[Trombone-l] sight reading in jazz

[Jeff Albert]

That's one of the things I love about Dave...multiple areas of expertise.

On the method front, there is a rhythm reading book by Louis Bellson that is
quite good.  He has a second book that deals with meters other than 4/4.

Doing a lot of reading is a big part of the equation.  We read rhythms and
note patterns much like we read words, through recognition.  We don't
mentally figure out each figure every time we see it, we see the familiar
ones, and know what they are.  That only comes from repetition.

That also causes trouble when parts are slightly off from what we expect.
When I was on the Tommy Dorsey band with Buddy Morrow, I had the pleasure of
sitting next to Sonny Russo for a few weeks.  We did a show with a girl
vocal group.  The charts looked good.  The copy was nice, and they looked
very professional, until we started to rehearse them, and every cliche was
just a little off.  We butchered them in rehearsal, because we would see the
lick, and our brains would think it was one thing, then we would realize it
was different, then we would think "no, it can't be THAT", but it was THAT
and by the time all of this happened in our heads, the lick was over.

We finished the rehearsal and Sonny says, "man, those are the kind of charts
your body rejects!"

Jeff

On 9/21/06, dslide13 at aol.com <dslide13 at aol.com> wrote:
>
> I prefer two shots and a beer....but do whatever works for you. There
> isn't really a right or wrong way. Me...I choose Woodford Reserve Bourbon on
> some gigs and Talisker Scotch on others. You just have to find the right
> tool for the job.
>
> Seriously though...independent of the "swing feel", there are syncopation
> issues in reading jazz. Any time a note crosses the bar, most students go
> into an ambiguous reality. I try to remind them to "reset" at the beginning
> of the new measure. This can be illustrated by having them play passages
> without the ties. Once they can accomplish that, you have them perform the
> passage with the ties. If that doesn't work, you can always break out a
> bottle of Basil Hayden's. It's a smooth bourbon with a smokeyness usually
> thought of in scotch whiskys. Good luck.
>
> dg
>     David Gibson
> trombonist/educator
> www.jazzbone.org
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kavett at aol.com
> To: hgsamp at yahoo.com; trombone-l at server5.samford.edu
> Sent: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 12:29 PM
> Subject: Re: [Trombone-l] sight reading in jazz
>
>   Two beers and a shot does the trick.
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