[Dixielandjazz] Diary of an Improviser

[Larry Walton Entertainment]

Well it depends on what you want to do with solos.  Take a linear, melodic 
approach or a vertical approach based solely on the chord or some 
combination of the two.

I personally favor the linear, melodic solos.  Again what do you want to do? 
They are so different and the approach to learning them is different.

I feel that vertical playing unless it is handled by an expert leads to 
utter nonsense.  However audiences clap for the guys who play the fastest, 
highest and sometimes the most incomprehensible.  My take is Lord they know 
not what they do!!!

Vertical jazz most lends its self to a cook book approach, that is you have 
a pantry full of things and you throw things in and if you do everything 
right it works but most guys have only a couple things in their pantry.

Learning how to play that way is more of an intellectual approach and I 
don't mean that it is smart.  It is seeing a chord and either playing a 
memorized lick to it or let's say it's a C chord and you think, oh I have to 
play C, E, or G on the beat.

I think this form is most useful when you have a chart in front of you that 
you have never played or heard and you haven't a clue.  It's also useful to 
get the feel of the progression in that case.  This most often happens if 
you are playing a strange book.

In Dixie the musicians are playing counter melodies.  This is especially 
true of the clarinet player who is playing a counterpoint to the melody and 
knowing how to play vertical licks comes in handy.

In the melodic approach to improv you are composing on the fly.  To do this 
you must know the tune and I mean know it or alternatively the chord 
progression.  You then have to choose how close or far away you want to go 
from the melody.  Sort of a theme and variations.  It could be as simple as 
adding a note or lick here and there to make things interesting but no 
matter what you do bring the audience back to the melody the last couple of 
bars.  This says - hey guys, see I really wasn't lost.

As you get better add more and build on what you did.  In horizontal or 
melodic soloing mistakes show up more as vs. vertical, so who knows if there 
is a stinker surrounded by crap especially if you do it real fast?

Most newbie's to improv expect too much too fast of themselves.  Improv is a 
lifelong experiment that sometimes goes wrong.

The best advice that I can give you is never fear a mistake - we all make 
them.  Never try to keep up with or be intimidated by someone else.  There 
are musicians who do this and by doing so make you screw up and they look 
better.  Most of the time this is a head game that you play with yourself. 
Stay out of cutting contests especially the self imposed ones.  Never bring 
a knife to a gun fight.

Another advantage to linear playing is that you are more likely to remember 
what you did the last time you played the solo and can then expand on it. 
Who can remember a zillion nonsense notes thrown out really fast?

Record yourself and play it back several times.  I have a terrific recorder 
that records CD quality and it's no bigger than a pack of cigarettes.  You 
can just throw it on your stand.

Start with Blues because it has the most predictable progressions.

Get a source of accompaniment.  I recommend the blues edition of the Jamey 
Abersold CD and book.  It's one of his first CD's and I think it's one of 
the first five.  They aren't expensive.  The other one is Band in a box 
which is more expensive but has the advantage that you can input the chords 
and a style.  This is especially useful for big band players.

I use a lot of classical ornamentation in my solos like turns, grace notes, 
trills etc.

Now the most neglected part of improv but IMHO really important.  That is 
rhythm improv.  An example - the One Note Samba.  This thing starts out with 
only two notes and has an interesting very cool rhythm.  You can play a 
rather simple solo and really dress it up with rhythm.

In the beginning use the KISS principal - Keep It Simple Stupid.

I think older audiences appreciate melodic improv much more than vertical. 
Vertical is popular because it can be taught in a classroom, text books can 
be written and you can go to a studio and take lessons on it but melodic 
improv is much harder and more personal to pin down and that's why you won't 
find any text books or college classes on it.

Let me give you an example.  You can take art classes that will teach you 
everything you want to know about the technique of drawing and painting but 
they can't teach you how to be an artist.  That has to come from inside and 
I personally think the melodic approach does this best.  It also has the 
advantage of being able to take baby steps.

In my case the first tries were very early on.  My dad had bought a couple 
of pieces of sheet music for me.  One was Till I Waltz Again With You.  At 
the end of the firs phrase I threw in a rhythmic lower neighbor pattern on 
the whole note.  This was my first step and I had no idea that this was the 
first step to jazz or even what a lower neighbor was.  At that time I didn't 
even know the word Jazz or even another musician but what I did know is I 
liked it.  I was in the 5th grade.

This was extremely simple but I also didn't have anyone to rag on my efforts 
either.  By the time I was in the 9th grade at 15 I could play passable 
solos that didn't sound too bad and was getting jobs on a pretty much 
regular basis.

I wish you the best of luck in your efforts.  Remember always, this is fun 
and that if it makes you happy, nothing else counts.
Larry
St.L
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pat Ladd" <pj.ladd at btinternet.com>
To: "Larry Walton Entertainment" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "dixieland jazz" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 1:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Diary of an Improviser


> When I improvise it just happens.>>
>
> Hi Larry
> Lucky you. I am sure that is what happens to most improvisers at a certain 
> stage of development.
> The question is, how do you get to the point where instinct takes over?
> As you play, there is a point  in your growing experience when you know 
> the tune and  can hear a chord change coming.. Is being able to improvise 
> around that chord, which is what I imagine improvisers do, just the next 
> stage? Some attain it and some don`t.
>
> If you don`t improvise around a chord I am not sure I want to know. I live 
> in hope that in the few years left to me I might, going downhill with a 
> following wind, just be able to improvise around the chords  over eight or 
> twelve bars. If that is not the way it is done I might as well give up 
> now.
>
> What a fascinating thread
>
> Pat
>