Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The truth about Rhythm Changes

So, I play bari sax. In jazz bands, bari sax is considered a fundamental section instrument that occasionally an arranger remembers is actually a saxophone, so they will put a solo in every 20 or 30 charts or so, as in writing out the chord changes.

Those pieces are never based on I Got Rhythm, whose chord changes are so distinctive, they are called Rhythm Changes.

I am also a computer programmer, so I never have a chance to actually practice or work something up.

Inevitably at a gig, the leader of the band will call up a piece based on Rhythm Changes, announce that he is "opening it up", and point to me for the first solo.

My dirty little secret:

I don't know Rhythm Changes.

Oh, I know the bridge. It's not too bad (B7 for two bars, E7 for two more, A7 for two more, and D7 to close) (well, that's in Bb concert transposed for bari). But I have no clue about the other 24 bars of the piece. When I took Improv in high school, we went over it and I tried to follow the changes. But I did not memorize them.

And since they never write the changes in the bari part for those charts based on Rhythm Changes, I never, ever see them written out.

This bothered me, but not enough to sit down and practice (hey, I have a day job, two small children and two dogs. Sue me). I do, however, listen to a LOT of music, and I have a LOT of recordings of jazzers playing solos over rhythm changes.

Turns out most of them don't know the changes either, particularly if they don't play tenor sax or guitar.

So, what to do?

Here is what I do:

- I play the blues scale. If the key is G (which is the most common case for a bari player), play a G blues scale. Catch the D7 in the next-to-last bar if you want to sound extra-hip.
- Play the changes of the bridge. They are easy to memorize, the chords are around long enough to play something interesting, and you can really burn it up.

Works like a charm. And if you don't believe me, go get a recording of Duke Ellington's Battle Royale. That's what most of the cats actually do.

I fell better now that I have fessed up!