How to prepare for improvisation (defined as "To do or perform (something) without prior preparation or practice")

 

 

I.      MELODY

 

Practice the melody of a tune until you have it memorized

Improvise around the melody using common embellishment devices

 

II.     HARMONY

 

A. TRIADS FOR GENERALIZATION

1.         Basic arpeggios & broken chords

            All major triads, all minor triads.

            Practice all major around the circle/all minor around the circle

            Practice in relative pairs—C/Am, F/Dm, etc.—Around the circle

2.         Apply neighbor tone patterns to triads

            Apply to two notes at a time/three notes at a time/full range

            Practice LT, UNT, groupings,

3.         Blues scale ideas

            Major & minor

 

B.  SPECIFIC

 

Begin with SMALL SECTIONS of tunes (ii7—V7 & iiø7—V7)

 

1.         Play one pitch (3rd) per chord

2.         Precede 3rds with UNT (usually the 7th of previous chord)

3.         Use outlines to connect all chords

4.         Apply specific developmental devices to outlines. Practice for all ii7—V7 & iiø7—V7 with different harmonic rhythms. Practice one key at a time. Practice all major keys around the circle. Practice all minor keys around the circle. Combine major and relative minor and practice around the circle.

5.         Ideas to embellish the lines include: NT & PT patterns, Chromatic approaches, CESH, Pitch & Rhythmic displacement, Borrowed tones, 3-5-7-9 arpeggios with or without 8va displacement, Arpeggio tones (leaps, pivot or bouncing tones), delayed or anticipated resolutions.

6.         Practice connecting chords in a progression using 3-5-7-9 arpeggios. Practice pairs of chords first, before trying the entire phrase.

7.         Apply specific lines to specific places in tunes.

 

WORK THE ENTIRE PIECE

 

1.         Decide what triads work where for generalization

2.         Find GTs lines

3.         Write out 5 pages (minimum) of outlines connecting entire form. Practice until perfect without reference to page

4.         Practice combinations of outlines

5.         write out agendas—improvise following agendas

6.         write out agendas—write out composed solos following agendas

 

 

How to prepare for improvisation (defined as "To do or perform (something) without prior preparation or practice")

 

 

I.      MELODY

 

Practice the melody of a tune until you have it memorized

Improvise around the melody using common embellishment devices

 

II.     HARMONY

 

A. TRIADS FOR GENERALIZATION

1.         Basic arpeggios & broken chords

            All major triads, all minor triads.

            Practice all major around the circle/all minor around the circle

            Practice in relative pairs—C/Am, F/Dm, etc.—Around the circle

2.         Apply neighbor tone patterns to triads

 

First line of KOKO solo:

Fragments from KOKO:

Fragments from KOKO into longer line:

            Apply to two notes at a time/three notes at a time/full range

            Practice LT, UNT, groupings,

            Triad with UNTs

            Triad with UNT                                                                   Triad with LTs

            Alternating NTs applied to broken chord pattern:

3.         Blues scale ideas

            Major & minor

            Ornithology Triad idea #1                                              Transposed to Relative minor

            Ornithology Triad idea #2                                              Transposed to Relative minor

            Ornithology Triad idea #2 applied to inversion               Transposed to Relative minor

            Ornithology Triad idea #2 applied to inversion               Transposed to Relative minor

 

B.  SPECIFIC

 

Begin with SMALL SECTIONS of tunes (ii7—V7 & iiø7—V7)

 

1.         Play one pitch (3rd) per chord

2.         Precede 3rds with UNT (usually the 7th of previous chord)

3.         Use outlines to connect all chords

4.         Apply specific developmental devices to outlines. Practice for all ii7—V7 & iiø7—V7 with different harmonic rhythms. Practice one key at a time. Practice all major keys around the circle. Practice all minor keys around the circle. Combine major and relative minor and practice around the circle.

5.         Ideas to embellish the lines include: NT & PT patterns, Chromatic approaches, CESH, Pitch & Rhythmic displacement, Borrowed tones, 3-5-7-9 arpeggios with or without 8va displacement, Arpeggio tones (leaps, pivot or bouncing tones), delayed or anticipated resolutions.

6.         Practice connecting chords in a progression using 3-5-7-9 arpeggios. Practice pairs of chords first, before trying the entire phrase.

7.         Apply specific lines to specific places in tunes.

 

 

WORK THE ENTIRE PIECE

 

1.         Decide what triads work where for generalization

2.         Find GTs lines

3.         Write out 5 pages (minimum) of outlines connecting entire form. Practice until perfect without reference to page

4.         Practice combinations of outlines

5.         write out agendas—improvise following agendas

6.         write out agendas—write out composed solos following agendas

 

SOLO with AGENDA

 

A  section of Rhythm Changes

Triad with NTs                                                                                                              Outline No. 3

            Guide tones:

A  section of Rhythm Changes

            3rds/Outline No. 1                                                                                                       Outline No. 3

            Bluesy/Triadic

B  section of Rhythm Changes

            Outline No. 2                                                                   Outline No. 3

            Sequence from above:

            Outline No. 2                                                                   Outline No. 3

A  section of Rhythm Changes

            Minor Blues Idea:

            KOKO idea follows GTs                                                      Diatonic triads

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Bert Ligon

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bligon@mozart.sc.edu

[Return to Jazz Transcriptions page]

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You have to practice improvisation, let no one kid you about it!

—Art Tatum

 

Jazz is not just. "Well, man this is what I feel like playing." It's a very structured thing that comes down from a tradition and requires a lot of thought and study

—Wynton Marsalis

 

From Men at Work, George Will

 "I see things that I have conjured in my imagination and in my memory and mind over a long period of time. Then it all just pours out." a combination of muscle memory and cultural literacy.

—Van Gogh

 

From Men at Work, George Will

"Instincts" are actually the result of an accumulation of baseball information. They are uses of information as the basis of decision making as game situations develop.

—Tony LaRussa, baseball manager

(Replace "baseball" with "music", and "game" with "improvisational performance")

 

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

—Aristotle

 

An artist has to be like a whale, swimming with his mouth open, until he finds what he needs.

—Romare Beardon

 

Creativity represents a miraculous coming together of the uninhibited energy of the child with it apparent opposite and enemy, the sense of order imposed on the disciplined adult intelligence.

—Norman Podhoretz

 

Paint what you know, not what you see. —Picasso

Play what you hear, not what you know. —Miles Davis

 

You have to know 400 notes that you can play, then pick the right four.


—Miles Davis

 

It isn't where you came from, it's where you're going that counts.


—Ella Fitzgerald

 

There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.


—Miles Davis

 

It's not the note you play that's the wrong note — it's the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.

—
Miles Davis

 

If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. 


—Yogi Berra

 

We start out playing by ear, learning everything we can, and finally ending up playing by ear again.


—Lee Konitz

 

There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. 


—Pablo Picasso

 

It's taken me all my life to learn what not to play.

—Dizzy Gillespie

 

 

Jazz involves improvising – playing what you feel, playing what you hear.

 

Jazz musicians improvise over standard harmonic progressions.

 

Jazz musicians should be able to hear standard harmonic progressions.

 

Melodies move in two ways: steps or leaps.

 

Musicians who improvise should be familiar with steps (scales) and leaps (arpeggios) on their instruments.

 

Standard harmonic progressions are made up of individual chords.

 

Jazz improvisers should be familiar with the sound of each individual chord.

 

Individual chords do not occur by themselves in standard harmonic progressions.

 

Chords in standard harmonic progressions occur in common sequences usually in or pointing to traditional key centers.

 

Jazz improvisers should be familiar with those key centers, should hear and be able to play what specifically connects these individual chords in common progressions.

 

Improvisation, as spontaneous composition is more than just playing in the right key and connecting the chords in a common progression.

 

Composition involves developing ideas. A partial list of devices that could be applied to rhythmic or pitched musical ideas would include: repetition and sequencing, fragmentation, embellishment/ornamentation, augmentation/diminution, inversion/retrograde/retrograde inversion, displacement, mode or color changes.

 

In order to compose spontaneously, an improviser must have practicied compositional devices in addition to understanding the connection of chords in common progressions.

 

An improvisation takes place over time and may have an emotional or dramatic curve.

 

Jazz improvisers should consider the elements that create the architecture of an improvisation and learn what musical devices and musical decisions affect the outcome.