Basics - Genres - Pop 1

Why do people classify in genres?

I realised that many people don't really know what's the deal with different genres. Many people like to talk about "I don't believe in classification of music." or "It's all music, why must you classify them?" For a musician, I would understand the reason that they would like to say that they are not restricted to a particular genre, which is highly reasonable considering two points: 1. They all wish to be unique 2. They do incorporate sounds of multiple genres into their music

Then why classify? Why can't we go by the artistes rather than all that mambo jambo about jazz, funk and all that stuff? The answer is simple: Because each genre of music has its own sound, its own flavour and its own ideals.

I will have a tendency to try to oversimplify everything to reach a common idea - It is not an end-all. There are much intricacies in music and genuine musicians all have their own specialised sounds in their own way. Like how Bill Evans is never truly well replicated in swing trio jazz. How RHCP will never be touched in funk-rock. How Jamiroquai is virtually untouchable in the world of acid-disco-jazz.

But here we're looking for similarities, and where people start crossing the boundaries. We look at how we enjoy music, and why we prefer certain genres, or even subgenres.

This is all in aid to help us understand ourselves more. =)

I shall start with most people's dearest music - Pop.

What is pop?

As the term goes, pop is obviously the mainstay for most people, because it is "popular". Pop goes through many phases of changes, it used to be about jazz, swing, rock'n'roll, R&B, hip hop, blues, disco, country and many other types. But what defines our current pop? I mean the pop that we listen to nowadays. What is the definitive factor for pop?

Obviously we have to start with the most famous, and the most revered of all pop-stars, Michael Jackson.

Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough

Michael Jackson was the first of his kind. Well, not really, there were others who tried to fuse video with music together before him. He was the one who really pushed for the MTV era. This is the true era of pop. Dancing mixed with music, and a full length video of psychadelic effects and a famous boy from Jackson 5. What could this not do?

Notice where the music came from. If anyone has ever heard James Brown, this is a very obvious similar arrangement to James Brown's sound. The groove is still very James Brown based (strong bass groove), but if you heard any of James Brown's music, you'd realise that there is something very different about Michael Jackson's first biggest hit compared to James Brown's music.

What is it? What makes it different from its own predecessor? Compare it with James Brown himself:

James Brown - I Feel Good

I want you to count throughout both songs. Listen to the bassline. Listen to the auxiliary percussion/drums. Can you hear the difference?

There are many similarities, but there is something very different about the two recordings. Can you find it?

There are many reasons why many people do feel that Michael Jackson's music (before all that remastering) sounded really good - it replicated the bombastic sound of a soul/funk band, it uses the funk licks and is bass-centric and a whole host of other reasons why Michael Jackson's music sounds better and more organic than many pop music nowadays. But if you notice, from James Brown to Michael Jackson, was there any loss in energy, aesthetics, or any other things?

If you progress to "Dangerous" in 1991, Michael Jackson's all time hit "Black or White", talking about racism and discrimination:

Black Or White

What is different between it and Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough? What similarities are there? How does the video affect the music?

Why is this really pop? Some people argue that Michael Jackson is not the King of Pop, but the King of Pop, Rock and Soul. But he started the trend for pop after him, so he is inevitably the King of Pop. So what is that really about?

I'll take some time before posting this time. Hope that you guys can discuss. Will cover more on Pop 2

Stacey Kent 4 (End of first series)

Blogger's Notes

Hey everyone. I'm covering the last part of Stacey Kent's "The Best Is Yet To Come" right now. It seems like it's the end of the series for Stacey Kent, but don't worry there'll be more about her in the future (then I have to change all the names >_<). Or I'll just continue as part of the series. I'll just note this as end of first series on her. =) Okay I added that as part of the title. I'm really hoping that everyone reading this will learn to enjoy jazz as an artform. It is a very all-embracing and free music which is why I think it's a great starting point for all people to start from here. =) I really appreciate all encouraging comments from friends and other music enthusiasts. Will continue to work on this blog and hopefully can generate a community of music enthusiasts to make music more of an accepted art than a commodity! Alright let's actually go into the topic now. =D




Analysis from 02:14 to 03:19

Piano Solo (Piano)

Oh! What a great way to start the solo! Usage of a motif to build up the momentum, then turning it into a full phrase and developing it once before doing a descending arpeggiaic pattern downwards! That's a mouthful! Haha.

Okay what's a motif? A motif is a 3-5 note pattern that is repeated, developed or expanded to create a full phrase or idea. Then when you actually repeat a few motifs with a few developments, you get a full phrase that you can develop more as well! This is a very important technique used by classical composers and jazz musicians alike. I just watched a documentary on Kurt Elling's scatting solo. He says it's like a variation and theme. You develop the idea from its basic form and expand it and develop it to something new. This is the method used for this solo. =)

Descending arpeggiaic pattern is something I'll be talking more about when we go into theory. But basically it's his usage of notes in what we call the chord tones, to form a descending melody downwards. He breaks it up into chunks which are like natural phrases and pauses in our speech, before ending on a nice repeated note of Db to lead back into the vocalist entry!

Another side note. Notice that the pianist is always laying back. It gives this swagger to his sound and his confidence. Every note he places is where it's meant to be. You can play the same notes without the rhythm and it can completely lose its point. Think about that.

Piano Solo (Everyone else)

Notice how Stacey Kent is dancing along to the beat during the solo? I know most vocalists seem very very awkward when another person is taking his/her solo and the vocalist has nothing to do. Well, enjoying the music is one of the most fundamental and natural way of being on stage. If you can't appreciate your own band member's solo, how do you expect anyone else to? Same for all other instrumentalists.

Okay if you've noticed, we went back to A' for this solo, it's just an 8 bar segment but there can be quite a bit said. Firstly it's the 4 on the floor again. It's a great thing to have whenever there's no drums. The bass and guitar are just driving the music, giving this beautiful momentum. Then on the second half of the A' the guitar starts doing hits at the same time as the 4 on the floor effect. He does this by playing on the on beat just before the hit and dragging out the hit till the next time he plays. It's a great way of continuing the sound while creating new push.

Back to C'! (Vocalist)

Stacey Kent comes back in on the second half of the song, starting on the C'. Okay, just scroll back to 01:32 to compare her tonal and phrasing difference. At first there's not much difference, and she does a habitual sound after the first four bars. But this time it is "ooooh" vs the "mmm" at the previous part; it is an effort to try to build up the energy, as when she comes back in she lays back even more! Not much tonal difference, in fact she actually is singing less forcefully, but she lays back a slight bit more. (Cross compare for yourself)

From that point on, she uses emphasis to bring up the energy. It is quite subtle, but whenever the emphasises a word, it brings up the intensity just a bit more, kind of like stronger accents to bring out a stronger point. The rhythm and phrasing is similar till she says "wait till the sunrise". Where this second time she actually simply speaks out the "wait". Brilliant. Little differences which tells you how the music is building up.

Back to C'! (Rest of the band)

Firstly, notice how the pianist plays a lot more this time? A lot more fills, but still part of the music. And notice that regardless of how intense he's playing, he's still laying back away from the beat, giving the swing feel that we know and love.

Secondly, the bass and guitar don't have to do much more than what they're doing. They keep the intensity up by plainly keeping up with the music. A great rhythm section can keep going forever and never get boring. And these two guys are great examples of that. 4 on the floor throughout, steady and pushing. It just ups the whole atmosphere.

Return to A'!

Familiar ending to D? Now the band softens down and settles down for the last part of the song. Familiar 2-feel from the double bass again. Familiar hits from piano guitar and piano, with saxophone joining from time to time. Then the regular repeat of the last 2 bars, and when Stacey ends, the bass and the guitar play in unison the melody modified with a chromatic 6 b6 5 1 to end the song, with the ending chord being a 13th (I believe).

Conclusion

That concludes the Stacey Kent's first series, using a song to analyse what makes her jazz and how to extract gems out of a song. This is not the only direction that this blog will be taking, so do not worry. =)

Thank you for reading this series.

Stacey Kent 3

Blogger's Notes

I'm glad that people are reading and commenting and enjoying this blog. =) I'm hoping to get it out to the masses and may everyone learn to enjoy music in a more exploratory, artistic and appreciative way. At least that's what I believe this way is. =)

I would like to thank AJ for contributing quite a bit of information. I personally feel that Bill Evans, to really understand him, needs a bit more listening than persons like Oscar Peterson and the rest. But if you can catch on to Bill Evans really well, then it's all the better.

Regarding E-Ray's comments... I would like to say that there is ideally no right or wrong in music, as long as everything is from the heart and with due diligence on the side of the player, sound engineer, producer etc. But sadly that is rarely the case, so we often have to sieve through all the muck to find the little diamonds in the rough. Like how Meryl said, a lot of things can go wrong along the way from the musician to the audience, if we can sieve out good things about the music then you'll find that little gem that's waiting to appear and you know how to appreciate it all the more despite all the bad sound engineering and production.




Analysis from 01:18 to 02:14

Part C (bass/guitar laying it down)

Now I'm going to go into the C part to the end of the song. =) As again, the bass and guitar are now going into the "4 on the floor" thing. This is actually mainly because of the fact that there are no drums in this setting (I believe people would have noticed that by now), so their overlapping thing drives the music. Okay here comes a part which is rather subtle, a bit subjective and honestly rather difficult to tell.

I had to turn the YouTube video into &fmt=18 for stereo so that I could hear it more carefully but even then it's a bit dubious due to the fidelity of the recording. But if you can notice, the bass is slightly behind the guitar during the Freddy Green comping. It is really interesting because I've experienced while playing with Summertime Big Band. In this recording the bass is already ahead of the beat (the pulse it not being fixed and shown by any particular players but all in relation to the effects of the push pull between all the instrumentalists, will talk a bit about pulse as well) but the guitarist goes even more on top of him. Just a slight bit. This gives you a sudden lift in the song not only because the 2-feel has ended but the driving of the guitar just adds to the lifting of the song. Isn't that sweet? It will be continuing through until the time they go back to A'.

Part C (saxophonist)

Notice how the saxophonist comes in at C. He's doing a slight solo UNDER the singer, and does similar lines to what a piano does as fills. Note to all horn players who try to play fills: Listen to how to fit it in, do not cut into the vocalist's register nor try to overplay, it'll just clutter the whole song. And the volume is also another important thing. Notice also that he is also in coherence with the rest of the band.

Part C (Group pedaling cum hits)

Then comes the cool part talked about by Marcus in the Stacey Kent 1. It's not only the piano but if you notice it's everyone but this time including the bassist (big long chords can fill up the sound). Pedaling and hits. Bass and piano pedal while the guitar and saxophone and piano play the chord changes on top. This creates tension, which brings you to a very nice lead in back into the A again. =) Btw the hits are on 2& and 4& in case you're wondering. =)

Check out the singer!

In the C segment I have to mention how much I like Stacey Kent's "F---ly!" which is in rhythm and completely in synch with the band. It's not something everyone would do and it's a little nugget through the multiple listenings I've had through this song. Noticed how she pulled her long notes a bit longer when everyone else is doing the pedaling cum hits, while still keeping her phrasing similar to her front part? This is like a juxtaposition. Her keeping one thing constant throughout but changing another to groove with the band just adds to the clarity of the ideas. You know it's still C, but you also know that they're leading somewhere with this tension.

Beautiful isn't it?

Part C (hits again!)

Then they end C with the oh so familiar hit on 2! =) This is the reason why Stacey Kent is so popular to anyone who is just starting to listen to jazz. Everything is so clear and so obvious for everyone to pick up, while still being so true to the nature of jazz music.

Part C' (Timing and rhythm)

Another C! This time it's a modified C called C'. =P This time if you go all the way back to the starting of the video and click back, you'd realise that the music hadn't really sped up enough to notice too obviously (live music will inevitably shift tempo a bit). Notice the difference in phrasing of Stacey Kent from the starting. All pushing and pulling are more deliberate, more emphasis of her phrasing and definitely a more concentrated less airy tone congruent with an increase in intensity of the music. Notice that while the guitar and bass continue the "4 on floor", saxophone and piano are doing short hits for the first four bars, then long hits on one and three for the second set of four bars. Hear the effect for yourself? The sudden going from offbeat to onbeat gives a strength of finality and resolution while the length adds on some more tension. It is a very interesting effect...

How come they can do it so well?

And her Mmmmm, so ponderous and leading to the "You Think"...

Brilliant isn't it? I know I keep saying that, but every time you find such nuggets you can't help but smile. To the musicians, it might have been unconscious and "felt right with the music" but as with everything, pre-meditation and practice and thought processes BEFORE playing/singing are the reasons before such wonderful things can appear out of the blue. =)

Part D (sounding together as a band)

And then the next 8 bars, which is actually D, where the piano continues a modification of the hits, turning them short while still remaining on 1 and 3. This keeps a continuity of the music while reducing the intensity such that Stacey Kent can end this A section with a nice whispering "And nothing like it here." And here comes that oh-so-familiar hit.

Part A' (Here we are in a full circle)

Here we come back to A' (ending version of an A). If you go back all the way back to the start you'll realise that the feel of the music is almost exactly the same as the previous A'. Why? 2-feel again. Then with the ending on 2 for the 3rd last bar and the 4 on the floor for the last 2 bars. Stacey Kent also really lays back the ending of the form and stretching it out, then repeats the last few words again as the piano comes in for his solo.

That marks the end of Stacey Kent 3. Hope you enjoyed it. =)

Stacey Kent 2

Blogger's Notes

Before I continue to talk about the next minute or so about the song (basically till the end of the first run of the ABA) I'll be reply a bit to the comments on this post. I'll be continuing to do so if I am doing close updates and I hope that you can understand that this is to facilitate more discussion.

Firstly, I'd like to start it by saying that actually I didn't care much about vocal jazz until my girlfriend, Meryl, actually spent many days and months of our relationship discussing and learning about jazz vocals and jazz instrument playing. The difference between jazz vocals and instrumental playing is just as much as jazz bass playing is to jazz horn playing. Different skillsets, different approach. The biggest difference is the introduction of words, but the lack of vocal music education of both the crowd and the musicians is one of the biggest stumbling blocks I find in all music nowadays. Prizing horrible sounding vocals (ie bad technique, inaccurate singing etc) that would have been absolutely abhorred on a saxophonist or trumpeter. Double standards interestingly enough. I have to accord most of my knowledge and thought about vocal jazz to my girlfriend because she actually taught me so much about vocal jazz that it turned my opinion around myself.

There's still many types of phrasing which I will wish to go through. From the bossa phrasings of Gal Costa, Astrud Gilberto and the likes, to the hard swinging phrasings of Sarah Vaughan, and covering singers like Nancy Wilson, Dinah Washington and several other great/good singers along the way. Jazz vocal education is just as important as the rest of the instruments, but it's one of the most overlooked aspect so I shall be covering more on that.

I would have to say that I love the fact that Marcus was so eager to come up to discuss the video, and do his own fair share of analysis. It allows us to have a discussion, and for me to affirm his strengths and to help him find more details to sieve out of this beautiful piece. =) So I will be going through some parts that he talked about during the next part of the analysis.



Analysis starting from 00:35 to 01:18

Rounding of corners

One of the best ways of making jazz music sound understandable, or to be exact, actually be understood most easily, is by what we call "rounding the corners". I got this message from Christian McBride during the workshop he and Ulysses Owens Jr had over during the Mosaic 2010 and he talked about how to make sure that everyone knows where they are: by giving an indication at the end of a section or chorus. This is not a hard and fast rule, if you ALWAYS do that, your music will sound bland and boring; some people can do completely without it because the band/musicians can indicate through other means such as harmonic implication or stepping up the intensity or decreasing the intensity, so they don't actually have to do a particular hit or obvious indication.

What do they do here? They have a hit on the 2 of the 12th bar of the A section.

Understanding of form

Is that a mouthful? Let's break it down. Stacey Kent sings a total of 11 bars with the double bass, before the band comes in on the 12th, with a hit together on a 2. Why is it an A section? Because if you notice the form of this song, I (and the real book) would define it as an A B A' because she will be revisiting the melody after the B section where she has 16 bars of a similar melody up a major 3rd. This is a technical part where hopefully you can hear the different between the parts. But basically it's due to the "revisiting of a theme" issue. Which I have to discuss on this blog (there's actually really a lot to discuss).

Rounding of corners again

Back to the hit, it gives a finality to the A section to tell you it's heading over to the B section of the song. It gives an aim and a direction to the song, thus arrangements are so important in making a song sound good.

Section B (bass)

First 8 bars of the B section are quite interesting. It's pretty obvious the double bass is continuing in what we call a 2-feel bassline, where he emphasises on the 1 and 3, rather than the typical walking bass where it's what we call "4 on the floor" where the bass plays every beat of the bar. I'm not sure about what exactly you're saying Marcus, but my best guess is that you're talking about how the bass likes to add that little lick every few bars where he hits the high Eb and the 2 AND, 3, and 3 AND. It's a sweet little thing which propels the music.

Section B (vocalist)

Notice Stacey Kent's phrasing here. I believe that her rhythmic placement inspired the guitarist to do the comping that way, which is a downward chord pattern in a fixed rhythm which allows him to hide a bit under Stacey Kent while still giving her a little boost. Notice that she phrases her lines according to the words of the song, and a brilliant little thing about this song is that the melody itself works WITH the words to give a great phrasing. Will discuss this later too (phrasing is a very very tough thing to explain). But she does the beautiful pull, then push thing, which is what I believe what Marcus was talking about. I would have to disagree with you, Marcus, about how far she lays back, because I've heard plenty of singers (yes, younger) who actually don't lay so far back, but if you really really count with her, there's this pulling factor that's much stronger than most others who are doing this kind of more palatable jazz. What she does is a common thing for singers: pull the rhythm back by quite a bit, and end the phrase of a bit quicker with a push. It is like a rubber band, pulled and let go, giving this propulsive interest-building beat to the music that makes it oh so delicious.

The song also has many phrases which ends on the 3rd bar, which gives her much availability to drag her last note to almost the 4th bar, which is a neat little sound of "not landing exactly with the chord". So throughout the first 8 bars of the B section these forces are at play. Hope you're not lost yet....

Here comes the band!

Then comes the next 8 bars of the B section! Piano comes in. This is a VERY critical moment for all jazz musicians in a band with both a guitarist AND a piano. Guitarist goes into what we call Freddy Green comping which is basically like "4 on the floor" but this time with chords rather than a bassline. Then piano does sparse fills which phrase according to 2 bar phrases. On top of that, both are with sweetly light touch, so they don't intrude into the sound of the song. That's where many amateur bands fail, because the overall sound is neglected for one's need to overplay.

Brilliant!

A sweet spot was also the ending of the B section where they do a similar hit as in the A section, but this time with Stacey Kent actually drags the melody to a point just BEFORE they hit the hit, and she places a "yet!" on the offbeat just before they play (yes it's almost like she sang it with them). Little nuggets of brilliance everywhere in this song isn't it?

A prime/A' (Juxtaposition)

Then comes unison hits in the A'! A' is basically a reduced A section with the middle 4 bars ripped out of it. Note a VERY important part about arrangement at this juncture. Notice that the double bass continues his little 2 feel bassline despite everyone playing the hits. Why?

We always need a basis (bassist) for comparison. If the double bass followed, the song would sound empty and contrived for the pure fact that there is nothing filling up the sound in between the gaps of the hits, and it sounds absolutely retarded like some automated machine. The "whole band doing hits" thing is a VERY common mistake amateur bands make and unless the band can fill up the sound during the whole thing, or that the sound of the whole band doing hits (like an edgier faster swing), it is not advisable. Of course these are NOT hard and fast rules, but things that people miss out because of eagerness to "show off" or complete lack of arrangement knowledge.

Ending of A', intro of C

Then comes the ending of A', where in the 3rd last bar they do the similar hit, softer and subtler (so not boring and repetitive), and suddenly the bass and guitar come in with the "4 on the floor" thing going to lead to the next section, C!

Last words

Now seeing how much analysis we can go into with just about less than a minute worth of music, who says that listening to music is BORING? Plus I'm just skimming the surface. =) Isn't music appreciation fun? No matter what level you are, you'll always find something new in good music. =D

Stacey Kent 1

How do you make use of this Series?

This series is an example of using all the basics and all the techniques discussed to actually completely break down a song. Remember that this is only one song and is of simple structure; yet it can be analysed to such a lengthy discussion.

Just listen to the song and see if you note anything special. Repeat that again, and then read through the posts and see whether you've noticed these points or if you had noticed extra points. Gauge your awareness according to this! =)

Why Stacey Kent?

Sweet, slightly nasal tone, with this clear tone that can completely kill you when you first hear her.

Let's talk about the first 35 seconds.

Bass

Bass starts the song. Can you hear how the swing goes? Is he swinging it hard or loose? Can you feel the pulse from just the bassline? I would personally point out that the hallmark of a good backing bassist is the ability to be followed regardless what bassline he gives or is given. Why is the bass groove so catchy? It all boils down to rhythm. Of course great note choices and a clear tone helps a lot over here, but the fact that you can subdivide as you count the beats and he's almost always somewhere where you expect him, is one of the most important reasons as to why it makes sense. It's groovy, catchy because he uses notes which link the two chords together in a seamless way while giving a strong rhythmic emphasis.

Don't take my word for it. Break it down for your own. Where in the beat is he playing? Very often on the off-beats he gives his emphasis when it's not when he wants to imply the pulse too obviously, but at the same time he outlines the chords at the beginning of the two bar phrases very strongly. This gives Stacey Kent this ability to pick up the rhythm and go.

Vocalist

Now to Stacey Kent. Watch her move. She's obviously finding the pulse and getting into the groove. Her "Mmm, hmmm" are all on offbeats and phrased at the same time. Phrasing is a big issue that I'll cover another time. But this ability to get into the groove is something most pop-andtryingtobe-jazz singers CANNOT do. Examples are Michael Buble and many amateurs we see out there. I want all of you to snap on two and four and bob your head and listen to them go.

Do you notice that if you keep with the double bass you feel like you're going too fast? While if you follow Stacey Kent you feel like you're going too slow? This is the classic and lovely setting perfect to illustrate the pushing and laying back. In this case the bass is pushing and the vocalist is laying back. It's an age-old tradition in jazz vocalist training. And it's absolutely precious to the sound of the music. Because by definition, a jazz vocalist is a vocalist who can phrase like a jazz horn player, she would qualify just from the first 35 seconds.

Take Note

One common fault that classical musicians cum pop musicians do is the lack of understanding of the swing beat. The lack of emphasis on the offbeat. Stacey Kent showcases her knowledge of the offbeat with constant laying back and singing on the offbeat of a song that could be sung completely. That is why she's amazing. Why is she so easily appreciated at the same time?

Well firstly Stacey Kent is not one who changes the feel of the song too much. She keeps to medium swing and fast swing mainly and has a very palatable tone in today's pop music scene.

Now go enjoy the video. I'll be commenting on the next parts of the videos. But most importantly judge for yourself whether what I said is the truth about her singing. I'll continue this video on Stacey Kent 2. =)

How do you start analysing?

A set of notes I had written for RJC Jazz Club as well as the NUS Jazz Workshop

Introduction

What makes you love music?

Think about it. Take some time to fully remember the first time you found music and wanted to play it. Remember the joy of creating sounds and of generating a rhythm, a pulse, or this warm fuzzy feeling in your heart as you fiddle with your instrument to your heart’s content. In many ways playing jazz is similar to that. It is about playing for the love of playing, for the avid love of the sound, and the expression of one’s heart. Jazz is only one genre of the beautiful art called music, but it embodies much of the spirit of this wondrous art.

Keep your heart and ears open and hopefully you’ll be able to comprehend, appreciate and fully enjoy the beauty of this music; and if you work hard you might even get good at it and even express yourself through it.

What does jazz represent to you?

Everyone can view jazz differently. Some view it as “high society” music or “elitist” music, or a multitude of different things to you. It doesn’t matter what you view it as... yet. The more important thing is what it represents to you. Is it a way of showing superior skill, or superior intellect? Or is it a representation of something more advanced that what you’re used to? Or is it a language that you’re connected with. It takes years to find out what it represents to a single person. But to think about it always helps you understand more about yourself.

Why jazz?

There are so many genres of music. Pop music gets you the most applause. Rock music gives you the most immediate amount of release of energy. Funk is a lot easier to solo over (due to limitations). Classical is the most “high class”. Why would you come to listen to jazz?

To think about these questions is to begin, or to end, a journey into jazz that is undoubtedly life-changing if you do truly learn how to appreciate it. But with everything, it starts with the basics: The principles behind why you even want to consider it. There is no right or wrong reason. We can always start on a reason and end up changing the reason as time goes by. The most important thing is to identify the reason so that you can understand yourself. That is what jazz is about.

Basics

How does one learn music?

How do you learn to do anything in life? Do you just pick up a sport without having ever watched it or learnt it and just started to play it? Have you ever seen a person who excels at soccer, basketball, rugby or any other sport without having to observe a single game? How about a teacher who teaches without having ever studied the subject at all?

Everything starts from the idea of listening and feeling the music. If you listen to a lot of pop and nearly no jazz, whenever you’ll try to play jazz you’ll only play pop. If you listen only to classical and try to play jazz you will never swing. Start by listening. So let’s go through the very very basics – listening.

Here's There'll Never Be Another You as the first example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkDqTtb-h7o&fmt=18

Billy Taylor trio and Russell Malone are some of my favourite musicians and educators of jazz. I know for most of you, you will only concentrate on the instrument that you play (or since it doesn’t exist in this set up, switch off completely), but in jazz, every part of the band is critical in making the sound complete.

Listen to the ride pattern. There are multitudes of ways of playing the ride pattern, and each person has a different way of playing it, and even for a single person different ways at different speeds and different songs. But the ride pattern is one of the fundamental things in jazz that if you don’t understand it you can’t begin to understand jazz. Just listen to him go throughout the song in relation to how everything else is.

After a while, tune to the bass. Compare it to the ride pattern. There’s something called “pushing” that is critical in a jazz setting. That is a defining point about jazz, and almost any music. I do not want to describe it because I want you to hear the difference in time between the attack of the double bass and the ride pattern. Keep listening. Don’t strain your ears, but instead let go and let your heart do the listening. You’ll hear the little details in the music come out, such as the rhythmic placements of the notes between the bass and the ride pattern.

Then you listen to the melody. Go back to the top of the video. You can look at the score and compare what he’s playing. Even try to play what Russell Malone is playing at the same time. Notice where he is placing his notes. Is he playing on time? If he’s not then isn’t he out of time with the rest? But if he’s out of time and in time, what does that make him? There’s something called laying back that is also part of the basics of jazz.

If you can identify all of these, then move on to the piano “comping” placement. Accompaniment by the piano is also a very interesting thing. Listen closely to the placement of the notes. Is it more often on beat or off beat? Where are the emphasis of the notes? Listen to the chord colour. What emotions do they bring out in you? What is Billy Taylor doing in reaction to rest of the band?

Listen closely and every time you relisten, you will find new gems to learn. That’s the beauty of jazz.

Listen closely but with an open mind, and you’ll learn to appreciate the sound.

Do the same for these recordings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvhaFFM4AD4&&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbqkO7kp-KQ&fmt=18

What are the differences in the pieces?

Why are they all called jazz? How about the gypsy swing? Which do you like the most?

This is worth much analysis. Just from this one song so much can be said!

How to start listening to jazz

Intro

I know for many people, starting to listen to jazz is a difficult process. More often than not, people listen to the most advanced stuff possible and realised that they cannot keep up with it. This often results in problems of continuation. It's like starting to run again by sprinting. Everyone is going to feel fatigued and burnt out really quickly. If you try to listen beyond the level of your understanding, you would naturally feel overwhelmed and unable to cope with the magnitude of the amount of things you must juggle.

I personally believe the best way to do anything is to always take small steps. When you take the small steps each day, each week becomes a relatively bigger step; continue down this road and you'll be having leaps and jumps within months or years. Remember that music, or anything worth learning, cannot be learned within a day. If it was there would be no true reward.

Methods to learn to start listening to jazz, or any other music:

1. For most people who are just starting out, the usual problem with jazz music is that it just isn't "entertaining enough". If you keep listening to late John Coltrane, modern hardcore jazz, all the intricate stuff that is oh-so-hard to listen to, it will be likely that you are going to find more and more difficulty listening to jazz. These music do not explicitly indicate their form, structure, thoughts and message in a way which is very easily understood. As with everything (including metal and rock), you need to start with the easy stuff. There are plenty of great vocalists (since most music that everyone appreciates is vocal based) who can start you on understanding jazz as well, so you should start with the ones easier to appreciate.

2. There are several ways of understanding, analysing and feeling music. I personally like to talk about my method of listening to music. There can be many variations to it and many little details and orders can change, but I believe that by breaking down the music to understand it to begin with, you can tell what you like and what you don't like, and how to understand things that you don't like. The method of analysis/listening that I am talking about is on this post:
http://yourmusiceducation.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-do-you-start-analysing.html

3. Exchange music. I see a healthy exchange and tagging of Youtube videos on Facebook which is a good trend to begin with. But more importantly, exchange music in which you've analysed and think is good and you can actually bring it to others are share and see who likes what. Different people like different parts of jazz. But good music is good music. When you share and discuss, it helps a lot in consolidating your knowledge and understanding.

4. Listen to jazz exclusively for at least 1-3 months. What's the reason? Because in order to even begin to learn what jazz is, you need to immerse yourself in it. Many have tried to straddle multiple genres and learn it all at the same time, but mostly fail because when you don't even get the foundations of sound of each genre, you would not be able to truly understand and utilise it. It works for all genre. You must immerse yourself in it before you can truly understand it. There is no single person who hasn't immersed in a type of music and excelled in it before. Before the Indian musicians go professional, they have to spent 3 months to more than a year (depending on willingness) doing nothing but waking up and playing their instrument till night every single day. After that they can stop practising their instrument and still fly on it.

5. One of the biggest problems facing people is that they cannot muster up the will to want to go through the initial process - the inertia. Mostly because they say that they do not have the resources or external inspiration to really push on. Truth is, if you want to learn something, the only person who can help you is you. Finding resources and looking for friends who can help you are critical parts of learning.

I have a list of good crossovers for anyone starting out for jazz:

Vocalists
Stacey Kent (still insist that she's one of the best)
Diana Krall
Etta James (for those who love the blues)
Billie Holiday (a bit harder to touch base)
Ella Fitzgerald (usually great because she is both entertaining and artistic)
Lisa Ono (Bossa)
Esperanza Spalding
Laura Fygi
Pink Martini
Chaka Khan
Diane Shure

Instrumentals
Fourplay (great crossovers)
Casiopea
T Square
Oscar Peterson
Eric Marienthal
Chick Corea (especially for pianists and classical musicians) (early only though)
Duke Ellington Big Band
Count Basie Big Band
Django Reinhart
Wes Montgomery (he's like the beginning and end-all for all guitarist, just like how jimi hendrix is for all rock players)
Dave Weckl Band
Early Miles Davis (very good stuff)
Stan Getz
Grover Washington Jr
Jamiroquai (gets your funk on)
Even Red Hot Chilli Peppers (gets ya funk on too)
Art Tatum (great for classical pianists with exposure to ragtime and need a freaking fast player to inspire)
Hiromi Uehera
Larry Carlton
Alain Caron (great for bassists)
Level 42
Stanley Clarke
Marcus Miller
Wayman Tisdale
Chet Baker
Dave Brubeck
Dave Grusin
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
Gordon Goodwind Big Band
GRP Big Band
Pat Metheny

The list is actually non-exhaustive though. If you find any musicians like Bill Evans or Dizzy Gillespie great to listen to, I'd encourage you to listen to them. Remember that these are great crossovers and for some are also great musicians all-round, but are more palatable for a whole host of reason.

Next level of listening

There is no such thing as a true next level of listening. There are people like Miles Davis in his times of electric jazz, and many fusion players who take it to the next level like Tribal Tech or Allan Holdsworth, but these are all dependent on one's taste and preference. The truth is that after you are able to analyse music on your own, you'd find the world of music a boundless place. =)

Conclusion

Hope this will help. It does take dedication and a lot of work. But if you just let yourself immerse yourself in jazz for 3-4 months, you can at least come out of it and realise that you have a strong FOUNDATION. And that is truly what you need. Though usually after the 3-4 months we actually go into more intensive listening more by choice than discipline now.

Hope this starts you thinking. =)

First post - The Introduction

Hey everyone. =)

Why I started this blog

I was trying to help teach the RJC Jazz Club people on how to really learn how to appreciate jazz, and posted a few things up on Facebook to get the guys going. Then when I showed it to my friend Lianglin he advised me to bring this onto a blog such that it'll be more open and more people can check out my stuff.

I've seen a number of blogs started by Singaporean "musicians" who are trying to teach. I shall be blunt about this - most of them skim the surface and miss out the most important points about playing music - the music itself. They go through theory with all the little facts and all and try to keep all the true information for lessons when they get to teach the students (their aim is to earn money afterall).

However I think that with the internet being so wide, most of these information can be gotten off the net through a more professional blog like AllAboutJazz and other sites like that so it completely defeats the purpose.

I may not know it all, but I believe my experience in teaching people at NUS Jazz Band and RJC Jazz Club has helped me learn what is important in analysing music and how to go about fully analysing and learning music such that you can appreciate it. No artist can start creating art without actually appreciating other art. It's like a writer who never read in his/her life trying to write a novel. It's a brilliant attempt once in a yellow polka dotted blue cheese moon, but most of the time, we know how it turns out.

What are you doing here?

My aim here is to share with you my knowledge and my approach to dealing with listening to music. Going through a systematic and analytical approach was my way of gradually understanding different types of music better, and it helped me appreciate cross-genres. As most people start off by listening to pop, poprock and all that stuff, so I'll be using crossovers which tend to be more related to those genres (i.e. smooth jazz, japanese fusion, pop-jazz etc.) but from time to time I'll be adding some stuff meant for metal/heavy rock/ethnic music/others just to spice up.

I hope to update this blog with a new topic weekly in an attempt to analyse a piece of music or share new knowledge. As knowledge is very vast and to really go into the nitty gritty details will take forever, I hope to be able to categorise my posts along the way; but this is just as much a learning process for me to teach as it is for you to learn about appreciating music.

Why analyse? Shouldn't music be felt?

Music should always be felt. But like with everything in life, a trained person is able to appreciate the finer details even fuller. If everyone was able to understand music at a deeper level, there is much joy and other feelings to be extracted. Of course as usual everyone brings the idea of how thinking too much when you're listening affects your true perception of the music.

Remember that what I'm offering here is a new way of perceiving music. I'm teaching you how to analyse music to begin with and find the beauty of it. When your mind is trained towards that direction, you can critically analyse and assess a piece of music without actually actively doing so. It opens up a whole new world of advanced sounding music by learning the basic idioms, rhythmic ideas and a whole host of other things which makes music that much more exciting.

It also helps you understand why you might be playing the exact same thing as some legend but it just doesn't sound right. Or very often why some people sound so amazingly mechanical while some others sound just so beautiful; every note that he touches is like butter.

For classical players: What really defines a musician of equal technical skill level to be better than another musician? Sensitivity, touch, taste, can actually be found within all of this.

We're not adding prescriptive labels or finding "rules", but by listening to great musicians, we learn what is beautiful and what is great, and once you know that, you know what to work towards. And also it gives you a great idea on the diversity of what's good - so diverse that you cannot believe it - while it shows you more about yourself and the things around you. Because it is art appreciation, you'd find many new things.

Conclusion

Feel free to comment and bring on healthy discussions. Do not take all comments too seriously as we're all here to learn. Will be posting up some music for everyone to comment on from time to time as well, like little quizzes. No right answers, always down to how you analyse it.

Suggestions

1. Don't take my posts way too seriously. They are my opinions and my comments. Meant to be shared and discussed. I might be a bit quick to comment sometimes but all in the name of discussion not to put another down. Sharing of personal philosophies will inevitably surface as we're all dealing with something that I believe is a form of art, where life philosophies come into the picture, and I will inevitably share much of my ideas on life.

2. Get yourself:
a. A good pair of earphones/headphones (I'd recommend Triple Fi 10 Pro's. Best till now and at 300+ nowadays it's a steal... Might be expensive to you but after you hear the difference in quality between your earphones and that... You'll see what I mean)
b. Start using high quality files for music. I'm not an "audiophile" but when you want to analyse more complex music, you want to be able to hear all the sounds possible so that you don't miss out anything. If the file quality is shit, it will sound like shit regardless.
c. On youtube videos, do your best to switch to &fmt=18 for stereo sound AND switch to the highest quality possible. Sometimes getting to best quality recordings are never available but try anyway. =)
d. Get a portable listening device, preferably a good one. Learn to enjoy your music as art, rather than just entertainment. Learn to enjoy it on your public transport rides or jogs/walks. Listen to it while studying and let it run in the background. It'll help you listen more.

3. Learn to relax. Listening to jazz can be an amazingly relaxing thing to do. Analysing can be more of a release than you realise. Using your brain is not something that drains you, but when you focus on something other than your life and stress, suddenly the world can see that much more beautiful when you concentrate on enjoying the beautiful sounds presented to you.

With that, I welcome you to my blog. And hope that you will enjoy this journey with me. =)