>Reed,
>I have some ideas about improvising that I would like to present to the
>group to get thier replys. The ideas could be some what negative. Do you
censor
>negativity? I have sent some things in before and I don't think that you
>published them because they were not included in your daily e-mail that I
get.
>If you reply positively to this letter, I will send my ideas to you hoping
>that I will get replys from the rest of the people. Negative replys will help
>me and will be gladly read along with any positive ones.
I believe that there is no such thing as a boring harmonicly correct solo of
scales. I believe that it sould be called "pleasantly adequate". A boring solo
is "happy Birthday" played in the key of E major over the correct harmony in C
major that goes on for ~3mins.
Benny Goodman essentially played harmonically correct bugle calls in his solos.
However, his phrasing and mastery of the clarinet made him immortal. Dixieland
clarinet players essentially do the same thing and they sound good to me.
Coleman Hawkins made evrey change. His solo on "BODY and SOUL" is essentially
arpeggios sprinked with parts of the melody. Don't knock it. Many of Coltrane's
solos were repeating a minor triad over and over again. Others such as "Giant
Steps" were serious change running.
My point is that blind change running and complicated harmonially correct
scale running is the beginning of great playing. However, if you don't try
to express some feeling using the correct changes, people will be turned off
after a few listens.
A jazz soloist has various tools at his disposal:
1)Scales
2)Arpeggios
3)Playing completely wrong notes
4)Staying on the chord extensions
5)Playing ~70% correctly while sticking in short wrong note passages on
purpose.
A good soloist is in charge of wht he is doing so he play his various things at
will.
I have been trying to play by ear recently and I wind up recognising certain
chord progressions as if I am hearing words in a conversation. I still ned to
relate the sound of the chord to its basic spelling with extensions all played
in the same octave. How do "ear players" do it?
I have found that 10 notes can go over a dominant 7 chord and all you need to
do is avoid the maj7 and the 4'th. (the 3'rd if you are playing over an 11'th
or sus 4 chord.) In discussions, it was pointed out (probably by reed) that
chords such as Ab9, Cm7b5, and Ebm6 have essentially the same improvising
note choice. That is a good thing to keep in one's mind. Other similarities
were also pointed out.
Many letters have been submitted reharmonizing tunes. It would be nice if
when this is done:
1)A chart is written to solo over.
If only the keyboard player knows what is going on, then all you have is grief,
wrong notes, a lot of face saving and some people being cut out of gigs.
Since jazz is very competitive, that can be the only result.
2)The rewritten product does not clash with the melody.
3)The rewritten product can be played over by all soloists in the group
without too much grief.
I also believe that a great solo can be played over "shlocky", "uninteresting"
chords. "my shining hour" on the Coltrane Jazz album is a really good example.
If we have no choice, many times it is easier to use "bad" fakebook changes
than to rewrite the tune extemporaneously.
I am looking forward to the group's response.
HAVA NICE DAY
Jules Goldberg (408)296-8872