Make the First Few Minutes Count: Warm-Up Tips for Jazz Band Rehearsal

We all know that warm-ups are an integral part of any student ensemble rehearsal and can set the tone for rehearsal. However, for bands that do not meet as a class and/or have limited rehearsal time, the focus can easily become learning the performance pieces at hand. Effective use of the first few minutes of rehearsal focusing on pitch, tone, balance, articulation, and groove can translate to both musical concept retention and a better understanding of jazz—regardless of the length or frequency of rehearsal time.

Over the past three decades of teaching young musicians, I have found that my jazz ensemble students are most successful when I reinforce the following four concepts:

Sustaining goal notes of chord sequences

Young musicians who have limited exposure to jazz may not be comfortable playing chords with five or six notes in the voicing. Sustaining chords in a full ensemble passage will help both the overall balance and intonation of the group.

Chromatic scales

No matter what concepts your students have shown mastery of in your band class method text, each player in your jazz ensemble needs to show mastery of reading enharmonics—even for grade one level charts. Reinforcing enharmonics by including a chromatic scale in your warm-up will aid students in reading performance charts.

Call-and-response patterns by demonstration

When students are having a difficult time mastering a rhythm and/or an articulation, consider breaking down or “chunking” the figure using a single pitch, demonstrating this figure on your instrument (or by scat singing), and have the students play it back either as an ensemble, as a section, or individually. Emphasize the aural aspect by making the ensemble look at you and listen to your demonstration rather than being focused on the printed music.

Reading varying articulations

Young students often need to be reminded that jazz music has more printed articulations than concert band literature. Reinforcing capped accents (^ = DAHT articulation) and tenuto marks (- = Do or Du articulation) are paramount in getting students to make a connection with the sound of the articulation and the printed symbol.

Having used these concepts on the fly over the years, I wrote out many exercises that utilized these concepts and scripted them with directions for teachers to use. This collection of exercises is entitled Effective Warm Ups For Developing Jazz Ensembles .

Since jazz music in the media is not as common as pop music, playing the music of the great jazz masters is incredibly important and can easily be incorporated to the beginning of rehearsal as students enter the room. Best of luck in making those first few minutes really count!

What ideas do you have for making effective use of the first few minutes of rehearsals? Let us know in the comments below!