SNIP
>
> Then, recently, I came to an important conclusion...for me. I realized
> that there are thousands and thousands of hours of jazz in my head and
> my heart. And the best way to get the music out is to stop bottling it
> up with too much music theory.
>
As an amateur struggling to learn as well, I think we don't give enough
attention to listening to a lot of music. If enough good stuff goes in,
it will come out somehow. For me, transcribing has become another way to
listen to good music. It means listening a note at a time, thinking
about every aspect of that note-it's name, its duration, its quality,
its attack, articulation, dynamics, etc. I've only transcribed a few
things, but its already beginning to flow back out in my attempts to
solo. Also, when I transcribe, I don't usually write the chords in until
I'm done. I just try to understand the melodic flow as clearly as
possible, avoiding any overhead like scale types, etc. You might find
transcribing will be freeing as well.
> So, what I started doing is this. I take a tune and spell out the chords
> on the sheet music. Then I take four-bar segments. First I play the
> melody. And then I play the chords. Over and over again until I get a
> reasonable idea of what the story line is. (I'm a writer by profession,
> so the development in a tune is like a plot to me.) I do this for the
> entire song.
>
> Then I "rewrite" the song until it sounds like a lovely jazz tune
> similar to the original. In doing this, I follow the advice of Paul
> Desmond. Desmond was once asked if his improvisations were vertical or
> horizontal. He said he tried to create "diagonally".
>
This is the other thing that has started helping me-composing solos. It
began with rough places in tunes that I just couldn't play over very
well. I started composing and writing out various things to play on
those points, but soon started trying to write solos for other things.
My solos are pretty awful, but the exercise of writing them out forced
me to see that my solos are bad because I don't have a clear concept of
what I want to "say" musically. I just want to fill space and not trash
the changes. Composing has made me realize more and more that I need to
start with simple, solid melody ideas that I can play as my own.
Transcribed things also have a way of getting into my solos because
after going over a solo note by note, it really is ingrained.
> And, you know what? I'm finally starting to come up with some decent
> stuff. Eventually, I'll get some of these "rewrites" memorized and play
> them with a new riff here and there so people will think I made them up
> on the spot. In time, I'll have a repertoire of memorized improvs, play
> in front of great audiences...
>
> Then, when a struggling young improvisor comes up to me, I can tell him
> about how I couldn't have done it without transmogrifying Phyrigian
> tritones into augmented 13ths.
>
Any good zen master would caution against the extremes. Maybe you could
not have reached the point you have achieved without the path of
learning theory, listening, being frustrated, and finally discovering
your own path. No path is ready made. Tools are ready made, but not
paths. You may find a place for the theory some day, so I hope you don't
write it off. Maybe you can rewrite theory the way you rewrite the
tunes?
> fred cicetti
-- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////// Lawson G. Stone-Asbury Theological Seminary-Wilmore, KY ////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Prediction is very difficult, especially of the future. --Niels Bohr