How long for you to develop a solo arrangement?

[Reg]

I'm with the improve group. What I do have memorized are forms of solo arrangements, how I play the tunes. I can pretty much read anything, or if I can hear the head, I can fake the rest. But I do have preset arrangements that I simply drop the tune into and it sounds like I am reading through a written out solo piece.
Here's a sample of the tune "Laura", I just read through, it was a ballad so I basically just went through a couple times, simi improved 2nd time and finished straight. I didn't know tune.

YouTube Video

Here's one I had in my head,( who doesn't), but stretched the same form out... more improve in middle, It's almost like an A B A form..
A blues tune called Sandu

YouTube Video

Neither of these are close to showcase material, but could be used at solo gigs where most of the time your background anyway.

[swampguide]

Originally Posted by wizard3739

Hi Swampguide, I am primarily an ear player now so it usually takes me only a few minutes to get the melody in my head. The rest of the time depends very much on the complexity of the song. A song without a lot of chord changes will take me less time than one that has a lot of key changes and modulations. The whole process usually takes me 3-4 hours and then the practise starts to get the song ready for a gig. Usually, I can have it ready in a couple of days. However, to keep the song in my "ready list", I have to practise the song at least once a week. I have a "master list" of most of the songs my wife and I have done together of the last 6 years. We have about 400 songs in the master list and we add to them when we hear something we like. Only a few of our master list songs are chord melodies.

wiz

I play by ear as well, but usually I can't immediately play a melody in my head without making a few mistakes (I need to practice it for a while). Melodies with larger intervals (a sixth or larger) tend to be more difficult for me.

Did you do any specific exercises to be able to do this or did it just come from working out many tunes?

[destinytot]

The OP asks a great question that has thrown up some great replies.

My tuppence worth.

In The Universal Mind of Bill Evans ‪The Universal Mind Of Bill Evans‬‏ - YouTube , Bill talks about what he calls "the jazz process", and he makes a distinction between "making one minute's music in one minute's time" and "making one minute's music in three months' time".

I put the question of spontaneity and improvisation in solo guitar playing to Howard Alden at a workshop. By way of response, Howard invited us - the participants - to call out titles, which he arranged on the spot.

This seemed an incredible feat at the time. I remember feeling completely overawed; Howard Alden's on-the-fly arrangements were not only spontaneous, but were also beautiful.

I think the latter quality has much less to do with chops than with tasteful choices.

I also think ear training is priority number 1.

I don't do many, but my arrangements have happened spontaneously, and usually in under a minute. Sprawled out in exhaustion from my day job, beautiful music comes to me. I'll begin to vocalize melody and counterpoint in solmization syllables - until I have NO CHOICE but to get up and play what I'm singing, trying out keys as I go. I write down only what I have difficulty in hearing at the piano (which hasn't happened in a while).