Tag Archives: Tom Patterson

Tom Patterson of Round Rock Tells the Story of Jazz in Modern Music

Tom Patterson of Round Rock’s Deerpark Middle School continues an examination into the modern manifestations of early jazz music. There are many modern musicians, says Tom Patterson of Round Rock, who are masters of combining new elements with traditional jazz. Tom Patterson of Red Rock district points out that Rhythm and Blues is a premier example of a new style forged from classic jazz. This genre, adds Round Rock’s Tom Patterson, features such artists as Jerry Lee Lewis, Michael Jackson, Prince, and Jodeci.

Tom Patterson explains to middle school band students in the Round Rock district that the beat and style innovations of R&B in turn reincarnated jazz into soul and funk music. Round Rock’s Tom Patterson tells them how the soulful tunes of Aaron Neville and Barry White also owe a debt to jazz. In the same way, continues Tom Patterson of Round Rock, George Clinton and Funkadelic tip their hats to the pioneers like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. Tom Patterson urges Round Rock readers to consider how Rock and Roll could not exist without jazz. When Chuck Berry took up his guitar and rocked, he performed jazz and blues, but with a lot more electricity.

Round Rock’s Tom Patterson explains further that jazz spins like a great wheel of musical generation. Every turn of the wheel, notes Tom Patterson of Round Rock, produces a new expression of jazz. According to Tom Patterson of Round Rock, each new jazz style is unique, yet true to its roots. The Deerpark students in Round Rock have learned from Tom Patterson that this is why bebop, boogie-woogie, doo wap, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and even electronica belong to the jazz music family.

Some proponents of traditional jazz disagree with Tom Patterson of Round Rock school district. They are concerned that the essence of jazz music is diluted and lost through so many periodic innovations. Round Rock’s Tom Patterson assures these skeptics that jazz is being true to its essence by turning over new forms and styles. Tom Patterson of Round Rock reminds them that jazz itself was an interpretive rebellion against the big band and swing sounds. Jazz music is part and parcel of the musical spirit of innovation.

Tom Patterson Deerpark – A Blues Guitar Primer by Tom Patterson, Band Director

The blues guitar is one of Deerpark Band Director Tom Patterson’s favorite instruments. Working as Deerpark Middle School’s band director provides Tom Patterson with the opportunity to orchestrate a wide variety of instruments. Director Tom Patterson says that working with a middle school band is a great and satisfying role, but he jokes that it could use more blues guitar. Since middle school band ensembles do not typically use blues guitar, band director Tom Patterson pursues the study as a hobby. Here, Tom Patterson delves into some of the particulars of just where the blues guitar has come from.

Blues guitar, as explained by band director Tom Patterson, is played in any suitable key. The three basic forms of blues guitar, according to Tom Patterson, are based on bars. A bar, said the Round Rock band director, is a unit of musical time similar to a measure. According to band director Tom Patterson, blues songs are structured as eight, twelve, or sixteen-bar blues. A classic example of an eight-bar blues tune is “Heartbreak Hotel,” pointed out Tom Patterson, and the band director also noted that “St. Louis Blues” is a very popular and recognizable version of twelve-bar blues. Sixteen-bar blues, said Tom Patterson, is a bit more rare and complex, but is exemplified by songs like “Saint James Infirmary.”

Band director Tom Patterson particularly enjoys the beauty of the eight, twelve, and sixteen-bar blues forms. The blues are built out of a simple and accessible structure, explains the Deerpark band director, so that once learned they are easily maintained and improvised upon. Once a group of musicians familiarizes themselves with the blues bar count, they can play with any other blues performers, adds Tom Patterson. The Deerpark band director says that breaking blues into basic forms, like eight, twelve, and sixteen-bars helps to create a versatile and universal musical language that performers from any culture can use to collaborate.

In the end, according to band director Tom Patterson, twelve bar blues is the most popular of the three basic blues styles. Tom Patterson says that twelve bar blues are well suited to vocals. Not to mention, adds band director Tom Patterson, that they are very catchy and popular with listening audiences. Furthermore, concludes the Round Rock band director, twelve bar blues is the format appropriated by many great tunes beyond the original blues style.