Coursebook Only: Classic Jazz for Strings | The Saints | Level 1: Warming Up | Cello

This first Classic Jazz for Strings course is inspired by speculative history: What if the violin, instead of being increasingly marginalized in jazz over the course of the Twenties and Thirties first by punchier brass instruments and then by the rise of the electric guitar industry, had instead remained where it was in the early Twentieth Century – at the core of nascent jazz? What if the violin had drawn in its close cousins the viola, the cello, and the upright bass? Instead of special cases (Grappelli and Django’s Gypsy Jazz) or alternative innovations (Jean Luc Ponty’s 1970s electric fusion) what if jazz writing had developed from the beginning specifically for strings? My Knights of Jazz String Band arrangements and the Classic Jazz for Strings courses are my attempt to answer these questions with music, guiding string players as they step into the world of classic jazz.

Early jazz styles such as ragtime, blues, early popular songs, spirituals, and klezmer were all taught and learned “melody first.” Following suit, in the Classic Jazz for Strings courses students first listen and then learn time-tested, beloved melodies.  They then launch into improvisation with confidence by embellishing these familiar melodies with their own creative touches.

Level 1: Warming Up:  Learn note reading and rhythm reading skills and basic technique prerequisite to playing the melody, bassline, and harmony parts to The Saints.