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Improving my Improvisation

hey,
right now i am struggling with my improvisation. its not, that i cant (i guess) but that i am unsure of how to play tasty and fast stuff (all the jazzmasters sound tasty to me :d ). i also noticed that a lot of those jazz cats from the good old times, learned to solo by transcribing. like barry harris. he mentioned that he startet to play jazz from 4 years on. but at his first jamsession (dunno at which age) he suddenly recognized that he cant solo. so he learned the solos from the records. so i made up my mind and came to the conclusion that transcribing might be a marvelous way to really learn to play (and to play what you hear in your inner-ear because of the ear-training you get). i never saw any good in learning scales (running up and down and stuff) because it mostly had no musical context to me.

so what do you think of excessive-transcribing instead of all those scale-practice-patterns?

by PomPom on 11/26/2007, 08:44

There are 8 comments, leave a comment.

i worked as a transcriber for hal leonard but i can't really say if all that jazz transcribing really helped my improvisation or not. mulgrew miller told me he never transcribed solos. i would not discount scales and arpeggios. something that might help your scales and arpeggios is learning ow to phrase them with the three little rules of forward motion.
how's your swing accenting by the way?

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by Jazz+ on 11/26/2007, 09:12

i transcribe for an hour each day. i can really see how some of the stuff that i've played pops up subconsiously in my improvisations. i have never written down a solo, because i have a real hard time with rhythm notation, but i always learn to play along to the record (preferably in real time). i should be learning them with my own left hand voicings to them too, but that's often very hard.

however, i think nothing is so valuable as to actually listen to jazz records every day and sing along with all the solos you know, that's the only thing that really sparks your imagination.

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by hej on 11/26/2007, 10:56

yeah - it always helps me to sing lines when i'm in the car - away from a keyboard. then i have something to pick out when i get home:)

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by Dr. Whack on 11/26/2007, 11:36

wow jazz+, did you transcribed for the "artist transcriptions" series? i like these books, very accurate work. i'm just curious, what jazz piano
masters did you transcribe?

and, btw, what are the three rules of forward motion?

nikos

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by Nikos on 11/26/2007, 11:56

transcription work nor scale practice will help if you do not understand why you are doing that work and how it is meant to help your improvisational skills. for example a skilled teacher may listen to you trying to improvise and be able to hear that you are struggling to find available notes for improvisation or that your lines are not flowing because of too many wide leaps in your lines. this teacher may assign scale study and theory study for understanding chord scales. then you would know why you are practicing scales for improvisation. but if you just start practicing scales for the heck of it that will do you no good. likewise there is a goal with transciption. if you just do a bunch of transcriptions with no knowlegde of why you are doing them it may not help your improvisation skills one little bit.

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by Mike on 11/26/2007, 12:33

this thread is from a couple of weeks ago re-transcription-https://www.learnjazzpiano.com/citadel/scotcit.mvc?intro_off=1&action=forum&sub=display_thread&id=37615&bid=35781&room_id=1

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by smg on 11/26/2007, 18:09

@jazz+ it is improving because transcribing the masters is awesome regarding the phrasing. i learned so many from just one transcription (mcoytyner - freddie freeloader) concerning phrasing. right now i am transcribin a blues from monty alexander. he is awesome concerning phrasing. he is like little trickbox.

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by PomPom on 11/27/2007, 01:56

hey i'm in a jazz band in high-school, and i was wondering what all should go good together in a jazz solo. i know this is a very broad question, but im just not sure what sounds good. for instance we're playing "low rider", and i have a solo in this song. what style, or methods would go good in this song. anything is helpful. thank you.

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by Hezron on 11/30/2007, 20:22

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Improving my Improvisation

There are 8 comments, leave a comment.

by Jazz+ on 11/26/2007, 09:12

by hej on 11/26/2007, 10:56

by Dr. Whack on 11/26/2007, 11:36

by Nikos on 11/26/2007, 11:56

by Mike on 11/26/2007, 12:33

by smg on 11/26/2007, 18:09

by PomPom on 11/27/2007, 01:56

by Hezron on 11/30/2007, 20:22

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Improving my Improvisation

There are 8 comments, leave a comment.

by Jazz+ on 11/26/2007, 09:12

by hej on 11/26/2007, 10:56

by Dr. Whack on 11/26/2007, 11:36

by Nikos on 11/26/2007, 11:56

by Mike on 11/26/2007, 12:33

by smg on 11/26/2007, 18:09

by PomPom on 11/27/2007, 01:56

by Hezron on 11/30/2007, 20:22

Reply to Thread

Jazz Piano Notebook Series

"Latinesque"

LJP Jazz Piano Blogs

Most Recent Discussions

Articles

Top Sheetmusic Picks

Jazz piano education is cool.

Rock on. Follow your passion.

Sign In