Improvisation- Mega Thread and advice.

[The_Orlonater]

Well, here's my lame attempt to make a "Mega Thread" on Jazz improvisation. I think this thread will be useful to all people about Jazz Improvisation and tips and tricks to do it.

Anyway, I'd like some advice. I'm pretty young and want to start a Jazz/Fusion band. Any advice on improvisation?
I know I may seem a little vague, but I'm REALLY not good at explaining.

Some good advice would also be showing some quick example,maybe give a chord progression and some examples of what to improvise over it.

[bassmasta05]

im not really one to give advice on such a subject (im in a punk rock band lol)

but the latest issue of Bass player magazine had a pretty cool article with tips on improvising.

Basically they had you do the following:

1.Come up with a short lick(like 1 measure, w.e)
2.Play this same lick but through a chord progression

The purpose of this exercise is to see how major, minor, diminished, augmented, etc chords affect your initial lick (like how key notes like the 3rd, fifth, 6th, 7th change in for each chord) and when played through a chord progression, can help your improvisation skills.

This is more of like a beginner type of lesson, not sure if it will help, but it helped me!

[The_Orlonater]

Originally Posted by bassmasta05

im not really one to give advice on such a subject (im in a punk rock band lol)

but the latest issue of Bass player magazine had a pretty cool article with tips on improvising.

Basically they had you do the following:

1.Come up with a short lick(like 1 measure, w.e)
2.Play this same lick but through a chord progression

The purpose of this exercise is to see how major, minor, diminished, augmented, etc chords affect your initial lick (like how key notes like the 3rd, fifth, 6th, 7th change in for each chord) and when played through a chord progression, can help your improvisation skills.

This is more of like a beginner type of lesson, not sure if it will help, but it helped me!

Nah, it's all good. Thanks for the post.

[bkbirge]

I always think of it like this: music is like a spoken language, to be really fluent you need good grammar and pronunciation and a large vocabulary. Good conversation does not exist by itself, you need to have one or more people to talk with. Listening is more important than talking. Improvisation is having a spontaneous musical discussion with other players and/or the environment itself.

So... learn your theory (scales, arpeggios, chord building), practice until it is second nature and you know your fretboard inside out, play with as many other people as you can and play off of what they are playing both informally and in front of an audience, be able to sing the intervals and changes so that your ear can bypass your brain and activate your fingers directly, and learn some of the standards.

[onlyclave]

Originally Posted by bassmasta05

im not really one to give advice on such a subject (im in a punk rock band lol)

but the latest issue of Bass player magazine had a pretty cool article with tips on improvising.

Basically they had you do the following:

1.Come up with a short lick(like 1 measure, w.e)
2.Play this same lick but through a chord progression

The purpose of this exercise is to see how major, minor, diminished, augmented, etc chords affect your initial lick (like how key notes like the 3rd, fifth, 6th, 7th change in for each chord) and when played through a chord progression, can help your improvisation skills.

This is more of like a beginner type of lesson, not sure if it will help, but it helped me!

+1!
That method is sometimes called "Force Feeding". I think it's a Lee Konitz imrov practice method and I think it's one of the best ways to learn to solo over a tune. Rather than create your own licks, start out by taking one bar phrases from the head and force feeding them through the changes. E.g. Autumn Leaves first bar, G A Bb Eb which is 5 13 7 11 over a Cm7 chord and then repeat that same pattern over the rest of the changes.


I would like to submit a simpler but just as important exercise which is finding the critical tones, the 3rd and 7th of each chord because those are the chord members that give color to the chord. In a II V I progression (Dm7 G7 CMaj7 for instance) play the critical tones, F-C, B-F, E-B and look at the voice leading that happens. Next, play an 8th note leading tone into each of those critical tones. E-F, B-C, A#-B, E-F, etc. See how many different ways you can find to play through a set of changes using the 3rds, 7ths and 1/2 step leading tones from above and below. This will help you learn to stop playing the root and the 5th in your solos.

[PocketGroove82]

Originally Posted by bassmasta05

im not really one to give advice on such a subject (im in a punk rock band lol)

but the latest issue of Bass player magazine had a pretty cool article with tips on improvising.

Basically they had you do the following:

1.Come up with a short lick(like 1 measure, w.e)
2.Play this same lick but through a chord progression

The purpose of this exercise is to see how major, minor, diminished, augmented, etc chords affect your initial lick (like how key notes like the 3rd, fifth, 6th, 7th change in for each chord) and when played through a chord progression, can help your improvisation skills.

This is more of like a beginner type of lesson, not sure if it will help, but it helped me!

There is NOTHING beginner about John Goldsby's lesson in BP this month. Sit down and try it over a real tune, you will feel like a novice, because you really must have your stuff together to be able to do this on the fly. Sure it isn't spontaneous improvisation, but I bet it makes your brain ache. I love the idea of an improvisation megathread, but there is already so much out there if you use the search function.

[Beast]

It's not really theory related, but it's a technique I've seen many pros use.


Sing your solos as you play them, it really opens up a new doorway of patterns and melodies that you will come up with.

[onlyclave]

Originally Posted by Beast

It's not really theory related, but it's a technique I've seen many pros use.


Sing your solos as you play them, it really opens up a new doorway of patterns and melodies that you will come up with.

More importantly singing your solos breaks up your phrasing so you're not playing an endless stream of notes. Horn players have to stop and breathe and so should you.

[bassmasta05]

Originally Posted by PocketGroove82

There is NOTHING beginner about John Goldsby's lesson in BP this month. Sit down and try it over a real tune, you will feel like a novice, because you really must have your stuff together to be able to do this on the fly. Sure it isn't spontaneous improvisation, but I bet it makes your brain ache. I love the idea of an improvisation megathread, but there is already so much out there if you use the search function.

im sorry and i agree completely, it is not beginner, now that I've tried it a few times, its actually quite hard but a good exercise nonetheless

[Bassist4Life]

Oh man, there are some really good threads on this topic. One of the most helpful threads (to me) is really old. It's back from when Mike Dimin was one of the Ask A Pro's.

He picked Blue Bossa for everyone to work on. It was great. We did an analysis, and he suggested different ways to look at the harmony in a functional way.

He posted fretboard charts to suggest finger patterns. He even did some accompaniment recordings for us. Mike's a great guy. I wish he was still doing the Ask A Pro thing.

If you look over in Todd Johnson's Ask A Pro forum, you'll find a thread on improv (it might even be a sticky). He has a stripped down method to approach improv that's pretty cool.

Joe

EDIT: Todd's sticky is called "The Jazz Gym". There's a whole series.