[Dixielandjazz] Re: Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 6, Issue 49

[Stephen Barbone]

> <Steve.Hoog at rockhurst.edu> wrote (polite snip)
>
> Many different approaches to improvising, obviously.
>
> I  strongly disagree with the often-quoted Miles comment--if you have no
> idea what you want to do, how can you do anything?

Steve, why would you disagree? Clarinetist and list mate Russ Guarino says that's
exactly what he does, and so do I. Besides, millions of people have no idea what they
want to do in life, yet end up doing something, for better or for worse.

Miles Davis said in form close to what I posted, that if you hear an idea in your head
while you are soloing, don't try and play it because you'll "screw" it up. I will verify
that it has happened to me exactly that way.

And John Coltrane was once shown a transcribed copy of his solo on "Giant Steps" and
asked to play it. He didn't know it was from a record of his. Took a look and said, "I
can't play that, it's too difficult." So you know he didn't plan it in advance.

Many peer jazz musicians that I work with say this is exactly what they do also. We
listen for the prepared solos of some others and have fun hearing certain particular
soloists repeat the exact same solos for years on tunes.

I think unplanned music happens all the time to me. And I improvise melodically,
sometimes 32 bars long of coherent melody (other than the lead line). Yet I do not plan
it via a road map, or memorize it, or even think past the starting note. Nor do I think
chords, or root, or thirds, or suspended 4ths., trills, bends, minor 2nds, time changes,
playing between the beats, etc. It just comes out on automatic pilot differently each
time I play a solo on a particular song. So I get a kick out of music analyzers who will
dissect a solo and refer to the soloist choosing particular harmonies on solos.
Sometimes, that is just plain BS.

The notes and harmonics are certainly all there in my mind, and at one time or another I
have practiced or played them, but in my case, they come out of the subconscious,
automatically, not by design.

Where am I going on a song? I don't know, but the audience seems to enjoy the
conversation. Before hand, I think only of the song itself, the words, the meaning, the
feeling and as I start to play something, the right brain (I guess) takes over and I am
soloing totally by ear and right brain.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone