When I hear great jazz soloists, I can appreciate that they are making beautiful music--improvised music that transcends the choice of notes and rhythms and communicates with the audience on many levels. With this in mind, I have always questioned why the typical jazz improvisation lesson or college course has focused almost exclusively on scales and chords at the expense of logically and beautifully expressed musical lines. This is not to say that studying chords and scales is without value. Quite the contrary--disciplined practice of these rudiments of jazz is the best context for my own approach to teaching improvisation.
I have developed this method and used it for more than ten years in private lessons, workshops for high school students, and college courses. This method has worked consistently with students aged twelve and up, although this article focuses on the beginning- and intermediate-level improvisation student. This method is most effective when used with popular play-along recordings, such as Jamey Aebersold's jazz improvisation series, or computer applications like Band-in-a-Box (see Selected Resources on pg. 18). Both the teacher and the student must have access to these types of materials during lessons and for practice outside of lessons.
The ideas expressed in this article, as far as I know, are original. For this reason, there are no bibliographic references. I have never heard of a teaching approach similar to this, and my own education in jazz was in every aspect different from what I recommend here.
This approach to teaching blues improvisation does not rely upon having the student transcribe, memorize, or practice jazz and blues licks. The focus here is on teaching students basic phrase-based melodic principles and having them apply these principles to improvising melodic music within the context of a twelve-bar blues (for definitions see the Basic Jazz and Blues Terminology sidebar). This method teaches students to trust and develop their own sense of creativity and to conceive of each solo as an artistic musical composition. For students wishing to continue their education in the jazz and blues field, there will be ample opportunity to learn and memorize licks, transcribe solos, and practice standard jazz technical patterns and ètudes.
The three steps of this method are simple:
By mastering these three concepts--phrase structure, dramatic shape, and rudimentary thematic development--the student can successfully improvise a meaningful melodic solo that emotionally and intellectually communicates with the audience, exhibits a mature dramatic shape, and has a cohesive musical ending.
There is a lot of material for the student to absorb and master. Be patient and allow the student several class sessions or private lessons to come to terms with each concept. A realistic schedule for getting through all of these concepts, in one key, is three to four lessons. For middle school and high school students taking a weekly one-hour private lesson, an entire school year is a reasonable timetable for getting through all twelve major keys while using this material. In a college setting, with the class meeting at least twice a week, a single semester is reasonable.
Students must first learn one blues scale. I recommend that they begin with concert B-fiat, but any would work. The B-flat blues scale is illustrated in figure 1.
Once students can successfully play the blues scale, ascending and descending, for the entire range of their instrument (not just one octave), they can move on to the study of phrase structure. For this purpose, a phrase is four measures in length. There are two types of phrases: question (antecedent) and answer (consequent). A question phrase is any phrase that does not end on the tonic and therefore ends on another note of the blues scale. An answer phrase is any phrase that ends on the tonic. Don't let students use pitches outside of the blues scale.
Improvisation exercises during the lesson. All of the exercises can work in a small-group or whole-class setting. Use one of the play-along series. If you are not comfortable playing the exercises, simply have the students take turns, trade fours, and so forth. For the remainder of the article, descriptions will focus on a typical private lesson, but it should be emphasized that I have used this approach in classroom situations and group lessons, as well as in private lessons.
After the two types of phrases have been discussed and the student seems ready, begin by trading four-bar phrases with both you and the student using only answer phrases. The purpose of this exercise is to make the student comfortable with targeting a specific note while improvising short statements. This step is very important and should not be omitted.
After the student seems comfortable with this, progress to trading fours using only question phrases. This exercise is equally important. Have the student end phrases on different notes in the blues scale. Ask the student questions about the sound of each phrase. What does it sound like to end on the minor third from the blues scale? What about ending on the flatted fifth? By having the student use different notes of the blues scale as ending notes in a question phrase, you are building a mental connection between the sound of the music and the student's technique. This is very important ear training and is crucial for successful improvisation.
After the student is comfortable with this exercise, trade fours, alternating question and answer phrases. At first, you should play the question phrase, and the student should play the answer phrase. Then alternate who plays which phrase. By spending an entire lesson on these exercises, the student will learn to begin improvising cohesive melodic thoughts that exhibit an open (question phrase) and closed (answer phrase) structure. This is the same structure as a composed melodic line, but in this case, the line is improvised.
The next step is to have the student improvise an entire twelve-bar blues chorus (three four-bar phrases). The pattern of the phrases is question-question-answer. Demonstrate this and have the student try to improvise several during the lesson period. Figure 2 illustrates a one-chorus blues solo consisting of three phrases (question-question-answer) that are indicative of a simple improvisation.
Don't let the student play outside the blues scale yet. This is important because the goal is to create melodically meaningful improvisations that utilize the resources of the blues scale. Only after the Student can improvise on all twelve blues scales should you allow him or her to use the melodic resources of the chord progression (e.g., major mode with major-seventh chords, Mixolydian mode with dominant-seventh chords, Dorian mode with minor-seventh chords). A student who has mastered this method and progressed to the study of harmony will able to improvise fairly mature multichorus solos that have definite dramatic shapes with cohesive musical endings. Once the melodic structure has been internalized, introducing more advanced melodic and harmonic concepts is easier and takes less time for the student to learn.
The next step is controlling the melodic energy and dramatic shape during an improvised solo. First, define what constitutes dramatic energy in a solo. Typically, we think of musical lines that exhibit less dramatic energy as consisting of longer note values, having more and longer musical rests, being of a quiet nature, and not using the extreme registers of the instrument or voice. If these elements characterize a melody of low dramatic energy, then the opposite is true for melodies that exhibit a high level of dramatic energy Specifically, high-energy melodies use shorter rhythmic values and syncopation, have fewer and shorter rests, are often mezzo forte and louder, and explore the extreme registers of the instrument or voice. You can tell this to the student by simply saying, "Higher, faster, and louder equals high energy; and lower, slower, and softer equals low energy" While this is an overgeneralization, it works with most beginning and intermediate students.
Improvisation exercises during the lesson. After you have explained melodic energy and dramatic shape, begin with one-chorus blues solos. Start by demonstrating a simple solo that climaxes at the beginning of the third phrase and concludes with an answer phrase. The general melodic energy of this demo solo can be defined as small-medium-big in terms of the three phrases. After your demonstration, have the student try to improvise one. Coach the student while he or she is playing the instrument, specifically in terms of bringing the energy up and down.
Having a predetermined dramatic shape for an improvisation is very important at this stage. Always pre-define the dramatic shape that the student will strive to realize during an improvisation exercise. This teaches the student to explore different levels of musical energy while improvising and, when learned, will contribute to a natural and mature flow of musical energy.
Do not forget to incorporate the ideas about phrase structure that have already been covered. A successful strategy is to require the student to conclude each solo with an answer phrase. Other specific phrase requirements can be made, but concluding each solo with an answer phrase during these exercises teaches the student to end each solo with a logical musical statement that comes to rest on the tonic note.
Experiment with various dramatic shapes for a one-chorus solo. Some successful combinations are small-medium-big, big-small-big, and big-medium-small. Figure 3 shows a sample one-chorus solo using the small-medium-big dramatic shape.
Once the student has achieved a level of success with the one-chorus solo, it is time to move to a two-chorus solo. The important factors are building energy from the transition of the first chorus into the beginning of the second chorus, bringing the energy down at the end of the second chorus, and solidly ending the solo on the tonic note. Figure 4 illustrates a sample two-chorus solo. The dramatic shape of the first chorus is small-medium-big, and the dramatic shape of the second chorus is big-medium-small. The last phrase of the solo ends on the tonic.
Using thematic development simply means introducing the student to improvisation as a method of composition. This can be accomplished in a straightforward manner by introducing the student to three basic concepts:
With these basic concepts introduced, demonstrate for the student a one-chorus blues solo that follows the thematic pattern of idea-repetition (development)-something different for the three phrases of the blues chorus. This type of AAB formal structure is very common in blues lyrics, and it works quite well in instrumental improvisation instruction.
Figure 5 illustrates a one-chorus blues solo that follows the thematic pattern of idea-repetition-something different, while exhibiting the dramatic shape small-medium-big.
Once the student has become comfortable with one-chorus blues solos that possess a defined dramatic shape, use clearly communicated thematic ideas, and have a coherent musical ending, it is time to expand into multichorus blues solos that use these new principles. Have the student begin with two-chorus solos that follow this thematic pattern:
• first chorus: idea-repetition-something different
• second chorus: new idea-new repetition-bring back something from the first idea as an answer to end.
Figure 6 illustrates this type of two-chorus solo.
After the student is beginning to feel comfortable with this level of artistic control, start adding predetermined dramatic shapes to the thematic structure. For example, have the first chorus (idea-repetition-something different) follow the energy pattern of low energy-bring it up a little bit-build energy into the second chorus on the phrase level as the student is simultaneously controlling the thematic ideas. The second chorus should follow the energy pattern of keep the energy up-bring it down a little bit-bring the energy down and conclude with a solid musical answer.
Once a student can successfully play a logical two-chorus blues solo while controlling the musical energy into and out of a climax, using clearly communicated thematic ideas and digressions, and concluding with a coherent musical ending, then the student is beginning to master the art of jazz improvisation. As a teacher, performer, composer, and lover of jazz, I feel that this moment with my students makes it all worthwhile.
Through the concepts of phrase structure, musical energy and dramatic shape, and thematic development, you can effectively teach any student to improvise a musically meaningful solo. While the concepts are fairly simple, the implementation requires discipline and, above all, practice. By incorporating this system with the use of teaching aids such as Jamey Aebersold's Blues in All 12 Keys play-along books and recordings or Band-in-a-Box software, the teacher and student have a practical means to explore these principles in the lesson and at home. This is a very teachable system, and once the teacher is used to the specific order of the exercises, it becomes second nature. Being able to improvise a musically satisfying blues solo is, in my opinion, one of the first and most important steps in the lifelong pursuit of fluid jazz improvisation.
Blues changes. The chord progression for any given blues tune. Two sets of standardized blues chord changes are taught. These are notated using standard harmonic Roman numeral designations. All of the chords are typically major-minor seventh chords or dominant seventh chords. Both sets of chord changes consist of one chord per measure of music.
First chord changes:
Phrase I: I
Phrase 2: IV
Phrase 3: V
Second chord changes:
Phrase I: I
Phrase 2: IV
Phrase 3: V
In the key of C, the chords can be identified as: I
Blues scale (blue note). The scale that has evolved from the blues tradition. See below for the C blues scale:
Chorus. One complete performance of the structure of the tune. For example, in a twelve-bar blues, if the trumpet player plays a solo that is three choruses long, then the solo went completely through the twelve-bar structure three times, for a total of thirty-six measures.
Twelve-bar blues. The length of a standard blues tune. A twelve-bar blues contains three four-bar phrases.
Trading fours. The act of two or more people trading four-measure improvised phrases.
DIAGRAM: Figure 1. The B-flat blues scale
DIAGRAM: Figure 2. One-chorus blues solo showing phrase structure
DIAGRAM: Figure 3. One-chorus blues solo showing dramatic shape
DIAGRAM: Figure 4. Two-chorus blues solo showing dramatic shape
DIAGRAM: Figure 5. One-chorus blues solo showing thematic pattern
DIAGRAM: Figure 6. Two-chorus blues solo showing thematic pattern
By Benjamin Tomassetti
Benjamin Tomassetti is director of the audio technology program at American University in Washington, D.C.
