(Shouldn't there be a prefix "Improvisation"?)
In several discussions several of us have thrown shade on players "stringing licks together". I wanted to talk further about this, injecting a new element and I count on the possible chiming in from various points of view.
Form
We've said, I have said that (in my opinion) good improvising is not just chaining a bunch of riffs together. There is a conditional aspect of this. If you are telling a story and using form and rhythm to do so, then phrases are a legitimate tool. If you picture soloing in a 12-bar blues, many of the best players are actually using common phrases or their own well-practiced phrases. The quality control here, though, is that they use form and melodic and rhythmic variation to create a "conversation" with themselves. Form is thought of as the structure of a song, such as AABA or blues with a bridge, or rhythm changes. The way I see it, you can also have form in a single part of the structure. Inside the 12-bar, there is the sub form tonic, dominant, sub dominant and sometimes other stuff like turnarounds. But inside of each of these is a whole world of structural possibility. This kind of thinking is not what you want to do when you are playing, but when listening to great music, it's a useful tool to understand what makes it great. I give you Oscar Peterson.
So many bass solos confirm the joke "Drums stop, very bad. Drums stop. Bad. Bass solo."
I believe mostly, this is because for some reason, bass players (and I did play upright bass) often lose all sense of their role when given the spotlight. They turn into showy performers and usually have little or no structure.
Sonny Rollins performances in his saxophone trio, recorded live here, will never lose my admiration, and he is playing with a brilliant rhythm section. It is my opinion that the bass solo by Wilber Ware, starting at around 2:50 is one of the finest expressions of form and structure in a solo played with minimal rhythmic accompaniment.
An idea for beginning improvisers
It's often suggested here that you take a few notes, and noodle around with them. I have a slighly different idea: find a lick you like, even something you heard from someone else, and turn it into something else inside a form. So, play the phrase, three or four notes, possibly simple rhythmically, like all triplets or all eighth or sixteenth notes. Now play it and eliminate one two notes. Play it a half stope up, or down. Play the notes, changing the last note. Doing this will generate a ton of ideas. You now need to put these together and achieve some kind of development. A firned of mine who went on to play in Tower of Power told me he had "springboard" licks. The exercise I described above isn't enough to actually make music, but it may be a springboard to help you get there.
So I'm all over the place in this little essay, but I hope you'll share your thoughts.
In several discussions several of us have thrown shade on players "stringing licks together". I wanted to talk further about this, injecting a new element and I count on the possible chiming in from various points of view.
Form
We've said, I have said that (in my opinion) good improvising is not just chaining a bunch of riffs together. There is a conditional aspect of this. If you are telling a story and using form and rhythm to do so, then phrases are a legitimate tool. If you picture soloing in a 12-bar blues, many of the best players are actually using common phrases or their own well-practiced phrases. The quality control here, though, is that they use form and melodic and rhythmic variation to create a "conversation" with themselves. Form is thought of as the structure of a song, such as AABA or blues with a bridge, or rhythm changes. The way I see it, you can also have form in a single part of the structure. Inside the 12-bar, there is the sub form tonic, dominant, sub dominant and sometimes other stuff like turnarounds. But inside of each of these is a whole world of structural possibility. This kind of thinking is not what you want to do when you are playing, but when listening to great music, it's a useful tool to understand what makes it great. I give you Oscar Peterson.
So many bass solos confirm the joke "Drums stop, very bad. Drums stop. Bad. Bass solo."
I believe mostly, this is because for some reason, bass players (and I did play upright bass) often lose all sense of their role when given the spotlight. They turn into showy performers and usually have little or no structure.
Sonny Rollins performances in his saxophone trio, recorded live here, will never lose my admiration, and he is playing with a brilliant rhythm section. It is my opinion that the bass solo by Wilber Ware, starting at around 2:50 is one of the finest expressions of form and structure in a solo played with minimal rhythmic accompaniment.
An idea for beginning improvisers
It's often suggested here that you take a few notes, and noodle around with them. I have a slighly different idea: find a lick you like, even something you heard from someone else, and turn it into something else inside a form. So, play the phrase, three or four notes, possibly simple rhythmically, like all triplets or all eighth or sixteenth notes. Now play it and eliminate one two notes. Play it a half stope up, or down. Play the notes, changing the last note. Doing this will generate a ton of ideas. You now need to put these together and achieve some kind of development. A firned of mine who went on to play in Tower of Power told me he had "springboard" licks. The exercise I described above isn't enough to actually make music, but it may be a springboard to help you get there.
So I'm all over the place in this little essay, but I hope you'll share your thoughts.
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