[Dixielandjazz] Diary and Larry's response

[Larry Walton Entertainment]

I think you missed the part where I said It's useful to be able to do both. 
I may have said that off list.

You are right about age being a factor but it is.  I learned guitar when I 
was about 30 and just never became fluent even though I played it every day. 
On the other hand I can improvise on trumpet fairly well and I never play 
it.  I have no clue why.

I guess there is something to be said for by the numbers and the ear will 
follow but I think that if you improv around the melody you are more likely 
to remember what you did and the result again IMHO more pleasant.  I guess 
that's a matter of taste.

To play around the chords and using chord tones implies that you can chord 
spell and hopefully a bar ahead.  I could improvise years before I even knew 
what a chord was.

In the dark ages music was not necessarily printed with chord tones.  I was 
a sophomore in college sitting in back in a theory class.  There was a guy 
that did arrangements and he was using those mysterious things.  I 
said....what is that?  In them days colleges didn't teach that jazz stuff. 
Man I must be really old!!!!

There's a whole lot more to improv than just the right notes.  There's 
rhythm, volume, vibrato and inflections.  There's probably more but just 
honking through a solo isn't necessarily pleasing.  I think that's why so 
many guys like to play lots of notes very fast.  That way no one will notice 
all the really cool stuff  that they are leaving out.

There is a friend of mine here in St Louis named Don Clauson.  Don played in 
the Kenton band.  His solos are an absolute marvel.  He is the only one that 
can weave in quotes that I like.  I'm not a big fan of quotes.  He pulls all 
the elements together.  Every time he does a solo it's different and more 
wonderful than the time before.

I find that the best solos often incorporate both vertical and linear ideas.

Since linear improv strongly implies composition on the fly, it also implies 
the ability to do that and some people just can't.

The biggest obstacle to improv seems to be the inability of many musicians 
to tear themselves away from the printed page.  Another is the fear of 
making mistakes.

I think of all the intellectual / mechanical approaches to improv as being 
akin to spelling each word in your mind before you could say the word.  That 
would be very hard to do and if you did it I think that you would lose the 
thought long before finishing a sentence.  There would be obvious glitches 
if you couldn't spell a word.  Painting by numbers also comes to mind.  How 
many times have you heard musicians lose the key or become obviously lost 
half way through a solo?  It's because they can't process all that stuff.

I sort of go on auto pilot after the first note.  All I have to do is 
imagine what I want to hear and it comes out the horn and sometimes it's not 
even that.  Most of the time I don't even think about it.  Gives me time to 
girl watch. LOL

Another factor in fluent improv is a mastery of the instrument.  You must 
know what a given note or interval is going to sound like.  That does not 
mean perfect pitch but good relative pitch is pretty handy.

Since we are all different each will have a different approach to playing. 
I would never be really good at vertical jazz because I really don't like it 
that much.

There is an instance that playing chord tones might really help and that is 
play or sing the bass notes.  This will give you a sense of flow.
Larry
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kent Murdick" <kmurdick at jaguar1.usouthal.edu>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 7:54 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Diary and Larry's response


>I liked Larry's response, but I would like to add a few things.  There are 
>a lot of people out there who try for years to improvise and can't get 
>anywhere, or are starting this activity late in life.  By late in life I 
>mean older than 18.
>
> I liked Larry's thoughts  on improvising around the melody, but I don't 
> see that there is a big difference between this and improvising  around 
> four or five chord tones. I find that because I can solo bit around the 
> chord tones, that I can do so around the melody as well (in fact I'm doing 
> more of that lately).  The fact is there is only one initial goal, and 
> that is to be able to play what you hear on the fly. It doesn't really 
> matter how you get there.
>
> A guy approached our street duo on Saturday.  He had been playing trumpet 
> for years and still couldn't figure out how one played the changes.  He 
> had been trying to do it by ear.  I suggested that he do it "by the 
> numbers" and the ear would follow.  Just playing and failing won't do 
> anythng for you ear.
>
>
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