Rules Rock!

"This is the fun class!", my classical flutist friend divulged upon entering the "Beginning Improvisation" classroom, finding that I had joined their ranks. 

Gilad Atzmon

As classical musicians, many of us see jazz as a land of the free, and home of the brave. Where else can one dress like it is casual Friday, make up a bunch of notes off of the top of his head, "jam" to the music while tapping his toe, and have a round of applause directly after his solo while the piece is still playing? In classical music we do not even receive clapping after a movement is over, let alone an awesome part we have worked hard on and play in the middle of a piece. Just the look of jazz players makes them seem fashionably impressive. They are relaxed, suave, aloof, and often times partially inebriated, like they haven't had the luxury of recovering 
from last night's party gig.

Nat King Cole

?

Freddie Hubbard

Paul Morley

      

You catch my drift.

I have often heard these quotes and felt empowered by the idea of Jazz:

"Play a wrong note once, it's a mistake, play it twice and it's jazz." (a popular phrase)

"Wrong is right." (Thelonious Monk)

"Don't fear mistakes, there are none." (Miles Davis)

In fact, I used the first quote in my improvisation class while I was attempting to boost the confidence of a girl who said she "freaked out" when it was her turn to improvise. Her response was, "If you play a wrong note twice, I guess that is the case, but if you play all wrong notes . . . well, then it's just wrong". I had not thought of that, but it was just the lesson that fate had destined me to learn this week.

Through this first week of learning to improvise, I have come to realize that jazz improvisation is much more structured than what I originally thought. Yes, jazz musicians are cool, laid back and sly, but their mystery is depleting as I learn the tricks of their trade which take lots of practice. During my exercises, when I gave myself guidelines to follow, my improvisation was much more successful than when I let my fingers take over. Perhaps if I was a professional jazz musician and I let my fingers take over, they would remember all of these awesome possibilities that I had previously practiced and played, but I am not yet to that point . . . I am in the beginning.

The Beginning

I made a video before my books had arrived, with only one improvisation class under way and I did not yet have any of the play-along recordings for the class. 

Before filming, I used these warm up drills (scales/arpeggios in Dorian modes - Dmin7, Cmin7, Ebmin7 and Fmin7) provided by my improvisation teacher:

Count Basie
"Well, if you find a note tonight that sounds good,
play the same damn note every night!"

I turned my metronome on to make sure I was counting an appropriate number of beats and measures (4) before I moved on to the next chord change. For a while, i improvised and sounded bad, really bad. I should have had the camera on at this point to show you the real starting point of my blues journey. I did not think to do that, but rest contented it would have aroused kicks, giggles, and earplugs. There were wrong notes because I was not comfortable with the scales yet, and I would lose track of the beat because I was trying things that were too complex. Then I remembered a friend from the class telling me to start with just the beginning three notes of each scale. I tried that and it sounded better, but I felt it was so boring with only those three notes. 

Rhythms that Equal a Quarter Note

Soon, I realized that it was not the three notes that were a snooze, but me. After all, I have heard some players play just one pitch in an interesting way. With only three notes to choose from, the creative part would have to be the rhythm that I played the notes in. I then played through the chord sequence several times in different rhythmic combinations. Each time, I attempted to include one rhythm from a chart I knew well -- Rhythms that Equal a Quarter Note --  something I had to memorize in my undergraduate Eurhythmics training at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

This is what resulted:

Not terrible. Granted, I had not thought to swing all of the rhythmic possibilities yet. Perimeters and structure are the key for beginning to make good choices in improvisation.

Here are some other organized practices and conclusions that have further helped me this week:

Sing before playing: Jamey Aebersold writes that singing is "the real you". Usually one can more easily sing what he hears in his mind than play it on his instrument; plus, the inflections and mood are more ingrained in the voice. Sing something neat, then learn to play it.

Play On or Off of a Pre-Selected Beat: Challenge yourself to start a phrase on the "and" of beat 1 after each chord change. Then see if you can begin the phrase each time on beat 2. Make different rules for yourself and find out if you are aware and adept enough to follow them.

Video Yourself: Watch yourself and see what worked and what did not.

Keep Track of the Beat: Togetherness and good rhythm is essential for successful music making. If you are attempting something so complicated that it is not with the beat or your cannot keep track of it, then you should simplify what you improvise until you are with the band/play-along/metronome.

Play with Confidence: Nothing is worse than a wrong note played without confidence. Try to convince everyone that you meant to play what you did.

Jazz Journey Blues

". . . you cannot participate in any of the playing activities in class" came the unexpected words of a jazz professor whom I had placed much of my hope in for  my future improvisation skills. Thump thump thump went my heart, my throat retracted and my head felt as if it were being compressed by a thousand pounds of books, a hot shiver went up my body and before I knew it I was in tears. The brave musician inside of me retracted into a hole of darkness.

How appropriate that my Blues journey should begin with the BLUES! 

This expedition began in response to a conclusion I have built up over many years of being a classical violinist: it is important for ALL musicians to learn how to improvise in diverse styles, and this skill should be taught in classical training.

At gigs my employers would inevitably ask my string quartet, do you know the tune "____" (fill in the blank) and I would say, "We know that tune, but unfortunately we don't have that in our collection music." Occasionally, our group would give a last ditch effort to play something that sounds remotely similar to the person's request. OR, if the request were made prior to the event, one of us would spend about four hours dictating the piece onto Sibelius (a music writing program) . . . what a waste of time. What if we could all listen to music that we know well and be able to just play it?

It is no coincidence that first class orchestras are integrating diverse styles into their repertoire and collaborating with artists who specialize in popular genres in order to draw in larger audiences. Nor is it a fluke that Hillary Hahn, Joshua Bell, Yoyo Ma, Han Bin, and other famous and upcoming stars are dabbling in bluegrass, jazz, and other cross-over music. It is fun to listen to and has a more casual feeling than classical concerts usually have. In this day and age, that is just what we need. In fact, even in the olden days, improvising and playing in current styles (often in more casual settings) was extremely popular.

Take these guys:

J.S. Bach

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Ludwig von Beethoven

Each of these amazing musicians improvised and played music that was current and popular during the time in which they lived, and it was of their own making. Only during Beethoven's time was the public concert hall used due to the rise of the bourgeoisie (the middle class), and even then, concerts were more interactive than the usual concert today. People would yell "encore!" at the end of a movement they loved or wanted to better understand, and the movement or piece would be played again.

This is not to suggest that I feel we should no longer play these artists' compositions, which are a part of our culture and inheritance, but that I feel we should rather model ourselves after these composers. Why should not we play popular music and improvise on it? There has become too much of a distinction between the classical and the popular, the formal and informal, the violinist and the fiddler, the instrumentalist and the composer. We need to be versitile in today's environment, especially with the incredibly tough job market.

Because I have come so much to believe in this topic, I have dedicated this semester to learning to improvise in the style of the Blues. My intention is to eventually learn many styles of music - jazz, fiddling, South-American music, and learn to improvise in them. However, one step at a time, and the Blues are first.

So, back to my panic attack . . . 

This feeling started when I finished my solo recital last Friday and reality hit home that I had relatively little time to embark on this escapade to learn a completely new style and try and improvise in it for my final lecture-recital as a doctoral student.

I began to think about what I know about improvisation . . . nada. And, where to start (no clue). So I ended up listening to Billie Holiday's "Good Morning Heartbreak"Good Morning Heartache, which was totally appropriate. I remembered that I had asked a fellow violinist friend, and wonderful improviser, for book references this summer. From his suggestion, I ended up buying Jamey Aebersold's Jazz Ear Training, Vol. 42, Blues in all Keys, Jazz: Anyone Can Improvise (DVD), and Vol. 1, How to Play Jazz and Improvise. Then I met with one of my supervising professors and found out that he felt Martin Norgaard's Jazz Fiddle Wizard books might be a better fit for me. Hello, Amazon Prime.

While speaking to one of my friends about this project, I learned that she was taking a beginning improvisation class offered through the jazz department. How did I not know about this? For a person who has a relatively high GPA and IQ, I certainly do not meet my own expectations sometimes. I frantically e-mailed the Jazz professors to ask for help - perhaps I could audit the beginning class, or at least get some guidance. The response I got was what you read above. It was not what I was hoping for, but at least I get to sit in on the class. 

All I can say is, the Blues I have surely do not match up to those of Billie Holiday, 

Billie Holiday

who as a young girl of 11 was raped, blamed for her own rape, and made to sleep by a corpse as punishment by the nuns who were in charge of her. She tells us of this in her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues.

Yes, my Blues are those of first world problems in the year 2013.