Feb 252010
This is a confusing question to ask. Eventually a musician doesn’t rely on scales for his/her improvisational purposes. So how do they manage to express their improv so well when they solo? I’ve practiced all modes in major, harmonic minor, melodic minor, pentatonic major/minor, diminished, whole tone, chromatic, bebop, blues,etc and every time I listen to a real jazz musician they seem to nail everything and manage to make it sound musicially. My querstion is how?
They practice
and Listen to recordings
And play along with the recordings
And practice some more…..
They have an extreme amount of music knowledge, and they most likely do base solos off scaler ideas but their experiences let them solo without having to think too hard about them.
Most of it is just natural musicality, too. You have to be born with the language of jazz inside of you, otherwise no matter what you play, it ain’t gonna swing
That’s because when you analyze music, you are predisposed to hunt for patterns, ie: scales and modes, etc. We as humans need to have everything explained methodically, with a ‘rhyme and reason’, as they say. Once you’ve been playing for some time, things just pop into your head, and you can play them. It’s inexplicable. The key to being a great musician is not practicing silly scales, but LISTENING. You must listen tens of times more than you play. This is key. Try scat singing when you’re away from your instrument. Try out different harmonic ideas, find out why X note has such an effect on X chord…
Listen, and replicate. If you do it enough times, you’ll have copied so many people that you sound original. Eventually, things bridge together to coalesce into a complete musical thought.
they are relying on scales and chords, but they know them so well, that they use them with out thinking. they also can hear a lick used by some one else, like it, and us it themselves, usually putting their own twist on it. both of these things are what i do, which, with practice, got me a spot playing a back and forth kind of solo with a professional saxophonist from a college near my school, in which we would feed of of each others ideas and put new ideas in with it, which was A LOT of fun. the coolest part, and the part that surprises most people is that its all done on the spot.
well, im a lead alto sax player in my schools jazz 2 band and i solo a lot. however, 90% of the time, there is a written solo. but i never play the written solo. i kinda take some ideas from the written solo and just play whatever comes to my head, u dont necessarily need to play scales. it’s just an option. oh, and btw, the reason they’re so “beast” at improving is because they’ve had years and years of practicing. im talkin anywhere from 20-30 years. some even more. it’s not something that happens within a few days. it takes years of practice. good luck to ya
1) experience
2) getting down the basics
3) practice
Chuck Mangioni. Look the “theme from side street.”