rudjarl
Senile Member. Scandinavian Ambassadour of CaSLM
- Messages
- 599
- Locality
- Løten, Norway
First off, I do realize that there is a general order of things. And in playing jazz (and in other genres with lot of rules and no rule to govern them) the general order of things (besides learning the melody if it got one obviously) dictates that you 1) learn basic scales, 2) advance the scales in majors, minors and modes while 3) learn licks before finally 4) copy solos... yupp... more or less... that's it...
And while there is nothing wrong with that, I can't help feeling that it only conforms you to the stereotype that has become Jazz. There is no real originality in playing licks and copying solos. Oh, it makes you sound cool. No doubt about it. But is it a sign of originality? How often is it not said: plays like ... or sounds like ... (It's only when it goes horribly wrong it truly sounds like myself)
Make no mistake about it, I'm a copy cat. Sometimes I try to be original, but the sound of that makes me hurry back to them good old licks. So how improvised is my improvising? Doing those hard learned (indeed) licks. Oh yeah.... never done before... possibly... not exactly like that any way... But they are not dissimilar from tune to tune. Is it improvisation then?
And while there is nothing wrong with that, I can't help feeling that it only conforms you to the stereotype that has become Jazz. There is no real originality in playing licks and copying solos. Oh, it makes you sound cool. No doubt about it. But is it a sign of originality? How often is it not said: plays like ... or sounds like ... (It's only when it goes horribly wrong it truly sounds like myself)
Make no mistake about it, I'm a copy cat. Sometimes I try to be original, but the sound of that makes me hurry back to them good old licks. So how improvised is my improvising? Doing those hard learned (indeed) licks. Oh yeah.... never done before... possibly... not exactly like that any way... But they are not dissimilar from tune to tune. Is it improvisation then?