Upbeat Jazz

[Supersteve]

I have an idea for a Jazz tune. I am going to call it "El Toro Du Rouge" Which means the The Bull of Red as it is a mix of Spainsh and French. I could have just called it "The Red Bull" but "El Toro Du Rouge" just sounds more exotic and cooler.

But I have a few questions what would be a good a good tempo in BPM?

also any ideas as to how a shuffle beat, 16th notes, and triplets can be played around with?

Finally is there any good tracks I should listen too for inspiration?

When I get Garageband that is the program I am going to use to play around with this idea.

Till then I will just play around with differnt combos of notes. :)

[jonescrusher]

Presumably you've got the rest of the band together to play it.... Can you post any rough ideas you have so far?

[Supersteve]

Presumably you've got the rest of the band together to play it.... Can you post any rough ideas you have so far?

Nope no band to play with. Just Apple Garageband. Rough ideas? hmmm...

Well very energetic, fast paced. Musically use of 16th notes, shuffle and swing, triplet feel,
as far as a style of jazz not really one in mind. But instruments from what I have read up untill
1950's the standard for instrumentation was

1. Trumpet
2. Trombone
3. Saxophone
4. Clarinet
5. Piano
6. Guitar
7. Double Bass

I think the Symphony Jampack contains all the brass and woodwind instruments.

and well I have a drum kit (Yamaha Rydeen Bop kit) so that takes place of the drums :) So I guess those instruments or a combo of them would do.
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Maybe the idea of charging bull as an idea, But the name "Red Bull" is more for the idea of energy and quick paced than a male bovine. Also I say 16th notes because I cannot play any faster than that.

I was fooling around on the drum pad and kinda had this beat going for a while. Silver represents a rest

1N-Let, 2e&a (dot and cut) Repeated.

Kinda basic yet sounded pretty good also. I have been playing around with the following as building blocks 1N-Let, 1-Trip-Let, and 1e&a as beats and time durations to mix and match together. :)

[jonescrusher]

Difficult to tell just from text what your goal is here; are you looking to create an original composition for its own sake or do you want to create a playalong track to improve your jazz playing? I'm not familiar with Garageband, but if you're using it like any other MIDI sequencer I would have thought an uptempo jazz piece would be very hard to pull off, or at least get sounding good. Presumably your keyboard skills are half decent.


As for tempo, this depends on whether you wish to exercise your jazz time at a rate where the triplet feel flattens out; this would be 280bpm +. Anything lower than that would retain the triplet feel on the ride pattern.
You may just want to write a bass line which could be looped to allow you to jam your ideas over it indefinitely. If oyu get anything together post it, i'd be interested to hear what you come up with. Good luck!

[Supersteve]

Difficult to tell just from text what your goal is here; are you looking to create an original composition for its own sake or do you want to create a playalong track to improve your jazz playing? I'm not familiar with Garageband, but if you're using it like any other MIDI sequencer I would have thought an uptempo jazz piece would be very hard to pull off, or at least get sounding good. Presumably your keyboard skills are half decent.


As for tempo, this depends on whether you wish to exercise your jazz time at a rate where the triplet feel flattens out; this would be 280bpm +. Anything lower than that would retain the triplet feel on the ride pattern.
You may just want to write a bass line which could be looped to allow you to jam your ideas over it indefinitely. If oyu get anything together post it, i'd be interested to hear what you come up with. Good luck!

I was going to create a composition for it own sake :)


No my keyboard skills are not that good. I do not play Piano at all. But if you meant a computer keyboard. Then yes my typing skills are fine. By goal is to create a upbeat jazz song. If I had it over 280 it would not be a play along track as I can not play that fast yet.

Here is more info on Garageband

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GarageBand#Overview

[jonescrusher]

I meant your 'piano' skills. Surely you'll need some skills in order to write the parts of your tune....

[Supersteve]

I meant your 'piano' skills. Surely you'll need some skills in order to write the parts of your tune....


I have no skills in Piano :( sorry, I would just use the computer keyboard. As I do not have a Midi keyboard.

[Supersteve]

I was playing around with a Bassa Nova beat today. As it is one of the only beats I know that does not make use of a clave. A clave sound would sound out of place for what I am trying to do.

I had a Bassa Nova beat play ounce over then I added a shuffle (1,N Let) then back to a Bassa Nova again.

I was trying to mix "Sway" and "Swing" it does not really work :(.

[Supersteve]

5/4 EL TORO DU ROUGE


So how could I mix 16th notes and triplets and (1NLets)

to make a fast yet "Jazzy" sounding beat? As I know in Jazz that the ride and the hi-hat played with the foot is a dominant elemant in Jazz

So maybe it could go something like this

Drum Bar 1
Time Sig: 5/4
Tempo: Up Tempo
Ride-1e&a2e&a3
Hi-HatWF-2,4
Snare-
Bass-4

Double Bass Bar 1
Time Sig: 5/4
Tempo: Up Tempo
Notes:
Timing: 1e&a

Trumpet Bar 1
Time Sig:5/4
Tempo: Up Tempo
Notes:
Timing:1e&a



Also to add a modern twist I was thinking having the Double Bass only play G,D,A,E like a modern bass guitar would play. modern with a "old school" twist per say.