Navigating the Landscape of Improvisation
A different kind of post
Does this sound familiar:
You want to learn how to improvise.
You learn about chords, chord tones, scales, etc.
You’re presented with a lead sheet or just some chord symbols.
A lot of emphasis is placed on knowing what the notes are when faced with a chord symbol.
You have to be able to conjur up the notes instantly, because you have to “outline the changes”, so you need to know “the right notes”.
Makes sense in a way, but it focusses solely on hitting the notes that are in the chord.
This creates a very arpeggio/exercise-like sound, which is also what happens to a lot of musicians who start improvising.
It also creates a very vertical way of thinking and a thinking from chord to chord, instead of playing phrases over several bars.
When we’re improvising, we’re usually going for playing melodies, which is horizontal.
It’s an opposition that has been going on since the 17th/18th century.
Melody vs harmony; counterpoint vs chords.
Let’s dive a little bit deeper into this history.
Over the centuries, the principles of counterpoint have been systemized more and more into static chords.
Rameau came up with this fundamental bass theory (where we think of chord categories and inversion). This was not widely adopted and depended very much on region.
On top of this theory, the development of Austro-German harmonic theory began in the 19th century: Vogler and Weber for scale-degree theory, Sechter and Mayrberger for fundamental-bass theory, and Riemann for function theory.
(Christensen, T. (2002). The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory. Cambridge University Press)
Today, we inherited this amalgamation of different theories and then some.
With Impressionism, composers started using chords as colours “per se”. No need to prepare and resolve dissonants or dominant 7ths. The sound of the chord is what’s important. Here’s also where the idea of “if it sounds good, it is good” originated.
This is pretty much what you’ll hear a lot of people say today.
Added 6 chords; 9,11,13 chords; pentatonics, etc. were heavily used during this period and that’s pretty much what the harmonic vocabulary was (and is) in jazz.
(Palmer, C. (1973). Impressionism in music.)
In the 1942, George Goodwin introduced the Tune-dex:
“... the index card included song title, songwriter, date of original publication, licensing and rights information, and arrangements and orchestrations available, with keys and prices noted. The cards also provided the basic melody or chorus and lyrics for each song. The cocktail lounge music trend in the 1940s and 1950s, which often required musicians to take requests and know numerous songs, contributed to the popularity of the Tune-Dex card system.”
This then later morphed into fake books.
(Kernfeld, B. (2006). The Story of Fake Books: Bootlegging Songs to Musicians (Volume 53) (Studies in Jazz, 53). Scarecrow Press)
The chord symbol acts as a cue or a mnemonic device: you see the symbol and a stack of notes gets summoned into your brain.
Chord symbols come with a lot of freedom and interpretation.
You can choose to add other tension notes, you can choose to play a different (chord) note in the bass, you can choose to use substitutes, etc.
Figured bass also works as a cue, with the exception that the bass is given and you need to conjur up the intervals above it. The bass line itself also works as a cue, because there were conventions of which “constellation” of intervals went above certain patterns of bass movements.
That’s the idea of partimento training or the Rule Of The Octave. A piece of information is given and your brain “auto-completes”.
This is a powerful training method, because it based on melodic movement from the start and it adds harmony on top. It’s more intertwined.
It’s a different way of thinking and a different way of approaching harmony though.
Of course there was also homophonic music (melody + accompaniment), which is basically what’s happening nowadays and that’s also how we approach improvisation.
In the end, all of this is about “the act of creation”, whether it’s “composed” or “improvised”. (Sidenote, Debussy’s goal was to compose music that sounded improvised and fluid.)
Because I’m interested in many different styles and periods, I’ve been trying to study all of these approaches and come up with a “unified” approach for my own interests (and sanity).
I wanted to approach it in a "style-agnostic" way, but I don’t think that’s even possible.
Instead, I think it’s better to acknowledge where the stylistic differences lie and what the effect will be of certain tools and approaches.
Therefore, I think it might be more beneficial to follow the course of history, which is of course not a new approach, but the way that this has been used is very dogmatic in my experience:
You need to operate within the confines of a certain style of period, to (almost) the full exclusion of other approaches, instead of learning things side by side.
I won't say what you should or shouldn’t do, but I advocate for using & incorporating any and all tools at your disposal.
Learn how to go from counterpoint to a more vertical approach to harmony, to adding extensions, to learning about modes, substitutions, superimpositions and back again.
Whether you think about figured bass or chord symbols and extensions or borrowing from the diminished like Barry Harris says, the point is that you have a mental framework and that you have options in your mind; you can see and find connections.
It makes sense to you.
If there ís one common denominator (and what marked a turning point for me) it’s starting from rhythm and as an extension to that, rhythmic phrases.
(This is a nice welcome to restrict the variables in every day practice.)
Again, not a new concept and one that has been repeated many times before.
There are an infinite amount of ways to shape a melody, to create tension and release, to stack colour on top of colour, but learning to think in phrases is what brought a much needed structure to my improvisations.
My teacher always said: “you need to play statements”.
Statements, phrases, however you want to call it, will give you ánd your listener something to hold on to. You’re actually starting to make sense and it sounds like you have something to say.
How you want to fill in the rest is up to you.
If you like these kinds of posts as well, let me know!