mike da mook said:
Well I've been giging with my fellow students lately, so they bare with me it's cool.
I'm studying with Sean Smith, he is a great player and teacher. To tell the truth, alot of what we deal with in terms of improv is very similar to Peter's advice. Since studying with him my soloing has gotten much clearer with more intent, I just have moments where I envy the ability to fly through changes and make good solid lines.
Since posting this I started devoting some practice time to walking through a tune (Rhythm Changes right now) pin pointing "problem areas" and working those bars out. After about 5 choruses of walking I'll try to solo playing ideas, not chops. Even if I just play a bar and a half, it's cool as long as what I play is clear and expresses what I hear in my head. After 1 or maybe 2 choruses I go back to walking for a while. I have to say it's great work.
Sean is a great player and a great guy, we met sharing the same bill at a Highlights In Jazz concert at PACE. He is (for those who are unfamiliar with him) the bassist in the current version of the Jackie Terrason trio, has two records out under his own name and appears on several other recordings as a sideman, inclusding one with Tristano disciple Connie Crothers.
The approach you are using sounds great, but if I may suggest another exercise to try?
Take the same tune. Start with the metronome at quarter = 60bpm. Play the melody through one chorus, play the chord line for a chorus - what I mean by
chord line is arpeggiate the chord EXACTLY {triad=135octave, pay attention to where the change is maj6th (a lot of tonics go there) instead of treating everything as a maj7th} with the idea of keeping your voicings/fingerings
proximate ie use all inversions (not just root position) to keep as many common notes as possible. By way of example ii7 V7 Imaj7 in Bb- instead of CEbGBb FACEb BbDFA one could use root 1st inversion root or CEbGBb CEbFA BbDFA. Then after the chord line you can limit your improvisation to specific rhythmic placement ie play 3 8th notes starting on 1 of every bar. Record yourself and listen critically ( the first inclination is to just go up the chord or repeat notes). When you get to the point you are feeling confident and happy with the range of ideas you are playing, move the "rhythmic unit" to the "and" of one of every bar. And so forth.
The final step of this particular exercise is to take your 3 eighth note unit and start it on 1 in the first bar, and of 1 in the second bar, 2 in the third bar, and of 2 in the fourth bar, etc etc. By your second chorus you are phrasing across bar lines and linking phrases.
And then you can start taking the metronome up. Slowly.
Another thing you can do is play the melody in ONLY the first 3 bars of each 8 bar section. And start improving a half note line for the other 5 bars of each 8 bar section. I know it sounds easy, but creating a half note line that sounds melodic and not like a bass line in 2 is very challenging. Again when the exercise reaches a point where you are happy with what you are hearing back on the recordings, take the 3 bars of melody and put it in a diffenrent place in each 8 bar section. So if the first A has the melody start on bar 1, NO OTHER MELODIC UNIT CAN START ON THE FIRST BAR OF AN 8 BAR PHRASE. The bars that do not have melody have the improvised half note solo. THEN, introduce rests. You should play as many quarter notes rest as you do bars of improv.
This all doesn't happen in one practice session or even a month of practice sessions, so take it slow. But believe me, after working on this with a few tunes, you start hearing a lot more in every tune. The added advantage is that you really start hearing notes and lines that move through the harmony in ways that just working on vocabulary does not.
In my experience anyway.
