Beginner Improv

[d3crypt3d]

My school just started a jazz band and I am the most experianced and oldest in it so I am expected to play most of the solos I believe. I am playing tenor sax and my teacher told me that improv is just 'scales and patterns from memory'. I'm too eager to wait over the weekend: what should I be doing to start out?

 

[jools]

Hey

That's some sound advice there from Simon!

Maybe I could add... learn how chords work, what the notes are and all the 'passing notes' are. Then play those notes as each bar arrives with those chords in. As Miles Davis said: "a wrong note is only a semitone from a correct note"

 

[d3crypt3d]

k thanx simon. and jools i've heard of the passing notes thing. the solo section for the first song we got starts out in C7. i know the chord is C, E, G, and Bb. are there any notes that are just big no-nos?

 

[Pete Thomas]

d3crypt3d wrote:
k thanx simon. and jools i've heard of the passing notes thing. the solo section for the first song we got starts out in C7. i know the chord is C, E, G, and Bb. are there any notes that are just big no-nos?

The only really big nono with this chord is a B natural, although that is quite acceptable (in fact very good) if used as a passing note, ie passing between C and Bb in either direction but on a weak beat.

e.g. C or Bb on a crotchet (1/4 note beat) and B natural on the "and" as in 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.

C-B-Bb (1-and-2).

Other non chord notes on a 7th chord can of course be used as passing notes, and even if not they add tension to a certain degree. There are loads of rules but your ears will be a good guide.

 

[jools]

In effect - if you were playing against a C7 chord - you would be playing anything scale-related to F major (set your mind to think in F). Or to make this into a formula - for any 7th chord play any scale patterns of a fourth up. (a bit simplistic, but it will work)