[0:03] Theory with Bob
[0:06] hey what's happening beautiful Geniuses
[0:07] Trumpeter Bobby Spellman here and if
[0:10] you're just getting into listening to or
[0:12] playing jazz music or you're interested
[0:14] in learning how to improvise on your
[0:15] instrument you may be asking yourself
[0:17] how does all this Jazz business work how
[0:20] much of the music is improvised versus
[0:21] written down what are the roles of each
[0:23] of the instruments in a jazz band and
[0:25] how is it possible that a bunch of
[0:27] musicians can all be creating music
[0:29] spontaneously without it sounding like
[0:31] total chaos well today I'm going to try
[0:33] to demystify the mechanics of jazz and
[0:36] try to shed some light on why it is such
[0:38] an exciting style of music to play and
[0:41] to listen to but in order to do so I'm
[0:43] going to need a Little Help from My
[0:45] Friends
[0:47] Julian Smith on the base
[0:50] Evan Hyde on the drums
[0:53] and Julia Chen on the piano
[0:56] and we're going to do a little
[0:57] demonstration of some of the mechanics
[0:59] of how a jazz performance works and
[1:02] plays through a little tune for you and
[1:04] have some fun so let's get started we're
[1:06] going to start out with the bass
[1:10] [Music]
[1:12] now the bass is the backbone of most
[1:14] Jazz groups
[1:16] the base has two very important jobs
[1:18] simultaneously
[1:20] first base player's job is to play the
[1:24] time usually in the form of a walking
[1:26] bass line
[1:27] consisting of mostly quarter notes and
[1:29] some Embellishments
[1:30] and the other thing the bass player does
[1:32] is establish the harmony by playing the
[1:35] root notes and connecting them with the
[1:39] chord tones and passing tones so the
[1:41] bass player is going to be playing the
[1:42] time while also holding down the harmony
[1:45] for the rest of the band
[1:47] and it's a big job
[1:51] but Julian's capable of it he's the guy
[1:53] are we gonna bring the drums now all
[1:54] right Evan come on in with the drums
[1:57] the drummer's job
[2:00] is to embellish the time and to interact
[2:02] with the soloists and with the melody
[2:04] in order to drive the music forward and
[2:06] give it a little bit more excitement
[2:09] Evan here is playing a typical swing
[2:12] pattern on the ride cymbal
[2:14] and holding down the two and four on the
[2:16] hi-hat
[2:18] that leaves his left hand and his foot
[2:20] to Accent the music
[2:22] in any way he would choose
[2:24] improvisationally
[2:25] throughout the piece
[2:27] now unliking Rock and pop music the
[2:29] drummer has a lot of freedom to play
[2:31] around with the groove so it's not a
[2:32] strict drum beat but it can be a
[2:34] variable pattern in order to be able to
[2:36] interact with the other musicians while
[2:38] we're improvising all right with that
[2:40] we're going to bring in Julia on the
[2:41] piano
[2:42] and here we go
[2:46] the piano's job
[2:49] the chords
[2:51] and help out with the harmony as well as
[2:53] play solos and play melodies especially
[2:56] in the case of a Piano Trio
[2:58] [Music]
[3:01] now once again in jazz unlike in rock
[3:03] and pop music there isn't a set Rhythm
[3:05] that The Pianist or other harmonic
[3:08] instrument player needs to play but
[3:10] rather they have the opportunity to
[3:12] improvise with those rhythms as long as
[3:14] those chords fit the underlying form
[3:18] now this is called accompanying which we
[3:21] shorten to comping so Julia what I've
[3:23] been talking now has been comping and
[3:26] she will accompany me when I play the
[3:27] trumpet or play uh you know solos play
[3:30] The Melody etc etc alright that brings
[3:33] it to me in the horn section
[3:36] now the horn section in a typical Jazz
[3:38] combo or our jazz quartet or a jazz
[3:40] group of any kind May consist of a
[3:42] number of instruments including trumpet
[3:44] trombone
[3:46] tenor saxophone
[3:48] saxophone any
[3:50] clarinet flute sometimes you might have
[3:53] a harmonica or a recorder or melodica or
[3:56] some kind of other thing but uh our job
[3:59] in the horn section is to play The
[4:01] Melodies and to play solos
[4:03] we in the horn section rely on the
[4:05] Rhythm Section for the Rhythm and for
[4:07] the Harmony and the Rhythm Section
[4:09] relies on us in the horn section for a
[4:12] tenuous sense of existential
[4:15] reality for a for a sense of purpose in
[4:19] all this music and together it's a
[4:20] symbiotic relationship all right
[4:23] so moving along the band as we've been
[4:26] talking has been playing
[4:28] a very common 12 measure form known as
[4:32] the blues a blues typically consists of
[4:35] 12 measures and uh it can change a lot
[4:38] there's a lot of variability in the
[4:39] Blues form but very typically we will
[4:41] have
[4:42] four chords and they go like this the
[4:45] one chord of the key the four chord of
[4:48] the key back to the one
[4:50] you stay on the one for another bar then
[4:52] it goes to the four chord four
[4:57] back to the one and the last four bars
[5:00] of the Blues is called the turnaround it
[5:01] goes two
[5:03] five
[5:05] one now this is a Blues in the key of f
[5:07] so the chords are going to be F7 to B
[5:11] flat seven to F7
[5:14] [Music]
[5:16] going on to B flat seven
[5:19] flat seven
[5:21] back to F7
[5:23] once again to turn around we get G minor
[5:26] seven
[5:27] C7 back to F7 again
[5:32] now most jazz tunes have a unique chord
[5:35] progression based on The Melody of the
[5:37] tune the atmosphere that the composer is
[5:40] trying to create but a blues is one of a
[5:42] number of forms that can be uh used for
[5:45] a number of different tunes and provides
[5:46] the basis for a lot of different tunes
[5:48] that we play so Blues is the most common
[5:50] form that you run into in jazz there are
[5:52] a couple other ones that you see that
[5:54] are common forms but certainly uh the
[5:56] blues is a great one to start with
[5:58] because we're dealing with a relatively
[6:00] simple chord progression and it's really
[6:02] the basis for what we do not only in
[6:04] jazz but in rock and Funk and just about
[6:07] all of American popular music alright so
[6:09] now we're going to talk about how we
[6:12] relate as improvisers to these
[6:14] underlying chords
[6:15] so for each chord in the form there is a
[6:19] scale or mode that is most consonant to
[6:22] that underlying chord so if we can learn
[6:25] these various scales and how to
[6:27] improvise with them how to invent
[6:29] Melodies using these scales we can
[6:31] relate to the chords in such a way that
[6:33] the whole thing sounds harmonious even
[6:35] though we're all improvising at the same
[6:37] time so we're going to go over each
[6:39] chord one at a time in the Blues and
[6:41] talk about some of these scales that I
[6:42] might choose to use so let's start with
[6:44] the F7 so this is the one chord we're
[6:47] just going to hang out on F7 we've
[6:49] abandoned the form we're going to hang
[6:50] out on F7 for a minute
[6:52] on that F7 chord the F7 is an F major
[6:56] Triad with a flat seventh on top so an E
[7:00] flat
[7:01] so that's going to sound like this
[7:04] there it is
[7:06] now I'm going to play generally speaking
[7:08] on that F7 chord I'm going to play an F
[7:11] mixolydian scale an F mixolydian mode
[7:13] mixolydian is a major scale but with a
[7:16] flatted seventh and that flattened
[7:18] seventh is going to match with what's
[7:20] going on in the chords and that scale is
[7:22] going to sound a little something like
[7:24] this
[7:27] [Music]
[7:29] hahaha
[7:31] [Music]
[7:38] [Applause]
[7:38] [Music]
[7:44] all right from our F7 chord we're going
[7:46] to move on to the next chord the four
[7:48] chord in the F major scale
[7:50] and that is going to be the B flat 7
[7:53] chord and we will come in right
[7:57] here all right that's the four chord now
[8:01] just like with the F7 is an f mixolydian
[8:04] scale for the B flat seven I will tend
[8:06] to use a B flat mixolydian scale which
[8:09] once again is going to be the B flat
[8:10] major scale for the flat seven and that
[8:12] is going to sound like this
[8:15] foreign
[8:18] [Music]
[8:32] now typically in the Blues form we go
[8:34] back to the F7 but we're going to skip
[8:35] ahead to the last four bars of the Blues
[8:37] which is called the turnaround and the
[8:39] turnaround gets us back to the top again
[8:40] now the turnaround consists in this
[8:43] particular jazz blues of a very very
[8:46] common chord progression that we know as
[8:48] the two five one and that is because it
[8:51] starts on the second chord of the key of
[8:53] f goes to the V chord and then we're
[8:55] back to the one again so two five one
[8:57] this is a little chord progression that
[8:59] makes up a lot of different tunes that
[9:00] you will hear but for now we're going to
[9:02] stick to one chord at a time so we're
[9:04] gonna go with G minor seven to start
[9:06] it's going to be right here all right
[9:08] now for the G minor seven
[9:10] my tendency is going to be to use a g
[9:13] Dorian mode which is going to be uh G
[9:15] minor scale with a natural six flat
[9:19] three flat seven but natural six and
[9:21] that sounds a little something like that
[9:23] [Music]
[9:39] from there we move on to the five chord
[9:42] coming to the end of the turn around
[9:43] here and that's going to be your C7
[9:45] chord and that's gonna sound like this
[9:48] and for that just like with the F7 and
[9:51] the B flat 7 I'm going to use the C
[9:53] mixolydian mode and that's gonna sound
[9:55] like this
[9:55] [Music]
[10:17] all right so those are the four modes
[10:19] the four chords and corresponding
[10:22] consonant modes that we might use on a
[10:24] blues such as this and we're going to
[10:25] return to the blues form now we're back
[10:29] in the 12 Bar form known as The Blues
[10:33] and we're going to take a little time
[10:34] now to play a Melody that I wrote for
[10:37] this occasion to avoid any copyright
[10:39] strikes on my YouTube channel and then
[10:42] I'm going to take a one chorus solo a
[10:43] chorus is one time through the whole
[10:45] form it's gonna sound like
[10:50] hahaha
[10:51] [Music]
[11:19] hahaha
[11:24] [Music]
[11:44] now our option is to use some of those
[11:46] more consonant modes that you've heard
[11:48] but there's also a number of different
[11:49] kinds of scales that you can use and
[11:51] that's up to the improviser to decide so
[11:53] one very common alternate scale I could
[11:55] use would be the blues scale that's a
[11:57] very common one and that's going to
[11:58] sound a little something like this
[12:00] foreign
[12:02] [Music]
[12:30] now one of the things that makes jazz
[12:32] music so much fun is that each
[12:33] individual musician has their own
[12:36] personal sound and oftentimes you can
[12:39] hear the way that a musician you can
[12:41] identify a musician by just one or two
[12:43] notes now a part of that musician's
[12:45] individual sound is their tone on the
[12:48] instrument uh you know what instrument
[12:49] they're playing as well as what kinds of
[12:51] rhythms and Melodies and what their
[12:53] influences are any number of different
[12:55] things that will make up a musician but
[12:57] one of the things that you can also hear
[12:59] in a musician sound is the way they
[13:01] choose to use consonants versus
[13:03] dissonance so very commonly you know you
[13:06] would think of uh dissonant notes we
[13:08] might have traditionally heard dissonant
[13:09] notes as being referred to as wrong
[13:11] notes but in our post Eric dolphy world
[13:14] it's just another Choice any kind of uh
[13:17] creative musician can choose to use more
[13:19] dissonant sounds dissonant scales
[13:21] dissonant intervals in his or her
[13:23] improvisations and that's going to be a
[13:25] part of his or her characteristic sound
[13:26] so I'm going to show you a little bit
[13:27] about what happens if I Take It Outside
[13:29] of those chords that we played in those
[13:31] regular modes and take it into a
[13:33] different realm and that's going to
[13:33] sound a little something like this
[13:35] [Music]
[14:07] all right so anything's possible here in
[14:09] the world of jazz music or taking it out
[14:12] we're having a good good old time here
[14:13] all right so usually you will play the
[14:15] head in the head in is the melody so we
[14:18] played that already and then everybody
[14:19] in the band will take a little solo
[14:20] we'll trade around it could be any
[14:22] length but for now we're gonna stick to
[14:23] one chorus and we're gonna start with
[14:25] Julia Chan on the piano
[14:30] [Music]
[14:42] foreign
[14:45] [Music]
[14:54] for Mr Julian Smith
[14:55] [Music]
[15:16] all right and once everybody takes a
[15:18] solo of their own chosen length whatever
[15:19] the however much they they want to say
[15:22] in the whole grand scheme of the form
[15:25] comes time for the drum solo now there's
[15:27] a couple different options that we have
[15:28] with the drum solo but one option is
[15:31] called trading fours and in trading
[15:33] fours what we're gonna do is each of us
[15:34] will go around in the band and take four
[15:37] bar improvisations trading with Evan
[15:40] over here on the drums throughout the
[15:42] form so we're gonna stick with the form
[15:44] but we're just each gonna take a little
[15:45] four of our solo now you could trade
[15:47] eights you could trade 16s you could
[15:48] probably trade 32s or 64s but it might
[15:50] get a little unwieldy so we're gonna
[15:51] stick to Fours for now and that sounds a
[15:53] little something like this
[15:56] foreign
[15:58] [Music]
[16:50] now that's one option for a drum solo
[16:53] the other a very common option is for
[16:55] the drummer to take an unaccompanied
[16:57] solo and even though the drummer is
[17:00] going to be playing by himself without
[17:01] any kind of accompaniment by any of the
[17:03] harmonic instruments he's still gonna
[17:05] follow the form so he might play one
[17:07] chorus two chorus three choruses however
[17:09] many courses that's gonna sound like
[17:10] this in this case we're just going to
[17:12] take one chorus of drum solo here we go
[17:14] Evan hide
[17:15] [Music]
[17:38] all right now typically after the drum
[17:41] solo we'd go right back into the head
[17:42] out just like the melody in is called
[17:45] the head in the melody on the end of the
[17:47] tune is called the head out so we're
[17:48] going to play the head out now for you
[17:50] and close out this tune
[17:53] hope you had a little fun here we go
[17:56] [Music]
[18:34] and that's a little introduction on how
[18:36] Jazz improvisation works we got the
[18:38] instruments in a regular Jazz combo
[18:39] there may be many other different
[18:41] instruments that we haven't covered here
[18:42] and anything it goes but for now this is
[18:44] a very standard instrumentation after
[18:46] that we've got the chords of the tune
[18:48] once again the blues is just one of a
[18:50] number of different forms usually jazz
[18:51] tunes will have their own unique chord
[18:53] progressions but it's a good place to
[18:54] start with the blues because it's a
[18:55] common one that you will run into
[18:56] regularly we got four chords in this one
[18:58] each of those chords has a scale that is
[19:01] most consonant to that chord that we can
[19:02] use to create Melodies at any given time
[19:05] any one of us in the band becomes the
[19:07] composer so it's always a very exciting
[19:09] it's an exciting style of music because
[19:11] all of a sudden the job of the
[19:13] individual musician becomes the job of
[19:15] the composer in a spontaneous fashion
[19:17] and we all will interact with each other
[19:19] we all have the opportunity to listen in
[19:21] very closely to what the other one is
[19:22] playing and to try to interact in such a
[19:24] way that we can make beautiful music and
[19:25] have a good old time after that we're
[19:28] able to expand on what we're doing
[19:30] beyond the normal chords that we have
[19:31] and really try to capture some
[19:33] interesting rhythms and and in the whole
[19:35] process of the thing really try to
[19:36] capture our own view of the very essence
[19:39] of The Human Condition and try to convey
[19:42] that through sound to the adoring fans
[19:44] in the audience all right gang and that
[19:46] is a little bit on how to Jazz
[19:50] all right gang and there you have it a
[19:52] little rundown on the fundamental
[19:54] mechanics of how jazz music works hope
[19:56] that clears up a little confusion
[19:57] surrounding what's going on while we're
[19:59] playing and I hope it inspires you to go
[20:01] check out some great records go check
[20:03] out some live music and pick up your own
[20:05] instrument go hang out with your friends
[20:06] and try some of these ideas out for
[20:08] yourself if you like this video be sure
[20:10] to give it a like And subscribe to the
[20:12] channel for more videos on jazz music
[20:14] improvisation and music theory going
[20:17] forward also if you have any questions
[20:18] on any of the topics that we covered in
[20:20] this video be sure to leave them in the
[20:22] comments below and I'll do my best to
[20:23] get back to you and clear up any
[20:25] residual confusion on the topic at hand
[20:28] alright gang well until next time be
[20:31] sure to go check out some great records
[20:32] and have a lot of fun with it and I'll
[20:33] catch you on the next one see ya
[20:38] Theory with Bob
[20:42] all right friends thanks so much for
[20:44] checking out this video I hope it helped
[20:46] in your understanding of the musical
[20:47] world and in your pursuit of the Majesty
[20:49] of musical self-expression if you like
[20:52] this video you can let us know by giving
[20:53] it a like and be sure to subscribe to
[20:55] the channel for more musical education
[20:57] videos going forward you can also follow
[21:00] me on Instagram at Bob Spelman for some
[21:03] more musical fun the Ridgewood school of
[21:06] music is now accepting new students
[21:07] online as well as in person in the
[21:10] Brooklyn Queens and greater New York
[21:12] City area you can find us on our website
[21:14] at
[21:16] www.ridgewoodschoolofmusic.com or you
[21:18] can send us an email at Ridgewood
[21:20] schoolofmusic gmail.com and we'll get
[21:24] back to you as soon as we can try to set
[21:25] you up with a great teacher for the
[21:27] kinds of music that you're looking to
[21:29] study all right gang well thanks again
[21:31] and until next time happy practicing
[21:35] foreign
[21:37] [Music]