How does jazz teaching at Folkwang work in times of Corona? Jazz students Joe Schmitz and Marc Hewitt and their fellow students have found a creative answer: the musical chain letter. They talked to Folkwang StudiScout Mihajlo about how it works and sounds and what they can take away from it for the future.
Joe: There were seven of us in Frank Sichmann's (lecturer and combo leader) funk and fusion combo this semester: drums, bass, guitar, two keyboards, trumpet and saxophone. We are all students on the Jazz | Performing Artist course. All but one of us are in their 2nd semester Bachelor's degree.
Marc: At the beginning, we discussed in a video call which pieces we wanted to record and how we wanted to record them. After our discussion, Frank, for example, recorded the basis of the piece with the bass. This was followed by the other rhythm section instruments: guitar, drums and keys. Once all the instruments, including the two horns, were recorded, Frank mixed all the tracks together in a music program and completed the final project.
Joe: In this kind of collaboration, small mistakes are usually much more devastating than in a live situation. If the drummer plays slightly off the beat, so does the bassist who records afterwards. If the drummer later decides to re-record his part and play slightly differently in these places, nothing fits together anymore because everyone who recorded after him was based on his first recording. So you could say that there is hardly any flexibility, because the process of recording one after the other means that everything is immediately set in stone. We didn't realize at the beginning how important it was that the recordings had to be perfect in order to produce a coherent song.
Marc: Of course, it happens from time to time that something goes wrong with the technology or that the software just doesn't want to play along. But sometimes it can also happen that you move an audio recording a few bars too far forward or back. The biggest musical challenge was probably accepting that our versions can't be at the same level as the recordings of the songs we like to listen to in our free time. Frank kept reminding us that we shouldn't compare our little corona project with the recordings of our jazz and funk heroes. However, when you listen critically to your own tracks, you quickly forget this - sometimes there's a little squeak here and a touch too early there... We are all just starting out and still have a long way to go.
Joe: This way of working gave us the opportunity to play with the tracks after recording and to cut instruments in and out creatively. When making music in person, you're often more concerned with your own playing. Thanks to the chain letter, I now know that I should pay attention to who is playing and think about whether I need to play anything at all.
Marc: Definitely! Not only did you gain experience with self-recording and software, but it was also a good opportunity to reflect: At what point in my musical development am I, which phrases do I master well, where am I possibly too high, too low, or just too weird etc.? All these questions can be answered much better if you listen to your own playing afterwards and really focus on listening than if you just concentrate on playing in band rehearsal.
Marc: Even though we've done a lot of things in this extremely strange creative semester that we would never do in a face-to-face semester: We would all be very happy if we could "gamble" together again soon.
Joe: If there are still no ensemble lessons, chain letters are still probably the best choice. But: Music is most beautiful when you share it with others. Even though it was interesting to try out an alternative approach for a while and we learned a lot in the process, nothing beats the experience of making music together in the same moment.
And this is what the musical chain letter sounds like:
A contribution as part of the project "<link home/hochschule/aktuell/folkwang-studiscouts/>Folkwang StudiScouts".