Q. I'm at early intermediate jazz harmony and improvisation. It's fun but also brings a lot of frustrations and confusion. I'm a college student and I cannot afford to take lessons from a teacher consistently. And sadly, it's kind of hard to find a player with some experience in my area. I want know how to create my own arrangement using a jazz lead sheet. I have some understanding of jazz harmony but I want to how to put the pieces together to make it sound like a song.
Thanks.
A. Youre lucky, you play piano. Beethoven, Mozart etc used to write their symphonies out at home using the piano because the could play all the parts and hear how it was working.
First thing to do is to get a fresh sheet of manuscript paper (blank) with twelve lines on it. At the beginning of each line (in FRONT of the line), write the NAME of the INSTRUMENT that will be playing it (so you know what youre doing). I have no idea what instruments youre writing for but you should be able to find an example of a score somewhere to copy.
In an orchestral score the wind instruments are highes, so the highest line would be the piccolo and then the flute, clarinet, oboe etc, then the brass section, strings, percussion on the lowest line (Hey, you'll work it out.)
2. Write the CLEFS KEYS AND TIME for all the lines.
3. Get a ruler and divide your bar lines STRAIGHT DOWN THE PAGE from top to bottom, making FOUR BARS PER PAGE.
Discussion time: If you have a keyboard that can actually make the instrument sounds youll be using, you might find it helpful.
4. LOOK at the notes from your lead sheet and DECIDE which of the instruments it would sound best on. WRITE the first phrase of notes on your sheet (WORK IN PENCIL!!! PLEASE!!!) (phrase=sentence).
5. Sit at your instrument. PLAY that phrase, and then find something that you think fits. Play a few things. Think of singing rounds (Like row row row your boat, or do you see what I see (the christmas song) its called answering the theme.
You can also write the note a THIRD or FIFTH or OCTAVE below the melody note and then just copy the line. So, if your melody note was a C, you could put an E under it (3rd)(note, thirds are also called 6ths if they are played HIGHER than the main melody note) or a G (5th) or the C an octave lower.
You could write these notes to play at the same time with two instruments, and then have a third instrument ANSWERING after it, and then a fourth using the next interval.
SO, IF your melody was this C C D E C GGG A E
(2nd instrument playing 3rds) E E F G E BBB C G
(and instrument 3 would ANSWER after using 5ths like this) G G A B G DDD E B
Instrument 4 could do scales: cde dee cde edc edc
So, really all you're doing is SHARING out the notes from the chords equally amongst the other instruments to create texture AND blending.
If you have a C chord, the notes would be C E G.
The instrument that is playing the lead MUST keep the melody in tact. What that means is that you cant take THOSE notes away from that instrument, they must STAY in the melody part, SO, if the lead is playing the E, give the other two notes C and G to one of the accompanying parts. Thats how choirs work. Heres SILENT NIGHT so you get the idea
Lead:G AG E G AG E D D B C C G
2nd: E FE C E FE C A A G G G E
3rd: C C C C C CC C F F D E E C
The bass instrument should always be given the root of the chord, so if its a C chord, it plays a C.
Try to work on the ONE phrase untilyoure happy with it, then write out the next group. FINISH 8 bars at a time and dont go on to the next part until that part is what you call FINISHED. A lot of the ideas you will use for the rest of it will come from these initial ideas. Dont rush it. Take your time.
Once you start you'll see its not as hard as you thought it was going to be, and remember to write what you think it should sound like.
Hope I helped.
Cat
How do you "walk" the bass to make a song swing?
Q. Can anyone tell me about walking the bass on the piano....thx
A. LH bass playing:
always start with the root of the chord
use quarter notes only! no eighth notes
outline each chord that you play-but do not arpeggiate the chord--this will sound like boogie woogie style
LH bass-should sound like a bass player
use mostly roots,5ths of chords,scale wise ideas to get you to the next chord
try this----
Cmaj7 Ami7 Dmi7 G7 Cmaj7
for cmaj7 chord---
c d e g
for a min7---
a g e c
for d min7---
d e f a
for g7---
g f e d
for cmaj7----
c g g c
all together--
c d e g ag e c
d e f a g f e d
c g g c
4/4 time--1 chord per measure
What are the names of the cords in Impromptu No.4 in A-flat Major by Franz Schubert?
Q. Anyone know the cord names from the trio?
http://javanese.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/0/0d/IMSLP11133-Godowsky_APS_57_Schubert_Impromptu_Op.90.pdf
That is the music there
A. That's not a short piece. Can you read sheet music? IMO, you really should try to identify the chords on your own; it won't help your learning if someone else does them.
Just start slowly, even writing out all the notes by hand and looking at references for what chords they might be. Here's a neat site for identifying chords by just notes:
http://www.scales-chords.com/chordid.php
This explains chord theory:
http://www.museweb.com/ag/chord_form.html
Knowing the chords won't help with learning to play since the right hand is usually working on melodic phrases, not static chords. I started learning piano on my own. Coming from playing wind instruments (flute/oboe), it's hard to coordinate my hands to follow two lines, but I find it's good to either play one hand's part at a time or go very slowly and play both hands simultaneously. If you play slowly but with "quick fingers", you can avoid mistakes and be prepared to play at the correct speed.
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Title : How to Create An Arrangement Using a Lead Sheet (Jazz Piano Solo)?
Description : Q. I'm at early intermediate jazz harmony and improvisation. It's fun but also brings a lot of frustrations and confusion. I'm ...