The long awaited return to my lessons has begun. What a wonderful session we had, not one but two hours of revision and learning. We started by looking at a classical aria. The purpose of this study will be to develop modulation, and colour by adding different dynamics to the interpretation.
Next, we looked closely at the rhythm of Basin Street Blues, which I had got somewhere towards getting right, but there were still issues to resolve. Learning in French has given me a most useful tool for counting. Instead of the traditional 1, 2,3 or 1 and 2and I have been taught to use the names of the note values which in French correspond to the designated beat. So a crotchet is counted as croche, a crotchet as noire, a minim as blanch-e(with the last 'e' sounded). What I had forgotten was the actual progress of the beat in order to differentiate the sounds. A full beat goes up and down; the half beat either up or down depending on where it starts. We marked the score showing where the beat actually falls, so I was able to see why I was slightly out all the time! We then spent a while saying the rhythm, clapping the rhythm. Hopefully I can work on this on my own now.
Another difficulty was pitching some of the intervals correctly. In particular the minor thirds. So back to the keyboard, and some warm-up work using major and minor thirds. Of course singing Jazz style music requires a sound knowledge of major and minor sevenths. So on to these - another piece of useful revision.
When it came to singing the piece, I was confronted with two new pieces of learning! The first, and perhaps the most challenging at this stage, was the way jazz musicians emphasise the beat. Instead of a 1, 3 pattern, it is a 2, 4 pattern. By listening carefully to the percussionist I was able to hear this. What a revelation!!!!
Finally, I was asked to consider which consonants in a phrase could carry a stronger emphasis. It took a while to understand what I was being asked to do, but finally I realised that I needed to make my lips and tongue work more percussively. Ultimately I need to be able to vary the type of sound between smoothly sung notes, and percussion style notes. All designed to help the jazz singer create interesting solos. (I think it will be a very long time before I can attempt something like that with a band!!!!!) Finally some suggestions for future songs to study. All in all a wonderful return to work! Now I have two weeks to put this into practice!!!
