When you say "no guide tones" do you mean there were no chord 3rds or 7ths
in the solo?
At 03:09 PM 12/10/96 -0500, you wrote:
>>Bert,
>>
>>Thanks for this well thought out email. I have been
>>meaning to get your book so I think I'll try and order
>>it today.
>>
>>Today is a really busy day for me and I want to spend
>>alot of time studying your post before replying. Perhaps too
>>I should wait for the other document you want to post.
>>
>>In the meantime, I would like to submit a transcribed Chet Baker solo for
>>analysis using your methods.
>>
>>I'm semi-paranoid about getting into copyright trouble posting complete
>>transcriptions so I'm only posting the first 20 bars . Since this is
>>a discussion group I think it's okay.
>>
>>The solo is a nice simple solo by Chet Baker from the album the
>>"Best of Chet Baker Sings" for the tune "But Not For Me" by George
>>Gershwin.
>>
>>http://www.justjazz.com/chetfrag.pdf
>>
>>reed
>>
>>
>
>
>Reed:
>
>Excellent solo. If you took away the chords, the improvisation may sound
>like it was all over a Db chord. Chet seems to avoid being specific with
>all the chords in the piece, choosing instead to generalize the piece using
>notes of the Db triad and Db major scale with a couple of chromatic
>leading, passing and neighbor tones.
>
>I presented a solo to a graduate theory class once that was almost totally
>constructed using motivic development. No guide tones, no outlines, no
>paraphrasing of the melody. One of my students brought in a solo in which
>he tried and tried to find motivic development, and was quite frustrated.
>There was no motivic development in the solo. In analysis of any kind one
>asks questions. Sometimes the answer is "no." Then you move on to the next
>question.
>
>In the introduction to my book I wanted to be clear about where the subject
>of the book fit into the larger scheme of things. Outlines and guide tones
>are a part of improvisation, but in no way the whole. I included a chart of
>what I feel the choices are when approaching improvisation. I want to
>include that here and relate it to the Chet excerpt.
>
>Improvisation Choices
>
>I. Paraphrasing
>
>This includes adding to the melody, changing the rhythmic character and
>ornamentation and elaboration.
>
>Often this is the only approach used. Miles takes some great solos where he
>is actually playing variations and elaborations on the theme. Not exactly
>unique to jazz. Reed exhibits this is some of his posted solos. This often
>neglected area of improvisation should be practiced more.
>
>II. Playing with the Harmony
>
>Sometimes jazz improvisers never refer to the melody after playing it once,
>instead relying on the harmony as a vehicle for their improvisations. There
>are variations by Bach, Beethoven and others where the variation is more
>about the harmony than the original theme, so again this approach is not
>unique to jazz.
>
>Under the category of Harmony are some subdivisions:
>
> A. General
> 1. blues lines as generalization
> 2. triadic generalization (Dm7-G7-C all in the key of C,
>playing C triadic melodies and embellishments not necessarily referring to
>each individual chord in the progression.) It is this approach that Chet
>seems to use more than being specific in this particular excerpt.
>
> B. Specific
> 1. using specific arpeggios
> 2. using guide tones and outlines
>(guide tones can refer to the 7ths resolving to the 3rds but also to 5ths
>and 9ths.)
>
>III. Motivic Development
>
>Motives may be derived from the melody or newly invented. List of devices
>follow:
>
>There is a little motivic development at the end of the Chet excerpt. (He
>sounds almost like he's going to quote "Tenderly.")
>
> A. Repetition
> B. Transpose
> C. Mode Change
> D. Fragment
> E. Add to (Before, in the middle, after)
> F. Sequence
> G. Embellish or ornament (keeping the general contour, using
>neighbor-tones and other devices, still keeping the motive recognizable)
> H. Augmentation (making the rhythmic unit or the pitch
>interval larger)
> I. Diminution (making the rhythmic unit or the pitch interval
>smaller)
> J. Invert (upside down: what goes up comes down)
> K. Retrograde (play backwards)
> L. Retrograde inversion (upside down and backwards)
> M. Displacement (pitch and & octave displacement; rhythmic
>displacement)
>
>These three areas answer the question "on what do you improvise?" Many
>improvisations will focus on one area more than another, but others may
>have elements of all three in some kind of balance. Most of theory
>discussion will point back to one of these areas.
>
>Analysis of a Clifford Brown solo may yield more outlines and guide tones;
>analysis of a Stanley Turrentine solo yields more blues generalizations;
>analysis of Sonny Rollins, Coltrane and some Miles may yield examples of
>motivic development that may ignore the harmonic implications. So I do not
>have nor advocate a unified singular approach to jazz improvisation. I
>agree with Reed that transcribing solos that you find meaningful will help
>you sound the way that you want to sound. I like Reed, am not interested in
>statistical analysis type theory. But, I find it helpful to sort out what I
>find and put it into some categories which help me incorporate the ideas
>into my playing.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________
>Bert Ligon
>Director of Jazz Studies
>_______________________________________
>School of Music
>University of South Carolina
>Columbia, SC 29208
>Voice: (803) 777-6565
>Fax: (803) 777-6508
>bligon@mozart.sc.edu
>_______________________________________
>
>
>
>
Tim Walters @j
walterstr@fau.campus.mci.net
school:
Department of Music home:
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