![]() The takeaway from this is sometimes it’s better to just use standard notation over and over if the player is sight-reading. A sea of these repeat marks evens out the geography of the chart and when you’re looking at the first two bars over and over and then go back to try and find your place, the whole chart looks the same. My eyes are therefore darting to what’s coming next while also reading the first two bars over and over (in extreme examples). I’m sight-reading: I haven’t memorised the groove I just played it 2 seconds ago so I often have to refer back to it. Sure, it saves space and printer ink but one of my pet peeves as a bassist is when someone writes a groove out for 2 bars and tells me to repeat it 15 times or something. Unless you’ve written a groove that the player has gone away, practised and learnt, sight-reading using these symbols is annoying. I have issues with this notation, when dealing with complex repeated riffs. Although when read at a glance, the player might not notice and play as normal, this still looks very confusing: One thing you shouldn’t do is use more slashes than there are beats in the bar. In a fast swing chart, if a bass player gets slashes they’ll automatically walk - you don’t need to write it. Be careful of using redundant markings though. over slashes and the players will know what to do based on context. You can use other instructions like ‘fill’, ‘light comping’, ‘solo’ etc. Playing time means playing a beat/groove that fits the style and context. Usually this section is repeated and two or more musicians will take a solo, usually decided in advance. This means that there’s an option to take an improvised solo. Slash notation with chord symbols in a horn part. Exactly what the musicians will play varies per instrument and style, but they’ll improvise and ‘comp’ (accompany) as a section under the horns. Without the word ‘solo’, this means an accompaniment part. Slash notation with chord symbols in a rhythm part. ![]() Just to remind you, there are three situations where we’d encounter slash notation: Slash notation allows the player to freely improvise their part, whether that be a solo or (more usually) an accompanying figure. I’ve gone over general points about good and bad parts in this article here, but let’s focus specifically on the rhythm section. Before we look at each instrument in detail, let’s look at some common devices of all good rhythm parts. For ranges and more general info, check out this article first. The piano, bass and drums are all vital components of the big band sound. Percussion, if it is added, are usually congas or vibraphone, but can potentially include the whole selection traditionally available. It’s not uncommon for the guitar to be omitted and/or for percussion to be added to this lineup. Just as a brief reminder, a typical big band rhythm section consists of: I haven’t gone into much detail about how to write for the section because they deserved an entire article of their own. So far the rhythm section has been only alluded to and not spoken about directly.
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