[Dixielandjazz] Diary of an Improviser.

[Gluetje1 at aol.com]

Snip from post of Steve's below.  Steve, I thought that was some  
especially helpful advice about a good way to move into an improvising way  of being. 
 I have just started working with a couple of 14 year old twin  boys on 
playing together (jazz banjo) with one of them playing chord melody and  the 
other a moving line of rhythm chords apart from where the melody is -- and  
thinking of that rhythm as able to both hold time steady and create some  
counter-melodic interest.  
 
I get to see any of my kids such a short time each week but I would love an 
 opportunity to teach some improv based on what you suggest below.
 
Those who hate banjo are excused from reading the article link I'm posting  
next. :?)  But me, I'm thrilled that the reporter got my mission conveyed  
so well in such a short newspaper article.
(_http://www.southcountytimes.com/Articles-i-2011-03-25-174155.114137-STL-Ba
ndJos.html_ 
(http://www.southcountytimes.com/Articles-i-2011-03-25-174155.114137-STL-BandJos.html) )
 
Ginny
 
 
 
In a message dated 3/25/2011 10:35:08 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
barbonestreet at earthlink.net writes:

Nothing  succeeds like on the job training. But my suggestion is to  
play Five  Foot Two, or Darkness on the Delta, or Please Don't Talk  
About Me  When I'm Gone very slowly and sing a different melody over  
those  changes. (in the same key)  Start by the singing the first 2   
bars of 5 ft 2, then the second two bars of Please Don't Talk and  the  
third 2 bars of Darkness, repeat etc. and voila, with a  few  
modifications you will have a new melody. That's melodic   
improvisation, not where you embellish on the existing melody, but   
where you construct a NEW melody over the existing  changes