Appendix D

APPENDIX D

Getting Started With Jazz Improvisation

Jazz in general, and traditional jazz in particular, requires the ability to improvise over the chord structure of the tune. There are a great many instructional materials available in the marketplace that are designed to help students develop this essential jazz skill. For those students who need a starting point to begin exploring jazz improvisation, the following concepts will help them “get their feet wet”.

The Cognitive and the Creative

Jazz improvisation employs both “left brain” and “right brain” functions. The cognitive or “left brain” aspect analyzes the chords as they go by, and identifies appropriate scales and harmonic possibilities to employ. The creative or “right brain” aspect draws on emotion, innate musicality and intuition to guide the construction of esthetically satisfying melodic statements. Most jazz musicians use both of these approaches when they improvise, though not necessarily in equal measure. There are many fine jazz musicians who are able to play beautifully conceived, musically sophisticated, and artistically gratifying improvisations based primarily on their musical instincts, while others construct wonderful improvisations primarily from their knowledge of musical relationships.

Students need to develop their capabilities in both of these areas. Shown below are the eight most common chords employed in traditional jazz, notated in the key of C. Students should practice playing arpeggios on these chords in the various keys. In addition, students should memorize major and minor scales starting on each of the twelve tones. This will give them a theoretical foundation for beginning improvisation. (Please note what is said about the “blues scale” in the introduction page.) In addition, students need to listen, listen, listen to the great improvisers of this music, and internalize the musical language—rhythm, phrasing, pacing, etc.

First Steps

Here are some suggested ways for young players to begin to improvise on a tune:

■ Learn the melody notes; then play the melody with rhythmic displacements and embellishments

■ Hum or scat-sing an improvised phrase, then find those notes on your instrument and practice playing the phrase

■ Play chord arpeggios, using repeated syncopated patterns

■ Play simple melodic lines that move between chord tones using upper and lower neighbors in passing

■ Create a two- or four-bar phrase and repeat it throughout the song, altering the notes to fit the chords

The beginning improviser will find it helpful to practice with one of the traditional jazz play-along sets listed in the Resource Guide.

Eight Common Chords in Traditional Jazz