[Dixielandjazz] My experiences with improvisation (was: Teaching Jazz improv to a new band memeber.)

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

I'm not a trombone player but I have observed a lot of good players and they 
rarely, when improvising, go past third position.  They tend to play in the 
upper registers where the harmonic series is closer together and so the step 
and a half at third will just about get them anywhere they want to go.  It's 
also a lot faster than waving all that pipe around.
Larry
StL
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Smith" <robert.smith at tele2.no>
To: "Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 3:27 PM
Subject: My experiences with improvisation (was: Teaching Jazz improv to a 
new band memeber.)


> I've played trombone for many years, but had difficulty in improvising, so 
> I experimented with a tenor recorder, and here I made fairly rapid 
> progress. I think the problem with the trombone is that the slide 
> positions are not logical in respect to the varios scale intervals. For 
> example Low and middle G are at the fourth position, whereas high G is 
> best at the one and a half position, and low F is at the sixth position, 
> whereas middle and high F are at the first postion, (and less useful at 
> the sixth position). On the recorder, the positions and intervals are 
> logical, as they are on a piano keyboard.
>
> Otherwise I agree with the observations of other listmates regarding EARS, 
> practice, and overcoming the fear of making a mistake. Listening to the 
> chords, and thoroughly learning the tune are also excellent ways of 
> becoming proficient.
>
> Cheers
>
> Bob Smith
>
>