Jazz: Practice

What Practical Preparation Did I Do

Before rehearsal started, I listened to the song a lot, helping myself become familiar with it. I do, however, still need to plan better by printing lyrics before rehearsals, and I could've better familiarised myself with the key changes of the song, as that was one of the challenges I struggled with during rehearsals. 

What Musical Preparation Did I Do

The key changes of the song where quite difficult, so I did practice some of these, however I needed to do much more. Other than that, one big thing I rehearsed was the tone of voice that is used in jazz, helping my vocals match the genre. 

How Did My Band Develop The Song

For the first set of rehearsals, we split into two groups, vocalists and instrumentalists, as we each posed slightly different challenges. Us vocalists split the verses between us, practicing the key changes and lyrics as well as planning improvisational sections. The instrumentalists practiced the difficult modulations, and when our band reunited, we put everything together, making sure our transitions and endings where solidified before practicing our other genre. 

What Role Did I Take In The Band

In this band I collaborated with my fellow vocalists, each contributing to the structure of the song. I did also take more of a backseat when we put the vocals and instruments together, letting the instrumentalists set out the structure so the vocals could be added on top. 

What Kind Of Performance Was This?

The performance was similar to the blues week, having the structure of a workshop performance featuring the original song along with a different genre version as well as a presentation around the genres, featuring the musical elements of each of our parts. 

What Were The Stylistic Traits For My Other Band Members?

Me and my fellow vocalists made use of lots of improvisation, a heavy feature of jazz, and we also changed our vocals to be softer and calmer in the latin jazz section as this genre often features calmer vocals. Our drummer made use of swung rhythms, a common feature of jazz, and also made use of brushes instead of sticks, making the drums sound less harsh. In the latin jazz version, the drums had an increased tempo and the snare drum was swapped to a timbale drum, helping make the timbre of the song match the latin jazz genre. The piano of the latin version featured a son clave rhythm, which followed the rhythm of the clave played by one of the vocalists. The guitar and bass also followed similar rhythms, playing son clave or along with the main drums.

How Did We Decide Our Aims And Objectives

We decided it would be best for the vocals to practice separately at first, ensuring that the instrumentalists could get down the structure of the key changes before the vocalists were added. After each group had their parts down, we put everything together, ensuring each transition between sections was polished. After we had solidified the original version, we moved onto our latin jazz version, changing instruments slightly to emphasise the percussion elements of the genre. We ran out of rehearsal time, so we didn't have the opportunity to rehearse the latin jazz version as much as we should've, but overall our performance went pretty well. 

Two Examples Of How I Listened To The Opinions Of Others

When the two sections of the band came back together after our separate rehearsals, us vocalists had to listen to the instrumentalists, letting them set the structure of the song so the vocals could be added on top. Also, when we put together our latin jazz version, one of the three vocalists switched to play the clave, ensuring the percussion section had more latin elements. This meant that her solo verses had to be redistributed, which involved me and the second vocalist listening to each others opinions on who should do each spare verse. 

How Was The Order Of The Arrangement Decided?

We stuck mainly to the original structure of the song, ensuring that each key change was coordinated throughout the band. We decided to repeat the G chord at the beginning, giving us vocalists time to introduce the song at our own pace until we started the first verse. For the latin version, we decided to add a clave instrumental section, letting the latin rhythmic elements shine through.

Videos of Rehearsal