Thematic Improvisation Explained Step By Step

Are you asking yourself: "How can I improve my improvisation playing a more, logical, consequential way?"

In many jazz improvisation books you can read about the "call and response" method but, in my experience, little or no time is spent on how to practically teach your brain to do that step by step.

I have as well attended masterclasses on "thematic improvisation" by illustrious players like John Abercrombie and Steve Coleman who stress the importance of developing your solos starting from short melodic/rhythmic ideas.

In my attempt to develop this aspect of my guitar playing, I found that the approach of Hal Crook (trombonist with the Phil Woods Quartet and chair of jazz improvisation at the Berklee college of music, Boston) to practice thematic improvisation is definitely the easiest to follow.

So, based on Hal Crook's approach to practicing thematic improvisation, here are 3 main techniques you can use to expand your improvisation thematically:

1) Imitation
2) Extension
3) Fragmentation

In this short article, I'll introduce the idea of imitation.

Step 1: Choose a very simple rhythmic and harmonic setting (e.g., 4/4 , G7)

Step 2: Choose a very short melody (3-4 notes) and play it again and again.

Step 3: Create a variation of the original melody using the same rhythm and melodic curve (if you don’t know what a melodic curve is, just put in writing the notes of your melody and then join them. You’ll immediately see what your curve is).

Step 4: Play the new melody 4 times, then play a new set of notes (still same melodic curve)

Step 5: Now select a chord progression (e.g., II V I or an easy standard) and practice imitation throughout the harmonic progression. You can play the same group of notes thoughout or choose to replace notes in separate areas of the tune (e.g., AABA)

If you practice this way for a few weeks I promise that your solos will start sounding way more consequential. The cool part is that your band mates will be intrigued by your way to put forward melodic and rhythmic ideas and will help you build up your solos developing the improvisational segments you started.

I hope that this brief article gave you some ideas on how to practice thematic improvisation. If you are intrested in a more step by step approach to practice soloing I strongly recommend to start working regularly with Hal Crook's "How To Improvise", where imitation, extension and fragmentation improvisational techniques are explained very clearly.

Article Source: http://www.newsarticlessite.com

From The same author: The Truth About The Rocket Piano Package: The Easiest Way To Learn Piano: symphonicfm.com/rocket-piano/the-truth-about-rocket-piano/ How To Book Gigs For Your Band Using Facebook: The New Music Economy: symphonicfm.com/music-business/how-to-get-gigs-using-facebook-the-new-music-economy/ Thematic Improvisation Explained Step By Step: symphonicfm.com/jazz-improvisation/thematic-improvisation-explained-step-by-step/ Learn Jazz Harmony: The Jazz Theory Book Review: symphonicfm.com/jazz-improvisation/learn-jazz-harmony-the-jazz-theory-book-review/

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated