THE
10 MOST COMMON MISTAKES THAT
JAZZ BAND DIRECTORS MAKE
(And how to fix them)
Jeff Anderson, Musical Director,
Indianapolis Jazz Orchestra
In my 26 years as a professional
musician and band director, I’ve had the opportunity
to work with and to observe dozens of scholastic jazz ensembles.
I’ve learned that an effective director not only knows
what to do, but what not to do. With this in mind, I’ve
assembled the 10 most important things that I believe all
scholastic directors should strive “not” to do.
These aren’t listed in any particular order of importance,
although their individual relevance may vary depending on
the situation.
1) Playing only pop arrangements
In this case the director thinks that if his jazz ensemble
only plays arrangements of the latest pop hits, that it’ll
“keep the kids interested.” Many music publishers
foster this notion by offering simplistic arrangements of
the most transient music. In some ways you can’t blame
them. They are, of course, in the business of making money.
Most of these charts are played only in the first year that
they’re purchased and are then quickly relegated to
the “dead music” section of the music library.
Directors must understand that publishers always offer the
good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to jazz band arrangements.
I’m not trying to trash
pop music. It’s just that it doesn’t always provide
the best basis for creating a good big band arrangement.
Tradition as well as practice has proven that the music
we call jazz, as well as “standards,” seems to
work best as the source material for most big band music.
As a rule, we always tend to underestimate what students
will accept. With a little time and understanding, most
students will come to accept, love, and even demand this
type of music.
2) Not playing recordings for students
A director once asked me, “How do I get my band to
play Basie-style charts better?” I quickly responded,
“Play some Basie recordings for them.” The director
looked incredulous and a little disappointed. I’m quite
sure that he expected me to share some miraculous rehearsal
technique with him rather than tell him to do something
so simple and obvious. We all know that music is an imitative
art form. Jazz, in particular, has numerous musical elements
that just cannot be accurately notated. Students must have
frequent modeling from professional sources in order to
fully develop as musicians. Next to sight-reading, regularly
playing quality recordings for your students is the most
effective thing that you can do to improve your band. Having
a recording of a great professional band playing as students
are coming in to each rehearsal is an easy way of accomplishing
this.
3) Playing arrangements just because they’re hard
We’ve all heard charts like these: the brass play in
the stratosphere through the entire piece, the saxes seem
to have one technically impossible soli after another, the
changes are unbelievably complex, it seems to hit every
musical feel - Swing, Rock, Ballad, Latin, the tempos are
blistering, and it musically stinks! Some of us in the big
band business kindly refer to these arrangements as “history
of jazz” charts. Although this kind of arrangement
has been around for a long time, there seems to a recent
trend with a few publishers to offer more of them.
Oddly enough, this is a bigger
problem with strong high school (and sometimes college)
ensembles than with weaker groups. With the emphasis on
competition, some directors reason that the tougher the
chart, the more it will showcase their band. While this
thinking might occasionally help win a trophy, it does so
at the expense of musically cheating the students involved.
They can easily end up believing that if an arrangement
is not really hard then it “can’t be any good.”
It’s never musically or educationally sound to choose
a specific chart for your band just because it sounds (or
looks) technically tough. An arrangement should first and
foremost always have some musical merit. Not to worry for
you trophy conscience directors out there - there are plenty
of very musical charts available that are also “really,
really hard!”
Remember: why waste any time
playing bad (or even mediocre) charts when there are so
many good charts available? Just because a chart exists
doesn’t mean that it deserves to be played!
4) Using the jazz ensemble like a “super big combo”
This type of jazz ensemble suffers from a real identity
crisis. Every arrangement that they perform seems to just
be another way to highlight a jazz solo (or solos). The
jazz choruses seem to go on forever while the rest of the
band plays lackluster background figures. A band like this
is sometimes the product of a well-meaning, but misinformed
director. Often, the director will have a strong background
in jazz improvisation, but lacks experience with (or appreciation
of) the Big Band as an ensemble. They believe that they’re
actually doing the right thing by making jazz improvisation
the primary focus of their group.
There’s certainly nothing
wrong with performing an occasional soloist-centered chart.
On the contrary, the jazz solo-feature can be an important
part of a band’s overall repertoire. It’s just
that to use the big band exclusively (or mostly) in this
way is neither musically practical nor historically valid.
Directors must remember that the big band has always been
an arrangers medium - perhaps more than any other type of
musical ensemble. The amazing sounds of bands like Stan
Kenton, Count Basie, Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson,
and many others can all be faithfully recreated because
of the wonderful arrangements that have been left behind.
Today, arrangers are still forging great new charts for
the medium. Yes, the jazz soloist is an important part of
the big band as we know it. It’s just not the most
important part. A good jazz ensemble should always be centered
on playing quality arrangements that feature the entire
ensemble first and the soloist second.
5) Never working on jazz improvisation
Never working on improvisation with your students can be
just as bad as making it the only focus of your jazz ensemble
program. Jazz solos are an important part of most big band
arrangements. Unfortunately, many directors leave this part
of their program to pure chance. Often, students are left
to themselves to figure out what to do when confronted with
an improvised solo. Most of the time this is because the
director has had little or no experience with jazz soloing
and just feels uncomfortable trying to teach it.
The director in this case must
either confront his knowledge deficit or bring in outside
help to remedy the problem. Many colleges and universities
offer summer courses and clinics dealing with jazz improvisation
and how to teach it. Although taking a course like this
may require some time and humility, it’s usually well
worth the effort. The quickest (and perhaps best) way to
deal with teaching improvisation is to bring in outside
help. This outside person can be either a local professional
musician or a qualified college instructor. However you
choose to incorporate improvisation instruction into your
program, it needs to be done on a regular basis. Unless
you have a healthy jazz combo component as part of your
overall program, you should probably work on improvisation
at least a little bit at each jazz ensemble rehearsal.
6) Not sight-reading with the jazz band
Unfortunately, this problem is another indirect result of
the total emphasis on competition that is prevalent in many
high school bands. Some directors theorize that all available
rehearsal time should be devoted toward “mastering”
the 3 or 4 tunes they’ve selected to play at competitions
that year. They feel that any time spent doing anything
else is a waste and just another obstacle between them and
their next trophy. Besides being educationally bankrupt,
this tactic is extremely shortsighted.
Sight-reading is the absolute
best tool that a director can use to increase the strength
and independence of their band. A director who teaches his
band to sight-read will find that they can learn tough literature
much more quickly than they did so previously. Starting
each rehearsal session by sight-reading an easy to medium
difficulty chart (grade 2-4) will quickly show positive
results with any high school (or college) band. Most school
libraries have many arrangements just sitting in mothballs
that could easily be used for this purpose. I’m always
amazed and perplexed as to why more school groups don’t
use this easy, but incredibly effective program building
tool.
7) Using more than one student on each part
This most frequently happens with trumpets and saxes. I’ve
often seen as many as seven or eight players in one section.
These “super sized” sections will almost always
have two students playing the lead part. Frequently directors
will place more than one student on a part thinking that
it will make the group sound stronger. This tactic never
has the desired effect. Those students on the doubled parts
just remain weak and never get stronger. Additionally, the
doubling of parts creates intonation problems that can be
insurmountable. Even if the director is doing this for the
loftier reason of “letting more students participate”
it still tends to create many more problems that it solves.
Big band charts are arranged
specifically for one person per part. It’s surprising
how much better they sound when played that way. When there
is only one on a part it also has the added benefit of teaching
young players to be stronger, more independent, and play
better in-tune. If you absolutely must have an extra person
(only one, that is) in a section, never double the lead
part. Have the student double a lower part (4th Trumpet,
2nd Tenor, or 3rd Trombone).
True personal story: I played
a gig some time ago with a so-called professional big band.
It was my first (and ultimately my last) time playing with
this group. I took my place in the trumpet section and watched
4 players arrive, then 5, then 6, then 7. Eventually there
was a total of 8 trumpet players in the section. I was confused,
but the bandleader (a piano player) came back and explained
that he wanted two people on each part. He stated that he
“liked the sound” of two trumpets on each part.
I fought off the feeling of being in the Twilight Zone as
we started the gig. About a half-hour into the first set
the bandleader looks back to the trumpets and loudly (and
a little angrily) says, “Is there something that we
can do about the bad intonation in the trumpet section?”
I loudly responded, “Yeah, send half of these guys
home!”
8) Ruining your young lead trumpet player
This is another problem that is most common with high school
bands that are usually pretty strong. Many of these bands
are playing charts that are just way too ambitious for most
high school lead trumpet players. Bands like these usually
have a brave kid playing lead that is squealing and screeching
like the devil just trying to cover the part. Because human
beings are such adaptable creatures, a few young players
actually learn to make it work (...well, at least kind of
make it work).
I’m deadly serious when
I say that 99% of all high school trumpet players are just
not physically prepared for extreme register work (above
a written high “c” or “d”). The problem
arises when kids are forced to deal with these range expectations
before they’ve developed a full, mature sound. These
students are forced to employ unorthodox methods in order
to try and fulfill the requirements of the music in front
of them. Being a college director, I’ve had many opportunities
to observe trumpet students who are products of such environments.
Quite frankly, most of them are absolutely ruined as trumpet
players. I’ve seen significant external scarring on
the lips of trumpet players that are no more that 18 years
old. Often the scarring is not visible, but is still present
on the internal mouth structures. A young student with a
damaged embouchure like this may find it impossible to ever
develop a mature sound or advanced flexibility. A professional
lead trumpet player, who also teaches, should first evaluate
promising young lead players before introducing them to
any extreme range work.
9) Never using outside help
One of the universities that I attended was located in a
fairly small city. This university had a large music department
with a strong jazz program. The chairman of the jazz studies
department once told me that he had never been asked by
the local high school band director for any help. He was
also sure that in the 20 years that he had been there no
other member of the jazz faculty or jazz-studies students
had ever been asked either. Oh, by the way, the high school
in question did have a fairly active jazz ensemble. This
amazed me at the time and continues to do so today.
I know that high school band
directors tend to be an independent lot, but this is crazy.
All band programs, jazz and otherwise, should at least occasionally
bring in outside specialized help. To not do so is to deprive
your students of new, fresh, and effective musical perspectives.
The varied and complex requirements of the jazz ensemble
demand at least some specialized aid. This outside help
may not necessarily cost an arm and a leg. There are many
professional musicians and college faculty that are willing
to help high school programs for little, reasonable, or
no compensation. You’ll never know until you ask.
10) Directors not having a performance outlet for themselves
Believe it or not, some high school jazz ensemble directors
have never been a member of jazz band themselves! This largely
depends on whether or not the college they attended required
it for teaching certification. I believe that to be truly
effective, every jazz band director must have some experience
as an adult player in such a group. If a director didn’t
get this experience in college, there are many other ways
to accomplish this. Summer college ensembles, community
groups, rehearsal bands, and even professional organizations
(depending, of course, on personal ability) can all help
provide the necessary experience.
I believe that all scholastic band directors,
regardless of past experience, must have a continuing personal
performance outlet. All musicians (this includes directors)
have an inherent need to perform. If not fulfilled, this
need is often replaced by living vicariously through directed
student ensembles. This can be an unhealthy and educationally
destructive situation. I sincerely believe this is in large
part behind the single-minded focus on competition that
is present in many high school band directors.
