[Dixielandjazz] Passing Out/phrasing

[LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing]

As I have said before it's all about air.  I tell my students to listen to
good singers for phrasing and vibrato.  One thing that I notice about
players is that they tend to clip phrases or take breaths in the wrong
places.

Clipping phrases has to do with adequate air supply.  This may be affected
by getting older, cigarettes etc. or slumping and can be affected by having
the head in some unnatural position.  Sax players sometimes do this.
Incorrect breathing such as shallow breaths will do this too.  Because of
the difference in resistance of the horns (clarinet and sax) I think that
clarinet players, needing less air learn to not take deep enough breaths
whereas sax players needing greater volume take deeper breaths.

Breathing in the wrong places is a matter of listening, good taste,
knowledge of music and knowing where you are going with a solo for example.
These things can be learned and taught but usually aren't in school
situations or even by a lot of teachers.

Phrasing is somewhat a matter of taste and style and does not have exact
rules.  It's a lot like vibrato.  When is it to be used? How much? How long?
How wide?  In the case of phrasing the choices are almost infinite and it's
just not a matter of how many notes you play with a breath.  There is
phrasing within phrasing too and it all interacts with volume, vibrato,
tempo, the musical style and even tone.  For these things you need musical
taste and good sense.  It's the thing that makes a musician or breaks him as
a soloist.

A person to have good phrasing must also be familiar with the different
phrasing that is present in lets say bossa, smooth jazz, be bop or rock.
All are different.  You can't really generalize except to try to phrase
everything the same will be a mess.  This is the reason why a lot of smooth
jazz players just cant play hard rock blues and vice versa.  You have to
learn the phrasing for each style.  This will allow you to play with a C&W
band one night, smooth jazz the next, a 40's big band and Sat night with a h
ard rock blues band.  Phrasing has to be approached the same as learning
different styles.  Listening to good performers in different style bands is
important.

When I was practice teaching the supervisor was a pro sax player.  In my
final evaluation he talked to me about my sax playing.  He told me that I
probably wouldn't ever be the fastest player around or the best technician
(how true) but that I should build on the things that I was already good at
and those were improvisation, tone, intonation, phrasing, interpretation and
style.  These were the things that people really wanted to hear.  Too many
young people want to skip steps.  I never forgot what that man said and as a
result I am still playing today.  I think too often the emphasis is on how
fast someone can squeeze out notes which tends to become a babble and not a
clear thought.

It's like talking in complete thoughts that have meaning to the listener so
it's not just a string of notes played for a certain length of time.

Want to learn phrasing then you want to play very slow ballads.  Record
yourself and listen to it several times.  Translated: you are your best
teacher.
Larry Walton
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Kashishian" <jim at kashprod.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 2:58 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Passing Out/phrasing


>
> I didn't see how this thread began, but it degenerated fairly quickly into
> suggestions of boozing, etc.
>
> No one has mentioned the fact that phrasing can be so very important to
> one's solo, and wind instruments need wind!  Those that honk with their
> fingers only can set up their phrasing any way they please.  However, a
> person playing a wind instrument is limited to the air he has stored away
at
> any given moment.  (*)
>
> I have, for the sake of not wanting to break the phrase I am playing by
> taking a breath, actually ended up seeing all black & a bunch of little
> stars in front of my eyes.  I have never actually fallen over, but it
could
> have been close!
>
> (*)  Some people have mastered breathing in the nose while shoving the air
> out of the mouth area by squeezing the cheeks in.  You can usually notice
> when someone is doing that, as the sound is not actually the same, and it
> takes so much concentration that the solo structure usually suffers.  A
> trick, used mainly by reed players who have too much time on their hands
for
> practicing, in my opinion!
>
> Phrasing is a subject I don't believe has hit the lines of DJML yet, but
yet
> it is so important to all of our playing/singing.  I gasp at some of the
> phrasing used by some of the pop singers.  If they were speaking, they
would
> never, ever take a breath at the point that they often do in their vocals.
> Frank Sinatra, of course, was the King of Phrasing for vocalists!
>
> Our best known jazz saxophonist in Spain (Pedro Itturalde) was playing one
> of his Flamenco/Jazz compositions once (I was in the big band with him).
> When he reached the top of what would normally be the musical phrase (like
> at the summit of a mountain), he held the note over, bending it, and then
> dropped down the other side of the phrase, without taking a breath.  Hard
to
> explain in words.  It was one of the best expressions (in my mind) of
> beautiful phrasing I have ever heard. I told him so afterwards.  It had
been
> natural for him, and he wasn't even aware of it.  (Some people have it
> naturally!)
>
> Jim
>
>
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