Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Handouts for the course will include addenda to existing patterns/scales, lead sheets, and a page notating historical ideas from the solos of Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and others. Lectures will highlight these ideas; other theoretical matters will be discussed as well. Staging and presentation will involve the use of video taping. Group practice and individual application will continue as usual.

• Students will be able to play all patterns/scales up to quarter note= 160.
• Students will be able to perform ten to twelve melodies from memory.
• Students will be able to solo consistently and well on prior material.
• Students will be able to solo reasonably on ballads and up-tempo tunes.
• Students will be able to end solos effectively, set up the next soloist, trade fours, and arrange existing tune spontaneously.
• Students will be able to announce, order, and present two to four songs for a live audience.

Grading will, for the most part, be based on classroom performance of items listed below. A final performance at a venue to be announced will be critiqued by students and instructor and will be factored into the final grade. Criteria may include:

• Individual performance of patterns, scales, and historical ideas
• Individual performance of these from memory
• Individual performance of prior songs from memory; new songs at sight
• Individual soloing over all songs
• Individual applications of suggested techniques
• Group and individual staging and presentation of songs in mini sets

Exercise:

• Speed drills on prior patterns; increasing speed
• Study of historical ideas; application to varying tempi, key signatures
• Adding the ninth to primary chords; decorating the ninth chord
• Whole tone and diminished scales; applied to the dominant and turnaround
• Substitutions against turnarounds and turn-backs; tritone, half-step shift
• Rhythmic drills in jazz waltz, latin, and fusion styles

Application:

• Insertion of whole tone, diminished scale, ninth chords, and historical ideas into solo lines
• Controlling idea flow in ballads
• Paraphrasing (quoting from the melody being improvised)
• Spacing ideas at fast tempo; repetition and sustaining
• Control of increasing or decreasing intensity through solo area
• Moving outside the existing key
• Musical organization of a song list for performance
• Visuals: microphone technique, stage craft, (posture and demeanor) cuing the next soloist visually, announcing

Songs: (vocal selections TBA)
Up-tempo: Oleo, Scrapple from the Apple
Ballad: You Don't Know What Love Is
Latin: Recordame Corcavado
Jazz Waltz: West Coast Blues, Bluesette
Fusion/Vamp: TBA
Competencies and Skills:
Skills required for at least a C or Pass grade are as follows:

• Performance of all first and second term patterns and songs from memory
• Performance of all patterns/scales at quarter note = 140
• Ability to use patterns, scales, chords, and historical ideas in solo lines
• Ability to solo reasonably on all material
• Ability and willingness to stage and perform a set of two to four songs for a live audience