Affraid of improvising

[Petimar]

Improvising, even WITH a new-found critical ear certainly isn't going to hurt anything. In fact it's a necessity. Should always be a PORTION of your routine. Improvising without thinking so much is a great test of what devices/exercises/work have actually been internalized.

If you've never actually experienced that moment where a lick or abstract device you've been working on suddenly comes out of your instrument without "thinking". Just wait. It's great. You look down at your fingers, and say "I just heard it, a moment before, and it I just came out". I'm a little jealous, just thinking of it. Later it's not so much surprise , but that's cool too , because it answers what you're original post is really getting at.

The MOMENT I'm describing above answers all of these questions, and will hopefully give some direction, as well, about how to think about practicing generally. If you're not having these moments for a long time, you're probably working on too many things at once.

Be patient. Eventually, you want to arrive at a different understanding of practice, and even concepts of who you are as improviser-versus-student. The IMPROVISER isn't thinking so hard about things "in the shed", maybe one or two basic ideas they want to include or aim for, but not the same way you do when you're really shedding something.

The STUDENT then, can listen back to that improvisation and, without judgment, choose something which needs work and aim at shedding it. "Without judgment" is an important part too. Don't allow the student to be judgmental of the improviser. They really "need" to be separate entities. The student sometimes gets a little entitled with thinking of the number of hours put in etc.

From my experience, "incremental" improvement is mostly manifest in BREAKTHROUGHS, as opposed to gradual, linear progression of improvement. Be patient.

Anyway, sorry. Too long.

what a great post Matt!

Make sure that you get some VERY slow improvising practice each day. Playing slowly gives you time to think and react to what you are hearing. As you get comfortable slower, it will get easier faster.

Sing improvisations out loud slowly as well. This will help!

[Jonah]

Try the thing I saw in another thread here...

You play trading 2 bars of the head then 2 bars of the impro trying to sound integral - then trading every 1 bar...

If you play some jazz tune like bop heads it may be more convinient... because the heads often sound like impros.

but if you use standards - especially slow ones - it really pushes you to be extremely inventive in melody... try playing 2 bars of Body and soul and than 2 bars of impro and connect them smoothly and with in a way that your vamp would nto sound just like fill-in between very recognizable phrase of original... not so easy... you will have to consider every single note - not only pitch but it's length, place...

[Tomcat]

There is so many ways to deal with improvisation. Until now after years of learning I think I made the best to put everything in order taking Gary Burton's approach. Here is part 1 of my summary of "Introduction to Improvisation"
Berklee Online course

[JazzinNY]

Quote, Tomcat: "Here is part 1 ..."

Interesting. I've seen explanations of "Chord Scale Theory" before that didn't really click with me. Maybe this will. Awaiting part 2.

[emanresu]

For me it was a lo .. ong way to be able to improvise so that I did feel alright with it. Up to that point I quit many times also.

[henryrobinett]

A step at a time. Try not playing with backing tracks. That's a more advanced step. Don't jump over steps or you sink. Try improvising over the changes alone with nothing to back you up. Take two chord changes at a time. Start with one chord. Use a metronome, or maybe start without one. Just let go. Suspend your judgment. No telling yourself "I suck. That sounds like shit."

Just let yourself go. Flow. Whatever. The fact that your an adult and have adult taste cultivated throughout your lifetime is a disadvantage when you get started improvising. You're not going to sound that good when you start and you just have to be fine with that. It's the process of getting your wings. Just let go.

[mr. beaumont]

Late to the party here, but I always suggest starting with the melody itself...think like a singer. Think of how a good singer can play with a melody, make it theirs.

That's all improvising really is, at it's core. You're just creating a new melody.

[lammie200]

Late to the party here, but I always suggest starting with the melody itself...think like a singer. Think of how a good singer can play with a melody, make it theirs.

That's all improvising really is, at it's core. You're just creating a new melody.

I think that this is a good point. Sometimes improvising gets to showing off chops. But it really is about an alternative melody that plays off of the underlying melody of the song. There are tons of latitude with that notion, but it should be pretty simple to think on those terms.

[Sam Sherry]

Here's the nut:

. The bar is set within sight but forever out of reach.
. Everybody who comes to see you play knows what great jazz sounds like, just like you do.
. Your playing -- right now, today, as it is -- could be the most meaningful thing that some particular person experiences today, even if you think you're sucking.
. No matter how well or poorly you played the last note, or song, or set, or show, you get a blank slate with the next one.
. As many have noted, you're in a process. If you want to enjoy it as a fun process, that opportunity is sitting right in front of you!

[goldenwave77]

Just play. Nobody is born great...therefore becoming great, or good, or competent, or whatever your level is, is just working and making mistakes, and fixing them.

There is not much in life that you get better at, by not doing it.

Besides it could be worse: You could be one of those classical people who spend years training and end up with performance anxiety. There's a whole cottage industry of coaches, psychologists, drug providers, and drug avoidance people all surrounding that particular issue. Man and those people know what they should be playing. Truly sad.

Just try to be a little better every day. Roy Eldridge was a working musician for like 9 or 10 yrs. before anyone thought he was good enough to be featured as a soloist. Coleman Hawkins was a working pro for almost 20 yrs. before he recorded "Body and Soul". He was famous for a large record collection, always listening, and going to hear people, and scribbling notes to himself of things to go back and work out.

[grahambop]

Pat Metheny said he still considers himself a 'student of the guitar'. I find it very encouraging that someone at his level feels like that.

[Tomcat]

Quote, Tomcat: "Here is part 1 ..."

Interesting. I've seen explanations of "Chord Scale Theory" before that didn't really click with me. Maybe this will. Awaiting part 2.

The PART II is ready, hope you like it, if I have to choose the one most important thing I learned from Gary Burton it would be this:

"A good improviser should be aware of the harmonic progression of the song and emphasize it in his solo. You can hear really good improvisations without the backing of the band and still be fully aware of the harmonic progression. The improviser achieves this by underlining some essential chord notes: so-called. guide tones (another name is voice leading)

Additionally, the guide tone lines can serve as an invaluable help as construction framework of our improvisation whenever harmony of the track changes very quickly - like 2 chords per measure. For most common chord progressions we can find 2 or 3 different guide-tone lines. They are so powerful musical expression tools that we can choose among them freely within our melody lines, with octave displacements as well. In such cases guide-tone lines will carry us safely through the most difficult, very fast tempo standards of bebop era.

As a resume of this lecture we understood that the way we would build our improvised solos is strongly based on chords changes and type of harmonic motion used by composer. For every type of harmony we have different "programs' of improvising. These programs can help us a lot and make the thing much "easer" than we thought."

There also my assignments and exercisces from 2013 in the post

[Tomcat]

and finaly last part of the review: COURSERA JAZZ IMPROVISATION W. GARY BURTON

[JazzinNY]

Yeah, thanks, I listened to your samples, Tomcat, and they sound really good.

I think the scalar approach is the way to go on modern material like 500 Miles High.