Dah daht da da

Bill has been practising all week, all the scales and arpeggios in every key and every exercise and study in every book he owns. He’s sight-read everything he could lay his hands on.

His technique is pretty damn good now, if not perfect, he thinks. His embouchure is strong but relaxed and he projects a powerful tone.

At last he’s ready, seated in a five-piece sax section for the very first time in the local big band rehearsal.

Up comes the first chart. Bill quickly glances through the music. “Not so bad”, he thinks, easy key, steady tempo, a few tricky passages but nothing he can’t get his fingers round. He can cope.

The big guy, in the middle on 1st alto (the one who gave him the powerful hand shake and the steely look when he arrived) suddenly announces to the section: “OK let’s play the first eight bars with straight quavers and slip into jazz quavers and swing from there on until we reach bar thirty-three, where we will return to playing straight for a further eight bars”.

“Hang on!” exclaims Bill, “I thought all quavers (1/8 notes) were the same. Half a beat, right. I’ve practised all week with a metronome, and my quavers are very even. Now I’m told there are two types of quavers; straight quavers and jazz quavers. How can that be?”

Embarrassed silence. Four hardened, more experienced sax players stare down at the floor. Bill’s confidence is rapidly draining along with the blood from his face.

The days are long gone when a musician was categorized as a straight player or a jazz player. These days we are expected to do both, at the drop of a hat.

As beginners, we usually learn to play things straight. It makes sense. What we see on the page is what we play. The language of jazz is somewhat different. What we see on the page is not what we actually play. We read one language but play another. It’s the interpretation that matters.

There are many factors that make the distinction between jazz and straight, or classical interpretation, the main one being the swing quavers encountered by Bill at his first big band rehearsal.

In a straight piece of music such as a march in 2/4-time, a quaver is exactly half of one beat, just as Bill said. However, in jazz, when two quavers are played one after the other they are usually uneven. But how uneven?

Well that can vary but they usually have a triplet feel. The beat is divided into three and then played with two-thirds on the first quaver and the remaining third on the second quaver. This is what gives the music it’s distinctive swing. Jazz music is written as 4/4-time but actually played as 12/8-time.

So why don’t we write jazz in 12/8-time? That’s because the 4/4 notation is used for simplicity and clarity. It is very flexible and can be applied to a wide variety of styles. So as a general rule, when you see quavers (1/8th notes) on a jazz chart they are played unevenly - with a triplet feel - unless otherwise specified.

This general rule also applies to dotted quavers followed by a semi- quaver. These, too, are interpreted with the same triplet feel unless specified otherwise.

Now it is surprising how many experienced players, brought up in the straight tradition, find this difficult. They understand it, but find it difficult to execute. For us wind players, the answer is simple.

It’s the tonguing that makes the difference between straight and jazz quavers.

Use ‘Dah’ tonguing (soft attack) when playing jazz quavers and ‘Tah’ (hard attack) when playing straight quavers. A good way to begin feeling the distinction between the two styles is to take a short, easy piece of classical or march music (that includes quavers of course) and play it first with regular Tah tah tah tah tonguing. Naturally, it will sound correct, because that is how it should be played.

Now play the same piece with uneven Dah-da Dah-da tonguing. It will probably sound a little odd. Just like somebody jazzing up the classics, right.

Next apply the same test to a well-known jazz or dance tune, ‘In The Mood’ maybe. Play it with uneven Dah tonguing and it should sound great. Play it again with the even Tah tonguing and it will sound downright awful.

Another very important tonguing technique used in jazz is the stopping of a note with the tongue. For example, at slow swing tempo, 4 quavers (1/8th notes) followed by 2 crotchets (1/4 notes) marked staccato would be played as Dah-da dah-da Daht daht This lends a special animated feel to jazz and is a technique not usually associated with classical playing.

This tonguing technique is also applied to one of the most basic and common rhythmic patterns in jazz music: quaver - crotchet - quaver (1/8th note -1/4 note - 1/8th note).

As a straight phrase it will be played Tah Tah___Tah.

In jazz it’s played Dah Daht Dah.

The difference here is that the second note is stopped short with the tongue when played in jazz. In classical music it is played long. Get this phrase right and all the other rhythmic patterns common to jazz should follow with ease.

In educational music the second note will be marked short, as a guide. In the real musical world it’s rarely marked and the player is expected to interpret this as a matter of course.

There are occasions where the jazz player, often in a dance band situation, has to play straight and revert to classical tonguing. Marches, waltzes, Latin and slow ballads and rock music are just five examples.

Listen to recordings every chance you get and determine which type of tonguing and phrasing is being used. Compare the section work of, for example, the Maynard Ferguson Band, the Duke Ellington Orchestra with Tower of Power, Blood Sweat and Tears and Chicago.

Listen to classical orchestras and focus on the wind players. Imitate them all.
Remember, these days, we have to play all styles.

As for Bill, he soon caught on. He just couldn’t help but follow the other 4 saxophone players after bar 8. “Ah, so that’s what he meant,” thought Bill.

If you need help reading and playing in a jazzy, swing style the Jazz Phrasing Kit for Saxophone will help you enormously.

Any questions on this post? Post a comment. We’d love to hear your views.

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