[Dixielandjazz] Improvise redux

[Deby Lee]

When it comes to improvisation, the only time I ever had any success was
when I mixed Summertime from Porgy and Bess into the middle of St. Louis
Blues.  Both songs were played in e flat, so it wasn't such a stretch for
me.  My poor classically trained brain just couldn't get the hang of play
with your ear, not your brain when it came to the improvising, so I just
stuck with some extra notes in the melody line.  One of these days, I'm sure
the improv will just click, and it will be like a light coming on,  but
until then, I think I'll just sit back, listen to others, and just enjoy it.

Deby

-----Original Message-----
From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
[mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com]On Behalf Of Dan Augustine
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 8:45 PM
To: DJML
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Improvise redux

>From: Trumpetom at aol.com
>Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 19:48:29 EDT
>
>Dan Augustine wrote in his bio:
>  >Still want to learn how to improvise (i hear it in my head, but can't
>play it)
>
>This applies to me, and not necessarily anyone else. Dan is blessed that he
>can hear the sounds he wants; many do not have that much imagination. I was
>blessed with this talent, but the curse was that I didn't know how to play
the
>horn by ear to sound those notes.
>
>What helped me was playing scales & interval exercises hundreds of times
>(listening carefully to each note). I memorized all the patterns.
Eventually I
>could play the desired tones without taking time to consider how to finger
the
>instrument, and without considering  the name of the note; more like
>how someone whistles a tune. It was applying relative pitch to the
>instrument.
>
>The other issue was taking a chance doing this in front others. It took a
lot
>a lot of nerve to screw up in front of an audience (even when the audience
>was just my dog, or my wife in the other room). But covering up
>screwed up notes is another issue.
>
>Tom Loeb, trumpet player
>California
**------------------------------------------------------------------------**
Tom and DJML--
     Thanks to everybody who sent me advice on how to improvise (or,
perhaps more accurately, to get past my 'improvising-block').  Good
stuff, all of it, and i value it highly.
     Perhaps tuba-pickers and others who never play the melody are
more likely to suffer from this problem.  But we of the oom-pah
brotherhood are not used to playing even simple tunes without reading
them off the page (at least i'm not; i've never played anything but a
tuba).  I'm starting to think that i ought to just play along with
the main melody of every song i can play on my CD-player (almost said
turntable, irreparably dating myself), just for practice in playing
melodies.
     But even more, what Tom said above (especially about whistling a
tune) reminded me that when i used to take 'screech tuba' solos on
"Watermelon Man" (whose chord-progrressions are, shall we say,
unembarrassed by excessive complexity), i played them up in the
trombone range (and higher) because i didn't know the fingerings for
the notes i wanted to play.  Ideas and sticking with the chord
weren't the problem.  Fingering was the problem.  Playing above
middle C (or an octave above middle C) meant i usually didn't have to
worry about the fingering, since the harmonics are so close together
up there that all notes are available (but largely out-of-tune)
without pushing valves.
     This falls in line with what Meg, Kash, and Steve said: turn off
your conscious mind (left-brain, if you will) and let your
right-brain ramble (good name for a song, eh?, the "Right-Brain
Ramble").  Hell, that's where i live most of the time anyway (except
at work), where most of my words and ideas come from (it's either
that or the computer-programmers' favorite culprit, "stray
electrons", ricocheting around the left-brain).
     So thanks: this is something i can try to do: improvise something
higher, without fingering, and then try to repeat it down in the
proper tuba-range, once i hear myself do it.  Weird.  Bypassing our
so-called intelligence with unlikely stratagems for greater artistic
and human results may be the hallmark of a higher level of
civilization.  (What was it that Saint Francis of Assisi called his
body?  "Poor donkey"?  Also reminds me of what Ambrose Bierce said:
"I think I think, therefore I think I am.")

     Dan
--
**--------------------------------------------------------------------**
**  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas     ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu  **
**  "And the human understanding is like an irregular mirror, which   **
**   distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own  **
**   nature with it." -- Francis Bacon (1561-1626)                    **
**--------------------------------------------------------------------**

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