Improv Notes from G.I.T. grad mid-80's

[Richard_Luther]

Here's a few improv notes from G.I.T. (now Musician's Institute) while attending in the mid-80's. These are from the minds of Scott Henderson, Joe Diorio, Joe Pass, Howard Roberts, Ted Greene, Carl Shroeder (Pianist), Stormin' Norman Brown, Jeff Berlin, Peter Sprague, Sid Jacobs, Ron Eschete, et. al.

1. The most important thing to play is based on what you just played.

2. Notes are letters, motifs are words, motifs played in four bar phrases are sentences, a series of four bar phrases (the song form) is a paragraph, rinse and repeat to create a story. Beginning, middle and end.

3. Play half as much, then cut that in half, and then you're probably still playing to much.

4. Don't solo too long . Get in and then out. Make them want more. Nothing worse than speaker who doesn't how or when to end a speech.

5. Play a thing (bar one), then play it again (either up or down the neck in bar two), play it one more time (in one direction up or down the neck in bar three), then answer it in bar four.

6. Hear music, play solos, in complete four bar phrases.

7. The real music happens in the silence between the notes. It's an illusion. Notes frame the silence. Stop concentrating on what notes to play, and concentrate on syncopated silence. Silence framed by notes.

8. Practice on one string only. Then add a second string, then a third, etc. Think of the guitar as six trombones. Play horizontally, not vertically.

9. Peter Sprague fingering. No finger rolls for fourths.

10. Last. All's well that ends well. Play inside, slip outside, resolve well and it sounds good. Throw in syncopation, thoughtful silence, dynamics, and the use of playing in four bar phrases, and there you go.

Hope that helps. It's a little vague I know. It's like the "Johnny had sex with his girlfriend" video floating around by Scott Henderson. It all clicks eventually. The biggest of the ten was the concept of the four bar phrase. Now when I hear a solo, like Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter on Fee Fi Fo Fum, the four bar phrase is everything.

[Richard_Luther]

Here's two Bergonzi vids that may help with motific horizontal phrasing and the four bar phrase.

[Richard_Luther]

[Richard_Luther]

[CliffR]

In that first Bergonzi vid, he says it's the opposite of spelling out the changes. I thought he was taking a motif and then changing it (within the restricted range) to fit each successive chord. Did I misunderstand?

[Richard_Luther]

In that first Bergonzi vid, he says it's the opposite of spelling out the changes. I thought he was taking a motif and then changing it (within the restricted range) to fit each successive chord. Did I misunderstand?

Spelling out the changes, to my understanding, means to hit chord tones on the downbeat of a tune and color tones on the upbeat. The harmonic momentum, (or "harmonic pocket" explained by George Whitty in the video below) created by chord tones on downbeats and the infinite variety of everything else on upbeats allows music to gallop along. As an aside, count 4 bar phrasing as you listen to George Whitty blow over this latin backing track. His body is even moving to the four bar phrase as he plays.

What Bergonzi is talking about in the first video is more akin to "restrictive practice". He's taking a range of notes, (root through the fifth) and restricting his motif and variations of that motif to only that range. I do this often with just one string, then two. Take your G string, pick a range, say Bb to F, and play Jazz Blues, or Bird Blues, or Rhythm Changes just within that range of notes on one string. Add the D string and apply that to both improv and comping. Now you've broken out of scales, arpeggios and licks and playing horizontally and motifically.

[freud]

It promises to be a super interesting thread. Thanks a lot Richard. I have the impression that what you write about hits the nail on the head!
For several days now, I have been experimenting with the things that you have touched upon, and I can see a lot of valuable things that help me improvise, hear music, and understand what's going on.

Can you expand on point number 7?
"The real music happens in the silence between the notes. It's an illusion. Notes frame the silence. Stop concentrating on what notes to play, and concentrate on syncopated silence. Silence framed by notes."


How to understand this and can you include any examples?

[CliffR]

Many thanks Richard for clearing that up!

[dot75]

Mike Longo's (Dizzy's MD & pianist for years) quotes Dizzy,
'There's two ways to go, pick a rhythmic figure & hang notes on it, or do it the other way round...'
it was clear to anyone listening which way Dizzy thought. (he had a cane with bells, bits of metal etc. attached
he would 'play' to assess a venues' acoustics.)

[freud]

Hey Richard,

Are you planning to continue and develop this thread? It was going to be very interesting.
As I wrote before - can you write something more about point 7?
It would be nice if the plot continued. I feel that you can learn a lot from it and learn.

[buduranus2]

Can you expand on point number 7?
"The real music happens in the silence between the notes. It's an illusion. Notes frame the silence. Stop concentrating on what notes to play, and concentrate on syncopated silence. Silence framed by notes."


How to understand this and can you include any examples?

This:

[pauln]

Rhythm is a given primary foundation, it is not just part or an add-on that makes "any notes" sound good.

Now "the notes don't matter" is misleading shorthand for something where more is going on. Music comprises various domains determining what are the wrong notes, the right notes, and applications, within which each will pronounce judgement:

The wrong wrong notes - clams
The wrong right notes - poor expression
The right right notes - vanilla
The right wrong notes - wonderful

[Flat]

Hey Richard, thanks for the post and the trip down memory lane. I was at GIT from Fall 83 to Spring 85 (I took the six-month gap to digest and play out a bit). Maybe I saw you in the hallway? I got there the year after Frank Gambale and Scott Henderson were students. Lived in Steve Trovato's funky old apartment just off Vine with my buds from BIT and PIT. Jimmy Herring was in my 1985 class. We had a good time! I can still hear Danny Gilbert imploring students to "hear it, feel it, touch it, taste it."

Wish I could do it all again. A few times.

[freud]

Rhythm is a given primary foundation, it is not just part or an add-on that makes "any notes" sound good.

Now "the notes don't matter" is misleading shorthand for something where more is going on. Music comprises various domains determining what are the wrong notes, the right notes, and applications, within which each will pronounce judgement:

The wrong wrong notes - clams
The wrong right notes - poor expression
The right right notes - vanilla
The right wrong notes - wonderful

That's why I asked about it. Because I think it's all relative. And that's why I wanted Richard to elaborate on these points to better understand his point of view.

[ARGewirtz]

Rhythm is a given primary foundation, it is not just part or an add-on that makes "any notes" sound good.

Now "the notes don't matter" is misleading shorthand for something where more is going on. Music comprises various domains determining what are the wrong notes, the right notes, and applications, within which each will pronounce judgement:

The wrong wrong notes - clams
The wrong right notes - poor expression
The right right notes - vanilla
The right wrong notes - wonderful

Yogi: "So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong." Or something like that.

[pauln]

Yogi: "So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong." Or something like that.

When two pitches are played together, the ear also hears two other pitches (if they are within the frequency range of hearing); the sum and difference frequencies of the two original pitches. These are auditory illusion tones discovered by the violinist Tartini. They occur incidentally in all music and the ear usually ignores them.

However, what happens if you deliberately attempt to bring them to the ear's attention by composing a single melody line for an underlying harmony, then selecting pairs of pitches whose sum or difference frequencies correspond to those melody pitches, and then instead of playing the single melody line, substituting the appropriate but weird sounding pitch pairs over the underlying harmony?
What happens is the ear is persuaded to hear the missing original melody line - although it is not in the score nor in the air, but yet in the ear. This may have probably been done most on purpose, effectively, and delightfully by Frank Zappa.

To the degree that music theory (harmonic analysis) is focused on the "notes played", how much of the sound of jazz melodies and harmonies may be coming from "wrong notes" that produce the auditory illusion of "right notes"?

[ARGewirtz]

When two pitches are played together, the ear also hears two other pitches (if they are within the frequency range of hearing); the sum and difference frequencies of the two original pitches. These are auditory illusion tones discovered by the violinist Tartini. They occur incidentally in all music and the ear usually ignores them.

However, what happens if you deliberately attempt to bring them to the ear's attention by composing a single melody line for an underlying harmony, then selecting pairs of pitches whose sum or difference frequencies correspond to those melody pitches, and then instead of playing the single melody line, substituting the appropriate but weird sounding pitch pairs over the underlying harmony?
What happens is the ear is persuaded to hear the missing original melody line - although it is not in the score nor in the air, but yet in the ear. This may have probably been done most on purpose, effectively, and delightfully by Frank Zappa.

To the degree that music theory (harmonic analysis) is focused on the "notes played", how much of the sound of jazz melodies and harmonies may be coming from "wrong notes" that produce the auditory illusion of "right notes"?

Interesting. So is it safe to assume that the extent to which these substituted "wrong notes" when actually played sound either compelling or cringe-worthy depends on the sensitivity of each individual's ear to auditory illusion tones?

[lammie200]

Funny. I always think that I don’t do the finger roll fourths thing enough. I guess that should let it go but maybe still throw one in every once in a while. Might still want at least that.

[Richard_Luther]

Hey Richard,

Are you planning to continue and develop this thread? It was going to be very interesting.
As I wrote before - can you write something more about point 7?
It would be nice if the plot continued. I feel that you can learn a lot from it and learn.

The "notes frame the silence" point of view. Kinda mind blowing once you shift your ears away from the notes (although they're still there), and concentrate on how the silence is framed by the harmonic bouquet. Listen to a tune like the one below and listen to the syncopation (aka. the silence between the notes).

The way it was explained to me is there are finite subdivisions in one bar of western music. However, there are an almost infinite variations of silence to break up those subdivisions. African syncopation has a certain silence. Syncopation. 2nd line drumming. A jazz feel. So...listen to a lot of jazz to learn the language of that type of silence. Think of rhythms first and add notes to that instead of thinking of notes first and rhythms (or silence) second (Dizzy's words not mine). Monk's genius is how he colors his silence. But I'm confident Monk considered the silence first and color second.

[Richard_Luther]

Jazz education focuses a great deal on chord/scale theory. Like the color black in the picture below. I think breakthrough happens once the focus shifts to the blank space of the photo. The notes frame the silence.

[Richard_Luther]

So go back up and click the Monk tune again. Get that silence in your head. Sing it. Sing the silence. Now grab your axe, while keeping that Monk syncopation flowing in you, and color your own silence. Contrarian, but takes a lot of pressure off you. Notes first, rhythm second is double work. Rhythm first, notes second is half work.

[freud]

Thanks Richard for the answers. It is true that I do not understand any of them yet, but I will try to hear "IT" and understand. Thanks!

[Christian Miller]

In terms of playing the space - where you end your notes can swing as much as where you start them

[freud]

Hey Christian. Can you throw in an example? A piece of music that talks about it?

[Richard_Luther]

Hey Christian. Can you throw in an example? A piece of music that talks about it?

I can. "Five Spot Blues" by Monk. Notice the following:

1. The rhythm of the melody haunts the entirety of the tune. Both Charlie Rouse's and Monk's solos.

2. Pay attention to the childlike simplicity of the rhythm. Why does it work? Hint: African syncopation.

3. Start counting 4 bar phrases and notice how they speak in complete sentences. No noodling, searching. It's coherent. Why? The rhythm of the melody.

4. Hone in on each down beat. Tap your fingers on each beat and notice how chord tones are hitting the down beats. This is the harmonic pocket moving the tune forward.

5. Last, notice how much they're NOT playing. Why does that work? Why is that timeless? Notice how much you (as the listener) and "allowed" to enjoy the music. How you're given time to think. How the silence makes a physical impression on you.