Jazz Blog » Music Genres

African American Music: Big Band Jazz Music

admin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Jazz is the form of music, which has been getting bigger since its inception and Big Band, is a music ensemble, linked with jazz and developed over thirty years. The specialty of Big Band Jazz Music is its feet tapping rhythm, conducive to excite your heart beat. Jazz, Hip Hop, Rap, Soul, Funk, Rhythm and Blues fit in the famous music genres belonging to music umbrella of African Americans, with talented artists expressing themselves. Using their music heritage, they communicated their culture and the American Spirit

African American music based steeply on accent, as well as rhythm that fluctuates in relation with one another revolutionized the European music, which had been deeply rooted on melody. Big Band Jazz Music developed as a result of this merger in around 1898 leading to loose-structured, but unusual rendering of music that was all the rage using different distinctive playing techniques.

Big Band comprise of about 12-25 musicians. The rhythmic “call and response” of jazz music are made into rich music with its rhythmic segment including banjo, bass, vibes and piano, saxophones, trombones and trumpets.

Tools for Teaching Jazz

Teaching jazz is said to be among the most potent methods for learning it. The approach is to reduce fundamental principles to bare bones and teach it without adopting jargon usage. Inventing creative analogies that you come upon everyday is something jazz students can comprehend. This teaching process will aid in getting a deeper perception about intricacies of the subject and stay focused.

It assists in intensifying the comprehension of various aspects (for instance finger style, chords, scales, strumming, rhythms, slides, arpeggios) and numerous concepts and various techniques in Jazz making it much easier for students to pick it up.

Jazz Play Alongs

For jazz music lovers, even a musical idea implementation has got far reaching effect and makes them feel like in a groove. Now days, there are more and more Jazz Play Alongs like books, sheet music like guitar and piano sheet music, guitar scales, as well as tablature, songs sung by some popular artists and CDs with live band, where you get to play along to finish the music piece.

By: Anirban Bhattacharya

Jazz – the Music That Captivates Your Heart

admin — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Jazz is one of the most popular music genres and has its own exclusive style and theme, thereby attracting the attention of millions of true fans. If you fall under the same category of jazz enthusiasts and want to learn this mesmerizing form of music, then here is the chance to fulfill your wish.

Internet has emerged as a useful tool through which you can learn as well as practice jazz music in all forms, including piano, guitar and drums. The online jazz schools train interested people in a systemic manner so that they can have good hold over playing different kinds of musical instruments for playing jazz music.

The best part of these online jazz schools is that you can get well acquainted with intermediate jazz tools. These tools are specially designed for students learning jazz. Under them, you can interact with the trainers in order to learn concepts and basics of jazz. This in turn, will help you in solving all the queries and difficulty that you might face while playing the musical instruments.

The most popular jazz practice tool is jazz midi files as you can learn in depth about the essence of this mesmerizing music. This is regarded as one of the best tools for teaching jazz where you can learn scales, both high and low keys and gain mastery over them.

The best part of about this jazz practice tool is that you can learn even the digital format for free. This is because jazz midi files can be downloaded in your computer and after that you can use this software to your heart’s content. You can learn as well as practice musical notes of jazz. Another major advantage of downloading is that you can even record it in your music system and practice unabatedly. As far as the privilege of enjoyment is concerned, you can play them in parties and dance to its tunes.

After learning the basic concepts, you can also learn all the jazz improvisations in order to play all the fine tunes without any hassles. So, use the jazz practice tool and become a master of your favorite music genre jazz by learning from world popular gurus within short span of time.

By: Akhila Choudhary

Jazz Guitar Tips and Tricks – Learning Jazz Guitar Playing

admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:01:26 +0000

Jazz is more complicated than any other music genres as far as playing guitar is concerned. But there are a lot of jazz guitar tips and tricks that you can use to make it easier for you and to help you become a better jazz player and a well-rounded guitarist.

At the top of the list of the important jazz guitar tips is knowing your scales and modes. Internalizing jazz guitar scales is considered to be one of the most challenging part of learning to play jazz because of the many scales to be learned and mastered. These scales provide the basis for the improvisational sound of jazz music.

When it comes to modes, it becomes confusing because many guitar players call modes as scales. Technically, a mode is a scale but modes are used by many musicians to open doors to new sounds. Jazz players rely on the major and minor modes in setting the tone of their music. They use these to get the great flavors of music out of the scales aside from just using the full neck of their jazz guitars.

Other important jazz guitar tips include eliminating the feedback produced by the guitar, using a software to practice improvisation, and using a metronome in your practice to achieve good timing.

In learning to play jazz guitar, you should also learn and memorize the lyrics to help you recall the music better. Recording yourself will also give you a clear picture of how does your guitar playing sound.

And of course, you cannot play jazz guitar better if your guitar itself is not in a good condition. Before starting to play, check first if it needs some tweaking. You will know if it needs a tune-up when it begins to feel tiring to play.

The basic adjustments you need to do are in the truss rod, the bridge, height of the pickups and intonation. To ensure that the strings are on the proper height, you have to regulate the nut. Examine also the high and low frets and level them as needed.

In adjusting the intonation, do it in small increments and consider your ear’s accuracy in deciding the pitch between two notes. For more accurate results, use a highly accurate tuner with analog-style needle display.

Other helpful jazz guitar tips that will bring your performance to the highest level are ensuring the proper location of your guitar and your hands. The strap of your guitar should lift the instrument up to about midway on your chest. It will feel tighter but will give your left hand more mobility. Your right hand should not also exert much effort in picking out the notes.

To sum it up, you should be familiar with the important components of learning jazz guitar which include effective scale usage, harmonization, rhythm, melody and jazz chord improvisation.

Also, learning jazz guitar requires an astonishing skill that you can’t develop by just relying on your music sheets or music teachers alone, so keep in mind to practice and persevere.

By: Carolyn Anderson