Improvising guitar without accompaniment

[Jazzy_Dan]

I'd like to get better at this. I guess some might call it playing both "rhythm and solo". Can anyone recommend professional jazz musicians that I can listen to, to broaden my horizon (and examples that I have to reference)? Thanks

[Binyomin]

Picasso by Coleman Hawkins

[Jazzy_Dan]

Insightful. Thanks!

[citizenk74]

Joe Pass.

[Jazzy_Dan]

Thanks, Joe Pass is amazing. I think this thread is exactly what I needed. I was starting to hit a wall.

[TH]

Ralph Towner will give you a different approach to solo playing, not so much in the swing feel of Joe Pass but a more

Jonathan Kreisberg has really nice balance for the solo guitar

There's a solo reading of Stella before the band joins him

Kurt Rosenwinkel always has a close relationship of chordal support for his melodic lines.

Mike Bono's style has a great floating sense of the harmony integrated in the solo lines without needing a heavy bass line

Ben Monder manages to combine bass lines that move with melodically flowing internal harmonies.

Once you start listening to piano players, your concept will really open up. Piano players can play with a sense of harmonic flow that is untapped by most guitarists.
Listen to the way Fred Hersch never states a chord as a single "grab" but as a part of a harmonic flow with voice led voices.

If you want to see how harmony can be built up with one voice at a time (literally), check out this Theo Bleckmann vocal performance

Hope this gives you a look at possibilities that challenge you to use your instrument in a unique way. There's no one way that anything needs to be done. These people have found very unique and different ways that fit their own personalities and sense of beauty.

David

[Tomcat]

That gets me down:

[Jazzy_Dan]

What's going through my mind at this point is, how much of all this is composed before hand, and how much is improvised? Is any of it FULLY improvised, or is it more or less 50/50...part composed and part improvised? I imagine it depends on the player, but just asking anyway.

[Tomcat]

What's going through my mind at this point is, how much of all this is composed before hand, and how much is improvised? Is any of it FULLY improvised, or is it more or less 50/50...part composed and part improvised? I imagine it depends on the player, but just asking anyway.

JAzzy Dan - your questions is slightly off target - because improvising is COMPOSING IN REAL TIME, they great improvisers can just "compose" very quickly , on the spot.

The masters like Chris Potter in the link above can improvise 100% of it, if you go to several concerts of one of them you will hear that everytime they play differently, and they are obviously flowing or burning in the moment so there is no pre-written material.

The powerful device to develop this mastery is always have the melody of the tune and build the impro (more or less) on this basis.

[TH]

Solo guitar is impressive. Solo guitar is challenging. But WAY more than that, solo guitar can (and I think should) be the place where you get to express all you are without interference from others. Tomcat makes good points about knowing what you can do with the format. I have a friend who had played jazz guitar for decades and each stage of the way, he explored the dynamics of different sized groups. Quintet, quartet, trio and duo. Each taught him something new, totally its own and prepared him for assuming more of the creative responsibility and dynamic. He called solo playing "the final frontier" because to do it, he drew on all he knew about time, vocabulary, feel, pacing, soloing, awareness of bass line, awareness of space, awareness of solo melody and where the harmonic support comes from and most important, a feel that ties it all together.
There are many who take the path of those who came before them, to the point of learning and performing Joe Pass arrangements or bass lines by rote. In the many times I saw Joe, his arrangements of heads he played were very consistent and I think he became comfortable with the finite in his arrangements. But this is something that my friend saw as counter to his goal.
Solo playing IS the format where you can use the rubato with the swing beat, use the long line with implied harmony and punctuate it when and where you want, for effect and shading and not necessarily to point out "hey everyone I'm playing a C chord here!". It's where your own development and maturity as a player is reflected.
When I began, I did learn certain arrangements, from written sources, Laurendo Almeida's book on classical tune arrangements of movie themes, a few other really good books and classical pieces. But the more I learned about the compositional process, the less of these arranged passages appeared in my playing. They were someone else's note choices; not mine.
When Fred Hersch goes on the stage at major concert halls, he doesn't even know the tunes he'll play, no less have a set arrangement. But the elements of those pieces are known to him, key, defining chord movements, melody and feel. He then uses the solo format to make something nobody else has ever heard.
You've got a guitar where the roots of any given chord can be found in at least 6 different places. Each position will give a different relationship of a root to the available melody notes and each place you play a chord can give you VERY different melodic choices and feels. Why limit yourself to one arrangement if you have command of your instrument.
Each time I play a chord solo, I try to let it reflect something that I've discovered about the instrument, about myself, about the way I hear. I hope, really hope that the way I played a tune 6 months ago is not the way I'd play it today. Chord solo is a good barometer of who you are as a total player, so be honest, be creative and use it to grow.
Well, that's the way one person sees it anyway.
David

[Tomcat]

What I found useful in solo-impro practicing is to start with very short forms - 30 to 60 seconds is enough.

[TH]

What I found useful in solo-impro practicing is to start with very short forms - 30 to 60 seconds is enough.

Yeah! And maybe even one phrase, like the first 4 bars of Out Of Nowhere.
You can amuse yourself for hours on this alone. Root and melody below the 5th fret, root and melody at the 7th fret, root and melodic variation, rhythmic variation, melody with chord as accent, melody of your making played as extensions of the chord, bass line and melody counterpoint, etc. Take a chord, reduce the number of notes you actually play... 'y know, there's a lot you can do with just 4 bars. Then you look at the next 4 bars and it's kinda similar, kinda different. Repeat and then rinse.
If you can't do it at first, then there's your practice routine for today!
David

[JakeAcci]

About five years ago I did a short stint for a few months of playing 20 minute sets of all improvisation, but no tunes at all. This was also for a sit-down-and-watch audience in a quiet room at night, as opposed to a lunch type of gig.

For practice I spent a lot of time and thought working on not just the 'musical' issues of timbre, space, voicings, harmony, rhythm, etc but also trying to figure out: what's the story? what am I saying? what environment am I creating for the audience? Solo guitar isn't the most expressive or dynamic thing a person could listen to compared to all sorts of groups and ensembles, especially those involving the voice, so it was an interesting challenge.

[TH]

How could I have missed Bill?!! Listen to how naturally he plays this gem. Time feel, harmony, melody and thought process all an expression as natural as speech. And if you've ever talked with Bill, it feels like the way he plays. This is how it's done, in my book.
David

[christianm77]

I'm a huge fan of Peter Bernstein's solo stuff:

Re: the playing on you own composed or improvised question - well that depends on the player.

I have grown away from listening to solo players that are too 'fancy' - i.e. do lots of clever set piece stuff, and towards players I feel are more improvisational or natural.

[Jazzy_Dan]

I eMailed the solo player Andy Brown not too long ago. I asked him what he does for his solo performances. This is the response I got back:

"Thanks for getting in touch. To answer your question...I usually play what folks call "standards," basically songs from films and Broadway shows, and then improvise on the harmonies of the songs. Many of the songs share the same chord patterns, so it's not as hard as one would think to memorize a lot of songs."

That is the reason for my question. Based on Andy's answer, I was under the impression that at least some of the performances shown in this thread were partially worked out/written before performed, with room left to compose/improvise during the actual performance. Though, I can see from the answers I've gotten that some musician do indeed compose the entire song during the actual performance.

Thanks for all the tips... I've come to the right place to further my jazz knowledge

[grahambop]

I've posted this before, but Tim Lerch has done a great video on how to approach solo guitar:

[Jazzy_Dan]

I've posted this before, but Tim Lerch has done a great video on how to approach solo guitar:

Very practical and informative. Thanks!

[Gearhead]

How could I have missed Bill?!! Listen to how naturally he plays this gem. Time feel, harmony, melody and thought process all an expression as natural as speech. And if you've ever talked with Bill, it feels like the way he plays. This is how it's done, in my book.
David

Yes David, I agree totally. I think all the great players have that their way of talking is reflected in their playing. I also feel that with Pat Metheny (highly sophisticated answers, long answers = many notes) and Sco (space and humor) but Bill Frisell's playing is so close to his way of talking - such a great artist.

[vsaumarez]

I eMailed the solo player Andy Brown not too long ago. I asked him what he does for his solo performances. This is the response I got back:

"Thanks for getting in touch. To answer your question...I usually play what folks call "standards," basically songs from films and Broadway shows, and then improvise on the harmonies of the songs. Many of the songs share the same chord patterns, so it's not as hard as one would think to memorize a lot of songs."

That is the reason for my question. Based on Andy's answer, I was under the impression that at least some of the performances shown in this thread were partially worked out/written before performed, with room left to compose/improvise during the actual performance. Though, I can see from the answers I've gotten that some musician do indeed compose the entire song during the actual performance.

Thanks for all the tips... I've come to the right place to further my jazz knowledge

I take it your original question is asking about solo or chord melody playing, and not the interplay between accompaniment and single note playing, which you might do if playing with just a bass.

For most mortals preparation plays a part. Familiarity lessens the burden of preparation, but familiarity comes with repetition. If you are Joe Pass you have more freedom. But even he had to have started somewhere. I don't think he just decided to play solo guitar one day and went out and did it. The other player that stands out from the crowd is Martin Taylor, who picked up the mantle where Joe Pass left off. These two players are worthy of study because they avoid the chord-melody pick approach of playing melody lines on top of chords. Using fingers to pick strings creates a pulse and orchestral movement. It opens up all sorts of possibilities. One of the more interesting players who can hold his own in a solo situation is Sylvain Luc. He is highly entertaining and uses the guitar in imaginative ways to keep you on the edge of your seat. It's still a very under-valued form of playing so plenty of scope to experiment and develop it.

[mjo]

[eh6794-2.0]

A nice transcription of the video posted above.