The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    In no particular order:

    Don't call a tune if you're the only one who can play it.

    If your band rehearses regularly, don't call tunes on a gig that you haven't rehearsed.

    Don't hand out a new chart on a gig. Even if it's a minor modification of a previous chart, the players may have penciled-in things on the old one that they won't have time to transfer.

    Don't play too loud. And, if the manager of the venue complains to the leader, the leader should let everyone know.

    Don't forget to play the occasional tune that someone in the audience might know. People like hearing familiar songs.

    Make your count-ins loud enough and with crisp time.

    If your band is a bunch of unfamiliar names, introducing the band once a set is more than enough. And, if you don't introduce the band at all (forcing the audience into polite, annoyed, applause) probably, nobody will complain.

    If you have subs on the gig, don't call the hardest charts. In fact, even if you have regulars on the gig, don't call tunes which are on the edge of the band's ability to play.

    Don't give somebody a 7 page chart and a separate sheet for solo order. Just let the leader point to the soloists, or put them on the chart.

    Don't ask me why I thought of any of this.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Hmmm...I concur with some but not all. It really depends on the players in the band. It also depends on the audience.

  4. #3

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    Expect the unexpected from working musicians, or you'll always be disappointed. We wish they all were savvy like full time union pit musicians, but they aren't...at all.

  5. #4

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    and when you finally become ignorant cynic who does not care who plays what and how - you can feel yourself an accomplished pro

  6. #5

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    Nothing wrong with introducing the band. It needn't be done all at once. It could be "Joe Bagadonuts on guitar" after a nice solo, "Kim Fleetfingers on piano"during some great comping, etc. But getting their names out is cool.

  7. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    In no particular order:

    Don't call a tune if you're the only one who can play it.

    If your band rehearses regularly, don't call tunes on a gig that you haven't rehearsed.

    Don't hand out a new chart on a gig. Even if it's a minor modification of a previous chart, the players may have penciled-in things on the old one that they won't have time to transfer.

    Don't play too loud. And, if the manager of the venue complains to the leader, the leader should let everyone know.

    Don't forget to play the occasional tune that someone in the audience might know. People like hearing familiar songs.

    Make your count-ins loud enough and with crisp time.

    If your band is a bunch of unfamiliar names, introducing the band once a set is more than enough. And, if you don't introduce the band at all (forcing the audience into polite, annoyed, applause) probably, nobody will complain.

    If you have subs on the gig, don't call the hardest charts. In fact, even if you have regulars on the gig, don't call tunes which are on the edge of the band's ability to play.

    Don't give somebody a 7 page chart and a separate sheet for solo order. Just let the leader point to the soloists, or put them on the chart.

    Don't ask me why I thought of any of this.
    I don’t think I have to ask lol

  8. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
    Expect the unexpected from working musicians, or you'll always be disappointed. We wish they all were savvy like full time union pit musicians, but they aren't...at all.
    Speaking of which - specify dress code. You never know who will turn up in a gorilla suit.

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Thumpalumpacus
    Nothing wrong with introducing the band. It needn't be done all at once. It could be "Joe Bagadonuts on guitar" after a nice solo, "Kim Fleetfingers on piano"during some great comping, etc. But getting their names out is cool.
    Looking very relaxed, Adolf Hitler on vibes.

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Looking very relaxed, Adolf Hitler on vibes.
    Roy Rogers, on Trigger.

  11. #10

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    Sir Kenneth Clark bass sax

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by mrcee
    Sir Kenneth Clark bass sax
    Wow.. Kenneth Clark... why not John Ruskin? He is better with saxes

  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonah
    Wow.. Kenneth Clark... why not John Ruskin? He is better with saxes
    but he wasn't in the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band!

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Looking very relaxed, Adolf Hitler on vibes.

  15. #14

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    Eric Clapton on ukelele

  16. #15
    One bandleader specifies dress to be "hip casual". Everyone wears the same stuff they wear every day. Which, I assume means that everybody thinks the way they usually dress is "hip casual".

  17. #16

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    OK someone’s gotta do it, here’s how to introduce the band:


  18. #17

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    RP, you probably assume correctly.

  19. #18
    Here are some more thoughts, mostly about charts. Rant Mode On.

    Don't make the font too small.

    Try not to put random numbers of bars on a line. Be especially careful about that if the tune has oddball phrase length to begin with.
    If possible, start new motifs on a new line.

    Make the Segno BIG.

    Avoid impossible page turns.

    Don't expect people to read, on the fly, complex or otherwise strange roadmap instructions in tiny type.

    In fact, avoid repeats entirely unless it would result in too many pages.

    If the guitar chart is 5 pages of slash marks with the occasional single note line, particularly in an unfamiliar tune or a very idiosyncratic arrangement, put in some indications of what else is going on in the band. Like a horn line in italics, or something, in case the guitarist gets lost.

    I play in a horn band with amateur arrangers, and a big band using pro charts, mostly from the Buddy Rich band. The pro charts are much easier to read. It starts out with bigger page height (meaning, more systems on a page and fewer pages). Very few repeats, and when there is a repeat, it's usually contained on a single page. There are typically clear indications of what is going on in the rest of the band. Sensible numbers of bars per line. New motifs usually are at the beginning of a line. The parts are never particularly difficult to play except sometimes reading the hits. That is, the rhythms are what they are, but the guitarist is never asked to play insanely fast single note passages that lay poorly on the instrument, or play an impossible number of different chords in short order.

    Another thing about the pro charts -- the arranger deals directly with the presence of two comping instruments. Often, one lays out. Sometimes there will be an instruction about how to comp. My favorite is a notation that says "Not FG". In the amateur charts, both guitar and piano may have slash marks, and we fight it out <g>.

    Another thing -- don't have people pencil-in complicated changes -- and if the individual players do change the chart, make sure that the new instructions will be comprehensible later.

    A friend of mine, a very experienced player, playing a gig of newly minted big band arrangements, spent part of the afternoon on the day of the gig crossing stuff out of his charts. He wasn't going to play fast passages of big band hits, each one a new chord written out on a staff with no chord symbol. He could have written in the chord symbols, but the stuff was still going to be too difficult. So, he crossed out a lot of stuff that the horns were hitting also, and played the gig. I was at it, and it never occurred to me that he had simplified anything.

    Rant Mode Off

    In a way, I shouldn't complain. Getting an arrangement into Encore or Sib and having it be perfect is really difficult.

  20. #19

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    'Not FG'?

    *furrowed brow*

    Must be a misprint

  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    A friend of mine, a very experienced player, playing a gig of newly minted big band arrangements, spent part of the afternoon on the day of the gig crossing stuff out of his charts. He wasn't going to play fast passages of big band hits, each one a new chord written out on a staff with no chord symbol. He could have written in the chord symbols, but the stuff was still going to be too difficult. So, he crossed out a lot of stuff that the horns were hitting also, and played the gig. I was at it, and it never occurred to me that he had simplified anything.
    This is kind of what I do anyway TBH. I got the call again, so I assumed it must be an OK thing to do. But it's good to hear that approach vindicated.

    The pencil is your friend. And there's nothing wrong with writing lines above the stave to help with reading rhythms, not names etc on the chart.

    Unless you are sharing a pad of course lol.

  22. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    'Not FG'?

    *furrowed brow*

    Must be a misprint
    I made that more difficult than it should have been. It said, more accurately, "not F.G.".

    I think it meant to not play Freddie Green style.

    When an arranger has to tell you NOT to play like a certain player, that's an influential guy.

  23. #22
    Another band I sub in has pro charts from the 50s and 60s, all handwritten on the original paper.

    The leader took it upon himself to be the curator of what amounts to a library/museum of these old charts. He rescued a load of them from a college jazz program years ago. As far as I'm aware, there are efforts to preserve the recordings, but I haven't heard of organized efforts to preserve the original charts. Does the Library of Congress do it?

    The cool part of this is, unsurprisingly, that when you play the charts it sounds brings the music of the past to life. All these rhythms, harmonies and articulations that you don't hear any more.

    I digress. The point I wanted to make about these charts is that they were rarely more than 4 pages and there were almost never any repeats. You started in the upper left, read the chart, and ended in the lower right. Solos were specified and written out. Fun to play. Often, there wasn't a guitar chart. Usually, I'd get the call to sub when they couldn't get a pianist and I'd be reading the piano part. This sort of thing can be better for your future musicianship than it is for your current self-esteem.

  24. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    I made that more difficult than it should have been. It said, more accurately, "not F.G.".

    I think it meant to not play Freddie Green style.

    When an arranger has to tell you NOT to play like a certain player, that's an influential guy.
    i still don't understand

    arranger made a mistake

  25. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    i still don't understand

    arranger made a mistake
    It was a handwritten part of a handwritten chart.

    I'm convinced it was an instruction not to play 4 to the bar, Freddie Green style. But rather, to comp more sparsely.

  26. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    It was a handwritten part of a handwritten chart.

    I'm convinced it was an instruction not to play 4 to the bar, Freddie Green style. But rather, to comp more sparsely.
    No I still don’t understand

    The instruction is literally unpossible.

    Bad arranger. Doesn’t know what guitar is for.