by Adam Unsworth, IHS 57 Featured Artist
Each year, I offer a Jazz Horn Seminar to members of the studio at the University of Michigan. It’s quite basic and intended for horn players who are new to playing this style of music. While participation in this class often sparks interest in taking Jazz Improvisation 1, offered by our jazz faculty, the aim of the seminar is not necessarily to create future jazz horn players. Instead, my hope is to provide the horn students an opportunity to approach their instruments from a new angle and with a different mindset. The first step is to largely put aside written notation and rely more on our ears than our eyes. We begin with familiar diatonic warm-up exercises like scales and thirds while learning to play a credible swing feel. Continuing off the page, we memorize the melody and chord changes to a simple jazz standard (My Funny Valentine is our first tune this semester), talk about how to make sense of the chord progression while improvising, then use the melody as a launch pad to generate ideas.
This class includes plenty of listening. I find that great jazz melodists like Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Art Pepper, and Stan Getz, to name a few, are more relatable to us horn players than highly technical improvisers. We also explore many jazz horn recordings and enjoy the variety of highly personal sounds produced by these artists. It’s amazing the wide range of tone qualities produced when players aren’t concerned with fitting into an ensemble horn section. The ultimate goal of Jazz Horn Seminar is for students to begin to embrace the role of musical creator, rather than their customary role of musical re-creator, where notation serves as the rule book. This is quite a challenge for most horn students and a new skill that requires the willingness to take risks and be vulnerable in front of their colleagues. With practice and repeated reminders to view this musical world as one of freedom, most participants get a nice glimpse of what it’s like to let go and be the originator of their own ideas.
Jazz Horn Seminar is not mandatory and usually draws interest from six to eight Michigan horn students. Many others are too busy to add this class to their schedule or don’t have interest in jazz. So how can these concepts be applied to the classical repertoire students are preparing for lessons? A good place to start is to ask a student what music they listen to when they want to relax at the end of a long day. The answer, often not classical music, is a clue to what music truly speaks to them and is often music they enjoyed at a young age. Their deep connection to this music makes it innately comfortable, and most likely the style where personal expression will come easily. In my case, I grew up with a father who played jazz piano and listened to a lot of jazz at home as well as an older brother who was on the path to becoming an excellent jazz bassist. As a kid I heard plenty of jazz and had fun playing electric bass in the school big band but concentrated solely on classical music with the horn. Only later while in college did I realize that jazz horn felt close to home for me, and that expressing myself in this style came quite naturally. A memorable a-ha moment came with the realization that the physical and mental ease I experienced playing jazz could be applied to classical solos and orchestral excerpts. This insight was key to my personal path to audition success.
As teachers and performers, most of us have observed that works deemed important, i.e. Mozart concertos and standard orchestral excerpts, tend to take on a life of their own and can become more arduous than less prominent pieces. We tend to elevate standard repertoire because of the role it plays, or will play, in our audition and professional future. If I encounter a student who has the ability to play a familiar piece at a high level but is struggling with accuracy, energy, or musical expression, I encourage them to try a different approach, a pedagogical trick I call “Version B.” After their initial performance, we go back to the top and play the complete passage again, this time with a fresh interpretation. I tell them that the notes and rhythms are non-negotiable, but on their second attempt to experiment with all the other elements—tone, dynamics, tempo, articulation, phrasing, etc.—with the intent to create a new and spontaneously personal interpretation of this music. Essentially, the student is given permission to generate original musical ideas while continuing to play a piece that has become seemingly difficult and less enjoyable for them. It may take a couple of attempts before they have success with this unusual instruction, but most students get a hint of what it’s like to be inventive with a standard work and leave the lesson excited to try the approach further in the practice room. I should mention that despite my prodding, it is rare for a student to take their “Version B” rendition so far that the style of their Mozart concerto becomes unacceptable. Instead, while focused on the act of creating, their tone becomes more confident and personal while the phrasing expands and becomes more animated. The student’s attention has been drawn to interpreting the concerto rather than playing it perfectly, yet hours of practice, training, and instincts help them maintain the appropriate character. It is exciting to observe students as they renew their sense of freedom and fun with this familiar music. Once a student gets comfortable with the “Version B” approach, it can be applied to orchestral excerpts. Of course there is more to consider here, as being part of an ensemble requires solid knowledge of an excerpt’s musical context, close attention to detail, and the need to follow many years of established performance tradition. Score study and extensive listening are essential for younger players before adding one’s personal touch.
Beyond work with individual students, I’ve employed these concepts in our weekly horn studio class with a “Non-Classical Creative Project.” Students can choose to participate as solo performers, but more often form ensembles of varying sizes and perform as a group. The same instruction is given: consider the music you use to relax at the end of a long day, then write or arrange a short piece to play in class later in the term. Over the years, we’ve enjoyed original horn renditions of many pop tunes, movie music, and some country, rap, and hip-hop. Most importantly, this activity is purely fun and allows students to merge another style of music they love with their instrument. Although the following example doesn’t quite fit the assignment, one of my all-time favorite creative projects was conceived by a quartet of students who performed all four first movements of the Mozart concertos simultaneously! They each started at bar one of their respective concerto, counted their rests, entered when appropriate, and stopped when finished. The group began the performance without announcing the piece or concept, so it was a huge surprise, hilarious to everyone in the room, and even had some moments where it sounded respectable (when the person playing Concerto No. 1 in D was resting, of course).
I hope the concepts above can give performers, teachers, and students some food for thought when experiencing the potential monotony or burn-out associated with repetitive practicing. While repetition in the practice room is an absolute necessity for becoming the best horn players we can be, a little creativity can make a world of difference!
Adam Unsworth
Professor of Horn
School of Music, Theatre, and Dance
University of Michigan
