In today's video we're tackling rhythmic solfege for jazz. It's a powerful tool to help you master phrasing, articulation, and feel in jazz. If you're looking to tighten up your rhythm and swing feel, or if you're just tired of sounding stiff, this is the video for you.
Stick around because I'll cover what not to do, beginner mistakes that can throw you off, and how to fix them. Hi, my name is Jason Klobnek and I'm a jazz trumpeter from Denver, Colorado that helps musicians find a better way to improvise. If you're looking for a quick jazz improv tip that will help your soloing, then you've come to the right place. You might be wondering, what is rhythmic solfege?
Let's start with the basics. You've probably heard of traditional solfege, the do, re, mi, fa, etc., where syllables are assigned to pitches. Rhythmic solfege flips that idea and focuses on adding syllables to rhythms.
Instead of just counting beats, you sing rhythmic syllables that mirror how you want the notes to sound. This method helps with more than just keeping time. It shapes the way you articulate and phrase your lines, making your playing more natural and expressive. It's something I learned from one of my first teachers all the way back in middle school, Craig Swartz. So if you're watching, Mr. Swartz, it's been a game changer for me, for my students, and will be incredibly helpful for other educators working with ensembles.
So why use solfege for rhythm? Especially in jazz, it isn't just about playing the right notes, it's about how you play them. The swing, the syncopation, the dynamics, the feel, it's all a way of getting the right feel out of the notes. Assigning syllables makes it easier to internalize these elements.
It's also a lifesaver for beginners struggling to grasp swing phrasing. Instead of overthinking, they can sing the rhythm and immediately feel it. Trust me, it works.
Let's break down this system. The biggest key is using long vowel shapes in the appropriate places. This, in my opinion, will help the most with beginners who try and make it swing, which causes all sorts of issues. Let's start with long notes.
Anything longer than a half note, so whole notes, half notes, dotted half notes, so on and so forth, we will use either... Do or da? Which one will depend on the context of the line?
But honestly, either will work. Again, part of the key is the long vowel at the end. The D sounds smooth. So the articulation for that D sound works in most circumstances.
If you need a harder attack, you can use a T sound at the front. But make sure to keep the vowel on the back end long. For course. quarter notes, you will use do, da, or dot. Which vowel will depend on which beat?
Use the ooh sound for downbeats and the ah sound for offbeats. The beauty behind this is the back and forth exchange of the ooh, ah, ooh, ah syllable. If you ask a beginner or someone who tries to make a rhythm swing, they inevitably make offbeats into the syllable dit.
do-dit-do-dit, which chops off the vowel and instantly adds that hokey and forced swing sound we often hear with newbies. The last quarter note syllable is dot, with a T on the end. You can use that for ends of phrases, offbeat quarter notes, marcato accents, or any other place it makes sense to use.
Now, will you ever use dit? If the music needs a really short staccato type quarter note, sure. There's some Mingus tunes where I think that syllable would be appropriate. But I believe for the most part you will want to use dot and then change the length of the vowel.
So shorter vowel sounds for more staccato and longer vowels for other uses. Okay, for eighth notes, we will keep the same principle I just outlined for quarter notes. The downbeats will get the do syllable, while the upbeats, or the ands of the beats, get the da syllable.
And again, ends of phrases get dot. This gives us a nice pattern of do-da-do-da-do-da-do-da. Notice how the swing appears in the exchange of the vowel sound. Then for ends of phrases, we can add the dot syllable. Do-da-do-dot.
If the eighth note is surrounded by rests or is the pickup to a phrase, you can use either da or dot as it will depend on context of the line. Use your best judgment and ultimately let the sound and feel be your guide. Alright, 16th notes.
This is where I think using Clark Terry and others'doodle tonguing technique works wonderfully. The shorter the space between the notes, the less vowel sounds we can fit in, which works great for faster phrases. So 16ths will sound like do-da-oo-dle, Then, for ends of phrases, we switch over to dot. And finally, triplets.
This is where I break from the vowels for singing. By all means, when you play it on your instrument, you want to keep a similar feel, though. I like using the syllables tri-ple-lit. It's universal for all types of triplet groupings and spaces notes out evenly, so you are less likely to rush one of the notes in the phrase.
Oh. Um, actually, no, I lied. That wasn't it. In jazz, we also have other types of articulations that are added for musical effect that benefit from different types of vowels.
Specifically, I'm thinking of things like falls. For those, I would use dowel as adding the W sound, at least in the English language, has a natural falling off effect when preceded by the O vowel. Dowel.
So if the music looked like this, I would sing it do-da-do-dow. That's it. It's incredibly simple. This system doesn't have a ton of rules, and it's something you can do individually or with an ensemble context to make sure everyone is phrasing things together.
Now, let's talk about three things of what not to do. Number one, overthinking. Beginners often try to analyze every detail of trying to feel it.
Don't get stuck in your head. Figure out the syllables, the ones that work, sing them, and let the rhythm flow. Number two, stiff articulation. Avoid making every note sound the same.
Swing is about the contrast between the vowels oohs versus ahs. Use dot to emphasize phrase endings and keep things dynamic. And remember, get rid of the d***. dit.
And number three, rushing through practice. This is a big one. Take your time to master each rhythm before speeding up. Solfege is about quality, not just speed.
If you catch yourself doing any of these, slow down, reset, and focus on the feel. It's not about being perfect, it's about the progress of the journey that you're on. Before we go, Let's take a look at two different phrases and show you how I would apply the rhythmic solfege concept to it. Here's the first one. It's a pretty simple two measure phrase filled with eighth notes.
So remember we want do for downbeats, da for upbeats, and dot for ends of phrases. So we would sing this phrase like this. Do da do da da da do da do da See how nicely that swings with the exchange of vowels?
Also notice I wasn't trying to sing the pitches, just the rhythm. If I wanted to take it another step further, I could add ear training to this and make the pitches match the syllables. Not going to do that today because I don't think anybody is here because they want to hear me sing. But how close did the syllables sound to the way I would actually play it?
Let's take a listen. Okay, the second example has a few more offbeats in this three measure phrase. Let's take a look. I can already tell I'll be using quite a few dots on this one. Here's how I would sing this one.
Dot, do dot, dot, da dot, do da do da do dot, do da do dot. Again, see how nicely that swings with the exchange of vowels. Let's listen again to how closely that sounded to the way I would actually play it. If you would like to check out more of this type of content, please check out my members area and see how you can apply this concept to how I teach and improvise myself.
The link for that is in the description below. If you would like something more on the free side of things, The examples played were from a free etude and play along that you can also get down in the description area. I hope you've enjoyed this video and that it has added value or benefit to your playing in some way.
Be sure to hit that subscribe button and that bell that's right next to it that lets you know when another video comes out. If you know of any other musician that might find some value or benefit to this, feel free to share it with them as well. Until then, my name is Jason Klobnik, and I'll see you on the next one.