[Dixielandjazz] Theory, Ears, Improv

[Vaxtrpts at aol.com]

I have enjoyed all the posts and thoughts on learning music theory.   As 
someone who deals with that question every week of the school year in my  clinics, 
I have thought about it quite a bit!
My favorite quote about improvising came from John Coltrane (who????), who  
said:
"Learn all the theory you can, but when you walk up on stage forget it  all."
I like to make a comparison to the Prego Spaghetti Sauce commercial: "It's  
in there!"
Yes, I believe that one should learn as much as they can about theory,  
especially scales and basic chord structure.  After all, scales are the  building 
blocks of all music.  They are the foundation upon which we stand  as 
musicians.  I think, except in rare cases, musicians who know nothing  about theory 
don't play very interesting solos.
That said, I think the best way to learn to play jazz music is to listen  and 
play along with recordings.  Not so much transcribing solos, although  that 
helps too.  When I was young, I was playing along with recordings  (78's) of 
singers.  I learned the melody BY EAR from the recordings, not  out of a fake 
book.  (Well of course back then there was only one fake book  and it was 
illegal..........)  Once I learned the melody, I tried just  improvising a little 
around the melody.  I knew about 500 tunes by the time  I was out of high 
school.  (Of course I was already playing jobs by the  time I was a junior.  Times 
were sure different then.........)
Here is what I tell the young people:
Learn jazz the way it progressed historically.  The early players  weren't 
trained musicians, they learned everything by ear and only improvised by  
changing the melody around a little.
Then Louis Armstrong came along and changed everything by really playing  
more off the chord changes. (This, by the way, is why for me, he is the most  
important figure in the history of our music.  He set the stage for  everything 
that has come since then.)
So - here is what I tell students to do:
Learn the melody BY EAR - By HEART.  Be able to play it  perfectly.  (I also 
tell them to learn the same tune in few different  keys.)  When you can play 
the melody really well, then start just changing  it around a little, again - 
by ear.  When you feel comfortable just  changing the melody around (again, 
this can be with a recording of a singer or  even with Jamey Aebersold CD's), now 
try to just improvise with what you  hear.  Remember that this is all done 
WITHOUT looking at a fake book or  chord changes.  When you start to play a 
comfortable solo by ear, you can  then go back to the fake book and look at the 
changes.  That will be like  adding frosting to a cake.  It will give you that 
little extra to make your  solo even better.
I have even used this approach with as young as 6th graders and it really  
works.  
The other thing that I do in clinics is tell even the younger kids that  they 
ALREADY know a bunch of tunes by heart.  They say "Oh no, I haven't  
memorized anything yet."  So I get a young person up and have them play  Mary Had a 
Little Lamb or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on their instrument.   It is really 
fun to see the look on their faces, when they have just played a  tune that 
they didn't even know that they knew.  Pretty much works every  time.  (Sometimes 
with just a little coaching.)  The more tunes we  have memorized, the easier 
it becomes and the better jazz players we  become.
Just a little info from one who loves seeing young people get turned on to  
jazz and to improvisation.
Mike Vax