The Many Challenges of Jazz Improvisation

[dusken]

i can never improvise jazz..its like **telling a story**...smootttttth ....ah.... It is not enough to merely play the "right" notes.

You do not start with jazz. Improvise on a simple feel.

[sleuth]

The only way to improve at improvising is to be forced to improvise. What do you play? Piano?

aha...but at the moment what i have is just a digital pinao *celviano*


i missed my real,acoustic petite *petroff*

[dusken]

aha...but at the moment what i have is just a digital pinao *celviano*


i missed my real,acoustic petite *petroff*

Play with music that does not swing. Know the key be played at any given time and know the chord changes etc. and improvise with only one hand at a time.

[dusken]

Yes, we destroyed such a significant thread.

[ardenik]

thanks

yea we totally took this thread off topic..... emil, ure a mod, why dont u open a new thread called "jazz improvisation" & move all this into that thread... we'll further discuss this stuff there, because its not worth stopping now just because we're in a poetry thread. the convo was getting interesting. & besides, id like to read more of what dusken thinks about improv. even tho he SAYS he's "not good enuf" to play jazz, i think thats total & utter BS!

[ardenik]

The Many Challenges of Jazz Improvisation

In this thread, forumers can discuss the challenges & difficulties involved in the practice of improvisation in jazz, as well as their respective solutions to these difficulties.

Let the blowing* begin!











* "blowing" is jazz jargon for improvising.

[ardenik]

Sorry if my question was confusing... my point was if u play jazz u should pay attention aspects like structure, swing, and creativity.Right???Swing is a sense or feel in music , some ppl have it some lack ....

when i play note outside of given key....it sounds harsh... i think i cant swing....is it confusing if i say i cant swing???,,like i cant creat??

well playing outside is the manipulation of a dimension of SOUND (the pitches vs. the harmony).. while swing is a dimension of time. so they arent really fundamentally related, as dusken said.

if u want to learn to play outside because u think it sounds harsh when u do it now, u gotta work on being able to alternate between playing inside & outside seamlessly. for example, say on an Fmaj7 chord, u can practice playing an F major scale up one octave, then switch to a G flat major scale in the next octave, & switch back to F in the 3rd octave & then come back down the same way. make sure the transition between the F major & the G flat are smooth & seamless. u can do the same thing with other "outside" scales & tonal centers. F to G flat is one possibility. u can also try F to B, or F to E.. semi-tone away or tritone away usually works well for playing outside.

on the other hand, if u want to improve ur swing feel, then dusken pretty much summed it up for u there... my most significant piece of advice would be to listen to a lot of music that swings. listen to Count Basie's orchestra.. they were nicknamed the Big Swinging Machine!! hehe also, listen to Miles Davis - Kind of Blue.. & also, just to give u an example of a hard-swingin rhythm section with a soloist playing practically straight 8th notes: listen to some Clifford Brown with Max Roach. they play the tunes SOO fu<kin fast & max is swingin like a b!tch, but if u listen to clifford brown, he's playing almost perfectly straight! that guy is one of the best trumpetists ive ever heard.. ive taken some of those tunes, slowed them down to half speed & clifford's articulation is STILL perfect!!! not to mention, thats when u hear how straight his 8th notes actually are, when u slow it down, so its actually really fascinating listening to that guy even at half speed!

[Anonymouse]

Doesn't this belong in the Music forum?

[ardenik]

Doesn't this belong in the Music forum?

its an intellectual topic as far as im concerned.... but whatever. theres a bunch of posts from another thread that went horribly off topic that are about to be dumped into this one. when the mod does that, then he can decide whether it belongs here or in the music forum. i dont mind either way, but i do believe this is an intellectual topic.

[Emil]

Ok, I fixed this thread. I deserve a medal!