How To Start A Jazz Or Improv Based String Orchestra

For the past two years I’ve led an after school string ensemble at my school focused on jazz and improvisation. I called it the Jazz String Orchestra. Unfortunately, this year I was not able to hold that ensemble, but I hope to return to it again when school reopens fully. 

Nonetheless, I wanted to give some insight into how I have gone about launching a string group at my school focused on improvisation and jazz. 

I hope this piece will provide some inspiration for any teachers interested in starting a similar ensemble at your school. 

Keep It Simple

The old adage.

I found this to be true after starting the Jazz String Orchestra at my school.

As educators, we know our students and their skills. 

For most of our students, their experiences of music making are within the orchestral framework and are mostly conductor led with some chamber music experiences. Their experiences likely do not often include a lot of improvisation or jazz performance. So with this ensemble, my guiding principle became ‘keep it simple.’ 

I’ll break down what I mean. 

Prior to launching this group I had plans of writing full arrangements for the group. I quickly realized I had to reevaluate my ideas. Every teachers situation is different with varying skills levels, time, and enthusiasm. It was true for me that due to skill levels (middle school aged students), limited rehearsal, time, and so on – it was best to simplify my concept.

My focus became teaching students the basics. I wanted them to play with great feel and rhythm. I wanted them to focus on listening to each other. I also wanted them to play actual melodies from jazz greats. The best way to learn jazz (or any style) is to listen to it and play it – transcriptions, melodies, solos, and so on. 

I took some popular and fairly simple classic jazz blues melodies and transposed them to a string friendly key. 

Students played these melodies in unison. This allowed us to focus on phrasing, rhythm, and the importance of feel and groove. 

If you’re considering a multi style or jazz string ensemble, consider ‘keeping it simple’ to start. To summarize: 

1. Play tunes from the jazz masters so students learn the jazz repertoire
2. Write parts in unison
3. Focus on feel, rhythm, phrasing, articulation, and groove. 

Listen 

For students to learn jazz (or any style of music), listening is crucial. It’s important to understand where the music came from and the history behind the music. Just as a baby learns to speak through babbling and imitating the sounds of her parents, so young musicians must hear and absorb the sounds of music and begin to imitate and learn the vocabulary of music.

Introducing students to the influential African American musicians and figures who shape the music is so important. Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald – these names just scratch the surface. The list is endless.

Play recordings of the tunes you are working on in your ensemble so students can hear how they sound played by the masters of the music. 

Provide opportunities to listen to great jazz string players. Many double bassists also performed – at one point or another – on cello and made records with the cello featured as a solo instrument. Players like Oscar Pettiford, Sam Jones, Ron Carter, and Ray Brown all recorded on the cello at different times in their careers.

A short list of jazz violinists includes Joe Venuti, Stephane Grappelli, “Stuff” Smith, Regina Carter, Jean Luc Ponty, John Blake, Scott Tixier, Diane Monroe, Christian Howes, and more. All are phenomenal jazz violinists from past to present. 

Play Tunes

It’s important to give students the opportunity to play actual tunes from the jazz repertoire. Jazz musicians studying a tune learn the melody and chord changes to that tune. In the ensemble I started, I selected tunes that were accessible (considering range, pitch, rhythmic understanding, etc.) and then transposed them to a string friendly key (D major or G major).

This past year I focused mostly on blues. I wrote out and transposed several blues melodies for the students to perform. The students played the melody in unison as I comped chords for them on the piano. Again, this allowed me to focus on rhythm and feel. Once students were comfortable with the melody – we added simple background figures and some explored basic improvisation. 

This method also allowed me to focus more on teaching parts by rote and developing students listening and ears. 

Playing tunes also helps students develop a musical vocabulary. Just as a baby imitates the sounds around them, so do we as musicians. This is how we begin to learn the language of music. Jazz is a language that takes careful study. Playing authentic melodies by the jazz greats will help students begin to develop their vocabulary.

Check out Bag’s Groove, Centerpiece, C Jam Blues, Sonnymoon for Two, or Tenor Madness for some blues melodies that can easily transpose for strings. 

Conclusion

If you are considering a jazz string orchestra or another type of ensemble, I hope these ideas will help you as you plan and execute your vision. Go for it!