> I wouldnt expect visualizing to do anything for your playing.
> Transcribing, Composing, etc. will though.
>
> The only thing I've heard of like that is in martial arts where
> they imitate the fighting techniques and/or spirit of animials.
>
> In composition, sometimes people try and use music to create a variety
> of images, like forests, animals, parties, ....
>
> I'm not sure how that would stylistically figure into jazz.
Transcribing and Composing is the best way to learn Jazz initially,
but eventually music is meant to tell a story (that's what they say).
Once at a Jazz workshop, Don Burrows told us how some songs lent
themselves to different instruments improvisation. Some songs sound
like they need a bass solo, others sound great on a piano. Don's
approach was to try and imagine you are playing that instrument, and
make your solo sound like it is being played on the instrument which
you are imagining.
Sometimes, when improvising, I'll try and do this in order to trigger
some creative thought, or else get a mental image, and try and picture
that through the music. I suppose that in a slow ballad, you could
create a mental image of a graceful animal, eg a soaring eagle or
something, and that might help trigger something.
At the moment, my solos sound a little like a lumbering bear :)
As yet, I haven't listened, and learnt enough to be able to play
exactly what I would like to hear myself playing, but music is a slow
process.
Josh