Observing a Rock Band Rehearsing

Legend Haz It, an alternative/hip hop/jazz fusion band, consists of 7 young men. Most of them--Dan and Colin, drummer and keyboardist respectively; and all but one of the other instrumentalists are jazz studies majors at Northern Illinois University, where I teach music education. The MC/frontman, Keith, is also an undergraduate student at NIU. They have been together a few years. I believe Colin is fairly new--he's a sophomore at NIU. Dan and Keith met as Freshmen in the dorms at NIU and the idea for the band was something they cooked up together.

Dan is the "go-to" person (drummer). He's an amazing musician, I can tell that from what little exposure I've had to him. Keith, the MC/frontman, is simply a shining light of a person. On stage, he is dynamite. Off stage, he is modest, funny, energized, respectful and enormously musically apt. Colin, the keyboardist, is simply a miracle. Hears a song ONCE and starts playing and playing WELL. Of course, the Beatles and most other rock musicians started their craft at young ages. I'm sure age has a lot to do with it because in the teen years, boys, especially, are quite willing to take risks. In fact, risk-taking in all forms is a common element to teenagers and you have to be willing to take risks to play in a band with no music, no instructor, no conductor, perhaps precious little training...just an ear and a lot of nerve/guts and determination. That reckless abandon never comes back in life to most of us. We get more and more cautious and aware of our shortcomings and where we stand in the world as we age. That knowledge puts a damper on a lot of experimentation and doing things wrong until we can get it right. I would guess that rock musicians in their teens do a LOT of trial and error. I could be wrong.....

The Legend Haz It guys are FUN; sweet and outgoing and respectful. I just want to hug them ALL! I think if I ever had a son, I'd want him to be like any of those guys. They are articulate; eager to share their knowledge and they didn't seem to resent my asking questions or making little suggestions. I offered them my iPod to download a few tracks I had that they didn't know, and they were appreciative.

They certainly do not fit the "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" image of rock musicians. Keith is obviously a deeply faithful individual. His smile is so innocent, considering his urban upbringing and the things he's probably witnessed in his young life; Dan and the others are more the type that eat organic food and campaign for alternative energy than druggies or even consumers of alcohol. I was in the room with them for over 2 hours yesterday and not ONCE did I hear the F word, or anything like it. What I heard was things like: yeah, like.....that is so COOL! or "Hey homi! Do that again, man. I LIKE it!" My being there might have put the brakes on .... but given their rather serious and respectful manner generally, somehow I don't think that's entirely the situation.

What's amazing for me, a choral conductor and "acoustic" classical musician, generally, is that they don't talk among themselves about the music they're playing AT ALL. No one says "Key of G" or anything about what key they're going to play in. They just start playing and ... they all start playing in the same key. And we're talking transposing (brass) instruments here! I'm blown away. Never have I been in a music group that didn't discuss what key we're going to sing in or play in. Of course, they may have worked all this out beforehand but I know in at least TWO of the cases (they were learning covers), they played the track right then and there for the first time, while I was in the room. True, they knew the songs from prior listening; most of them were singing along with the recordings -- but they'd NEVER played it as a band before. Totally awesome. It's like "bush telegraph" or something. Or maybe someone lifted an eyebrow signaling concert "Ab"? Yikes.

For each song, they first got the groove going, keyboardist and drummer taking the lead. The bass guitar came in next. Keyboardist would sometimes say a word or to to the bass player as they started out. (Key maybe??) Brass instruments chimed in with accents and took solos later on. After a few measures, the band sort of "settled" into a pocket (got that term from my drum set instructor). Once that happened, they took off into the main chorus and went on into the improvisations and solos -- they are jazz musicians by training and experience so they know when to start and end solos -- part of the jazz craft. They played the first chorus and bridge and some solos and then stopped -- and mumbled something I couldn't hear, but the gist of it was "back to first chorus".....they would then break off playing that song and go on to a new track/song. They learned 3 new covers in the time I was there. Efficient and effective rehearsal technique. Little time wasted in information not needed. They signaled each other by looks from time to time and sometimes I'd hear the keyboardist shout over the music to the brass players sitting opposite. He's just say a word or two like "here! go!" But very little, really.

There were passages that didn't go so well. Particularly the brass players were stumbling around a bit. As soon as they'd break off playing a song, the two of them would work together on what I would call riffs -- working out problems they had during the song. No one yelled at them though or corrected them even. I think everyone knew that given a little time, they are all good enough musicians to work out the problems for themselves. Very democratic! And respectful. And running through all of the rehearsal a thread of laughter and joyfulness. They LOVE making music together. Their faces just light up when they hear the new song on the CD. Brass players started practicing fingerings right away as did the bass guitar player. Not making sounds, just listening to the CD and fingering where they think the pitches are.

Can we make use of that way of learning new music in schools??? Wouldn't kids LOVE that instead of always DRILLING pitches and rhythms??? Why not put our bands and orchestras into chamber size groups and let them figure it out on their own???? The teacher can move around among groups answering questions. But let the kids figure it out for themselves. I'm SO EXCITED by this idea!!!!!!!!! Revolutionize music education!

I didn't ask a lot of questions. I felt as though I wanted to just let them do their thing, make notes, and talk later. But Dan kept coming over to me and explaining things, without being asked. He's just wonderful and he and Colin are so delighted that a music faculty person is taking serious interest in their work. Lucky band who gets Dan for their drummer, is all I can say. Of course, maybe Legend Haz It will remain that band. I don't know what they envision for the long term. I will ask Dan how they know what key to play in. I mean, they match key on the recording too. Maybe there's a key that rock musicians like to use a lot?

Keith explained to me what an MC is, as opposed to a "rapper" only. I didn't know the terms. He is very critical of himself and says "I'm struggling to become an MC". I told him that his performance of Legend Has It (their theme song) had my heart RACING and I was ready to jump up and pump my hand up and down and the whole scene! He laughed and kind of did an "Aww shucks" little shuffle with his feet, and then danced across the room in a kind of joy. He's mesmerizing onstage.

I will talk with Keith -- he's eager to talk -- about rapping and his craft and how he works on new material and so on. I'm going to try and get an interview with Dan and Keith and maybe the others too taped and maybe I'll submit it to WTTV (PBS) or some other radio or TV station -- I'd like to get them some publicity as a way of showing my appreciation for the ways they are helping me out with this text project. They are so GOOD too; I want to help them in any way I can! More later.

P.S. Dan Pratt filled me in with some information after he read the above blog posting. He explained that as they are all jazz majors, they must take jazz music theory (from Prof. Art Davis) and Art has them listen to chord progressions and identify them -- their actual pitches and keys--by ear. They develop what amounts to perfect pitch and they can instantly hear altered chords, 9ths, 11ths, flatted 5ths and so on and so on. As jazz musicians, chords and chord progressions are their stock in trade. So that's part of their training. I doubt whether most rock musicians, at first anyway, will have had that kind of intense aural skills training.

I'm invited to sit in on their rehearsals this semester. I'll get a very good idea of how they function, learn new songs, rehearse and perfect songs they know and so on. I could not have a BETTER opportunity as far as my research is concerned. These men are right here, in my school and we are becoming friends, in spite of our age differences. Their lightheartedness and friendliness match my outgoing personality perfectly! It's just what I hoped would happen! Now if I could only work with a classic hard rock band such as Cheap Trick (right up the road in Rockford, IL) I'd have everything I could possibly want in the way of resources for this text!