Being Successful with the Traditional Approach to Jazz Improvisation

Now for the truth of the matter.  How do you become successful using the traditional approach?  You hear it all the time transcribe, copy, and play with the records.  Learn the jazz language by ear.  Imitate, emulate and innovate.  These are common things told to young improvisers, yet they never address some of the greatest challenges that young improvisers face as they strive to learn jazz improvisation through the traditional approach.  It is my hope to give some suggestions that will help an enthusiastic player overcome some of the common hurdles a players faces as they strive to learn jazz improvisation the traditional way.

The first challenge that many would be improvisers face is that of skill level. Lets be honest most beginning improvisers don't have the chops nor the ears to transcribe the greats.  So what does the player do?  It's simple they develop the necessary skills so they can transcribe the greats.

This involves a few things, first is developing the ear through practice of simple melodies and tunes such as twinkle, twinkle little star, or happy birthday. Something your are already familiar with.  The main thing being figuring it out by ear. A lot of players are embarrassed to do this.  They think it is childish, but this can greatly help develop your ear and allows you to start making the connection between the mind and the fingers.  Also these songs are usually already a part of you.  You know the melody by heart because as a little kid you sang them all the time.  This is really important.  To learn something by ear you must first internalize it.  If you can't hear it in your head when your not listening to the recording then it becomes extremely difficult to transcribe it.

Once you have simple melodies down and you can play them with any starting note then you can move on to learning heads to jazz standards by ear.  Yes, the above statement means that you need to learn the simple melodies in multiple keys. With the standards make sure that you choose tunes that are at you level.  Start simple then get to the more challenging stuff.  The great thing about the standards are you will start learning the phrasing and articulation that an improviser uses, but at a much slower tempo then their solos.

After you have gotten a few tunes under your belt your ear should be ready to start on actual solos.  Like before start with something you can accomplish.  Miles Davis's "So What" solo on his Kind of Blue record is a good example.  It is simple yet inspirational at the same time.  In no time you will be able to transcribe your favorite players.

As for getting the needed chops that comes with practice of scales, patterns, and working through technical studies.  You can also use the technical approach of jazz improvisation as a foundation builder.  it will give you the needed technique so that when your ear is ready to transcribe someone like John Coltrane  your fingers will be ready too.

I would like to say more, but this post is getting long so I will save my other suggestions till next time.  Until then.

Caruso

Jazz Improvisation: The Traditional Approach

It's another day and we're ready to play, or so they say.  Ok, so what is this all about.  Today I'm going to introduce you to the traditional approach of learning to improvise jazz, and the traditional approach of jazz improvisation is all about playing and listening.  So lets get started.

We have all been there.  We find ourselves asking how can we really learn to improvise.  You have questions and you want answers.  So what do you do you search the web.  You read books.  You might even get the guts to ask the best improviser in your area how they do their stuff.  In the end you find that there seems to be many ways to learn to improvise, but if you look closely you will realize that they all have one thing in common.  Listen to as much jazz as possible.  Those who follow the traditional approach of jazz improvisation take this to heart.  In fact the traditional approach to jazz improvisation is solely based on listening.  Other approaches might focus on theory, scales, or developing technique, but with the traditional approach the answer is found in the music.

What do I mean.  The traditional approach to jazz improvisation is all about learning music aurally, meaning learning to improvise by ear.  They do this by listening to recordings of the great improvisers and transcribing them.  As part of the process a traditionalist doesn't just try to get the notes, but they also try to match the sound, articulation, and phrasing.  Over time a traditional improviser gets to the point where they can play almost anything they hear instantly.  This becomes a great benefit for them, because it allows them to play the ideas that go through their head fairly effortlessly.  There is also the other benefit that they are learning to speak the jazz language the way it is supposed to be spoken. 

One thing to keep in mind with the traditional approach is that it requires a lot of playing and listening.  Not only do traditionalists play with the recordings of the jazz greats they also take every opportunity presented to them to play, and they do it all by ear.  They learn tunes by ear.  They learn chord changes by ear, and they learn how to groove and swing by ear.  The traditional approach is very much a non scholarly more intuitive approach to jazz improvisation.  It becomes more about the sound, color, and feeling you can create.  Then the actual theory involved.  For a traditional improviser the winning formula is listen to jazz as much as possible.  Copy the greats, and then to experiment and play when ever you get a chance.

Well that about sums it up.  The traditional approach is all about the ear.  How well can you hear, and how well can you express yourself through the medium of music.  Until next time.

Caruso

The Technical Approach: Pitfalls to Avoid

So last time I introduced you to the Technical Approach of Jazz Improvisation.  Today I want to warn you of some pitfalls that you will want to avoid.

The first thing to avoid is the idea that if you can play fast and complicated this makes you a good player.  This is something many novice improvisers fall into.  They think that because they are cooking they are the next John Coltrane or something.  I saw this on YouTube once.  The title said something like " Better that Coltrane."  It was just a kid trying to play fast and impressively, but instead of impressing me I just wanted to laugh.  The kid couldn't keep time, his articulation was all over the place and there was nothing musical about it.  It was just a blab of notes that weren't going anywhere.  It was nothing compared to John Coltrane.  The moral of the story being that playing fast isn't enough.  You also have to know how to play musically in time with clean clear phrases.

The second thing that technical players fall into is sounding too cold and mechanical.  If you don't make an effort while your practicing to make the technical things your working on sound smooth and natural you will hear this criticism a lot.  No one wants to listen to someone that sounds like a robot.  They want to get an emotional reaction from it.  They want to feel something.  As a musician you should be striving to express yourself and striving to move the audience in some way.  This means that for technical players they have to spend time figuring out how to make their lines and licks sound more authentic and alive.

Something that can help a technical player sound less cold and mechanical is to aurally hear the licks they are working on and see what inflections the masters use.  See how they execute a lick.  Try to understand how the player brings the music to life. Actually, this process is something that is important for all improvisers no matter the approach they take.  To learn jazz you have to listen to it.  I said it before, but to become a magnificent musician you need to listen to tons of music.

The last pitfall that comes to mind is the golden solo idea.  What I mean by this is some players especially those seeped in the technical approach of jazz improvisation start thinking that if they put this lick with that lick and then connect the next phrase with this pattern followed by a simple melody derived form this or that scale they will have a perfect solo.  To make a good improvised solo you can't just string lick after lick together with some scales and patterns thrown in between.  If you do this musically it just doesn't work.  Well most of the time it doesn't work.  Some players can make it work, but  more often then not it doesn't.

The technical approach to jazz improvisation gives you the tools and skills you need to be a good improviser, but it is up to you to use your own creativity to make a good solo.  Don't sound like someone else, and don't just regurgitate licks.  Make your own thing.  Truly express yourself and great things will happen.

Enough with the negative.  You now know the pitfalls to avoid.  So what can learning the technical approach of jazz improvisation do for you?  Its simple first and for most it gives you great technique.  This is beneficial because as you develop and improve you will find that the ideas that you think about will start to flow naturally.  Players that don't have a strong technical base sometimes struggle. They may have a great idea that occurs in their head, but they can't execute it do to a lack of technique.  Having phenomenal technique frees you.  Its simple by spending time on technical matters you create a link between your fingers and your brain so when you think something it is more likely to happen.  Well that's all for now.  The best of luck practicing

Caruso