Master’s Thesis

In spite of what some may think, a degree in music is much more than learning how to play your instrument.

It involves intensive studies in music theory, history, piano skills, pedagogy, ear training, and arranging/orchestration, as well as performance requirements such as private lessons and ensemble playing.

Improvisation is unique to a jazz degree in academia and other jazz specific courses are also common.

In addition to that, my master’s degree also required a music journalism class, a transcription and analysis class, a music business class, a music technology class, and a music composition class.

The final project was a combination of a recital(see audio clips) and a thesis.

We had a lot of choice, as far as our subject matter goes and what I chose to do for my thesis was to do a transcription and analysis project on the late, great jazz bassist Ray Brown.

In the paper, i focused on his way of playing bass lines.  Although i did transcribe some solos, i did not write about them because my paper would have been twice as long, at least, and that would not have put me in very good standing with my evaluators.

so, with no further adieu, i present to you my master’s thesis:

Deep Brown

I must warn  you, this is a 48 page document, but there might be some gems in there for you bassists out there.  Plus, transcriptions in the appendix.

On a less academic note, i did have a brush with the man himself in the spring of 2003, i think.

Here is a pic from the clinic that i attended.  I asked a question and he had me come up and play.  I was terrified, but he was really cool.

Yes, I am playing his bass there.

Yes, I am wearing a mock turtle neck.

Yes, I look very different, but i assure you, that is, in fact me.

The Smooth

This tune is named in tribute to a 1985 Mercury Grand Marquis.

The car belongs to Kevin Roughton and we ride to gigs in it.

mp3:  the smooth

Here is the music:

I often will jot ideas down in a little music paper notebook, when they strike me.

They range from very short snippets to full songs.

This tune is like a sonic patchwork quilt.

It is several small ideas that i found in my notebooks, put together by my brain.

My brain is like the Bond-O that holds together the smooth.

Enjoy!

VWR

My grandfather’s name was Virgil Wilder Rice.

I wrote this tune the day that he died.

To me, he was one of the greatest people to ever live and i could never do justice to any of the stories about him.

click here to hear it:  VWR

Here is the lead sheet:

Theoretically, i don’t have much to share about this one.  When i wrote it, i was in college and really into Monk.

I heard from one of my instructors about Monk writing major blues tunes sometimes.

I also was just beginning to understand about chord substitutions, and how Bartok used harmony.

I misunderstood both of those things at the time and this tune came out of that combined misunderstanding.

That is a beautiful thing.

Insomnia

Half of this tune is old, half of it is new.

The form is AABA…classic.

The A sections(first 14 and last 7) are old.  The B Section(the part in 5/4) is new.

Here’s the Chart:

Here is the mp3:  Insomnia

Improvising on this tune is a challenge, or it’s not.  It depends on your particular bent.

My intention with this tune was to have the solos be free form, with the groove intact.

It is helpful for everyone in the group to be listening intently and periodically playing little pieces of the melody as markers so that everyone stays in touch.

You’ll hear us do that on the recording above.

enjoy!

Dramada

This tune is named for the Ramada in Kill Devil Hills, NC.  There is an abundance of drama with the various characters that work and play there.

Waitstaff, bartenders, maintenance people, managers, housekeeping, front desk, vacationers, musicians.  All are witnesses and participants.  I play there every week.

Here is the mp3:  Dramada

Here is the sheet music:

One reason that this tune is interesting is because it is atonal.  Meaning that it does not belong to any key.  It is cereal…er, serial music.

Basically, Serial music employs a series of notes and does not repeat any notes until the series has been fully realized.  It can get very complicated, but his tune is fairly simple.

All i did was compose my tone row(the series) and then began to noodle around on the piano until i found some rhythmic material that sounded good to me.

by the way the row is:  C, Gb, D, Bb, F, E, C#, G, B, D#, G#, A

I can’t recall exactly how i arrived at this particular row.

If you follow the notes from beginning to end, you find the row a total of 4 times.  Sometimes notes are enharmonically respelled to accommodate reading and harmony.

I basically just hung the chords from the melody and definitely broke some rules about chord progressions, but that makes for interesting improvising.

You can solo on this tune using the chord changes, or you can use the row and apply it as you see fit, virtually ignoring the harmony altogether.  FUN! FUN!

Whistling Dixie

This tune comes from an assignment from “Composing for Performers” class that i took while working on my master’s degree at the University of the Arts.

Here is an mp3 of the tune:  Whistling Dixie

The assignment had to do with Intervals.

An interval is the numeric term applied to the space between any two notes.  The larger the space between the notes, the higher the number is.

A 2nd is a small interval and a 7th is a larger interval.

My task here was to compose a melody that began with small intervals, increased the intervals gradually, and then came back to the smaller intervals as the melody finished.

Here is the sheet music:

If you’ve gotten this far, then you perhaps have some musical theory knowledge, so i will commence to write with that in mind.

the first measure starts out with 2nds and the intervallic distance peaks at measure 4 with the descending F# to G interval of a major 7th.  After this point, the tune gradually works it’s way down to smaller intervals.

The bass line was composed outside of the compositional constraints described above.  After that I decided on what the chord changes would be.

Toast for Breakfast

Hi there!

Thanks for stopping by.

What you’re reading now is the first of a few posts that I have planned where I will be posting some of my compositions in the form of sheet music and recordings.

This tune is titled “Toast for Breakfast.”

here is the chart:

if you prefer, a pdf file is here:  toast for breakfast

and here is a recording from my master’s recital on 11/18/2009.

Toast For Breakfast

I composed this tune as an assignment for my ‘Composing for Performers’ class in the spring of 2009.

The assignment was to experiment with the sound of different slash chords and/or pedal points, and compose something using those sounds.

The form of this piece is AABA.  The A sections are the first and last 8 measures.  The B section is the middle 16 measures, after the repeat sign.

A slash chord is one of two things.  If the slash notated is diagonal, the player is to play the chord indicated on top with the note on the bottom being the bass note.  sometimes it’s a chord member, sometimes it is not.  If the slash is horizontal, it indicates bitonality where the top is a chord and the bottom is a different chord, like two chords at once.

I used slash chords of the diagonal variety on the A sections of this one.

Pedal points refer to the act of sustaining a note(usually on the bottom in jazz) while the chords are changing.  This creates a sense of tension and release depending on how the chords change.

The pedal point is employed over the B section here.

The melody was inspired by the chord sounds and  developed right along with the changes.

The title came about when I asked Kirsten what she thought it sounded like as I was composing it.

She said:  “Toast for breakfast, like you’re making breakfast and it’s toast.”

That worked for me.

thanks for reading!

Andy Rice

Uarts Jazz Ensemble

Hi!!!

i am done Grad school and i hear about my final grades and such on 12/21, and i’d like to take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge what a great experience that it was.

I did not originally want to get my master’s in jazz.  I was thinking that i wanted to pursue studies in Ethnomusicology, which is basically half anthropology and half music or the study of how a culture’s music relates to it’s society.  Anyhow, due to personal and geographical factors, Philadelphia came up on my radar, but there was no Ethnomusicology program to be found.  University of the Arts offered an M.M. in jazz studies, so i visited the place and left there with a good vibe.

When i talked to the director of the Bass department, Micah Jones, i was asking questions like:  ‘what kinds of stuff do i need to play for this audition?’ and ‘what kinds of stuff does my recital need to include?’…His response to both questions was this:  ‘However you want to present yourself, artistically.’  That was it.

Although i did apply to UW in Seatle, as well, my gut was telling me that Uarts was the place.  I flew home from Mexico to do the audition and it went better than expected, and my expectations were high.

I spent the last year and a half of my life getting a very intense intellectual boost and i have to say that the whole thing was well worth it.  I made some good friends, learned alot, and best of all, made some great music.

Here is some of that music.

This is an original of mine:

Prana (take 2)

Here’s an original tune written by Greg Martin:

Derya

And finally, a Tim Andrulonis original:

Slam Swingin’ (take 2)

Greg is melting.

my jelly roll soul

Analysis of Charles Mingus’ solo on “My Jelly Roll Soul”

By:  Andy Rice

 

This tune has an unusual form.  It is fourteen measures and the last four measures of this solo is the first four in a section of trading back and forth between the bass and drums.

The first thing that jumps out at me after having transcribed this solo is his extensive use of a technique called pizzicato tremolo.  It is better to understand this technique by demonstration, but it is when both sides of one finger (usually the index) are used to strike the string in both directions very rapidly, much like tremolo with a bow involves moving the bow rapidly in both directions.   This occurs for the first time very briefly in the first measure and also in measure eight.  He really gets tremolo happy at the end when the trading begins, which leads me to believe he might be beginning to think more drummer-like as he starts to trade with drummer Danny Richmond.

Mingus employs glissandos and note bends in this solo, lending a vocal quality to it.  He does this in measures 4 and 5, when he plays the 9^th of the chord and he adds a little emphasis on these notes with a strong articulation, as well.  Another interesting point where he does this is at measure 17 where he so rhythmically precise that at first listen, you may not even notice the glissandos, but once I slowed this phrase down, I realized that the other notes I was hearing in there weren’t there.  He is just that much in control of his instrument.  In measure 24, he uses the Gliss in a typical bluesy way when he slides up into the 3^rd of the chord, giving it the sound of the blue note flat three resolving up to the natural 3.  He employs either a string bend or a shake in measure 11 at the end of a phrase, which is a sort of exaggerated vibrato.  A sort of “vocal” technique not often utilized in the world of jazz bass.

An interesting thing happens with articulation in measures 9-11.  He accents the phrase consistently on the and of 2 and 4 for those three measures.  Perhaps this is another sort of drummerism.  This is another fine example of his powerful rhythmic presence, nonetheless.  Another tidbit of articulation worth noting is his way of slurring into the beats much like a horn player would phrase a swing line, in measures 23 and 25.

As far as note choice goes, Mingus targets chord tones on strong beats a lot and often arpeggiates the one chord when the harmony returns to the tonic is in measures 5,9, 13 and 23.  At the point in the form where there 7^th chords moving chromatically downward, he implies those changes by partially arpeggiating the chords.

In conclusion, Charles Mingus has a very aggressive and expressive bass playing style.  He uses articulation and a very strong rhythmic concept to make is his presence known in any context that I have ever heard him in.  Often times it seems to me as if he is employing drumlike technique, he manipulates the strings of the bass in such a fashion that his solos often have a very vocal quality to them and His phrasing and note choice is very strongly rooted in bebop.