Thinking about tune (song) structure...

[knirirr]

This is something which occurred to me recently and which may well not be novel or clever, but I found it useful to think about. 

 

At jazz jams we try to run them so that the material played is fairly standard, as we'd like to encourage new players to get up and have a go. Nevertheless, anything could be played if someone brings a chart for the rhythm section and, if necessary, lead sheets for horns. Despite this we do get people who do some or all of:

- Don't have charts or the ones they have aren't much use (see below).

- Can't explain the form or changes to the rhythm section, sometimes saying "just listen"(*) or "just watch my left hand and work the chords out" etc. etc.

- Drop or add bars/beats as they please.

- Change tempo unexpectedly. 

It's tempting to think that they are simply bad musicians, but they sound good when playing their own material and are able to get gigs which I am sure their audiences enjoy. So, I think it must be some sort of cultural difference, specifically that I'm thinking of things bottom-up and they're thinking top-down.

For the bottom up view there's a set form and a set sequence of chord changes which the rhythm section will lay down. The singers, horn players etc. can add their stuff on top but they must follow that underlying structure. They could perhaps push or pull slightly against the beat, or substitute some chords, but the form must be respected.

For top-down the lyrics and melody are the defining part and any accompaniment then follows whatever the singer (or perhaps instrumentalist) is doing - strumming an acoustic guitar to underpin one's own signing would be a good example. The sort of charts which consist of the lyrics of a song with some simple triads and occasional dominant chord written alongside are not much use to me, as the form is not clear in them, but I think they'd make total sense if thought of from a lyrics/melody-first perspective (presumably why acoustic-guitar-strummers use them heavily). 

Does this seem at all reasonable? If I'm not barking up the wrong tree, suggestions on how it might be easier to work with the top-down people when they turn up are welcome. 

 

 

(*) Of course, at some jazz jams one might be expected to "just listen" without charts but then I'd expect the tune to be a known structure and get some clue like "It's in Bb, AABA form; A sections are 12-bar Bird blues and B sections are a rhythm changes bridge" shortly before the count-in.