clifford brown's trumpet method "the classes"

Forum General Jazz / Commercial Clifford Brown's Trumpet Method "The Classes"

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to registerbefore you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum thatyou want to visit from the selection below.

Jazz / Commercial Discuss Clifford Brown's Trumpet Method "The Classes" in the General forums; HelloPeople! I was wondering if ANY of you are familiar with or have a copy of the Jazz Method ...

User Name Password Log in

Remember Me?

RegisterHelp

Home Wiki What's New?

Today's Posts FAQ Calendar Community Forum Actions Quick Links

Gallery

Advanced Search

Results 1 to 5 of 5

LinkBack Thread Tools Display

07-11-2009, 06:44 PM

Clifford Brown's Trumpet Method "The Classes"

Hello People! I was wondering if ANY of you are familiarwith or have a copy of the Jazz Method of Robert "Boysie"Lowery (Clifford Brown's first teacher) ?I actually was able to get a couple pages copied from afriend, but the book got ruined/stolen and I only have thefew pages i copied. These exercises and patterns in thebook are really helpful and you could by Clifford'sImprovisation that this method was his foundation. I havetried googling it, and it yielded no results. Only adescription of How he taught him how to hear andmaneuver through changes through those exercises. Theguy who copied the book for me acted as though it wassome super top secret stuff and i had to actually pay himfor the few pages i had. lol. I dont know who published it,or if it was something thats just passed down, but imreally trying to find it. If you got any insight pleaserespond! Thanks!!!!!

#1

Join Date:Posts:

Apr 200927

Nearpsited3

New Friend

Share

Reply With Quote

07-12-2009, 05:49 AM #2

Forum

Re: Clifford Brown's Trumpet Method "The Classes"

It sounds like a great method. None of my sources knowanything about it. This post will probably get more hits inthe jazz forum so I have moved it there.

http://www.trumpetguild.org/pdf/2002.../0206brown.pdfClifford Brown -- Trumpeter's TrainingJeff Helgesen's Home PageClifford Brown : The Life and Art of the Legendary JazzTrumpeter

Join Date:Location:Posts:

Jun 2006Germany12,633

rowuk

ModeratorUtimate User

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

Share

Reply With Quote

07-12-2009, 11:12 AM


I have a copy. A friend of mine passed on a photocopy tome a few years ago. Robert Lowery published it himself(my copy is copyright 1994, but perhaps there was anearlier edition), and sold it via mail order for $22.95. Mycopy says "Book 1" on the front. I've never heard of abook 2.

If this book were the holy grail we might hope it to be,believe me, it would be available. Sadly, this is not thecase. Here's what I can tell you about the contents:

The book is about 100 pages long in total. Theinstructional part of the text is presented as if it weredictated from verbal explanations, and pieced together.There are exercises and etudes mixed in with the text.

The book breaks down into two concepts: "The Classes"and "Active Notes".

"The Classes", as far as I can tell (maybe someone elsecan enlighten us more), is a chord progression to bestudied as an aid to ear training. It's a pretty unclearconcept as it is presented - he doesn't show how to applythe concept to anything, just indicates that you need to beable to hear the following notes in your head: (In Cmajor): C, A,F, D, E, G, C. These are presented as theroots of a chord progression, C maj, A min, F maj, D min,E min, G maj, C maj.

It looks to me like he is starting with a ii-V-I progression,replacing the ii chord with a IV chord, and thensandwiching the relative minors in between. He refers tothe IV-ii chords as "Second Class", the iii-V chords as

#3

Join Date:Location:Posts:

Oct 2007Boston7

Chris Teixeira

New Friend

the IV-ii chords as "Second Class", the iii-V chords as"First Class", and I-iv as "Tonic Class". What does thishave to do with anything? No idea. This is all presented ontwo lines of sheet music, with no explanation other than tolearn to play the notes and hear the chords in 12 keys.

He goes on later in the book to talk about "AlteredClasses", which are diminished and augmented chordsubstitutions. Again, this is two lines of music, with aminimal explanation. I'll just copy it here so you can get afeel for it:

"A lot of people have been taught that the key of C Majorhas no sharps or no flats. And there are a lot of peoplewho think that. But a key can carry _anything_chromatically _within_ that scale. So we know by now byaltering your classes, your tonic class is a sharp-1 and asharp-6. Therefore the chords (C# dim and A# dim)become leading, diminished instead of major and minor.C# diminished, which can take you chromatically to Dminor (2nd). Altering that second class (F# and D#) wouldbe D# diminished, which would take you to your E minor(3rd). So we have two diminished. Then your first classsound becomes and augmented sound, so that E becomesan Eb+ (augmented) chord and it takes you to yoursecond class Perfect, taking you to that F (4th). And thatF, you alter that and it becomes an F# diminished which isthe same as the D# diminished, and that takes you toyour G (5th), which is a first class sound. And that firstclass becomes a G augmented chord, and that takes youto your A minor (6th). Then you raise your tonic class,bringing you back to your A# diminished, the same as thatC# diminished. Then you have double diminished chordsthat bring you back to the tonic class Perfect(1). We knowthat these diminished chords are looking for somewhere togo. They're looking for resolution. You can't do them infours because each diminished carries three differentdirections so it's not round the circle with them. Actually,what you want to learn to hear from these altered chordsis the sound of that altered chord. Now what I'm trying tosay to you is that what you hear is a C# diminished butyou hear _more_ than C# diminished. You hear each oneof those notes in that diminished chord leading you someplace. You hear C# diminished leading to D; you hear Ediminished leading to F; you hear G diminished leading toAb; and you hear A# diminished leading to B. _All at thesame time._ The same thing happens with youraugmented chord. You hear that augmented chord butyour knowledge is telling you that you hear _more_ thanthat. So that makes you ABSOLUTE."

The other concept he talks about are "Active Notes". Theseare notes a half-step away (above and below) chord tones(Passive Notes). In playing, you have "Single ActiveNotes", where you employ one chromatic leading tone toapproach a chord tone, and "Double Active Notes", whereyou "encircle" the note using both chromatic approachnotes.

There you go. That's it really. The same material iscovered more clearly and in more depth in other books. Onthe other hand, you can definitely hear the "Altered

John Dover's Road to the Studio: Episode III | Jazz in Vermont

Classes" substitutions and "Active Notes" in Clifford'splaying.

Hope this helps

Share

Reply With Quote

07-20-2009, 05:46 PM


Thanks man, I contacted the library of congress to see ifthey can photocopy it for me. I'll let you know whathappens

#4

Join Date:Posts:

Apr 200927

Nearpsited3

New Friend

Share

Reply With Quote

07-20-2009, 08:27 PM


A few years ago Donald Byrd was helping the author sellsome copies at the Jazzmobile Jazz program in NYC. If youcontact Jazzmobile perhaps they could help you contactDr. Byrd....I am sure he would be very happy to assist youin obtaining the book.

#5

Join Date:Posts:

Feb 2004393

talcito

Piano User

Last edited by talcito; 07-20-2009 at 08:50 PM.

Share

Reply With Quote

Clifford solo on "Cherokee" from the red Ken Slone bookBy ken watters in forum Jazz / Commercial

Replies: 3Last Post: 12-25-2008, 02:15 PM

Bob Odneal "Casual Double High C" method?By jaydarling in forum Trumpet Discussion


Thread Information

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

-- vB4 Default Style Contact Us TrumpetMaster.com Archive Top

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:46 PM.

Powered by vBulletin Version 4.1.11 Copyright 2014 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.

Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0

Copyright 2006 TrumpetMaster.com

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Clifford Brown's Cherokee SoloBy Tom Mac in forum Trumpet Discussion

Replies: 5Last Post: 03-16-2007, 12:37 AM

Clifford Brown's EmbouchureBy Gogs in forum Jazz / Commercial


Casual Double High "C" videos and method ordersBy Bob Odneal in forum Trumpet Discussion

Replies: 0Last Post: 11-03-2004, 09:18 AM

You may not post newthreadsYou may not post repliesYou may not postattachmentsYou may not edit yourposts

Posting Permissions

BB code is OnSmilies are On[IMG] code is On[VIDEO] code isOnHTML code is OffTrackbacks areOnPingbacks are On

Refbacks are On

Forum Rules

clifford brown's trumpet method "the classes"

Documents