Following the announcement in the flute thread that the syllabus and info is on the way, I thought I'd have a look and see if there was anything new for any other instruments. I found there was a section titled "Jazz Horns". What? I don't remember the AB doing Jazz French Horn! Is that likely? (Please, please, please!)

On investigating, Jazz Horns is merely a name for saxophones, clarinets, trumpets and trombones. I know it's been used to refer to saxophones in jazz but while it annoys me (and a fair few other Horn players) for entirely pedantic reasons, it's also quite misleading.

Considering that jazz is always seen as a bit of a free agent, a not-always-so-exam-ish type of music, you could imagine that most candidates would be drawn to the jazz exams via ABRSM's reputation as a more traditional music exam board (I don't mean "more traditional" in a negative way at all, I just can't think of a good way to describe their usual exams). So it's quite misleading to have a "Horn" syllabus and then a "Jazz Horns" syllabus when they're for entirely different instruments. As it doesn't appear to be on any of the printed exam material, would it be possible to change it so it was less misleading? (If anyone on here has suggestions for a better name it'd be good to hear them, or it might be possible to just split into woodwind and brass now the flute syllabus is on the way - I don't think you can call a flute a horn!) It does seem a bit strange to have a Jazz Horns syllabus without any actual Horns on.

That said, I do have a couple of questions about Horns and jazz.

1) Would you be able to enter a Horn as part of the jazz ensemble exam, or must the instruments be entirely ones that have solo jazz exams?
2) How impractical for the board would it be to offer a jazz Horn syllabus? I understand that it might not have so much uptake as other instruments, but would writing the syllabus (even if the material wasn't published by the board) be so expensive that the board would make a loss? I'm interested (and I hope that if others are they'll say so as well) but I understand that it isn't always possible.

Thanks to anyone who can answer this or has any input on it

I used to get confused about the term "horn" being used in jazz for just about anything you blow down (incl flutes) but have got so used to it now it doesn't seem weird. In fact you don't even have to blow down an instrument for it to be termed a horn in jazz parlance - often the band is split into rhythm section (piano, guitar, drums/percussion and bass) and horns, so any non-conventional front-line instruments e.g violin would end up with the horns.

Personally I don't have a problem with using the term horn to mean something different in the jazz and classical syllabi - there are plenty of other areas where the same term means something a bit different e.g. dominant 7th and diminished 7th scales.

If you're interested in jazz and the French Horn check-out www.jimrattigan.com and the fabulous jazz pianist Gwilym Simcock also plays French Horn. Remember you don't need to wait for an exam syllabus before learning to play jazz.

Yeah, I've heard Jim Rattigan and he's not half bad I do quite a lot of jazz already, so it's not a case of wanting a syllabus first to learn it - I've done a week-long course each summer for the last few years and I got to solo on our tour concerts in Barcelona this year which was a great experience. I've also recently become hooked on a series of jazzy unaccompanied pieces from a book called Just Desserts (by Lowell E Shaw) - I'm doing one of them for my Grade 8 exam and all I can say is that I'm neglecting my exam pieces a little bit in favour of some of the numbers in the book!

The reason I think a syllabus would be good is the encouragement it might give people to do jazz - I know some people are a bit worried about doing it on an unconventional instrument and it might raise the profile (I'd also encourage jazz bassoon and jazz harp if I could, but those would sadly have lower numbers of candidates still). The pointers for repertoire (there's not a lot but I'm sure there are far more arrangements and pieces that are undiscovered) and chance to improvise live more would be good as well - I get a week or two's chance every year and I'm sure some people who do it get less still.

I realise that "horns" is a jazz term, and although it annoys me a little bit personally (and quite a few Horn players seem to get pretty uptight about it) I can live with it in a completely jazz-related setting where you're using jazz slang and there's no confusion around. But on a website where it's a bit mixed in with classical stuff it's a bit confusing. If you were at a wind band rehearsal and you said something about the "horns" you'd be misunderstood, and I think most people on the site will be approaching from a classical standpoint.

Thanks for the reply, though

I think it would be good to have some sort of assessment for "instruments not already covered on the syllabus" - something halfway between an exam and a performance assessment, at say beginner, intermediate and advanced levels or something. Apart from giving other instrumental players the chance to have a jazz assessment, it would give the AB an indication of who was learning jazz and where they could go next with a jazz syllabus.

I don't know how easy it would be to set up but does anyone else think that would be fun? & raise the profile of jazz for instruments not yet examined/give people an idea of where to start, and give jazz specialist teachers a chance to have assessments for their pupils.

I know one doesn't need a syllabus to do jazz (the instruments I have had the most chance to do jazz on have been violin and viola!) but to have other instruments recognised within that framework would be great.

I like that as an idea, sarah-flute - I'd definitely settle for that. Maybe it wouldn't be as great for repertoire pointers (though I suppose even giving the names of a few books at each level would be easier to do than meticulously checking pieces for a syllabus), but as a challenge it'd be good and it'd certainly raise the profile of non-syllabus instruments. It'd also probably have enough candidates to be viable if you group everything not on the syllabus

Yes, that could work quite well.

It would be fun - I'd love to have the challenge of a jazz violin or viola assessment.