This is where I curse the horn book Just Desserts and its creator Lowell E. Shaw. Lowell E. Shaw is Lucifer himself, come up from the bowels of hell with a trail of sulfur stench following behind him. Lowell E. Shaw laughs at pain and gnashing of teeth. Lowell E. Shaw finds joy in the suffering of mankind. Lowell E. Shaw causes me to play swing on my French horn.
Currently during my horn lessons I play two exercises in the Kopprasch book (a standard), Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 2 (which I play with precision but not with enough delicacy as demanded by Mozart, and in the first movement, not quite up to speed), Beethoven's Horn Sonata (which I have just begun working on and love dearly, Beethoven being my favorite composer), and Just Desserts (jazz style solo exercises designed to encourage jazz playing).
Horn players don't often have opportunity to play jazz. It's not in our nature. We play straight, right down the middle--soft lovely arpeggios or big Hollywood rips. But here I am trying to figure out swing, and I am stumped.
There is a scene in Mr. Holland's Opus where Mr. Holland is trying to teach a student how to feel the beat. It proves to be a difficult lesson, so he straps a football helmet on the kid and pounds the beats out on his head with base drum mallets. I am to the point where I believe my horn teacher needs to suit me up and start hitting my head in a swing-style beat. Maybe then, I'll get it.
Until then, I'll have to stomp the beat out like a horse--ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and..........I hate Lowell E. Shaw.
Currently during my horn lessons I play two exercises in the Kopprasch book (a standard), Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 2 (which I play with precision but not with enough delicacy as demanded by Mozart, and in the first movement, not quite up to speed), Beethoven's Horn Sonata (which I have just begun working on and love dearly, Beethoven being my favorite composer), and Just Desserts (jazz style solo exercises designed to encourage jazz playing).
Horn players don't often have opportunity to play jazz. It's not in our nature. We play straight, right down the middle--soft lovely arpeggios or big Hollywood rips. But here I am trying to figure out swing, and I am stumped.
There is a scene in Mr. Holland's Opus where Mr. Holland is trying to teach a student how to feel the beat. It proves to be a difficult lesson, so he straps a football helmet on the kid and pounds the beats out on his head with base drum mallets. I am to the point where I believe my horn teacher needs to suit me up and start hitting my head in a swing-style beat. Maybe then, I'll get it.Until then, I'll have to stomp the beat out like a horse--ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and..........I hate Lowell E. Shaw.
Comments
Listen to Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue a few times before your next lesson. Loosen up with a few bars of that and you'll have no trouble.
Having said that, I have a tape somewhere in the attic of the hilarious attempts choir-trained Caroline made at singing Jazz in the studio. In the end I had to write all the words out phonetically, with slurs and stuff and she had to re-learn this unrecognisable gibberish. It worked though.
Trying to play written Jazz, you're always going to end up sounding like Rhapsody In Blue rather than Kind Of Blue.
Don't feel bad about it; it will come. Improvising with Jazz musicians or Jazzy friends will help.
Once it clicks, you'll never lose it.
Old Knudson, is the swing that makes you giggle like a school girl?
I'm just full of the horn.