[Dixielandjazz] melody vs chords & the importance ofwords

[David W. Littlefield]

At 08:29 AM 1/21/2003 -0500, Pat Ladd wrote:
>In a message dated 21/01/03 07:51:32 GMT Standard Time, dwlit at cpcug.org 
>writes:
><< Knowing the lyric has always been a tremendous help to me in playing the
> >song and I agree with Kash in that knowing the words is extremely useful, in
> >putting one's solo across and getting the mood of the piece. >>

That wasn't me. I wrote that I use the lyrics when counting off...

>...I know the lyrics of most of the `standards` as 
>they were the pop songs of the day and I absorbed through my pores, as it 
>were. ... they ran the gamut of emotion ... and the 
>tunes treatment depended often on the lyrics. It makes a difference to me and 
>I will switch not only from sticks to brushes but from a wire brush to a 
>plastic brush if the sentiment of the song calls for it. Even OKOM calls for 
>a different treatment of Frankie and Johnny to that of St James Infirmary but 
>unless one was aware of the lyric one wouldn`t know, would one? 
>How can a musician who doesn`t know the lyric put the proper feeling into a 
>tune?

Interesting point. I would have thought that the lyrics, pulled into your
consciousness by the title, give you a clue as to the basic nature of the
song and you start out accordingly, then play according to how the horns
are playing it. If you play with the group regularly, you know how the
leader wants it to feel, or at the very least, to ask him if you don't
remember. If you don't know the group well, you need to ask more often. If
he calls "Begin the beguine" you wanna know if it's Artie Shaw or actually
a beguine--I often forget to make sure the drummer knows it's swing,
because I'd never think to play anything but Artie Shaw. Even if you know
"A Good man is hard..." you still have to ask whether the tune is to be
played as a regular ballad or a hooch tune with a stripper beat or
something in between. "It had to be you (the DNA test came thru')" is
played many ways; usually I do an 8-bar intro so the gang knows the tempo
and rhythm (slowish lilting, slightly syncopated, 2-beat, not swing like
Harry Connick did it). In these cases the lyrics are no help at all. 

>Incidentally, I am fascinated by the melody line versus chord improvisation 
>method. More please.

Simply put, the "variations-on-the-melody" method is embellishment and
re-phrasing of the notes so that at least a vague sense of the melody
remains: the listener might be able sing along with it. Improvisation on
the chords may leave no hint of the melody, but except for breaks (eg
soloist might use a whole tone scale as Bix sometimes did), the chords
remain straight, so the band always knows where the soloist is. 

--Sheik