What's the difference between jazz and ordinary bands?

The rise of jazz has established a group of elite musicians for pop music. Everyone in a jazz band is the main body of the band, including singers. In fact, in real jazz, the singer is equivalent to a vocal instrument, and like other instruments, it is a kind of sound. Therefore, jazz musicians or singers must establish a good sense of cooperation. Every instrument in the band (including human voice) is not the concept of who serves whom and who accompanies whom, but how to make its own existence value reflected through cooperation. It can be seen that in order to further understand jazz, we must have a preliminary understanding of jazz band forms, instruments commonly used in bands and their performance characteristics.

Jazz bands can be roughly divided into two types: small bands and big bands. Among them, the jazz trio composed of piano, bass and drums is the most common in small bands, and of course some other instruments will be added. The big band is mainly composed of brass and saxophone. Double bass and drums are usually indispensable instruments for a band. On this basis, the big band will also be equipped with some guitar, piano, vibrato and other musical instruments. Because the actual situation of each band is different, it is possible to combine any musical instrument.

Here is a brief introduction to the most commonly used instruments in jazz.

1, piano

Piano is not only the "king" in classical music, but also the "king" in jazz. The piano has a wide range and rich playing skills, and can freely play scales, chromatic scales, diphones, chords and various complex textures in songs.

The performance characteristics of jazz piano can be roughly divided into four types:

The first is the "long-span" playing method, that is, when playing, the left hand uses a continuous big jump to form a distinctive "striding bass", which often appears in ragtime and early jazz.

The second is the "Boogie Woogie" playing method, which is a fast blues piano style and has a great influence on jazz piano. Buji-Wuji often uses "rolling" to reflect its characteristics. In addition, it often plays a fixed bass with the left hand to set off the complex melody of the right hand. The bass sound patterns of Buji-Wuji mainly include the octave bass decomposition of "Zou" and the repetition of "two tones".

Example: octave bass decomposition of March 5 5 b3 2 | 1 1 b7 5 | "double tone" repetition.

The third is the "Bopu" playing method, which is characterized by fragmented rhythm and incoherent melody. Sometimes the right hand plays a series of monosyllabic notes continuously from time to time. It got its name because it was developed by Sir Bibop.

Another kind of jazz piano is not actually a playing method, but often appears in slow jazz (such as cold jazz) and forms its own school. Its characteristic is that on the basis of dichotomy or long duration, some syncopations are added from time to time by using complete or relatively complete chords to reflect the sense of relaxation of slow jazz.

2. Bass

Bass is one of the indispensable instruments in the band. It mainly plays the bass part in jazz bands and sometimes improvises solo. Traditional jazz generally uses the original bass (double bass) to reflect its original flavor. In modern jazz (especially fusion jazz), the synthesized bass timbre of electric bass or electronic synthesizer is often used to increase its modernity. "Taking the bass" is the most distinctive way of jazz playing, that is, on the basis of stable rhythm, it is played through chord decomposition. There are both upward decomposition, downward decomposition and alternate decomposition. Example:

Uplink decomposition 5 7 2 4 | 5 6 b7 7 |

Offline decomposition 1 b7 5 3 | 1 b7 5 3

Alternating decomposition up and down135b7 |1531

Because this way of marching is like the pace of marching, it is called "marching bass".

3. Drum (drum)

Drum set is a very important non-pitch percussion instrument in jazz band. It usually consists of a pedal bass drum, a small drum, more than two small drums, one or two riding cymbals and a pedal drum. The drummer beat the parts with his drum to make them sound. There are two kinds of drum hammers commonly used in jazz, one is a wooden drum stick and the other is a wire brush made of steel wire. In the band, the drummer controls the speed and rhythm of the music, especially in jazz, the drummer needs to maintain a good state of cooperation with other musicians. For example, the cleanliness of the drummer plays a decisive role in cutting. In addition, in jazz, the control of the timbre, strength and speed of the drum is an important factor to reflect the drummer's skills.

4. Saxophone (saxophone)

Saxophone is one of the most commonly used instruments in jazz, with a range of more than two octaves (less than three octaves). There are five common saxophones: soprano saxophone in bB key, alto saxophone in bE key, tenor saxophone in bB key, baritone saxophone in bE key and bass saxophone in bB key. Their playing skills and timbre characteristics are basically the same. Among them, alto saxophone and alto saxophone are the most commonly used in jazz. Saxophone can play scales, chromatic scales, interval jumps, broken chords and decorative sounds freely. Alto and alto saxophone can form a great contrast through breath control, which can be from ppp fff or fff ppp. In jazz, saxophones often play melodious sounds. In big bands, saxophones with different tones can be used to form saxophone groups to play different parts.

5. Horn

Trumpet is one of the most commonly used and earliest brass instruments in jazz, with a range of three octaves. Trumpet can freely play various intervals within octaves, and can also freely play scales, chromatic scales and broken chords. When playing fast, the rising Legato is more comfortable than the falling Legato, so in jazz you can hear the rising Legato faster than the falling Legato. Sometimes, for timbre, the trumpet can change timbre by mute. After pressing the hard mute, the timbre becomes hoarse and slightly metallic; Soft muter can soften the sound quality of trumpet and make it close to woodwind instrument. * Cornet cornet is homophonic with trumpet, and the playing skills are basically the same. The only difference between the two is that the sound tube of the cornet is thicker and shorter than that of the trumpet, and the timbre is slightly wider and softer than that of the trumpet. The cornet and trumpet are often used as the melody part of jazz.

6. trombone

Trombone in jazz mainly appears in big bands. As a bass part, it sometimes plays counterpoint rhythm and theme. Because trombone is controlled by the expansion and contraction of the sounding tube, it is not as clever as other brass instruments in playing. Trombone is also a very gas-consuming instrument. When playing strong notes, it is generally necessary to breathe when playing binary notes. At the same time, the trombone has no sound-changing piston device, so there is often discontinuity when playing Legato. Therefore, trombone often appears in jazz as an image that stops immediately after short notes or long notes.

7.clarinet

Clarinet is one of the most commonly used woodwind instruments in jazz, with a wide range of more than three octaves. Clarinet can freely play scales, chromatic scales, interval jumps, chord decomposition and decorative sounds, and is also good at playing various progressive or broken chord legato modes. Its volume changes greatly and can be downloaded from ppp fff ppp. Clarinet is often used as a sub-melody part in jazz, and sometimes as a solo instrument to play the main melody.