JAZZ TRAINING AND VOCAL FUNCTIONVOICE FOUNDATION SYMPOSIUM WORKSHOPJUNE 2, 2017

AT THE ACADEMY OF VOCAL ARTS, PHILADELPHIA

LIZ JOHNSON SCHAFER, MM, CERT. OF VOCOLOGY

www.jazzintervals.com

How will focusing on musical intervals

inform, help, or change your voice practice?

5 PRINCIPLES OF EXERCISE TRAINING:

These five principles in exercise training are used to describe the way muscle fibers

adapt to new levels of demand. (245)

1. Intensity

2. Frequency

3. Overload

4. Reversibility

5. (MUSCLE) SPECIFICITY

LeBorgne, W., Rosenberg, M. (2014). The Vocal Athlete. San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing.

WHAT I DISCOVERED TEACHING JAZZ VOICE LESSONS AS A COLLEGE ELECTIVE COURSE:

• I taught a wide array of students

• Instrumentalists

• Students from Arts and Sciences Departments

• New singers

• Singers scared of classical music

• Kids who love jazz and jazz newbies

• Bottom Line: jazz is a gateway to get a voice up and running!

• Literature

• Style

• Both opportunities for addressing functional and technical voice issues

WHY DO “JAZZ INTERVALS” MATTER TO SINGERS AND TEACHERS?

• Jazz is precise – our end game is instrumental level improvisation

• Muscle specificity = requires precision and detail work (jazz gives us this, y’all)

• The intervals inherent and replete in jazz literature give us TOOLS for

specificity

• THE STYLE of jazz offers:

• Low volume singing

• Prosody of speech as the goal

• Functional voice training opportunity that avoids extreme vocal athletics, and yet also

demands emotional authenticity and vulnerability

• We typically have ONE NOTE PER SYLLABLE

SKYLARKJOHNNY MERCER AND HOAGY CARMICHAEL, 1941

SKYLARK – MEASURE 22

SKYLARK – MEASURES 23 AND 24

INTERVAL ANALYSIS SKYLARK, MM. 22-24

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Root half whole m 3rd 3rd 4th TT 5th #5th 6th

Consecutive

INTERVAL ANALYSIS SKYLARK, MM. 22-24

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Root half whole m 3rd 3rd 4th TT 5th #5th 6th min 7th 7th Octave min 9 9th

Simultaneous

INTERVAL ANALYSIS SKYLARK, MM. 22-24

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Root half whole m 3rd 3rd 4th TT 5th #5th 6th min 7th 7th Octave min 9 9th

Skylark, mm. 22-24

Consecutive Simultaneous

GIANT STEPSJOHN COLTRANE, 1960

Example of a typical Real Book Lead Sheet

INTERVAL ANALYSIS GIANT STEPSRANGE = OCTAVE + 5TH

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Root half whole m 3rd 3rd 4th

Consecutive

MIDNIGHT SUNLIONEL HAMPTON AND SONNY BURKE, MUSIC (1947/1954)

JOHNNY MERCER, LYRIC (LATER AND NOT WITH MUSIC COMPOSERS)

INTERVAL ANALYSIS MIDNIGHT SUNRANGE = OCTAVE + MINOR 3RD

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 Half Whole min 3rd 3rd 4th T.T. 5th min 6th 6th min 7th 7th

6

92

16

56

14

2 2 0 0 0 0

9

Consecutive Intervals

PRELUDE TO A KISSDUKE ELLINGTON, 1938

LYRICS, IRVING GORDON AND IRVING MILLS

Example of a typical Real Book Lead Sheet

INTERVAL ANALYSIS PRELUDE TO A KISS (BRIDGE ONLY)RANGE = OCTAVE

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Root half whole m 3rd 3rd 4th TT 5th #5th 6th min 7th 7th

8

10

7

2

0

2

0 0

2 2

0

2

Consecutive

IN CONCLUSION:

• Start analyzing consecutive interval relationships in music for specificity training

• Use jazz literature as a portal for addressing functional voice issues

• Even if you don’t understand the style, approximate – all will be well. Promise.

• Create your own vocal function exercises based on the intervallic content of your

students’ literature – in any style

RESOURCES FOR TEACHING JAZZ STYLE AND LITERATURE

Jazz Singing: Developing

Artistry and Authenticity

by Diana Spradling

iRealPro App

play chord progressions

for thousands of jazz

standards in any key, at

any tempo

New! YouTube Series:

Interviews on Voice Matters©