Using WORDS/PHRASES to help reading Jazz Rhythms and Articulations
rhysonsax
English words to help his students recognise and play jazz rhythms.
Things like:
"Merrily" - for quaver triplets
"Beautiful" - for crotchet (quarter note) triplets
"Tea for two" - can't remember what that one was for !
Was this a common technique and can anyone recommend other words and
phrases that fit common jazz rhythms ?
And what about rock music and other non-swing rhythms (doesn't "Pick up
the pieces" work like this) ?
I've also seen quite a few tuition books using syllables like "Doo",
"Dit", "Dooden", "Dah", "Dot", "Dow" and similar to help with
articulations as well as rhythms.
Where can I learn this crazy language and help improve my poor rhythm
and sightreading ?
All the best
Rhys
Stephen Howard
>There used to be a sax teacher in London called Leslie Evans who used
>English words to help his students recognise and play jazz rhythms.
>Things like:
>
>"Merrily" - for quaver triplets
>"Beautiful" - for crotchet (quarter note) triplets
>"Tea for two" - can't remember what that one was for !
That last one is a dotted quaver followed by a semiquaver, followed by
a quaver or a staccato crotchet ( or another dotted quaver etc. if you
continue the line...and two for tea and etc etc ).
>
>Was this a common technique and can anyone recommend other words and
>phrases that fit common jazz rhythms ?
Yeah..
Oww! F*ck! - which fits a repeated phrase of a quaver rest followed
by a quaver...where the first beat is where you hit your thumb with a
hammer ( i.e. the header of The Sidewinder ).
Your flies are undone fits a crotchet, a dotted crotchet, two quavers
and a quaver tied to dotted crotched...as in the header of You Go To
My Head.
>
>And what about rock music and other non-swing rhythms (doesn't "Pick up
>the pieces" work like this) ?
Try.. I need a drink, I need a drink - make it a large one, matey..
>
>I've also seen quite a few tuition books using syllables like "Doo",
>"Dit", "Dooden", "Dah", "Dot", "Dow" and similar to help with
>articulations as well as rhythms.
You sure that wasn't a Batman comic you were reading??
>
>Where can I learn this crazy language and help improve my poor rhythm
>and sightreading ?
>
You need to knock lobes with a flipster, daddy-oh.
Regards,
--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{who is at}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk
Ed
Getting the entire ensemble to catch the swing beat was made
easier by asking [with a New England accent], "Who parked
the car?" [phonetically "Who pakt te cah?"]. And, by
extension, "Who parked the car? one, two" to get the
5/4 pattern in Take Five. AFIK, you can credit Bill Katz
in East Meadow, NY for that.
rhysonsax wrote:
> There used to be a sax teacher in London called Leslie Evans who used
> English words to help his students recognise and play jazz rhythms.
...
ST
> Your flies are undone fits a crotchet, a dotted crotchet, two quavers
> and a quaver tied to dotted crotched...as in the header of You Go To
> My Head.
I'm waiting for fundoc to say something about quavering crotches.
fundoc
"ST" <trin...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:4h2df.9$%t4.3@trnddc07...
\> waiting for fundoc
VLADIMIR:
What do we do now?
ESTRAGON:
Wait.
VLADIMIR:
Yes, but while waiting.
ESTRAGON:
What about hanging ourselves?
VLADIMIR:
Hmm. It'd give us an erection.
ESTRAGON:
(highly excited). An erection!
VLADIMIR:
With all that follows. Where it falls mandrakes grow. That's why they shriek
when you pull them up. Did you not know that?
ESTRAGON:
Let's hang ourselves immediately!
VLADIMIR:
From a bough? (They go towards the tree.) I wouldn't trust it.
ESTRAGON:
We can always try.
VLADIMIR:
Go ahead.
ESTRAGON:
After you.
VLADIMIR:
No no, you first.
ESTRAGON:
Why me?
VLADIMIR:
You're lighter than I am.
ESTRAGON:
Just so!
VLADIMIR:
I don't understand.
ESTRAGON:
Use your intelligence, can't you?
Vladimir uses his intelligence.
VLADIMIR:
(finally). I remain in the dark.
ESTRAGON:
This is how it is. (He reflects.) The bough . . . the bough . . . (Angrily.)
Use your head, can't you?
VLADIMIR:
You're my only hope.
ESTRAGON:
(with effort). Gogo light-bough not break-Gogo dead. Didi heavy-bough
break-Didi alone. Whereas-
VLADIMIR:
I hadn't thought of that.
ESTRAGON:
If it hangs you it'll hang anything.
VLADIMIR:
But am I heavier than you?
ESTRAGON:
So you tell me. I don't know. There's an even chance. Or nearly.
VLADIMIR:
Well? What do we do?
ESTRAGON:
Don't let's do anything. It's safer.
Robert
>
>
> Your flies are undone fits a crotchet, a dotted crotchet, two quavers
> and a quaver tied to dotted crotched...as in the header of You Go To
> My Head.
>
Now you got my curiosity up. The phrase "Your flies are all undone" is
a phrase that the British composer Peter Warlock wrote in one movement
of the "Three Codpieces" that he composed (I think it is entitled
something like "Beethoven's Binge") as a performance note. I thought
that this phrase was completely original to Warlock that showed his
unusual personality.
Do the British use this phrase commonly as a rhythmic instruction?
(This is a serious, if unimportant, question and not a joke. When I
tell jokes it is hard to know that they are.)
Stephen Howard
wrote:
>Stephen Howard wrote:
>>
>>
>> Your flies are undone fits a crotchet, a dotted crotchet, two quavers
>> and a quaver tied to dotted crotched...as in the header of You Go To
>> My Head.
>>
>
>
>
>Now you got my curiosity up. The phrase "Your flies are all undone" is
>a phrase that the British composer Peter Warlock wrote in one movement
>of the "Three Codpieces" that he composed (I think it is entitled
>something like "Beethoven's Binge") as a performance note. I thought
>that this phrase was completely original to Warlock that showed his
>unusual personality.
It must have been a classic case of convergent evolution. Clearly if
Peter Warlock and I ever met, we'd get on like a bus running on avgas.
>
>Do the British use this phrase commonly as a rhythmic instruction?
Chances are they will now..and you heard it here first!
>
>(This is a serious, if unimportant, question and not a joke. When I
>tell jokes it is hard to know that they are.)
Seriously...it just popped into my head.
I really must stop drinking the lighter fluid...
Nick
remember 7/8 rhythms....
nick
Gardner
a crotchet, a quaver rest, a quaver and and crothcet) If you reflect on
this, you have the answer to your question.
Get a few songsheets where the melody is laid out in conventional rhythms,
and the lyric is present. (The old style songsheets are ideal). Then analyse
the words against the rhythmic patterns, and find easily remembered ones,
like the T42 example.
Some examples - Ain't Misbehavin' - a quaver rest followed by three quavers,
a quaver and a dotted crotchet:
Oh When the Saints - crotchet rest, three crotchets, semibreve:
Ain't What You Do (it's the way that you do it) - quaver, crotchet, quaver,
crotchet, etc. It's best to build up your own library of such phrases.
The proper way to approach rhythm studies is to learn to count. (British
schools had a dreadful system, called ta - ta - tatay - ta, which drove me
nuts and taught me nothing. )
Start with four crotchets, counting 1,2,3,4,
then a minim and four crotchets, counting 12, 3,4,
then two crotchets and a minim counting 1,2, 34
then include quavers, counting 1and, 2and, 3and, 4and, etc.
Semi-quavers are 1-a-and-a, 2-a-and-a, etc. Triplet are best remembered as a
word, e.g. Merrily.
Triplet crotchets likewise, say by 'Time on my (hands) for triplet
crothchets plus a minim.
For example four quavers and two crotchets would be 1 and, 2 and, 3, 4.
Syncopated rhythms, e.g. quaver crotchet quaver, quaver crotchet quaver can
becounted 1 and2 and 3 and4 and, but are probably best just remembered,
using the song phrase method, e.g. Ain't What you Do'.
Rests are a mental whisper on the count.
>> "Tea for two" - can't remember what that one was for !
>>
>>
Gardner
Charlie Parker 'Baroodillybebop' after a well-used bop rhythmic cliche of
quaver rest, quaver, triplet quavers, quaver, dotted crotchet, indeed
'bebop' as a name derives from the rhythmic drum cliche of the music.
"Gardner" <an...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
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Pete Thomas
Baroodillybebop, Baroodillybebop, that's the Woody Woodpecker song!
--
Pete Thomas - www.petethomas.co.uk
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Gardner
an open question. Incidentally, the widow of Woody Woodpecker used to
frighten hotel clerks when their back was turned by imitating the raucous
call. 'Ha-ha-ha Ha-Ha! When they turned round in alarm, they could only see
a polite old lady.
"Pete Thomas" <inv...@reply-via-site.com> wrote in message
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Gardner
Sorry!
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