CAA Lectures.doc

8/12/2019 CAA Lectures.doc

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CAA3 30/09

Mock Exam in week 5. Four weeks for Steely Dan assignment.

Every element 20%. Three marked with musicians (bebop, Steely Dan, fanfare)

Steely Dan: 1970, lots of influences, in New York. Miles Davis, Bob Dylan. 1972-1977,made records every year. Didn't want to do tours or advertise their work. "Aja" - grandoeuvre. Months spent on each album, switched out musicians regularly. 1976 - punkarrived, so Steely Dan was "old". "Gaucho" - important track, much like Keith Jarrett.

Parallels with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

Musicians didn't have a lot of tools in terms of instrumentation, so they used harmony todevelop rock music. Not going back to "jazz" harmony (i.e. thick harmony), but usingslash chords. Found in Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Genesis.

"Reeling in the years". Donald Fagen has videos describing how he writes music -watch!

Pop music: melody and rhythm. Harmony is secondary. Steely Dan's music wasprimarily based around lines and melodies that were enhanced by harmony. Whenlooking at the songs, look at each part separately to see how it all meshes together.

All transposing instruments: sound lower than written (EXCEPT piccolo). For baritonesax you can change the clef from treble to bass and change the key signature by adding

three sharps, and you get concert sound.

Don't overuse block chords in the horns too much for the assignment. The bigger thesax, the better it sounds in its upper range.

CAA3 7/10

The plagal cadence is used in Reeling in the Years, and shows that Donald Fagen

learned music in church.

Counting doesn't help when playing music of Afro-American music, as it only reallyapplies to European Classical music. Stuff that uses clave is one such example wherecounting from one to four emphasizes the wrong beats. Steely Dan used this trick a lot.

Watch "The Making of Aja"!


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CAA3 21/10

Music can't really describe concrete, conscious things, and should rather describe thesubconscious. Try to find a melodic shape before you look at time signature and other"constraining" factors.

CAA3 28/10

The more space you leave between the horns in a section, the bigger it sounds. In fact,the denser the harmony, the tighter and smaller the sound will be. Using a lot of space

between the players will make them sound good, as the natural harmonics can ring outmore.

Drop 2 voicings are outdated, and were often not considered by arrangers in the mid20th century.

CAA3 11/11

Learn to identify instruments intuitively, i.e. try to pick up and play the instruments if only

a little just to get a feel of where certain notes are produced. If one can link together the

feel of playing the instrument with what it looks like on the staff makes arranging easier.

Alto sax has the range of a female singer, and tenor the range of a male singer. Paul

Desmond - alto, Ben Webster - tenor, Johnny Hodges - alto, Sidney Bechet - soprano,Gerry Mulligan - baritone, Benny Goodman - clarinet, John Coltrane - tenor.

Grayson Perry - what is art? Notice things!

CAA3 18/11

The bebop generation were generally educated musicians that could read music well,

and had a thorough knowledge of the popular music of the times. Musicians were

looking to expand the possibilities for which melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements

they could use.


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Mike Longo - Dizzy Gillespie's piano player. Passes on some of Gillespie's teachings.

Very aware of the African heritage of rhythmic music. Hemiolas are important (triplets

against duplets).

By subdividing in 3 rather than 2, you get groupings of 5 and 7 when playing the

Charleston rhythm.

CAA3 25/11

For exam we have to identify double reed instruments and the horn as well. Oboe and

bassoon are both written in concert pitch. Horn is written a fifth above what you hear.

For the tutorials, don't just bring sheet music, but learn the parts.

Bebop language runs through a lot of music even today, so it is important to learn it.

There isn't a lot of difference between playing bebop lines on a piano and playing them

on horns.

Key lines: ascending arpeggios going into the extensions, and then descending, often

chromatically. Displacing phrases by a crotchet or a quaver is also common.

The term BPM didn't come into use until click tracks became common. Back in the days

of bebop it was common for music to speed up and slow down.

Major and minor seconds are good when voicing things, as they create colour and

interest.

Diminished chord with another diminished chord a tone above makes an interesting

texture (double diminished).

CAA3 2/12


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When approaching bebop, there are several different schools, and a lot of them focus

on licks. Sheryl Bailey, Greg Fishman.

Online education is a very good place to find work after college -> PP project.

Gary Lindsey -> Arranging book! Ted Pease.

Listen to the records while looking at the scores, and do it over and over. That's the only

way to get the sense of what is happening.

Mechanical arranging techniques were developed by dance band arrangers, and refined

by Duke Ellington, Tad Dameron and John Lewis.

When working out voicings, don't consider the instrumentation. You can apply drop

techniques if necessary when spreading the voicing to make it sound good for the

instrumentation used.

Triadic music sounds big. Thick harmony (four part and more) makes the music sound

tighter and focused. Slash chord harmony is a combination of the two.

The key signature is the most important part of a transposed part, as musicians can

busk along if the signature is right. If the signature is wrong, they will busk in the wrong

key.

CAA3 - 17/2

"21 bebop exercises for vocalists and instrumentalists".

Bebop was developed by playing music all night and then swapping ideas with other

musicians over breakfast.


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Fanfares are important, as they inform the audience that something incredible is about

to happen. It's important to do this, as otherwise people willmiss the incredible thing.

MDA & Conducting - 17/2

The easier you make the projects for yourself, the more time you'll have to work on

other important things. Don't overcomplicate things, as musical complexity is often not

the best thing to spend time on.

The most important percussion instruments are the timpani and the cymbal. Timpani are

used to strengthen cadences, and shouldn't be overused. Cymbals are used for

colouring. Crashes are used with timpani, however, they tend to overpower everything

else.

You need to provide musicians with the right ingredients (the arrangement), and they

will bring the music alive. Don't worry about making it perfect.

Tom and Jerry music (Scott Bradley) was written to storyboards, then the shorts were

animated to sync with the music afterwards. This is opposite of how film music is written

today.

Xylophone and glockenspiel will cut through anything. In fact, all percussion instruments

cut through well, and the brass are also very strong.

Max Steiner - King Kong.

Write a short score before you orchestrate! Saves time in the end!

Approaching target bass note:

* Chromatically from above or below.

* Cycle of fourths (even the other way might work).


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* Thirds (minor-major-minor-major etc.).

* Following diminished scale (half-whole or whole half, either direction).

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CAA Lectures.doc