Scat Singing

Quadruple C · Heavyweight Member Joined: 28 Nov 2001 Posts: 1448

[ This Message was edited by: Quadruple C on 2003-09-29 17:05 ]

TheDubbaDubbaD · Regular Member Joined: 07 May 2002 Posts: 26

It does help with the improve on the horn. You develop new ideas and it helps bring them from your head to the horn.

Eric M. Parise · Regular Member Joined: 11 Dec 2001 Posts: 41

Kurt Elling...

_Don Herman · Posted: Sat May 11, 2002 4:06 pm Post subject:

Good idea, David. It might be a nice for those of us left gifted (that'd be me) to start slow -- scat a phrase, then work out the notes (pitches) on the horn, so we're training our ears and mind with the music. (Did I say "Chicago"?

) By singing and then working it out on the horn, we'll build a toolkit of phrases and riffs to play. I suppose the next step would be to sacat over a chord sequence -- Band in a Box, Finale, Cakewalk etc. are good for helping this. (I'm full of advice I never seem to apply -- and I've got all the toys, too! -- do as I say, not as I do.)

FWIW - Don
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Don Herman/Monument, CO
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music." - Aldous Huxley

dwm1129 · Posted: Sat May 11, 2002 10:20 pm Post subject:

I think that is a good point Quad C. I'm a trumpet player but I'm also an artist too( ha ha)....and always trying to progress. Alot of times I think we all get bogged down by the technical aspect of improvisation, that we forget to play what really comes from inside. I know when I reach a wall with my playing and everything seems old and stall, I scat and record it and I usually do some things I would never do on the horn either because I can't or thought they were un hip or what.
Scatting has always helped bring the musical ideas deep down inside me out and help me progress. I think as musicians when we hit a wall with improve or writting it's not because we don't have any ideas but because we are denying the ones we have because we don't think they fit are style or are hip. When we learn to really listen to what we want and what we really hear is when we start to progress.

PH · Posted: Sun May 12, 2002 8:04 am Post subject:

I often work on scatting solos like I wish I could play-usually along with play-alongs. I'll record them and learn to play the parts that I really like, but that are unlike what I normally play. Sometimes I write it down & sometimes I don't. Then I'll learn to play the solo I sang and clean it up like an etude. Finally, I'll go back and improvise variations on the solo I sang.

I figure that what I sing is really what I hear. Sometimes what I play is what I have practiced. For me, this is the very best way to break out of that rut of "I always play the same crap on Bb Rhythm changes".

Larry Smithee · Heavyweight Member Joined: 11 Nov 2001 Posts: 4399

Quadruple C · Heavyweight Member Joined: 28 Nov 2001 Posts: 1448

[ This Message was edited by: Quadruple C on 2003-09-29 17:05 ]

Quadruple C · Heavyweight Member Joined: 28 Nov 2001 Posts: 1448

[ This Message was edited by: Quadruple C on 2003-09-29 17:06 ]

MrTrumpet · Posted: Mon May 13, 2002 7:04 pm Post subject:

A similar thought about singing is that it helps alot playing ballads/standards, etc. to sing or at least understand the lyrics of the songs you're playing. Knowing what the words are and where they go and what they mean and what the lyrist meant can help you avoid just "running the changes" on these tunes, too.

regards, Mike

[ This Message was edited by: MrTrumpet on 2002-05-13 22:04 ]

Quadruple C · Heavyweight Member Joined: 28 Nov 2001 Posts: 1448

[ This Message was edited by: Quadruple C on 2003-09-29 17:06 ]

TheDubbaDubbaD · Regular Member Joined: 07 May 2002 Posts: 26

The vocal ability is not as important as the pitches, if you can sing them, you can play them. If it is as simple as just do de doo do da do daa....

I Jazz 24 7 · Posted: Tue May 14, 2002 8:55 pm Post subject:

I was at a jazz festival this past weekend and the adjudicators did a little jam session at the end. They were great but when the bass player took her solo she sang exactly what she was playing as she was playing it, with perfect pitch too. It was pretty amazing. She was doing some pretty fast licks too. It was great. If only we could figure out a way to sing and play at the same time.........I guess that's another topic for another day.

Brad
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"when it sounds good it IS good" - Duke Ellington

dwm1129 · Posted: Wed May 15, 2002 5:32 pm Post subject:

Try huming while you play, it's a cool effect.

Quadruple C · Heavyweight Member Joined: 28 Nov 2001 Posts: 1448

[ This Message was edited by: Quadruple C on 2003-09-29 17:07 ]

PH · Posted: Wed May 15, 2002 7:07 pm Post subject:

Brad,

Was that bass player/singer Kristin Korb? She's great (and a great person, too)!

If you like Watrous doing the hum and play thing you'll love trumpeter Matt Shulman's work with this technique. He has developed it to a higher level than any trumpeter I've heard. Only trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff is anywhere near this sophisticated.

Shulman has some examples of his use of the technique on his website-the same one where he is marketing the "Shulman System". <http://www.shulmansystem.com/>

I Jazz 24 7 · Posted: Wed May 15, 2002 8:39 pm Post subject:

Ph,

It was Kristin, she's an awsome bassist and vocalist. Thanks for the link; I'll look into it.

Brad

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"when it sounds good it IS good" - Duke Ellington

[ This Message was edited by: I Jazz 24 7 on 2002-05-15 23:40 ]

Perry dAndrea · Posted: Mon May 20, 2002 1:02 am Post subject:

David, NICE TAKE- It helps clarify the relationship between what we hear in our core and what we put out there in our playing. Your posts in this thread provide a lot of mileage back toward the essence of the *art* in trumpet playing:

personal expression!

pd
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Quadruple C · Heavyweight Member Joined: 28 Nov 2001 Posts: 1448

[ This Message was edited by: Quadruple C on 2003-09-29 17:08 ]

vivace · Posted: Mon May 20, 2002 1:59 pm Post subject:

for some really neat sounding multi-phonic singing.. that is right.. all in the voice box. The rapper Razel does some incredible stuff with his voice. He can sing and do a beat at the same time... i don't know how he does it though.
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"All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing no song." - Louis Armstrong