Jazz Writing

12.2.Jazz

Jazz can be fairly difficult to write for, especially if you want to go into experimental jazz which I’m not because in there lies madness. Jazz is usually built on instruments playing a simple phrase and then having another instrument. However it is recommended you not play the same idea more than once, depending on the type of Jazz you are aiming to play

For Jazz I would recommend using woodwind instruments and instead of a bass guitar have a double bass because tone is just so much nicer than a bass guitar.

Your best bet with writing a jazz piece is to have accompaniment playing something in the background (be it funky or a depressing parts) and have everyone play that idea, once you have played it then have solo instruments on top. The solo instruments usually are trombone, guitar, saxophone or drums

For chord ideas you can used diminished chords on a regular basis, 7th’s, 9th’s, 6th’s, 6 & 9th’s, 11th’s, 7th’s with flatten 5th’s and finally 9th’s with flattened 5ths. However with Jazz guitar chords there is so much flexibility that the choices are endless

For jazz drumming is a bit more difficult as it depends on the mood you are trying to set. For a funkier piece consider reading up on this but I warn you Jazz drumming is probably the hardest drumming type and I would not recommend a beginner starting there. However if you are going for something maybe moodier or classier then learn to love the high hat pedal and double tapping the high hat and playing quietly. These are very common features of basic jazz drumming but I strongly advise new writers to not write for jazz drumming at all as it’s the hardest type as most Jazz drumming is not written out

Advance features worth reading up about are modes which are very useful for improvising which is a heavy impact on most Jazz especially for advance levels of playing where the drummer becomes the leading instrument

Artists include; Turnabout Jazz Soul, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Wes Montgomery, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and John Coltrane.

Jazz has a very wide range of topics and singers however you should take note of skat soloing where the singer usually sings off beat just skating is very common with Jazz singers. It’s very hard to explain without seeing it but just look up skat solo on youtube and you’ll see

Jazz bass is hard to write for usually because it is all improvised but arpeggios and scales are usually the key to a good bass line. Bassist usually get a solo in jazz songs so I suggest using the jazz pentatonic minor scale for this but go with the flow is the main point of jazz and improvising so try looking at other artists for this such as Scott LaFaro

Writing Classical Music

12.0.Writing in different styles

90% of all music can be summed up into a genre of some sort. I will go through the basics of each gene describing types of rhythm, harmony you should use, playing methods maybe particular chords.

However I am not an expert on any of these genres and can only give you an introduction to it and I encourage you to extend your knowledge by listening to genre artists, reading on their styles and expanding your knowledge

12.1.Classical

Classical music is usually based off of a certain type of instrumentation. These are commonly an opera, a symphony, a string quartet, piano concerto and there are a lot of other types. However I am going to assume you are not writing for a classical piece as most people don’t have a ready available orchestra

String Quartet- Usually consists of 2 Violins, a Viola and a Cello

Piano Concerto- Is written for piano (or harpsichord) and Orchestra

Opera- Usually a singer with dramatic lyrics, usually with orchestral accompaniment

Symphony – A symphony orchestra is divided up into 4 parts of; strings, woodwind, brass and percussion. The strings usually consist of; violin, viola, cello, and bass. The woodwind usually consists of flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon with 2-4 of each depending on orchestra size. The brass consists of; trumpet, French horn, trombone, and tuba with 2-4 of each depending on orchestra size. Please note with the brass they usually use silvery alloy instead of actually brass. Finally the percussion usually consists of timpani, cymbals, xylophone and a gong. However there are usually extra instruments that add extra colour such as tambourine, triangle, maracas and other shakers, castanets, claves and various wood blocks, and various bells and scrapers.

Orchestra – an orchestra usually smaller than symphony’s and can have as little as six players and can have the same instruments as a symphony, the difference being an orchestra doesn’t have to include them and can be quite smaller in player count

If you are truly writing for a classical piece though, consider reading up on my harmony section. Try and change the piece throughout and use 5-1 cadences when changing keys. Rhythms is not such an important factor but for a beginner writing classical music, have an idea and then maybe change the key of that idea in different sections

Try and get some inspiration from other classical musicians such as Haydn, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Handel and Puccini. While we also have more modern musicians such as Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Ives, Glass and Reich

I would not recommend you write a classical piece until you have some experience though and you know how to write pieces to a basic standard. However if you want chord choices then just go for major and minor chords, nothing too fancy, maybe throw in a suspended chord or 7th but most classical music has mostly functional chords.

Artists include; Haydn, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Handel, Puccini, Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Ives, Glass and Reich

Most classical artists don’t have singers in but if you’re writing for opera then it’s usually about a story, certain parts or the story and there is a lot of word painting with words such as “death” playing a diminished chord

For classical Bass playing I would suggest purchasing a double bass or a tuba instead of a bass guitar because it will sound more authentic to the classical tone. A lot of bass just play chords notes and then play 4-1 chords in notes of a chord however if you want to give the bass player something more interesting, it’s not unheard of for the bass line to be the melody (see toccata in D minor). If you do go with the 4-1 notes at the third play through play 4-1-2-3 as quavers. This is so common in classical bass I would recommend greatly especially first time writers 

Usually the bass parts usually play the chords notes but occasionally they can play the 3rd of the 5th of the chord which is known as an inverted chord

Reading Music

2.0.Reading Sheet Music

Music is played via notes, common western music has is diatonic and thus uses set notes, this stops the piece sounding atonal and really from sounding terrible.

An example of these diatonic notes is the C note. A C note is largely considered the starting note on most musical instruments and throughout this post I will use the C note in examples. A C note is a C because when you say the note at the correct pitch it sounds like a C due to the mouth position you have to make. It is a set a frequency’s which indicate a pitch of a note and this is the same for all notes

Now western notes are broken up by half tones and whole tones. A whole tone is the difference between one named note (bar the E to F note) and another while a half tone is the difference between the note being sharpened or flattened. For example a C major scale starts of on C because that is the scale now a diatonic scale in C major goes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C which is a full octave. This logic applies to all scales such as G major which goes G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G. 

Notice that the F is now sharpened, in every key apart from A minor, C Major and atonal keys a key has sharps and flats, your best bet is to research how many sharps and flats a key has because it can change the entire sound of the chord with different sharps and flats. However between the F# and a G is a half tone difference which if the F was double sharpened it would become a G note.

These are the list of notes ascending in half notes and these will be used throughout so make sure you remember these:

•          C (or B#)

•          C# or Db

•          D

•          D# or Eb

•          E (or Fb)

•          F (or E#)

•          F# or Gb

•          G

•          G# or Ab

•          A

•          A# or Bb

•          B (or Cb)

•          C (or B#)

I have write out the entire scale for each key. If you look at the scales I have written out you can see that a scale gains more sharps and flats as you modulate further. This can be shown on a piano via the piano notes, see the picture below

2.1.On a Piano

This looks like this on sheet music in treble clef

2.2.Piano Notes to Sheet Music

For your right hand read the top line, for your left hand read the bottom line. However female singers can use the top line and male singers can use the bottom line

You’ll find that most instruments that are not guitar, bass or drums can and will use these charts because it’s the concert pitch

Which, translates to this on a guitar

2.3.Note Reading on a Guitar

With guitar players I suggest learning how to read tablature as it is easier and most music with guitars have got tablature notation for it.

For bass parts reading is the same as reading guitar parts except lower and with only 4 strings. This can be seen as in this diagram

2.4.Reading Bass Sheet Music

Drum reading is a bit different though. Since drums do not play the melody and add backing to the rhythm, melody and singer they have no true pitch. Reading for conventional western music is different as each notation displays a part of the drum kit itself instead of a pitched note. His looks a little something like this

2.5.Drum music reading

Some other musicians write in different ways and for speciality parts of a kit (such as a percussion) but this is usually stated within the bars, phrase or section

However understand why and working out keys is not necessary to making songs so for the time being I will not write up about this