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Transposition for Jazz and Commercial Players



 
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PH
Bill Adam/Carmine Caruso Forum Moderator


Joined: 26 Nov 2001
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Location: New Albany, Indiana

PostPosted: Fri Jul 09, 2021 5:39 pm    Post subject: Transposition for Jazz and Commercial Players Reply with quote

Trumpet hack...Classical trumpet players work extensively on transposition. It is a fundamental skill needed for orchestral playing. However, there are also certain transposition abilities that are necessary survival skills for every successful jazz and commercial trumpet player. This would include:

1) The ability to read melodies at sight from a treble clef concert part and to improvise solos from concert key chord changes.

2) The ability to read a Bb tenor sax part and make appropriate adjustments for range and octave transposition in a way that is musical.

3) The ability to read a concert key bass clef part (usually trombone) and make appropriate adjustments for range and octave transposition in a way that is musical.

4) The ability to read an Eb alto or baritone sax part and make appropriate adjustments for range and octave transposition in a way that is musical. Also, the ability to improvise solos from chord changes written for Eb instruments.

5) The ability to play the melody of all the “Great American Songbook” tunes you know (aka “standards”) in any key and to improvise simple, musical and harmonically accurate solos, obbligati and fills around the melody in any key. (You will work with vocalists. A mute doesn't hide clams.)

6) You probably should also learn to sight read F horn, viola & alto flute parts. These are called for less frequently, but I have had to read horn parts on flugelhorn at several recording sessions and for some big band charts by Thad Jones, Gil Evans, et al.
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jicetp
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Joined: 30 Mar 2004
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 09, 2021 10:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I typically transpose my etude son a daily basis.
Start with Gretchell, Brandt, Charlier..
Good workout
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HaveTrumpetWillTravel
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Joined: 30 Jan 2018
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Location: East Asia

PostPosted: Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm a comeback player, started listening to Jazz, and like many hoped to learn improv. It is daunting how much it takes to be a good player.

To OP, I'm really curious what your path or the typical path looks like to learn these things. How many can a good incoming jazz performance student do when they arrive? How much can they do by graduation? How long does it take an average player to learn the songs in #5?
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kfeldt
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Joined: 13 Oct 2002
Posts: 22
Location: Ithaca, NY

PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2021 6:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

HaveTrumpetWillTravel wrote:
I'm a comeback player, started listening to Jazz, and like many hoped to learn improv. It is daunting how much it takes to be a good player.

To OP, I'm really curious what your path or the typical path looks like to learn these things. How many can a good incoming jazz performance student do when they arrive? How much can they do by graduation? How long does it take an average player to learn the songs in #5?


Pat (or someone else) will have to address your question about where college students start and end, but...

I was in a similar situation to you about 5 years ago, starting to learn jazz improvisation from ground zero. Even as an adult amateur, I fairly frequently run into situations where being able to do #1, 2, and 5 is useful. It seems that singers rarely want to sing tunes in the "normal" keys.

Can I do it perfectly? Definitely not. But all this stuff is learnable, it just takes a lot of practice. You've just got to start chipping away at it...
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PH
Bill Adam/Carmine Caruso Forum Moderator


Joined: 26 Nov 2001
Posts: 5859
Location: New Albany, Indiana

PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2021 10:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

HaveTrumpetWillTravel wrote:
I'm a comeback player, started listening to Jazz, and like many hoped to learn improv. It is daunting how much it takes to be a good player.

To OP, I'm really curious what your path or the typical path looks like to learn these things. How many can a good incoming jazz performance student do when they arrive? How much can they do by graduation? How long does it take an average player to learn the songs in #5?


Hi! I think we need to differentiate between aspiring professional players (the audience my post is more meant to address) and amateurs or comebackers who are in it for pleasure and personal growth. Nonetheless, memorizing melodies, learning to play melodies (that you can sing) by ear in any key, understanding how to hear basic key areas and key changes in harmonic progressions, etc. are probably the most important part of learning to play jazz...far more important than knowing scales and such.

I am fortunate to teach at a pretty elite college jazz program. Our students probably know 25-50 tunes (melody and changes) when they come in as freshmen. When they leave they probably know more like 150 or so...a barely adequate minimum repertoire to enter the professional world. I've found that most people can REALLY learn a tune (and not need to relearn it if they don't play it for a month LOL) if they work on it for 30-45 minutes every day for a week. That includes listening to recordings, playing along with recordings, playing the chords at the keyboard when they are resting their chops, etc.
_________________
Bach trumpet artist-clinician
Clinical Professor of Jazz Trumpet, University of Illinois
Professor Emeritus of Jazz Studies, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Faculty Jamey Aebersold Jazz Workshops 1976-2019
JazzRetreats.com
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