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Jazz / Commercial Discuss Clifford Brown's Trumpet Method "The Classes" in the General forums; Hello
People! I was wondering if ANY of you are familiar with or have a copy of the Jazz Method ...

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07-11-2009, 06:44 PM #1

Nearpsited3
Clifford Brown's Trumpet Method "The Classes"
New Friend
Hello People! I was wondering if ANY of you are familiar
Join Date: Apr 2009 with or have a copy of the Jazz Method of Robert "Boysie"
Posts: 27 Lowery (Clifford Brown's first teacher) ?
I actually was able to get a couple pages copied from a
friend, but the book got ruined/stolen and I only have the
few pages i copied. These exercises and patterns in the
book are really helpful and you could by Clifford's
Improvisation that this method was his foundation. I have
tried googling it, and it yielded no results. Only a
description of How he taught him how to hear and
maneuver through changes through those exercises. The
guy who copied the book for me acted as though it was
some super top secret stuff and i had to actually pay him
for the few pages i had. lol. I dont know who published it,
or if it was something thats just passed down, but im
really trying to find it. If you got any insight please
respond! Thanks!!!!!

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07-12-2009, 05:49 AM #2
rowuk
Re: Clifford Brown's Trumpet Method "The Classes"
Moderator
Utimate User It sounds like a great method. None of my sources know
anything about it. This post will probably get more hits in
the jazz forum so I have moved it there.

http://www.trumpetguild.org/pdf/2002.../0206brown.pdf
Clifford Brown -- Trumpeter's Training
Jeff Helgesen's Home Page
Clifford Brown : The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz
Trumpeter

Join Date: Jun 2006

Location: Germany
Posts: 12,633

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Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

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07-12-2009, 11:12 AM #3

Chris Teixeira
Re: Clifford Brown's Trumpet Method "The Classes"
New Friend
I have a copy. A friend of mine passed on a photocopy to
Join Date: Oct 2007 me a few years ago. Robert Lowery published it himself
Location: Boston (my copy is copyright 1994, but perhaps there was an
Posts: 7 earlier edition), and sold it via mail order for $22.95. My
copy says "Book 1" on the front. I've never heard of a
book 2.

If this book were the holy grail we might hope it to be,

believe me, it would be available. Sadly, this is not the
case. Here's what I can tell you about the contents:

The book is about 100 pages long in total. The

instructional part of the text is presented as if it were
dictated from verbal explanations, and pieced together.
There are exercises and etudes mixed in with the text.

The book breaks down into two concepts: "The Classes"

and "Active Notes".

"The Classes", as far as I can tell (maybe someone else

can enlighten us more), is a chord progression to be
studied as an aid to ear training. It's a pretty unclear
concept as it is presented - he doesn't show how to apply
the concept to anything, just indicates that you need to be
able to hear the following notes in your head: (In C
major): C, A,F, D, E, G, C. These are presented as the
roots of a chord progression, C maj, A min, F maj, D min,
E min, G maj, C maj.

It looks to me like he is starting with a ii-V-I progression,

replacing the ii chord with a IV chord, and then
sandwiching the relative minors in between. He refers to
the IV-ii chords as "Second Class", the iii-V chords as
the IV-ii chords as "Second Class", the iii-V chords as
"First Class", and I-iv as "Tonic Class". What does this
have to do with anything? No idea. This is all presented on
two lines of sheet music, with no explanation other than to
learn to play the notes and hear the chords in 12 keys.

He goes on later in the book to talk about "Altered

Classes", which are diminished and augmented chord
substitutions. Again, this is two lines of music, with a
minimal explanation. I'll just copy it here so you can get a
feel for it:

"A lot of people have been taught that the key of C Major
has no sharps or no flats. And there are a lot of people
who think that. But a key can carry _anything_
chromatically _within_ that scale. So we know by now by
altering your classes, your tonic class is a sharp-1 and a
sharp-6. Therefore the chords (C# dim and A# dim)
become leading, diminished instead of major and minor.
C# diminished, which can take you chromatically to D
minor (2nd). Altering that second class (F# and D#) would
be D# diminished, which would take you to your E minor
(3rd). So we have two diminished. Then your first class
sound becomes and augmented sound, so that E becomes
an Eb+ (augmented) chord and it takes you to your
second class Perfect, taking you to that F (4th). And that
F, you alter that and it becomes an F# diminished which is
the same as the D# diminished, and that takes you to
your G (5th), which is a first class sound. And that first
class becomes a G augmented chord, and that takes you
to your A minor (6th). Then you raise your tonic class,
bringing you back to your A# diminished, the same as that
C# diminished. Then you have double diminished chords
that bring you back to the tonic class Perfect(1). We know
that these diminished chords are looking for somewhere to
go. They're looking for resolution. You can't do them in
fours because each diminished carries three different
directions so it's not round the circle with them. Actually,
what you want to learn to hear from these altered chords
is the sound of that altered chord. Now what I'm trying to
say to you is that what you hear is a C# diminished but
you hear _more_ than C# diminished. You hear each one
of those notes in that diminished chord leading you some
place. You hear C# diminished leading to D; you hear E
diminished leading to F; you hear G diminished leading to
Ab; and you hear A# diminished leading to B. _All at the
same time._ The same thing happens with your
augmented chord. You hear that augmented chord but
your knowledge is telling you that you hear _more_ than
that. So that makes you ABSOLUTE."

The other concept he talks about are "Active Notes". These

are notes a half-step away (above and below) chord tones
(Passive Notes). In playing, you have "Single Active
Notes", where you employ one chromatic leading tone to
approach a chord tone, and "Double Active Notes", where
you "encircle" the note using both chromatic approach
notes.

There you go. That's it really. The same material is

covered more clearly and in more depth in other books. On
the other hand, you can definitely hear the "Altered
 Classes" substitutions and "Active Notes" in Clifford's
playing.

Hope this helps

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07-20-2009, 05:46 PM #4

Nearpsited3
Re: Clifford Brown's Trumpet Method "The Classes"
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Thanks man, I contacted the library of congress to see if
Join Date: Apr 2009 they can photocopy it for me. I'll let you know what
Posts: 27 happens

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07-20-2009, 08:27 PM #5

talcito
Re: Clifford Brown's Trumpet Method "The Classes"
Piano User
A few years ago Donald Byrd was helping the author sell
Join Date: Feb 2004 some copies at the Jazzmobile Jazz program in NYC. If you
Posts: 393 contact Jazzmobile perhaps they could help you contact
Dr. Byrd....I am sure he would be very happy to assist you
in obtaining the book.

Last edited by talcito; 07-20-2009 at 08:50 PM.

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