Barney Kessel on Playing What You Hear

[charlieparker]

I know this has been posted before, but, man, I have never seen a clearer demonstration on how to work on playing what you hear. For some reason, this video really crystallized for me the best way to work on this.

After trying it for a bit, I have identified specific weaknesses that I am focusing on.

[Ed Monkiewicz]

This is the way the greatest improvises played starting with Louie Armstrong. I knew nothing about certain scales or tonality when I started improvising at the age of 16. The way schools teach jazz improv is all wrong. It's sterile, un-original and vacuous. It's hard to find a truly creative solo these days because the creative element has been replaced with formulated playing.

[Gilpy]

Thanks for posting this great video. It is how I learned the guitar, along with a lot of listening. Before you play the stuff in your head, you need to have listened enough to know what’s good.
I have had a very long career as a pro guitarist. But if you asked me to play a scale, the only two I could name are major and minor!

[joeUK]

I used a synth on drone so I wouldn’t have any chordal memory from the guitar. Just stab a bunch of random keys and used that. It’s such a good exercise and easy to fit in 5-10 mins here and there.
thanks for reminding me to do it.

[JazzerEU]

Sing what you would like to play over a backing track, then try to sort of transcribe that, doesn’t have to be 100% accurate, more like 60-70% accurate, doing that will help break down the barrier between your mind and your hands and instrument. Later on, hear what you want to play before you want to play it, just like you think what you want to say before you speak.

[charlieparker]

Sing what you would like to play over a backing track, then try to sort of transcribe that, doesn’t have to be 100% accurate, more like 60-70% accurate, doing that will help break down the barrier between your mind and your hands and instrument. Later on, hear what you want to play before you want to play it, just like you think what you want to say before you speak.

Another great shout. I really like the comment about the 60-70% accuracy.

I am finding after doing this a bit that using my mind to construct the shape of the line is more important than nailing every note I imagine. It's more about the rhythm and contour of the line.

[acoustic_archtop]

This is the way the greatest improvises played starting with Louie Armstrong. I knew nothing about certain scales or tonality when I started improvising at the age of 16. The way schools teach jazz improv is all wrong. It's sterile, un-original and vacuous. It's hard to find a truly creative solo these days because the creative element has been replaced with formulated playing.

I don't think that's true. That's like saying you shouldn't learn grammar or the like to be a writer. It's true you don't need it but, knowing it should't restrict your creativity.

I guarantee the best jazz improvisors in the world all know their theory.

[GBRow]

I don't think that's true. That's like saying you shouldn't learn grammar or the like to be a writer. It's true you don't need it but, knowing it should't restrict your creativity.

I guarantee the best jazz improvisors in the world all know their theory.

Yes I find music theory very important in improvisation. Being able to play with knowing what is going on, seems far better than playing just by guessing or memorising. Memory can be lost, and guessing may suddenly go blank minded. But knowing why and how seem most solid way of playing good music. For that we need lots of reading, studying, listening and learning as well as practicing, suppose.

[pauln]

"I guarantee the best jazz improvisers in the world all know their theory."

The operative word there is "their", as in, their personal knowledge and understanding is a unique internal abstraction apart, or in addition to, or in spite of canonical music theory.

"Being able to play with knowing what is going on, seems far better than playing just by guessing or memorizing"

Playing by ear is not guessing or memorizing; it's primary attribute is confident certainty in advance of execution of the mind's ear's phenomenological musical ideas. There are more things in ears and minds than are dreamt of in your theory.

[Strat-itis]

I like to outline it by

Ear
Theory
Technique
Creativity

You need proficiency in all domains, not 1.

[GBRow]

Playing by ear is not guessing or memorizing; it's primary attribute is confident certainty in advance of execution of the mind's ear's phenomenological musical ideas. There are more things in ears and minds than are dreamt of in your theory.

For me now, it is. But hoping that it will change as time progresses with practicing and studying. For others, not sure. There seems to be folks who think and claim improvision playing is just silly thing. For me, it is the goal of my practice.

If there are methods which needs no much theory but can play well, that would be time saving. But I don't seem to belong in that group who can take up the methods.

[JazzPadd]

That's a great video, IIRC part of a longer series of Kessel's lessons that used be available on VHS tape, and I think has resurfaced online. For the occasional, casual, amateur (as in Merrifield the "pleasure of doing what you love") or those returning to playing jazz late in life, the ideas Kessel shares in that series of lessons can be a lifetime of stuff to work on.

This particular lesson hinges on something he said, or that others have added here, that what's in your head presumably gets in there somehow consciously and/or unconsciously, through listening. When I returned to playing jazz after a two decade hiatus, I was stuck with riffs, licks, scales, and so forth, but no musical ideas. And the non-Western musics in which I was immersed during that time put different kinds of melodies in me, so initially Gabor Szabo, Romany jazz type, and other musics were the ones that sounded familiar.

To play straight ahead jazz, which is what most people around where I lived played, three things helped immensely. First, listening to as much of what I wanted to play as possible, more or less a couple of years worth of daily immersion, to really get it that stuff in there. And given my limited remaining time, I kept a narrow scope, mostly the GAS standards and swing tunes that were played at local jam sessions, some bossa, and especially hard bop, which I liked best because it brought the blues and gospel back into jazz. Second, I focused on learning the melodies that really spoke to me, not because they sounded like the stuff I brought to the table, but for their own inherent beauty. Nothing fancy, just try to play the melodies so to understand what Kessel is saying about the twists and turns, leaps and contours of a beautiful, savory, melody. And third, develop this listening from playing often with others, because listening to what's in my head might eventually need to mix with what's going on around you. I got that right away when a tenor saxophone player invited me to sit in on a gig and said, "Let's enjoy blending our colors together!"

Wishing you all the best in your playing, and many thanks to the OP. And Barney Kessel!

[Bob_Ross]

...just like you think what you want to say before you speak.

Ugh. If only!

[Mark Kleinhaut]

See kids, isn’t it really just this easy? Barney was the coolest !!

[ClassyTouch]

Sing what you would like to play over a backing track, then try to sort of transcribe that, doesn’t have to be 100% accurate, more like 60-70% accurate, doing that will help break down the barrier between your mind and your hands and instrument. Later on, hear what you want to play before you want to play it, just like you think what you want to say before you speak.

I'm going to give this a try!