Practising Jazz

Hi I was wondering what artists/songs/albums are good for practicing jazz. I'm a real beginner at jazz so I'm looking for those simple instrumental songs. Or even just any track to play along would be good, maybe like those you get out of a electronic set? Thanks

I would recommend getting several essential books i feel are great for developing jazz playing:

1) The Art of Bop Drumming by John Riley
2) The Jazz Drummer's Workshop by John Riley
3) Drum solos: The art of phrasing by Colin Bailey

For higher level exploration:
1) Beyond Bop Drumming by John Riley
2) The Total Jazz Drummer by Sunny Jain

Some of these books have CDs with Play along tracks / minus drums. I found it really useful to play along to these minus drums tracks as it's less distracting, especially during the trading portions, rather than playing over someone else's drumming.

Great cds to listen to for getting the feel are those by Dave Brubeck or Miles Davies. I also have this Cd entitled Super Drummers, showcasing the masterpieces of the best jazz drummers over the years, featuring big names like Buddy Rich, Shelly Manne, Max Roach, Tony Williams, Ed Thigpen etc... Immerse yourself in their drumming, do some transcribing and you'll improve really fast!

Also, go visit some places in Singapore that play jazz, such at Jazz@Southbridge, BarStop, Regent Hotel. I've learnt a lot from just sitting there and listening to drummers like Boon Gee, Tama, Ed Laymen play, and how the band ochestrates each song.

I'm no pro in jazz but the these tips are from my own personal experience and practise. Have fun!

Alright Thanks alot! Sadly I don't have the time to go visit those places. O levels in 4 days . I do have the art of bop drumming one. But I don't know where the CD is. My teacher told me to get those 3 piece band kind of stuff, simple ones. So...no idea where to get those.

Ha I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to check out these places as you should be free after exams. Can really learn alot just tapping on the experience of these seasoned players... Who's your teacher btw?

A good store my fren recommended me was Gramaphone. I believe there's an outlet at The Cathay, there's plenty of jazz albums and recordings there. I got quite a number of my stuff there. Other than that, most other stores like Music Junction or HMV should have jazz albums too. If you ask me, I suggest listening to Dave Brubeck. Very nice, clean and melodic jazz which i prefer. I also love his drummer, Joe Morello. Damn musical. You can actually do a search on Youtube and you can watch some decent vids of Dave Brubeck quartet. I've included one link on a nice tune, Sounds of the Loop. From there you should be able to explore to other tunes.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=B0XED9VI2cg

Another good link I've found is below. It has a few great tunes which can be downloaded to your mp3 player, and a video as well. Its played by some of our very own famous Singaporean jazz musicians, including Tama, who's on drums. The drums on this are clean, simple and nice, so with some keen listening you should be able to pick up some useful chops.

http://cedmedia.ntu.edu.sg/lunchtimeconcert/2006/index.php?cat=TonyMakaromeandFriends&page=1

Hope this helps. Have fun!

anthony fong @ yamaha. thanks again

any idea where to get big band charts or charts that lay out the melody? so can practice comping haha

check out the real books and fake books. they shld have them at the esplande library.

Hey, Anthony was my first teacher too. Great that you wanna learn jazz. Bor gave great advice! Yeah, you should go in that direction.

Also, after your "O" levels, come by BarStop on Wed or Thurs nites (9pm - midnight), or PM me to check if I'll be there cuz sometimes I sub out. I'm always happy to be of any help to anyone who wants to play jazz.

plslayer said:

anthony fong @ yamaha. thanks again

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I was checking out some of the real books and fake books. Even went to the esplanade library....can't find much there.

Found that kinokuniya has the most.

But the problem is that they are sold at quite a high price. So, I ordered on Amazon instead. It's cheaper even with the exchange and the freight (if u choose the standard int'l one).

So, I bought lots from Amazon. :mrgreen:

blurred said:

check out the real books and fake books. they shld have them at the esplande library.

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Gramaphone got lots of outlets. Example:

Takashimaya
UOB Center, opp raffles place mrt (got one very knowledgable auntie who is a staff there)

Great imports from the US. Price ok as well....but getting more ex over the yrs.

Bor said:

A good store my fren recommended me was Gramaphone. I believe there's an outlet at The Cathay, there's plenty of jazz albums and recordings there. I got quite a number of my stuff there.

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beboptang said:

Also, after your "O" levels, come by BarStop on Wed or Thurs nites (9pm - midnight), or PM me to check if I'll be there cuz sometimes I sub out. I'm always happy to be of any help to anyone who wants to play jazz.

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Alright Thanks! Yeah I've always had jazz aspirations but I mean there's not much room for me to get experience at this level. Like friends don't play jazz(for guitar and piano, i dont have an wind ensemble at my disposal), and even worse I don't have any good bassist friends. When I was learning jazz Anthony basically gave me some exercises from the book "Jazz drumming in big band & combo by sperie karas. Now I'm on to Latin

As for books, you can get Yamaha to bring in for no extra charge. I think.

Great links bro Bor, many thanks.

so let's say:
http://www.realbookpack.com/sample/sample.pdf

how would you go about using it? haha. i don't read music

gambatak said:

Great links bro Bor, many thanks.

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No prob happy to be of help!!

Nkf31, i believe those that you have are lead sheets, which are given to highlight the general structure / melody of the song. I guess its used to give all musicians a general idea of how the song is phrased and sounds like. However, im not entirely sure, if anyone knows better pls do correct me...

What I'm usually given by my teacher are more specifically drum-based comping figures, which lays out the suggested comping patterns, and tells you which part to fill, accent or solo.

yup ur right tht a a lead sheet. u can comp the general figures in tht song as well, since the other musicians will be hitting those notes.















































































yup those are lead sheets. u can hit those general figures in the sheet as tht other guys will be hitting them as well. generally i tend to listen to the pianist when comping in a song, i hit his/her figures.
i tend to prefer lead sheets over score sheets where they tell u where to put everything, too restrictive.

do you have any particular songs that you think would be good for beginners to learn?

nkf31, I replied your PM.

I remembered watching a DVD by some jazz great (cant remember if its Joe Pass) and he recommended songs that you are familiar to start with.

Hope that helps, have fun.

nkf31 said:

do you have any particular songs that you think would be good for beginners to learn?

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I think mid-tempo swing tunes are good to start from. At least that's how I began.Some common tunes like Authmn leaves, Fly me to the Moon, I hear a rhapsody etc... When you get the hang of it, you can go on to explore stuff like odd timings (Take Five!) or uptempo bebop tunes.

yah bor, mind tempo swing is a great start!
standards are nice and neat plus their easy to understand.
john riley's book on bop drumming is a must get. there is tons of gd stuff in tht.
when i started learning the jazz thing, i was told to get tht sprang a lang sounding gd first. i isolated tht arm and just spend a gd 2 hrs a day playing to records with just my right hand playing tht pattern.

blurred said:

yah bor, mind tempo swing is a great start!
standards are nice and neat plus their easy to understand.
john riley's book on bop drumming is a must get. there is tons of gd stuff in tht.
when i started learning the jazz thing, i was told to get tht sprang a lang sounding gd first. i isolated tht arm and just spend a gd 2 hrs a day playing to records with just my right hand playing tht pattern.

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Ha yes, the swing pattern / triplet feel is so important to grasp, yet so often overlooked! I was taught to do the same thing as you, play the just the swing with the right hand and HH on 2 and 4, and pay attention to the triplet spacing until it sounds natural and open. However, so often I neglect it for more interesting exercises like comping, soloing etc, hence my swing is still not quite fluid enough. Guess I have to work on it more...

I love John Riley books. I have all three series (Art of Bop, Beyond Bop and Advanced jazz drummer) and the ideas that can be gleaned from there are simply amazing. I especially like the Advanced Jazz drummer one, as it goes into in-depth analysis of playing styles of famous jazz drummers like Billy Higgins, Max Roach, Elvin Jones, and contains plenty of really good exercises to develop your jazz chops. Really a must get for those aspiring to play jazz...