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It's time to hear what the fuss is all about. I've attached some youtube videos of popular jazz standards. This is just a small glimpse of what jazz is- there is much more out there to explore. Take some time to listen to these incredible renditions of jazz standards by the fine musicians that created them.

While you are listening, take notes on some observations or questions you have about the music.

• What do you like about it?

• Do you find anything strange about it?

• What about this jazz music is different than the music you play in the classroom?

• What are some differences between jazz and popular music? Instruments, texture, timbre, rhythms?

The Real Book: http://www.play-along.ch/notationz/Volume1C.PDF

The link above is a link to a PDF version of what jazz musicians call "The Real Book". It is a compilation of many classic jazz standard lead sheets that have been put together over the years by musicians so that they have a cohesive book of standard repertoire to choose from and refer to!

You will be accessing The Real Book to help you select a standard to arrange. Go through the book, browse, and see if there are any that catch your eye. There are many different styles within the book as well, such as swing, bop, latin, dixieland and ballad (slower jazz music). Don't be afraid to find some titles and give them a listen to see if the music interests you!

When you're ready, select the standard that you want to arrange.

It's important when approaching a new (to you) piece of music to research not only the music itself, but the composer and the time period they were living in/the time the piece is from. Music can be a snapshot of the time it's from, the place or even the composer themselves- what was the world around them like when this was written? By researching the piece you want to arrange, you will get a better understanding of the music, the context around it, and the person who wrote it. This will give you a better idea as to what the artistic intent of the music is.

Complete the chart below as you research to increase your understanding of the music! When you open the document, do not start writing until you have gone to File; then selected Make a Copy. This will allow you to create your own copy for your personal use in your Google Drive.

Before you can start arranging you will need a notation software. IF you already have one, that's GREAT!

If not here are a couple of options:

If you have access to flat.io you can use that. If not there is a software that you can download to your computer called Musescore!

I will post a link for tutorials down below to get you started if you aren't familiar with the software!

Step One: Set Up Your Score and Put in the Melody

Now that you have selected your standard you'll need to set up your score. Begin by choosing which instrument will play the melody that you see on your lead sheet (the music from the Real Book). REMINDER: You will need to set up your score in the key that is written on the lead sheet because you will need the chords above to match it. This means if your chosen instrument is a transposing instrument, you will need to transpose the melody line (you will likely have to transpose other lines as well).

Once you have transposed your melody into the notation software (the piece will be in its original key, and the transposed instrument will VISUALLY look like it is in a different key, but they will sound the same.

If you need a quick refresher on how to transpose, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17HXSSA0LHc

You have now created the foundation of your arrangement.

The next step will be to add the chords underneath. Add a piano part to your score. The chords are written above the beats that they change on- you can take liberties and add extra beats if you'd like, but if there is a chord symbol above the 3rd beat of the bar, that's where the chord will or should change.

It's time to be all about that bass!

The next thing to do is to create a bass line. A lot of the time in jazz, the bass line "walks"- this is something you can do with your own bass line.

First, select your bass instrument. Maybe a bass guitar, or double bass?

To create your bass line you are going to need use the chords that you just worked with in the piano/rhythm section. You can start with the bass note of each chord, and go through and create a bass line using the bass chord notes, in rhythm, lined up with the piano chord changes.

Once that is complete you can go through and add extra notes in-between. You can pull other notes from the chords to add extra colour. To make your bass line walk, you want to "walk" from one note to the next by step.

By adding chord tones in-between the bass notes, you create that walking effect. It's kind of like rather than jumping from note to note, you walk there. It's smoother. It's Jazz.

Remember when writing your bass line, you will probably be in bass clef!

Now it's time to complement the beautiful melody of the standard you chose with some harmony.

This step will be slightly more difficult, because you are going to write something, and not be sure if it is or sounds right until you put it all together. The best thing to do is to simply try your best, and even just getting some of your ideas down so that you can edit and play with them later will help you a lot.

HOWEVER a good place to start is writing a line that is a 3rd above or below the melody, in the same key. The most important thing to keep in mind is which key you are writing in, but it can also be helpful to combine these notes with the ones in the corresponding blues scale (1, ♭3, 4, ♭5, 5, ♭7) or a pentatonic scale can be used to give the music a jazzier feel.

(To get your blues scale, take your major scale, and use only the aforementioned scale degrees, the ones with the flats will need to be flattened from what they are in the major scale. So for example a C blues scale would be C, E♭, F, G♭, G, B♭. So while Eb, Gb, and Bb aren't normally in a C major scale, for a blues scale, by flattening (not always making them a)♭them you create that jazzier sound.)

At the end of the day the harmony you choose to keep will be what sounds good to your ear.

At this point you have your arrangement mostly complete. It is now time to go back and edit. Use the playback feature in whatever notation software you are using to hear all of your hard work.

Listen critically, make adjustments to notes that might not fit, or rhythms that you want to change.

The short excerpt above that I created was edited around three times before I was satisfied.