A Jazz Singers Workshop
Presented by Glen Rose
Workshop description: These workshops are usually scheduled including private sessions culminating with a performance night(s) in a night club with a band and private sessions. Sometimes singers nights come together spontaneously. Singers get together and try out their material in a casual setting around the grand piano.
Single-session evenings will happen from time to time or become consecutive, depending on the interests of the participating singers and Glen's schedule.
Song selection will be limited to classic standards and show tunes, --- not rock, folk, western, or pop. Glen has a large collection of books for choosing songs.
Preparation for singing in a professional club setting as the featured jazz vocalist.
The orientation of the workshop is to prepare you for singing with a band or accompanist. Preparing you for the "sitting in" situation or for the well rehearsed situation. All questions answered and discussed about what's right, wrong and expected about sitting in with pro jazz players. Not just the players in Florence but the jazz players in San Francisco or New York. Professional gigging musicians speak their own language and can be very territorial and judgmental about singers. If you know their ground rules you have a better chance of having a good experience, making good music and getting invited back.
The evening workshops. 2 ½ hours one evening a week.
These workshops will consist of 4, or 5 singers getting together around the piano in casual evenings to work on jazz standards or Broadway tunes. We will pass the mic around and talk or not about the tunes you want to sing or try out in various keys or styles. Sometimes singers will want to sing someone else's song. This can be good feedback to get good insight about the song. Every song belongs to everyone; everyone is free to try out any material. Sometimes I will select a song and ask everyone to try to sing it using different keys and styles.
Private sessions - 1 hour scheduled sessions.
I will work with all the singers in the workshop in private sessions to get the best key and style you want. You will come away from every session with a practice CD recording with the accompaniment we have worked on so you can practice on your own. You will sing with a studio mic and we will record digitally so you can have the tape with and/or without your vocal if you want. Video taping is also available. You will get a quick "scratch" chord chart in your key of every song we work on in your sessions. This can be used to work with other musicians. Usually a session is used for focus on one song and maybe a little exploratory work on other songs. When we get used to working with each other it may well be possible to get 2 or even 3 songs worked on in an hour session. It's your session and you can use it any way you want. If you just want to sing and experiment without recording it's up to you. If you just want me to play so you can get ideas or search through material in fake books or on line or that's up to you.
Private sessions are at an hourly rate.
Cost of singers night to be decided depending on the number of singers.
Workshop Discussions
A. What’s a good band key vs. a good tune for your voice. Understanding the difference and getting why it's important to you and to the band or accompanist
Song choice
Good song choices to consider when presenting a song to musicians you want to sit in with on a gig. A. Easy tunes vs. difficult ones for bands or accompanist to work with. B. Etiquette How to avoid looking and feeling like an amateur in a jazz venue.
Getting the players on your side.
Setting the style. (Swing/Ballad/Bossa Nova? )
Every jazz standard can be set in any style. We will experiment taking ballads and swinging them and vice versa.
Setting the tempo
A. Should you set the tempo or should the band?
B. Counting and getting the tempo in your head.
Understanding jazz standard song form
Standard , normal Jazz song format is AABA. Each section consists of 8 bars totaling 32 bars.
Song sections:
1.Chorus section
2.Verse
3. Bridge (release)
Different players call them different things. How to avoid confusion.
Intro – outro
How long should an intro be? What makes up a typical intro? What are the ground rules for soloing for band members. How long of a solo break should there be before the vocalist comes back in. How do you know when to come back in?
A Standard solo length and visual cues
Endings (outro)
What to do at the end of a song
A.Typical endings
repeat 2 times
repeat 3 times
"lift" the tag in the second repetition
who calls it? Singer or band ? Visual cues.
Scat singing
What is it? Should I do it? How long? What's hip?
Working with a mic? Mike stand.
A. checking for a live mike, volume. Tapping on the mic. What's the right thing to do? B. Popping , feedback
Charts
Having/finding good charts. A. Know your chart (Sections/Key/tag/intro) B. Good charts vs. bad charts 1. Pro charts vs. store bought, square charts
Fake books
Starting your own book
Writing your own charts.
Making them acceptable for the band.
Who needs them in the band and who doesn't?
1. Format, spacing, what's expected, what's rejected
2. what to put in, what to leave out
3. Transposing - How to transpose your own charts, finding good charts to work with. Marking up
your chart for clarity. one page charts vs. more.
