Summer is the time to play some cool Jazz! Our new online project is a tune by Jazz saxophone player and composer Oliver Nelson, called “Stolen moments” from his album “The blues and the abstract truth”, featuring a cohort of Jazz legends. Please read carefully about the structure of the tune as it has a Coda and an optional solo section!
PS: The “Over the rainbow” Easter project is archived in this link.
How does it work?
1. Listen to the Master Midi Mix (MMM) below to familiarize yourself with the arrangement.
IMPORTANT – please read: The mix above is a guide of how the tune should sound, using MIDI instruments. You will hear the intro (4 bars), followed by the head (Jazz word for main melody). After that, there are 3 solo sections – here played by alto sax. Each of the solo is 12 bars long and goes up in difficulty from easy to medium to hard.
Pick one you think you can play from the section at the bottom of this page and record it separately to your other part or just substitute the 12 bars of the regular part for the solo part.
2. Download your part by clicking on the link that matches your instrument and abilities. I will update the number of instruments and provide easy parts in due course. You will see written solo 1, 2 and 3 above your notes. This is to indicate where the solo sections are, not the actual solo notes.
Flutes, violins, clarinet and trumpets have multiple parts – choose one or play them all even!
Keyboard players can join too by selecting a sound (and hand position) to match. There is also a PIANO part suitable to grades 4+ with a lot of chords.
3. Practice your part with the backing audio files – two slower speeds and one at the regular speed (SOON to be published…)
Do NOT worry about getting it absolutely right. This is to keep us occupied and still have some of the fun that the course usually provides.
Ask your instrument teacher for help and/or fingerings if need be.
Please get in touch if you need the score to be amended (wrong octave, too hard, need a clef change etc…).
4. Record yourself: The best way is to listen to backing audio file with a set of headphones and to record yourself on a phone or laptop. The backing has ONE BAR of click whereas the MMM starts straight away.
Please remember to tune your instrument before recording….that will save me a lot of tweaking!
5. Save your recording as a .WAV or .MP3 file and email it to me at this address:
richmondmusicacademyuk@gmail.com
6. My little elves will collect all the recordings and sync them together before mixing the lot down to one big orchestral take!
Individual parts
According to your instrument, right-click on the links to download your part as a .PDF and a Midi demo (various speeds available – Regular, 15% slower and 25% slower).
Please get in touch if you need the score to be amended (wrong octave, too easy, too hard, need a clef change etc…) or if you play an instrument that is not listed.
If you are a piano or keyboard player, try to set the sound corresponding to the part you’re downloading or adjust your hand position to a higher/lower octave.
Violin 1 / Flute 1 / Keys 1
Regular speed
15% slower
25% slower
Violin 2 / Flute 2/ Keys 2
Regular speed
15% slower
25% slower
Easier violins & Keys
Pick one or pick them all!
Regular speed
Viola
Please use the Flute 2 backings
Bb Clarinets / Trumpets
Pick one or pick them all!
Regular speed
15% slower
25% slower
Alto Sax/French Horn in F / Trombone
Regular speed
15% slower
25% slower
Bass Clarinet / Tenor Sax
The score below is valid for BOTH Tenor Saxophone and Bass Clarinet. For the audio, please listen to the Cello parts.
Stolen moments -Bass Clar TSax
Cello / Bassoon
Regular speed
15% slower
25% slower
The score below is valid for BOTH Cello and Bassoon:
Double bass / Keys 4
For the audio, please listen to the Cello parts.
Piano
This part is better suited to intermediate/advanced grades (no LH but plenty of RH chords)
Regular speed
Solos (easy/medium/hard)
Can’t have Jazz music without solos. Usually, during the course, we have some of our young musicians to take the plunge and play an actual solo, made of Im-Pro-Vised notes! For now, we’ll stick to written solos. However, should you feel like you can write/improvise your own solo, please go ahead.
There are 3 solos back to back, each 12 bars long, going from easy to hard. Pick one you think you can learn and record it separately.
Here’s what it should should sound like with a click:
Below are the parts of the 3 solos for various instruments:
Stolen moments SOLO – Bb Clar Trumpet Tsax
Stolen moments SOLO – Cello Dbass Tbone Bassoon
Stolen moments SOLO – violin (lower)
Stolen moments SOLO -Alto_Saxophone
Stolen moments SOLO -Flute Violin keys
Big thanks to the following open source programs to make this project possible:
Music Notation: Musescore (https://musescore.org/en)
Sound Editing: Audacity (https://www.audacityteam.org/)
Richmond Music Academy 