Hi,

I'm taking grade 5 jazz clarinet this session, and I'm confused about how much embellishment is required on the return of the head. The CD, which states that it "follows the exam routine exactly" has virtually no embellishment at all, maybe just a little bit of altered rhythm. I think I should be doing more than that. I did quite a bit for the grade 3 exam but the examiner made no comment on it either positive or negative.
Has anyone out there done grade 5 jazz, and what did you do? what comments did you get?

I'm no jazz expert by a looooooooong way, but my understanding is that the "routine" is merely which bits of the tune they expect you to play and in what order - ie you can't randomly repeat the A section or miss out C - rather than the routine on the recording being a rigid guide to how to play.

edit: I haven't written this very well so hope it makes sense...

no, haven't done Grade 5, but I'm working for Grade 3 jazz piano, and I've also noticed that there is very little embelishment in the repeat of the head on the CD. I am doing more than that, but clearly it's ok just to do the amount there is on the recording. I would have thought they'd require more for Grade 5 than for the earlier grades, so if you can go a bit further than what you can hear on the CD then so much the better. As well as varying the rhythm, why not put some twiddly bits in too? Note my ready command of all the jazz technical terms...

I'm not doing any jazz exams, so can't comment on how much embellishment is needed for various grades etc, but some advice I've been given on embellishing a head is to listen to jazz singers and the way they move rhythms around, add ornamentation and "twiddly bits". If the tune your playing has words it's a good idea to phrase it with the words as well.

I think the CD's are deliberately left very bland- almost with no embellishment, (maybe to stop people pinching ideas!) I have done grade 5 and it is expected that you can play around with the rhythm and melody quite a bit. I would be wary of overdoing it though, as IMO it is better to stick loosely to the given tune and add in twiddles etc. or play around with the rhythm rather that competely doing something new. Obviously some tunes suggest more than others, in my third piece I remeber I did very little with the tune, and made minor rhythmic changes, but the effect (I thought) was good. The only comment I received was "the outhead had some nice t****** (word I cant read) and variations here" I may never know what he meant!!! Hope this helps.

Obviously t****** is twiddles!

I find it is quite helpful to pick a tune you know the words too - I generally have the words going through my head (can't help it!) if I know them


Is that a technical term?

Hadn't thought about them keeping the return of the head deliberately simple so as to demonstrate that you don't need to go mad and to make you think stuff up on your own, but that does seem to make sense.

Thanks T Sax. Makes you wonder doesn't it !!! Maybe twiddles is actually a technichal Jazz term!!

Thanks for all your comments.
Have found out yesterday that exam is on June 14th so better get down to some work!
Will let you know how it went

Good luck to you - let us know how you get on.