Phrasing and Articulation

by Per Danielsson

Download the sheet music

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of conducting a jazz clinic at Madrona Middle School outside Seattle WA. The band director Matt Edwards is running a fantastic music program in which he has been able to inspire the students to take a very active role. The result is a high quality band with some very talanted individual instrumentalists. I devoted some time to one on one piano lessons and found it encouraging that I was able to talk voicings, alterations and style with middle school students. The music program is also supported by the administration, which has become increasingly important during these budget cutting times. Madrona is lucky to have Chris Matteson as vice principal because he understands the unique value of music and the difference it can make in a young persons life. Mr Matteson learned this form his father, the legendary educator, composer and musician Rich Matteson. Rich had the ability to inspire both students and teachers during his many years as a clinician. He also taught at University of North Texas (formerly known as North Texas State) where he was responsible for many successful music careers.

There is only so much you can do during a clinic due to the short time allotted. Matt Edwards and I decided to focus on phrasing and articulation. Since the feel of jazz is notated differently and sometimes not at all, phrasing is one of the most complicated aspects of jazz. The best way to teach this concept to middle school students is having them sing the phrases, using different syllables. This approach also works well for classically trained musicians who want to learn the correct way to articulate jazz lines and phrases.

Let’s start with explaining the triple feel or what we call swing feel.
Eighth notes in jazz are seldom played the way they are written, they are swung.

Since it would to complicated to notate all the eighth notes in triplets, we change them by using jazz articulation. This can be practiced by using syllables for each note. Notice the difference in feel when comparing these examples