he question that appears here is one that
has rattled around in my head for a long time. There are very
few people who could respond to such a question with insight and
authority, and who could share that response empathetically with
a readership involved primarily with teaching classical music.
To do so, one would need to be many things: a top-flight jazz
player, a first-rate classical musician, a superb teacher, AND,
one would need sufficient self-awareness and be articulate enough
to be able to communicate the nuances. Rob Parton is such a
person!
You
can see at the bottom
of this page how impressive Rob's bio is. But what you won't
see explicitly in that bio is how integrated all of Rob's
talents and activities are. The successful musician of the 18th
century did many things well: performing, composing, improvising,
teaching, conducting, and hobnobbing with the aristocracy. Rob
Parton is a successful musician of our century. He concertizes,
he gigs, he teaches, he records. He is as equally at home playing
trumpet in a Vivaldi concerto as he is screaming the lead trumpet
line in his JAZZTECH big band. He has taught young trumpet beginners
as well as budding brass professionals. He conducts, he teaches
improvisation. He also has a remarkable ability to get things
done, whether it's re-organizing a college curriculum or bringing
together a few dozen professionals to record a CD. Because I've
known Rob as a university colleague since the mid 1990's, I've
had a number of years to come to know and admire his workings
as well as his work. I've always suspected that one of the reasons
he is so effective at getting things done is his down-to-earth
attitude and his abundance of common sense, besides his other
talents. Therefore, I could not imagine finding a better person
to run the above question by.
I visited with Rob at his suburban Chicago home one early summer evening in 2002, and we had a lively ninety-minute conversation. The edited highlights of that discussion are presented here. Things like the "hidden drummer," the importance of subdividing, and the power of scat-singing as a teaching tool came up. The conversation continues in the next issue (Spring 2003) when we discuss rhythm vs. rhythmic, the role of improvisation in developing rhythm skills, and other pertinent topics.
Throughout the evening, Rob periodically punctuated the discourse
with scat-singing to make a number of his points. Some of his
most expressive outbursts are posted here on the KEYBOARD COMPANION
website so you can hear them as you read the article. It is an understatement to say that you MUST
listen to these! It's not just what he scats, but how
he does it that you should hear for yourself-such energy!
If you ever had any doubts that rhythm, all by itself, can be
engaging, infectious, and exhilarating, listen to these. "I
Got Rhythm" will take on a whole new meaning.
And now our conversation begins.
Article by Rob Parton and Bruce Berr
BB: Rob, when I've listened to jazz bands like yours and other really fine ones, I hear the most exciting rhythm, and the most impeccable rhythmic precision imaginable, sometimes at breakneck tempos. And yet, there is not a conductor holding it all together. I especially marvel at this when the band is playing for an extended time off the beat, never getting to actually play on the beat itself, yet the precision is uncanny. How is it that jazz players can achieve this level of precision that not even the best symphony orchestras can do, even with a conductor on the podium?
RP: Jazz and commercial musicians tend to have better time than classical musicians. I'll go on record for that. This has a lot to do with the fact that classical musicians are not playing with a drummer or steady time on a regular basis. Jazz people are doing that all the time, and that's a metronome right there. Sure, a classical musician practices with a metronome, but in performance an orchestral player is following the stick of the conductor, which isn't quite the same thing. So having a great drummer who's playing in perfect time has something to do with it.
But just as important is that we all have "drummers" playing in our heads:
and in a way, we're subdividing all the time. So if I see a dotted-8th rest and then a 16th note, I'm always going to be thinking the subdivision:
There was one tune I learned in college in my freshman year-I don't remember what it was called-but it had a rhythm like this:
It's all a matter of subdividing in your head. You have
to be thinking 16th notes in those situations.
You mentioned "breakneck tempos." A really fast closer on one of my CDs is "Basie!" (from Sea Breeze Jazz, Rob Parton's JAZZTECH Big Band, "Eleventh Hour Live!", SB-2110). When a tune is that fast, jazz people don't think 2 and 4; that would drive us nuts. When it's that fast, it's just 1's and 3's, just like a conductor. Some of the rhythm in that is:
{To jump to the next audio clip, click here}
If I were a piano teacher, I would have the metronome on a lot at the lessons. It's weird, but I've run into many students who had piano lessons, and there's a metronome sitting on the top of their piano, but it's never once turned on. I think it's very important to be able to play along with a metronome. Most students tend to play too fast; instead of saying, "Slow it down," let's just put the metronome beat on, and learn to play along with that slower beat. And then speed it up in increments, and then be able to play without it but with good time. Good time does not always equate with metronomic time, but if you want to play metronomically, it's got to be right there.
Of course every student is a little different in how he or she learns, so certain students may not learn best in this exact way, and that's OK. If a person can learn to teach with different approaches, I think that's a good thing.
BB: You've emphasized how the sound of the drums, heard or imagined, is a big part of your rhythmic awareness. I find this interesting on several levels. Many piano method series now have CDs that have the teacher's part (usually a duet accompaniment) realized with rhythm sections, orchestral or jazz instruments, etc. People have discussed the pros and cons of these play-alongs. One of the cons has been, "Now everything is metronomic." But among the advantages mentioned are: "Wow, is this motivating to play along with!" or, "This is a MUSICAL metronome for the student to play along with." As you can tell, I'm already a big advocate of these CDs, and so are my students. But what you've said has further confirmed for me that by using them, our early-level classical pianists are not only having a wonderful musical time, but they're also gaining some of the same kinds of valuable rhythmic experiences that only jazz students used to have.
RP: Absolutely! We've now got these great play-alongs, so why not take advantage of them? How can it hurt? True, when students are using these, they're playing metronomically, but better to be more precise in the beginning. And they're also learning about a lot of other things, including playing the music with feeling and emotion.
Technology changes. Years ago, you didn't have anything to play along with, except a metronome. Now you've got whole accompaniments. And if they're really well done, kids know that; if it sounds like what's on the radio, then it's cool, not contrived or cheesy. Look how much more positive that can be for some fourth or fifth grader, or even a seven-year-old. Any positive way to keep people in music is a good thing.
BB: I think the motivational aspect is the one that has been most evident to teachers who've used these CDs. But maybe it hasn't been so obvious about the importance of the drums and bass providing this rhythmic imprint on our students. And in a way, the drum part usually does some subdividing for us, doesn't it?
RP: Yes, on the high-hat cymbal and the snare drum.
BB: Just to play devil's advocate here for a moment: I own recordings of Bill Evans (piano) and Jim Hall (jazz guitar) doing incredibly poetic and flexible stuff together with no drummer or bass player, and yet the subtlety of their rhythm and the accuracy of their ensemble was at the highest level you would ever hear anywhere. Do you think that one of the reasons that they could do this is because they each spent a lifetime playing in a rhythm section?
RP: Yes, that's definitely part of it. It's also because
they knew each other's playing so intimately. The more musicians
play together, the more each one knows what the other one is going
to do-the more they become really connected. Some magical things
can happen. That's why when you hear a touring group that's been
together for the entire tour, you're going to hear some really
cool stuff, more so than if you hear a group that's been just
thrown together with the best musicians in the area who haven't
played together that much before.
BB: Let's talk for a while about the teaching of specific
rhythm patterns. For instance, let's say you have a beginning
trumpet student who has already learned additive rhythms, and
this pattern 
is coming up in the method book.
How do you introduce this to the student?
RP: There are a couple ways. One way that was taught
to me a long time ago was to use names that express the feel of
each of the notes. For instance, an 8th note with a flag was called
a "sneak" since it sneaks forward to the next beat.
Two 8ths beamed together are called "part-ners". Four
16ths notes would be "Mis-sis-sip-pi". So the pattern
you've shown would be counted: "1 2 3 4-sneak 1." If
the child wasn't real young, I would have him/her count it the
more standard way: "1 2 3 4+1."
BB: So it looks to me like these methods are pretty much the same ones that many classical piano teachers use as well.
Now, what about this rhythm: 
Let's
say you have a student who can read and play this rhythm somewhat
correctly, but it doesn't really have the accuracy and feeling
of a syncopation, so it's not yet very convincing.
RP: It could be the articulation. If that rhythm were
in a jazz band piece, I'd want to make sure that every dotted
note should get separation, and that gives it more of a jazz feeling-much
more rhythmic.
BB: What if that didn't solve it-what if it still doesn't sound rhythmically convincing?
RP: Then it has to be put into a musical context. For instance, let's say we're playing a Latin piece, and the 8th notes are straight (not swing). Again, I would make sure the student has a drum set or a metronome going in his head:
I've made jazz bands do that. I'll say, "Do the subdivisions. I want to hear YOU subdivide that." So it'll be:
BB: Are there any other techniques you've used when a student's rhythm is almost there, but not totally accurate?
RP: I've had students play just the attacks of the notes staccato, without sustaining the notes. Obviously, this makes them more sensitive to where the exact beginnings of each note are. But it also helps prevent rushing, because normally you have all these long spaces between the notes, and students don't know what to do with themselves with all that dead time. This helps them enjoy the space between the notes.
I might also help the student become more sensitive to the implied dynamics within a rhythmic pattern. For instance, in the pattern we've been talking about, I might have students add a crescendo leading into the syncopation. This helps them feel the rhythm more musically, and it's not difficult to do.
BB: So the dynamic shape of the rhythm becomes merged with the correct timing?
RP: That's right. And if I'm in a private lesson with someone working on this, we're not going to move on until they do it this way and feel it very rhythmically.
BB: Let me go back to your comments about the fact the jazz players are subdividing all the time. Again, I'd like to play devil's advocate here. It's been my experience that when young piano students count subdivisions all of the time-for instance, 8th notes in a piece that has only a few 8th notes here and there but has mainly quarters and halves-instead of playing long lyrical phrases, they tend to play flat-footed. Some people call this "ametria," meaning with no feeling of meter. Actually, to me it sounds more like 1/4 meter or even worse, 1/8 meter! In other words, there's no direction, there's no flow, there's no music-it sounds as if it's looking at its feet. Heavy emphasis on the subdivision of the beat seems to get in the way of feeling larger beats. Yet you say that you're subdividing all the time?
RP: The important thing is what style of music you're doing. The style that I was just doing was very straight, metronomic ...
BB: Yes, but you didn't sing it mechanically -without meter. You sang it musically, with shape and direction and dynamics. It was so delightfully musical in fact, that it didn't even need harmony or melody to be expressive. Do you think most jazz musicians can do what you just did-can scat sing the music that's playing in their head?
RP: Yes, absolutely.
BB: Do you think that scat-singing, or at least some kind of chanting of classical music could help classical players as well?
RP: Without a doubt, definitely. For any style of music, singing or scat-singing what you have on the page can be the tie-in between rhythmic accuracy and musical feeling. It can make the difference between rhythm that is just "correct" versus rhythm that's really musical. And it really doesn't matter what syllables you say when you sing.
For instance, the first thing I do when I'm leading an all-state band is to have them sing it before they're going to play it. I tell them, "I don't care about the notes; all I care about are the rhythms. So sing this rhythm." The real rhythm might be:
How about with another tune:
BB: (Laughs) That's like my Morse code test!
RP: Yeah! So I want the students to use dynamics. And feeling it rhythmically here means feeling it change and moving somewhere.
BB: So you actually have the whole sax section sing their part first?
RP: Yes, all the time. And it's the same in a private lesson. If I have a student who has a new classical piece, like a Charlier etude that this kid has never played, I'll ask the student to sing it. It's a vocalise. Some of the greatest stuff that I ever learned about music while growing up was listening to singers. Just listen to Pavarotti singing! Listen to Andrea Bocelli! That guy is a great singer. And the reason he's so popular is that he's speaking from the heart.
BB: Just to summarize a moment, because you're talking about something very important here. You're saying that, regardless of level or style, if students sing their material musically before they play it, that they're learning a lot of things at once: They're learning the timing-the attacks of the notes; they're feeling what goes on between the notes, the sense of direction; so they're really learning rhythm from the inside out. And even if they don't imitate your scat syllables, they still hear that certain syllables have more punch, and other ones have a more gentle "tonguing" to them.
RP: Yes, that's right. And I think the reason that singing is so effective is that we've all been talking a lot longer than we've been playing our instruments. The goal for playing an instrument is for it to become an extension of your body; it's just your other voice box. You want any idea that you have to be able to come right out, just like when you talk.
BB: You have a unique perspective since you've played both jazz and classical music professionally in numerous venues. I assume that the jazz-playing you do breathes some porousness and flexibility into your classical playing. How does it end up manifesting itself?
RP: I think you start playing what you hear in your head, regardless of whether that was created by notation or improvisation. You start learning how to express yourself on your instrument. A score is just this black-on-white; maybe it says mf; maybe we've got a little crescendo here-you could get a computer to play that, and probably a lot more accurately than human beings. But the part that would be missing from that is the human element, the breathing, the flexibility. Rhythm suffers if it doesn't have this.
Unfortunately, we live in a musical society, especially in the classical and the orchestral side of things, where everything has to played one way, "this way!" I disagree with that approach. If you're a jazz musician, you're paid to bring your whole musical self to the concert or gig. When I play a solo, no one is going to tell me how to play it, because I'm going to play what I play. If they don't like the way I play, they can get somebody else. But it's different in a classical setting. In an orchestra, the conductor may tell you what is wanted. You're going to be conducted through it, and you need to be able to respond. That's an art unto itself!
BB: I think even an early-level pianist has to adopt the same mindset that you do as a jazz soloist-making the music your own.
RP: And I think the earlier, the better. The more that you can get the creative side working with the thinking side of the person, then you start developing a more musical person. Let the person find and express his or her feelings.
I suspect that the majority of music teachers don't do all that much with jazz. I think their students are getting only half of what they need. For instance, the greatest trumpet teachers who know nothing about jazz can teach their students to express themselves in a concerto, which is great. But they're likely missing what lets the individual be unique-what sets Johnny apart from Joey. And you can always hear that in the person's rhythm.
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ROB PARTON is one of Chicago's most active and versatile trumpet players and educators. He has played with Doc Severinson, Mel Torme, Natalie Cole, and Maynard Ferguson, to name a few. He has also appeared in many European jazz festivals, including the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy. He has performed with the Milwaukee and the Chicago Symphony Orchestras and with numerous regional orchestras. As a studio musician, he has played on hundreds of local and national radio and TV commercials. Parton is Chair of Jazz Studies at Roosevelt University, and frequently directs All-State jazz bands and guest-conducts at college jazz programs. He has presented concerts and clinics at the International Association of Jazz Educators and many other jazz and music educator conventions. His JAZZTECH Big Band and its four CDs on the Sea Breeze Jazz label are known nationally and have received glowing accolades from audiences and the jazz press. |
