see what happens. I'm going to use the list below as a goal for revitalizing my repertoire on the mallets. 

Happy practicing. 


David

     "I have been a student with David for the past couple of years. While my primary instrument is Trumpet, I decided to take piano to broaden my knowledge. I have never had music theory, either in school or private lessons. David is taking me there through the piano. He assured me that all the skills I would learn through theory and practice on the piano were transferable to other instruments. David has a way of simplifying theory concepts, making them easier to understand. 
     I had an opportunity to play Trumpet at a private service recently. Playing completely solo - no other musicians. One piece happened to be the one David and I were working on. Everything we had done came into “play” and those skills I have learned completely transferred to my Trumpet and I played the best I have ever played. 
     When you ask yourself, “Do I really need to know this?” I can honestly say, Yes! and it pays off in performance quality."

Barb

Thank you, Barb. 

A New Student's Profile
 
The new student is a young professional with a keen interest in learning to play jazz piano. They took piano and trumpet lessons in high school. They have a basic understanding of music theory. Aural skills are excellent.

Their program will include the following components:

1. Learning several simple jazz melodies by ear. This will give them something to work with as they learn to improvise. And they won’t be simultaneously working on a tune and trying to improvise at the same time. Using their ears to learn the melodies from YouTube recordings will teach them to articulate the melodies in an idiomatic way because reading melodies from the fakebook never does. Jazz is an aural art form not a visual one. Come to think of it, so is Classical piano.
2. They have started learning, by rote, the sixty jazz chords: Major 7th, Dominant 7th, minor 7th, minor 7b5, and diminished 7th chords. These are the basis of jazz harmony and jazz improvisation.
3. I recommended that they revisit written piano music to keep their piano skills sharp because jazz piano is notorious for “killing” the left hand of pianists.
4. First tune up is C jam Blues. (You can view this part of the lesson for free. No strings attached.) They began learning the different interpretations of that famous melody. Along the way they heard simple licks the pianists put in the music. These licks, learned by ear, are the beginning of their library of idiomatic phrases for later use.

If I can help you, call me.
 
David 

This is a perennial favorite of music students. Let's look at a few key terms and concepts. 

Canon is a melody that accompanies itself at a staggered interval. Row, row, row your boat is a well-known example. In this canon the melody, played by the violinists, follows itself in two measure intervals. 
Ground Bass is the violoncello melody that repeats its 8 note pattern throughout the piece.
Cembalo or continuo is the chordal accompaniment that is improvised behind the violins. In this video it is played by the organ and the lute. Notice that the cembalo left hand outlines the ground bass. 

Other notable orchestral canons can be found in J.S. Bach’s Musical Offering. The canons in that suite of pieces feature 2 violins chasing each other around accompanied by the continuo.

Have Fun. 

David