Jazz Students Under the Baton

Ways that playing a Broadway show expands jazz students' skills

For the past several weeks I have worked with my student big band (WVU JE 1) for a four night run of a Broadway show called Sweet Charity. This show featured some incredibly talented actors, singers, and dancers from the WVU Theatre program and it was a fun but challenging project for the student musicians.

The challenges included the length of the show (two hours), the pages and pages of key changes, odd time changes, irregular phrases, and rapid changes of tempo. Also there are sax doubles (piccolo, oboe, clarinet, etc.) as well as expanded percussion parts including timpani, chimes, etc.

I knew going into the project that the students would learn from the experience, but here are some of the takeaways that I noticed these jazz students gained from the preparation and performances of this show:

• Reading and Counting

  The rhythms were especially tricky and students were forced to improve their counting and subdivision to refine the overall sound. It was crucial for everyone to remember to look at the key signature and time signature before playing. We do in fact use all of these skills when playing traditional big band music, but Broadway show music is even more demanding given the number of key changes and changes of time signature.

• Following the Conductor’s Beat and Tempo
  We spend much of our time in a traditional jazz ensemble working on steady tempo and not relying on a conductor for rhythms. Generally, the role of a jazz ensemble conductor is to choose the repertoire, assign the soloists, count off the band, give cues in the middle of a tune, and to run rehearsals. Alternatively, a show conductor gives every beat and generally has a strict conducting pattern. Jazz students were forced to look up and find the beat and tempos as dictated by the conductor. It is important to know how to follow a conductor as it will prepare students for the possibility of pops gigs and classical opportunities.

• Doubling
  The woodwind players refined their skills at doubling. The challenges included: quick instrument changes, picking up a cold instrument and striving to have it respond and play in tune, centering the pitch and sound on multiple instruments in a performance, figuring out how to have reeds respond well on multiple instruments, tuning and matching pitch in the section, and blending with the ensemble. All of that said, the woodwind parts tend to have the fast 16th note passages that required practice.

• Consistency in Brass
  While the woodwinds worked on doubles and fast passages, the brass worked on consistency—the ability to play a passage correctly multiple times a night and in each and every performance. Brass players had to take care of their warmups and cool downs and then needed to have their heads in the game during performances.

• Charisma
  In rehearsal I told the ensemble to make good mistakes, which means if/when you make a mistake do it as musically as possible. Examples of bad mistakes include a cracked note, a percussion hit not on the beat, a woodwind note that is badly out of tune…but a good mistake is something done so charismatically that the audience might not perceive it as a mistake. This might be an intentional, but incorrect rhythm or an incorrect entrance on a vamp that gets corrected quickly.

• Confidence
  Now all of the students who performed in this show have a knowledge of how to prepare for the gig, how to play the gig, the expectations, the level of commitment, and the confidence necessary to be successful playing future shows. There are gigs to be played and money to be made and I want for my students to be able to use their talents to capitalize on their opportunities.

To all of those involved, you did a great job. I know it will only serve to make you an even better musician and jazz player.