Basic Jazz Sound

All our licks use the language of jazz; an articulated and syncopated sound. Here are the basic principles, all using a slow bowing speed:

JAZZ ARTICULATION

Quarter notes (UK: crotchets) are short:

Eighth notes (UK: quavers) are long, but the last one in the group is always short:

Accents are made whenever there’s a little time. With a pinch in the right hand – not with extra bow!

Start every phrase with an accent, even on an upbeat:

BOWINGS

Using a slow bowing speed, play your beats with the down bow and off-beats with the up bow. With some jazz rhythms, this is only possible if you use ghost bows on the rests. Practise your up ghost bows:

And down ghost bows:

You could play the quarter note (UK: crotchet) example above with ghost notes like this:

Play on-beat rests with a down ghost bow, and improve the much-quoted ‘bebop’ at the end of your phrase by using an up ghost bow:

FINGERINGS

Jazz is a chromatic music style and most licks have leading notes or enclosures. Here is how to deal with them.

• C Major Chordal leading notes – from below

• C Major Chordal leading notes – from above

• C Major Chordal enclosures

• D Major Chordal leading notes – from below

• D Major Chordal leading notes – from above

• D Major Chordal enclosures

JAZZ RHYTHMS

• Bebop Rhythm

• Charleston Rhythm

• Combined

Focus the Bebop Rhythm on the 4th beat. Do this with resolution notes, especially. We call this pushed.

It doesn’t work on the 3rd beat: