Kerwin 1 This Thesis Has Been Approved by The
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Kerwin 1 This thesis has been approved by The Honors Tutorial College and the School of Music __________________________ Dr. Matthew James Professor, Saxophone and Jazz Studies Thesis Advisor ___________________________ Dr. Christopher Fisher Director of Studies, Music ___________________________ Cary Roberts Frith Interim Dean, Honors Tutorial College Kerwin 2 DEVELOPING A MELODIC VOCABULARY FOR JAZZ IMPROVISATION: NON- PLAYING PRACTICE ALTERNATIVES FOR TRUMPET STUDENTS ____________________________________ A Thesis Presented to The Honors Tutorial College Ohio University _______________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation from the Honors Tutorial College with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Music ______________________________________ by Ryan J. Kerwin April 22, 2019 Kerwin 3 Table of Contents Foreword ....................................................................................................................................... 5 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 7 2.0 Review of Literature ............................................................................................................ 12 2.1 Studies of Non-Playing Practice Techniques in Instrumental Music Education ........... 12 2.1.1 Mental Practice: ............................................................................................................... 12 2.1.2 Singing: .............................................................................................................................. 14 2.1.3 Compartmentalization of Techniques: ........................................................................... 16 2.2 Historical Accounts of Jazz Musicians and Pedagogues .................................................. 17 2.3 Mainstream Printed Jazz Pedagogy ................................................................................... 20 2.4 Contemporary Alternative Printed Jazz Pedagogy .......................................................... 26 2.5 Popular Online Resources ................................................................................................... 28 2.6 Thesis and Dissertations related to Jazz Pedagogy ........................................................... 29 2.7 Jazz Pedagogy in Music Education Research ................................................................... 32 2.8 Conclusions: ......................................................................................................................... 36 3.0 Interviews ............................................................................................................................. 38 3.1 Introduction and Biographical Information ..................................................................... 38 3.2 Interview Discussion ............................................................................................................ 39 3.2.1 Developing Aural Skills .................................................................................................... 39 3.2.2 Internalizing What You Hear .......................................................................................... 41 3.2.3 Putting Concepts into Practice on Your Instrument ..................................................... 43 4.0 A Practical Method .............................................................................................................. 47 4.1 Immersive Listening ............................................................................................................ 47 Kerwin 4 4.2 Developing an Intellectual Understanding .......................................................................... 48 4.3 Internalizing the Language .................................................................................................. 49 4.4 Connecting Aural/Theoretical Understanding to Fingering Technique ......................... 50 4.5 Applying Ideas in Context ................................................................................................... 50 5.0 Final Remarks ...................................................................................................................... 52 References ................................................................................................................................... 53 Appendices ................................................................................................................................................ 60 Appendix A: Jamey Aebersold Electronic Interview Responses ........................................................... 60 Appendix B: Jamey Aebersold Phone Interview Transcript ................................................................ 62 Appendix C: Hal Crook Interview Transcript ....................................................................................... 65 Kerwin 5 Foreword The inspiration for this project was largely borne out of frustrations I was experiencing in my practice during my first two years of college. I quickly discovered that I could not maintain a healthy playing mechanism while trying to improve my ability to play my ensemble repertoire, my classical repertoire, and my jazz repertoire at the same time. I found that I frequently had to choose between giving my embouchure adequate rest or feeling prepared for my rehearsals and lessons. Under the guidance of my trumpet professor John Schlabach, I began to tackle this problem in my classical repertoire by refining my "sound concept" – in other words, determining exactly what I wanted to sound like before I played. We accomplished this through a variety of practice procedures including singing, audiation, mental practice, and fingers-only practice. After experimenting with these techniques, I found that I was able to achieve an adequate performance result with a fraction of the physical practice time -- sometimes without any physical practice time at all. Further, when developed in this way, my performances would have much more creative intention than if I had simply begun to practice by playing my music. While this greatly improved my experience of learning classical repertoire, I struggled to find this same level of efficiency in developing my ability to improvise. Though these solutions worked for me in a classical setting, where notes and rhythms were pre-determined, I couldn't see how these same concepts could be applied to a more spontaneous improvised solo. As such, when I practiced improvisation I practiced almost entirely physically, without any of the forethought I would use if I was learning a written etude. I quickly became frustrated with this method. I was so driven to become an improviser that I exhausted myself on a daily basis and consequently began experiencing a lot of Kerwin 6 inconsistencies in my performance. I transcribed and learned to play and execute several jazz solos but I had trouble applying the melodic ideas my favorite players were using into my own solos. It soon became clear my problem lied largely in my ability to conceptualize melodic ideas in real time, rather than my ability to execute the types of ideas I wanted to improvise. Consequently, I spent much of the next two years experimenting with different procedures to develop the ability to conceptualize the melodic ideas I wanted to use in my improvised solos without the use of my instrument. Kerwin 7 1.0 Introduction "Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple." Keith Jarrett The performance of jazz music presents a soloist with unique challenges. During a solo, as in an engaging conversation, the performer must listen to what was just played (by themselves or the band), evaluate, and musically respond. In modern jazz music, this process is almost instantaneous: each moment offers unique musical opportunities that evaporate as soon as a soloist stops to think. How do jazz musicians make these split-second choices? Researchers have proposed several models to attempt to explain improvisational decision-making in jazz. In one early study, Pressing (1998) suggested a model based on internalized groupings of notes (what a musician might call a "lick") that could be initiated in response to various musical situations. By contrast, Johnson-Laird (2002) proposed that improvisation is guided primarily by an internalized set of rules, rather than an internalized sequence of notes. Most recently, Noorgard (2014) supported Pressing's model by using an in-depth comparative analysis of Charlie Parker solos to suggest a significant portion of his improvisational ideas were based on a limited number of discrete interval patterns. Because of this, one relatively early part of a jazz soloist's education includes assimilating a diverse vocabulary of melodic ideas. In practice, these melodic ideas – also known as licks, clichés, or vocabulary – help inform the student's note choices in the moment of performance (Aebersold, 1992). For an improviser, the development of this vocabulary is crucial because it decreases the amount of time needed to select appropriate pitches in any given situation, allowing them to more easily navigate the harmonic progression of a tune. Over time, Kerwin 8 this allows an improviser to concentrate on other aspects of the improvisation (e.g. articulation, dynamics, rhythmic feel, etc.) which are important to the music's overall effect. Before this vocabulary can be executed