(DOC) Lennie Tristano – Teaching Methods and Improvisational Techniques | Daryl N - Academia.edu

"Singing

The most fundamental and essential part of Tristano’s lessons was learning to listen and sing along with records of the great solos of his favorite soloists. All solos and other exercises had to be sung and internalized by students before being allowed to play them on their instrument. Tristano firmly believed that it did absolutely nothing to simply learn the notes and memorize a solo. His preferred process of engraining a musical language was to sing the material perfectly, without needing to resort to looking at notation. This served to assimilate all the aspects of re-creating the nuances of a jazz soloist, engraining the music at a physical and emotional level.

The focus was always on finding and recreating the feeling or essence of the music, through the body by singing, which Tristano insisted could not be discovered by reading it on paper. Tristano emphasized that every note was to be sang perfectly, in regards to pitch, rhythm, and articulation. He also suggested setting the record at half-speed if needed, to really hear everything clearly.
It is worth noting that only certain soloists were allowed to be modeled in student’s lesson.

Tristano insisted that the evolution of jazz was only developed by certain players over the years, those who played with authentic feeling and have complete control over their sound. Soloists he would model from included: Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Billy Holiday, Roy Eldridge, Charlie Christian, Bud Powell, Fats Navarro and Frank Sinatra. By singing specific solos from these artists, away from their instruments, along with the recording, then gradually without the recording, Tristano’s students were able to internalize the authentic language of the music, while fully realizing the details of the tone and phrasing involved."