I'm a classically trained player with lots of technical and theoretical
background, so the theory-banter that seems to permeate the jazz-ed arena
never swamped me or intimidated me, but in my attempts at improvising I
just didn't find it very helpful... I bought several books, tried to
work with them, and mostly ended up frustrated.
My new approach is to take Abersold's advice to heart: "the answers to
all your questions are contained in the recorded history of jazz." And I
can't remember where I saw this one, but here are the three "ate"s of
learning to improvise:
1. imitate
2. assimilate
3. innovate
(forgive me the non-attribution.)
So I'm still pretty much in the imitate phase. But this is lots of fun
because it gives me a good excuse to buy hordes of records and spend
hours and hours listening to and transcribing from them! (hasn't done
much for my home life, but my improvising is getting better!) I've
identified several players I like particularly well, and I just generally
make a nuisance of myself at record stores trying to track down
recordings that they play on, (which often leads to the discovery of
other tasty morsels) and of course I always keep my ears open to the
radio (Denver has a terriffic 24 hour jazz station) for something new.
I'm going for the total immersion approach. They say that's the best
way to learn a language... and what is jazz, afterall?
I have also found the composing approach very helpful (reed deserves a
tip of the hat here...). What is improvisation, if not real-time
composing? If you can't sit down and think out a solo or an
accompaniment, for that matter (whether you write it down or not--let's
not go there again, shall we?), then how can you expect to throw one out
on the hoof? Improvising musicians, the good ones, are masterful
spur-of-the-moment composers. And it has to start somewhere....
I have enjoyed this recent thread immensely. thanks for all the
confessions. but richard: I still don't really understand your visualize
a melodic minor scale and find the tritone/inverted triad that make up a
viocing of some kind or other... would you clarify, please?
thank you all so very much.
stephen buckley