Helping the Student Guitarist Excel in Jazz Band
By Chris DeRose
As a jazz ensemble director, have you ever wondered how on earth to communicate with your guitar player, who usually comes into the band completely unprepared for the ensemble experience?
Many young guitarists are self-taught, or if they have taken lessons, it is usually from someone at a local music store, where they may learn how to play licks, favorite tunes, and manipulate hot guitar effects rather than becoming familiar with basic skills that will be needed to function in an ensemble setting. Nothing in their pedagogical background has really prepared them to function in a school jazz ensemble, where so often the lack of basic skills such as sight-reading, scales, and even ensemble etiquette, can prove to be a challenge for even the most patient of band directors.
Ensemble experiences are practically non-existent for most young guitarists, and electric guitar pedagogy is by no means an established thing. There are good classical guitar teachers out there, and although I strongly recommend that every guitarist study classical at some point, the approach to the instrument is quite different and usually won’t provide the electric guitarist with the necessary ensemble skills.
Nonetheless, from their more unconventional approach to learning, through rote, listening to CDs, and perhaps playing with small rock groups that they have put together, the guitarist often has a wealth of assets that can be channeled into the jazz band experience. The student guitar player often possesses very good ears, confidence in playing solos, and an excitement about performing in a new situation.
A good way to begin to motivate the student and catch his or her interest is to suggest listening to some of the top jazz guitar players. There are many great jazz guitarists who come from a rock background or have styles that incorporate both rock and jazz. Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, and John Scofield may be some names to start with. Then you can introduce them to other more traditional jazz guitarists, such as Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, and Jim Hall, to name only a few.
Finding a Private Teacher
The next step might be to help the student find a good teacher. You are probably already familiar with the local brass, woodwind, and piano teachers, but tracking down qualified jazz guitar teachers may take a bit of effort. Your guitarist needs someone who can stress good musicianship skills such as reading, scales, chords, and arpeggios, as well as be able to hold young students’ interest and motivate them.
Here are some suggestions on how to find a good jazz guitar teacher:
- Keep your ears open at competitions and school jazz festivals. When you hear a good student guitarist, ask for the name of his or her instructor.
- Call the local musicians’ union office for recommendations. The professional guitarists that you seek will usually be union members.
- Find out who the music contractors are for the local symphony orchestra, musicals, or recording session work (most cities will have one or more of these venues). The local musicians’ union can give you names and numbers for these contractors, who are most often professional musicians themselves. Ask the contractors which professional guitarists they use for services that require electric guitar. Then call the people they recommend and ask them if they teach, or can recommend someone who does.
- When you attend weddings, parties or clubs, very often you will hear solo guitarists or a guitarist in a group. If you hear a guitar player you like, go up and chat for a moment, and then ask them about teaching, or recommending someone who does – they will usually be more than happy to help out and can be very informative.
Fostering Growth
Back in the band room, there are several things that you can do to foster growth not only of your guitarist but your entire rhythm section and ensemble. For starters, have a clearer idea of what you want your guitarist to do. Try to listen objectively to jazz recordings you like and focus on what the guitar player is doing – tone, volume in comparison to the other instruments, comping patterns, etc. I have included a section on how to go about getting the right sound from your guitarist later in this article.
If at all feasible, have the right materials available to the students. It would be great to have a couple of the new legal fake books on hand, for example, and also some of the excellent play-along jazz recordings that are available.
Encourage your students to get together and play in duos or small groups of their own making. Guitar/bass and guitar/piano duos are outstanding venues in which to learn skills that will carry over to the school jazz ensemble. Some of my happiest high school memories are of the impromptu jam sessions we would hold in the practice rooms. Our director, Ken Rescheske, did everything in his power to encourage our efforts, even if at times we must have taxed his patience to the max by practicing Miles tunes while he was trying to conduct an orchestra rehearsal in the main room.
Encourage area jazz pros to come in and give clinics and concerts and actually work with the students. Even the smallest towns will often have amazing players who would be happy to come in and work with the students – again the local musicians’ union can help put you in touch with some good folks.
The Right Sound
To help with a few of the most widely voiced issues concerning the jazz band guitar student, here are some suggestions that will get your player off to a good start. There are as many different combinations of instruments and amplifiers out there as there are players. Some may get you a better sound than others, but this information is designed to help your student make the most of the equipment he or she already has.
A good sound includes the elements of tone, volume and, for our purposes, I will include intonation also. Traditionally, most guitarists in a jazz ensemble setting have preferred the sound of an arch-top electric guitar, coupled with a small- to medium-size tube or tube pre-amp amplifier. However, almost any guitar can work if you follow a few basic guidelines.
Tuning. If your guitarist doesn’t already own one, have them run, not walk, to the nearest music store and buy a tuner! The advantage is that they can tune silently during rehearsals and even concerts if the tuner is connected in-line before a volume pedal. (The guitar cord coming from the guitar is hooked first to the tuner, then into a volume pedal, then into the amplifier.)
String Gauge. No matter what gauge your student prefers, when playing in the jazz ensemble, they need a medium or medium-light gauge string. (No slinkys here.) The issues are intonation and timbre. I would suggest starting with an 11 gauge for the top E string. They will need strings that are heavy enough to give a percussive sound at a lower volume, and also be able to blend with the horn players when they play lines together. You don’t want a skinny string that is constantly going out of tune and driving you and everyone else in the ensemble crazy.
Tone Settings. Have your student use the rhythm pickup for both comping and lead, unless you are playing a rock tune. There will be exceptions to this, but as a rule of thumb, this will get you closer to a jazz sound, particularly if the student is playing a solid body guitar, such as a Stratocaster.
Amplifier. On the amplifier, go for a clean sound. This means, in most cases, to turn the master volume control up and the gain control down. If the amp has reverb, try adding a little, perhaps a setting of two or three, depending on the amp and the quality of reverb. Try setting the treble, midrange, and bass controls flat (usually five) and have them slowly adjust from there.
Volume Pedal. I highly recommend the use of a volume pedal, for many reasons. It’s much easier to control the volume with the foot than the hands, which are usually busy doing something else. They can instantly adjust the volume up or down during a solo, for example, and also tune silently at any time, if the tuner is connected before the volume pedal.
This all said, if you were to take four different guitarists and have them play the same guitar through the same amp with all the same settings, you would end up with four different sounds! So much of the sound comes from the hands and touch of each individual player.
Have your player use the above guidelines to create a good basic sound that will blend well. Encourage listening to other players live and recorded. As the student builds confidence, your whole jazz ensemble will swing even harder!
Chris DeRose holds a B.M. in Jazz Studies and an M.M. in Music Theory from the University of North Texas in Denton . She has been an active professional musician in the Dallas/Fort Worth area since 1978, and performs with the Dallas Symphony, as well as with numerous jazz and commercial groups and studio venues. DeRose does concerts with her own quartet, and can be heard on recordings with The Lou Fischer Rehearsal Band and the Pete Petersen Collection Jazz Orchestra.
She was an adjunct faculty member at Cedar Valley College from 1979-1994 and is currently in demand as a clinician and educator. Published works include 15 etudes for jazz guitar, contained in “Stylistic Etudes in the Jazz Idiom,” available through Hal Leonard Publishing, and a method/workbook for young ensemble guitar players, titled
“Jazz Styles and Techniques: A Primer for the Ensemble Guitarist,” available through www.bigbandguitar.com.
