In order to evaluate a small group improvising in class, we have been given four different songs in advance. This allowed us to do some research and study them in advance. The Jazz Standards that we were given were All of Me, composed by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons; Mr. PC by John Coltrane; Someday My Prince Will Come, composed by Frank Churchill (music) and Larry Morey (lyrics); and Tune Up by Miles Davis. Although I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to attend the class, I decided that I would work on the songs as if I had to perform them on that day.
As we were given the sheet music, I decided to learn the original melody and listen to the original versions of each song. I also listened to other versions such as Frank Sinatra’s version of All of Me and also Billie Holiday’s one. I had a listen to Barbra Streisand, Miles Davis and Disney’s Snow White version of Someday My Prince Will Come. I used a backing track to practice improvising over Mr. PC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN_8tsakYXI).
I found it quite hard to learn the exact melody for the four songs but I felt like I had a general idea of the melody in the four songs. I decided to work more on All of Me as it is a song that has lyrics and Sinatra’s version suits my vocal range. All of me is in the key of C major therefore a possible scale to use would be C major. Although we could get away by playing this scale there are some chords that don’t belong to this key. I suppose that we can’t really consider that the key changes because it changes too quickly without establishing a new key. The sequence Cmaj7 | E7 | A7 | Dm points to a modulation to Dm but as the chords in section A are:
Cmaj7| E7 | A7 | Dm | E7 | Am | D7 | Dm7 | G7 | Cmaj7
This chord progression suggests constant small modulations as E7, A7 and D7 are not in the key, and we can find II-V-I chord progressions (E7|A7|Dm and Dm|E7|Am). Therefore, a good idea would be playing keynotes on these chords to outline the changes.
As I wasn’t able to perform any of these songs, I decided to do an analysis of my improvisation in Group Performance Techniques. We played our own arrangement of Autumn Leaves, a Jazz Standard composed by Joseph Kosma (music) and Jacques Prevert (lyrics). We played five choruses. In the first one we sang the lyrics, in the second one both guitarists improvised, in the third the singers improvised, in the fourth there was a bass and a drum solo, and in the last chorus we sang the lyrics again.
We recorded a couple of takes when we were practicing:
https://soundcloud.com/rpereira-1/sets/autumn-leaves/s-cGN2X
We changed the key of the song to C minor to suit our vocal range. The scales I used to improvise were mostly C minor scale and minor pentatonic scale. As I knew the melody of the song really well and the chord progression, it was easier to improvise. Serena and I decided to do a “call and response” improvised solo. I really enjoyed it because I could use some of her ideas and develop them and she could do the same. These recordings are from our fourth rehearsal. Although we can hear a guitar repeating one of the lines I sing, during our fifth rehearsal we developed our solos and really worked on interacting more with each other. I enjoyed having to listen to what Serena was singing and use it as a starting point for an improvised phrase. I listened to some scat singing and started to experiment in this song but this is not very noticeable in these recordings.
After listening and watching our actual actual performance (https://soundcloud.com/rpereira-1/autumn-leaves/s-VLS14, 2:33 min), I noticed that I was out of tune during most of the song. I think it got a bit better in the first part of the solo though. As my solo was after the guitar solo, I thought that I shouldn't approach it in the same way as I would if I was soloing on my own. I tried to give continuity to the guitar's solo and build intensity. I tried to use some scat singing in my solo and explore different sounds and rhythms. The idea was to give the drummer an opportunity to interact with the solo as well. I think that I managed to outline the chord changes. I think it is quite intuitive for singers because the melody of the song outlines those changes. Therefore, when we are improvising we have those guide tones in our head that we often use. I was trying to avoid singing the root notes when the chord changes and sing the third or the seventh instead. When I start soloing at 3:07min I was trying to go up the scale but my first note was out of tune and it put me off for the rest of that sequence. At the end of the vocal solo we tried to layer our solos and improvise at the same time. Before our performance we had tried this idea and it worked, but during our performance I think that we weren't as relaxed and we weren't as creative.
Overall, I think that the whole performance was good. We worked quite a lot in this song and I think everyone was really confortable with their parts. I think we could have improvised more when we repeat the lyrics after the solos, changing slightly the way we sing and approaching the phrasing and the song in a different way, keeping it interesting. Frank Sinatra usually changes slightly the way he sings the lyrics when they are repeated (This is noticeable in All of me).
We had a lot of rehearsal time to work on Autumn Leaves therefore it made our performance run smoothly. I think it would be a bigger challenge having to improvise and perform with a band, without having previously rehearsed it with any of the members in the band. I think that under those circumstances everyone needs to listen really carefully to all the instruments, be really focused and communicate with each other on stage.
As we were given the sheet music, I decided to learn the original melody and listen to the original versions of each song. I also listened to other versions such as Frank Sinatra’s version of All of Me and also Billie Holiday’s one. I had a listen to Barbra Streisand, Miles Davis and Disney’s Snow White version of Someday My Prince Will Come. I used a backing track to practice improvising over Mr. PC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN_8tsakYXI).
I found it quite hard to learn the exact melody for the four songs but I felt like I had a general idea of the melody in the four songs. I decided to work more on All of Me as it is a song that has lyrics and Sinatra’s version suits my vocal range. All of me is in the key of C major therefore a possible scale to use would be C major. Although we could get away by playing this scale there are some chords that don’t belong to this key. I suppose that we can’t really consider that the key changes because it changes too quickly without establishing a new key. The sequence Cmaj7 | E7 | A7 | Dm points to a modulation to Dm but as the chords in section A are:
Cmaj7| E7 | A7 | Dm | E7 | Am | D7 | Dm7 | G7 | Cmaj7
This chord progression suggests constant small modulations as E7, A7 and D7 are not in the key, and we can find II-V-I chord progressions (E7|A7|Dm and Dm|E7|Am). Therefore, a good idea would be playing keynotes on these chords to outline the changes.
As I wasn’t able to perform any of these songs, I decided to do an analysis of my improvisation in Group Performance Techniques. We played our own arrangement of Autumn Leaves, a Jazz Standard composed by Joseph Kosma (music) and Jacques Prevert (lyrics). We played five choruses. In the first one we sang the lyrics, in the second one both guitarists improvised, in the third the singers improvised, in the fourth there was a bass and a drum solo, and in the last chorus we sang the lyrics again.
We recorded a couple of takes when we were practicing:
https://soundcloud.com/rpereira-1/sets/autumn-leaves/s-cGN2X
We changed the key of the song to C minor to suit our vocal range. The scales I used to improvise were mostly C minor scale and minor pentatonic scale. As I knew the melody of the song really well and the chord progression, it was easier to improvise. Serena and I decided to do a “call and response” improvised solo. I really enjoyed it because I could use some of her ideas and develop them and she could do the same. These recordings are from our fourth rehearsal. Although we can hear a guitar repeating one of the lines I sing, during our fifth rehearsal we developed our solos and really worked on interacting more with each other. I enjoyed having to listen to what Serena was singing and use it as a starting point for an improvised phrase. I listened to some scat singing and started to experiment in this song but this is not very noticeable in these recordings.
After listening and watching our actual actual performance (https://soundcloud.com/rpereira-1/autumn-leaves/s-VLS14, 2:33 min), I noticed that I was out of tune during most of the song. I think it got a bit better in the first part of the solo though. As my solo was after the guitar solo, I thought that I shouldn't approach it in the same way as I would if I was soloing on my own. I tried to give continuity to the guitar's solo and build intensity. I tried to use some scat singing in my solo and explore different sounds and rhythms. The idea was to give the drummer an opportunity to interact with the solo as well. I think that I managed to outline the chord changes. I think it is quite intuitive for singers because the melody of the song outlines those changes. Therefore, when we are improvising we have those guide tones in our head that we often use. I was trying to avoid singing the root notes when the chord changes and sing the third or the seventh instead. When I start soloing at 3:07min I was trying to go up the scale but my first note was out of tune and it put me off for the rest of that sequence. At the end of the vocal solo we tried to layer our solos and improvise at the same time. Before our performance we had tried this idea and it worked, but during our performance I think that we weren't as relaxed and we weren't as creative.
Overall, I think that the whole performance was good. We worked quite a lot in this song and I think everyone was really confortable with their parts. I think we could have improvised more when we repeat the lyrics after the solos, changing slightly the way we sing and approaching the phrasing and the song in a different way, keeping it interesting. Frank Sinatra usually changes slightly the way he sings the lyrics when they are repeated (This is noticeable in All of me).
We had a lot of rehearsal time to work on Autumn Leaves therefore it made our performance run smoothly. I think it would be a bigger challenge having to improvise and perform with a band, without having previously rehearsed it with any of the members in the band. I think that under those circumstances everyone needs to listen really carefully to all the instruments, be really focused and communicate with each other on stage.
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