Mike - just what the Doctor ordered - a logical approach that will bring out that inner player. I’ve heard it before many times - learn by listening, more listening, study, more listening - then create. I so much appreciate your work. Neil
Hi Michael, This is huge...this video plus incorporating your overall teaching focus on the ear to allow myself to listen to chord changes then emote/express what I feel & hear inside is the only way I've been able to improvise my entire life. As a trombonist, I never studied theory or learned/practiced scales. Over time, I've become proficient at sight reading, intonation & articulation. I've had to solely rely on what melody lines/phrases come to mind when it comes to 8, 12, 16+ bar solos. I've never even glanced at the chord notations throughout the solo measures. I've had to totally rely on what I intuitively hear. But here's the kicker...to do this live & in the moment is difficult. Depending on the level of chord change challenge, I often resort to writing out my solos. This works well for jazz ensembles that practice weekly in preparation for gigs and I have the time and able to test solos out during a given practice. I play the chart track, sing out what I hear over the progressions, then play what I've sung on the 'bone & finally scribe the solo on manuscript. (I know there's software out there that can transcribe for me, but I'm old school). What this does for me is to have a foundational solo/melody base line. As I practice it, learn & hear it over time, I'm able to deviate off that foundational script--LIVE--and create varying licks, change up phrase entrances & exits, switch up note rhythm patterns, etc. Among other techniques you've shown that have helped me when I do look at the measure chord changes are common tones like you did in this video. I've actually written common tones over the chart chord progressions to better support soloing live. Playing over drones in specific keys has also helped me align ear to instrument. This has also created awareness that maybe I don't know my 'bone as well I thought I did. Thanks for your wonderful savvy insights & the way you clearly & authentically articulate your teachings. Bruce
I greatly appreciate your methodical approach to a more complex tune! I have been a fan of your approach for quite some time now. I do have to ask though how does the language then show up in your solos? Does the time focusing on the chords at the keyboard and listening to the greats play the tune cause the language you hear to show up in your improvisation? I did have an experience once with a big band while playing Blue Bossa where I knew the melody from listening but I had never worked it out on my horn. Without the notes of the tune in front of me, I found myself playing the head with few mistakes having never practiced it. Would your approach help to affect more of these type of experiences?
I think that for people such as yourself who have spent plenty of time practicing scales and chords in a variety of ways, playing what you hear and playing from the heart creates much better results than it does for someone who has not put that work in. I don’t think that the chord-scale approach creates mechanical playing. It just creates a baseline upon which you can either play from the heart or not. There are exceptions in the cases of students with incredible ears who can pick up stuff right away from recordings but most students can’t do this at the start. After spending time with chord-scale practice and applying it to tunes, students usually end up having improved their ears as well and are better able to transcribe and imitate and execute ideas they hear in their minds.
As I said in the video, I am not against working on scales. They help orient one's ear to key centers and builds technical facility, both of which are critical to improvisation. But leave them at the door when it comes to improvising. Orienting your playing to scales and memorized patterns is the very definition of mechanical playing. It also reinforces today's prevailing idea that jazz is about the quantity of notes - the more the better. And forcing scales and patterns into "improvisation" is an excellent way to artificially increase the volume of notes. Instead, listen to tons of music, compose your own music, play piano regardless of your primary instrument, practice your instrument relentlessly to gain facility, but don't be lured into the mechanical caricature of jazz by confusing scales and patterns for music. Play what you hear inside.
@@mymusicsavvy Wouldn’t you say that scale practice goes beyond just the key center? For example, you could play over a ii V I and think of just the key center and sound fine. This is what I call “global” playing. But thinking of chord-scales through the ii V I (ex. Dorian to Altered to Lydian tonic) will take you in a different direction and open up melodic possibilities that wouldn’t arise from the other approach. I think it’s important for students to develop this “local” approach as well as the global one. Ultimately, I agree that in the musical moment you want to just follow your ear and heart!
@@tbonealex I think our basic disagreement is about the relationship between scales and melodies when crafting music. Scales are not melodies. I'm advocating starting from melody instead of scale. I see confusion and frustration from players thinking while improvising about technical terms like Dorian, Altered, Lydian, etc. The notes fit the chords but is the final result personally inspired music? The audience I'm trying to help is the guy or gal who doesn't naturally think of modes and altered scales. It sounds like that stuff comes naturally to you and allows you to express yourself the way you prefer. But I see the musical results when I encourage a player to sing what they hear inside and then play that on their instrument, not thinking about anything but the melody over the sound of the chords. Is it perfectly aligned with the harmony? Not always. Did they miss that raised 4 or flat nine in the chord? Sometimes. But I don't think that technical precision is the primary goal of improvisation for many who want to improvise better. Was Miles always technically note precise. No. He played what he heard, and his energy and melodic genius created great music. That's my model. I did go to great lengths in the video to say that this way of approaching jazz is not objectively the only way. But for those with a certain sense for melody and whose left brain to instrument connection is not as technically proficient or quick as yours, I experience this as making them better and more satisfied improvisers.
@@mymusicsavvy I agree that scales are not melodies, but it doesn’t take much to go from a boring, mechanical scale to an expressive melody (add some rhythms, combine leaps and steps, chromatic embellishments, expressive inflection, etc). Maybe you’ve had different results, but in my own experience (ten years working full time teaching college jazz students), asking a student to follow their ear without also methodically exposing their ears (and fingers) to the sounds of the individual chords and scales tends to have very mediocre results. We hear this in every middle school blues scale solo! I suspect that if you asked a beginner jazz student to sing what they hear in their mind over a fairly complex tune like “Stella,” they would struggle a lot at first (my guess is that many wouldn’t even be able to hear the key area shifts), but after spending some time practicing the individual chords and scales (mechanically at first, then adding the other elements I mentioned, and also doing a lot of singing), they would probably be able to hear and sing something much better! When students listen to great jazz recordings from about the late 1950s on, they are largely listening to players who were thinking about individual chords and scales (in addition to song melodies and key centers) as the basis of improvisation. Chet Baker would be one obvious exception in that he was strictly an ear player, whereas people like Coltrane and Michael Brecker went hard on the scale side. I think there is a famous quote from Miles where he says that his musical goal was to “learn all the changes” which seems absurd on its face but I think he meant that he wanted to go deeper into the relationship between melody and harmony. This interest is also clear form fact that he hung so much with Gil Evans and got into George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept. There is no question in my mind that although he performed with absolute freedom, he practiced in a way that dug into chords, scales, and harmony in a very specific way. I know that students can easily get frustrated and overwhelmed with all the different scales and modes but I think it’s up to us teachers to make it as simple as possible and to let them know that it’s not as daunting as it seems (as you know, almost all the scales they need to know are modes of either major or melodic minor). Anyway, thanks for your response and I enjoy your channel!
@@tbonealex Let’s conclude this conversation by stating that you and I are saying basically the same thing: learn your chords, scales, patterns, piano voicings, and other theory-but leave it at the door when you stand up to improvise.
I want to take a stab at answering the question before I hear Michael's answer. So I stopped the video to try my own answer first, just to honestly compare it to what a real musician will say. I question the player's contention that he can't understand chord changes. That seems a self limiting belief. He understands some things about chords, so could start with what he knows and build from there by using ear training and theory development. Find songs you like and write down, as in transcribing, why/how the solo you like traverses the chord changes. Persist and you will experience progress.
This is so good, Mike.
Mike - just what the Doctor ordered - a logical approach that will bring out that inner player. I’ve heard it before many times - learn by listening, more listening, study, more listening - then create. I so much appreciate your work. Neil
Hi Michael,
This is huge...this video plus incorporating your overall teaching focus on the ear to allow myself to listen to chord changes then emote/express what I feel & hear inside is the only way I've been able to improvise my entire life.
As a trombonist, I never studied theory or learned/practiced scales. Over time, I've become proficient at sight reading, intonation & articulation. I've had to solely rely on what melody lines/phrases come to mind when it comes to 8, 12, 16+ bar solos. I've never even glanced at the chord notations throughout the solo measures. I've had to totally rely on what I intuitively hear.
But here's the kicker...to do this live & in the moment is difficult. Depending on the level of chord change challenge, I often resort to writing out my solos. This works well for jazz ensembles that practice weekly in preparation for gigs and I have the time and able to test solos out during a given practice.
I play the chart track, sing out what I hear over the progressions, then play what I've sung on the 'bone & finally scribe the solo on manuscript. (I know there's software out there that can transcribe for me, but I'm old school).
What this does for me is to have a foundational solo/melody base line. As I practice it, learn & hear it over time, I'm able to deviate off that foundational script--LIVE--and create varying licks, change up phrase entrances & exits, switch up note rhythm patterns, etc.
Among other techniques you've shown that have helped me when I do look at the measure chord changes are common tones like you did in this video. I've actually written common tones over the chart chord progressions to better support soloing live. Playing over drones in specific keys has also helped me align ear to instrument. This has also created awareness that maybe I don't know my 'bone as well I thought I did.
Thanks for your wonderful savvy insights & the way you clearly & authentically articulate your teachings.
Bruce
This is helpful.
I greatly appreciate your methodical approach to a more complex tune! I have been a fan of your approach for quite some time now. I do have to ask though how does the language then show up in your solos? Does the time focusing on the chords at the keyboard and listening to the greats play the tune cause the language you hear to show up in your improvisation?
I did have an experience once with a big band while playing Blue Bossa where I knew the melody from listening but I had never worked it out on my horn. Without the notes of the tune in front of me, I found myself playing the head with few mistakes having never practiced it. Would your approach help to affect more of these type of experiences?
I think that for people such as yourself who have spent plenty of time practicing scales and chords in a variety of ways, playing what you hear and playing from the heart creates much better results than it does for someone who has not put that work in. I don’t think that the chord-scale approach creates mechanical playing. It just creates a baseline upon which you can either play from the heart or not. There are exceptions in the cases of students with incredible ears who can pick up stuff right away from recordings but most students can’t do this at the start. After spending time with chord-scale practice and applying it to tunes, students usually end up having improved their ears as well and are better able to transcribe and imitate and execute ideas they hear in their minds.
As I said in the video, I am not against working on scales. They help orient one's ear to key centers and builds technical facility, both of which are critical to improvisation.
But leave them at the door when it comes to improvising. Orienting your playing to scales and memorized patterns is the very definition of mechanical playing. It also reinforces today's prevailing idea that jazz is about the quantity of notes - the more the better. And forcing scales and patterns into "improvisation" is an excellent way to artificially increase the volume of notes.
Instead, listen to tons of music, compose your own music, play piano regardless of your primary instrument, practice your instrument relentlessly to gain facility, but don't be lured into the mechanical caricature of jazz by confusing scales and patterns for music. Play what you hear inside.
@@mymusicsavvy Wouldn’t you say that scale practice goes beyond just the key center? For example, you could play over a ii V I and think of just the key center and sound fine. This is what I call “global” playing. But thinking of chord-scales through the ii V I (ex. Dorian to Altered to Lydian tonic) will take you in a different direction and open up melodic possibilities that wouldn’t arise from the other approach. I think it’s important for students to develop this “local” approach as well as the global one. Ultimately, I agree that in the musical moment you want to just follow your ear and heart!
@@tbonealex I think our basic disagreement is about the relationship between scales and melodies when crafting music. Scales are not melodies. I'm advocating starting from melody instead of scale.
I see confusion and frustration from players thinking while improvising about technical terms like Dorian, Altered, Lydian, etc. The notes fit the chords but is the final result personally inspired music?
The audience I'm trying to help is the guy or gal who doesn't naturally think of modes and altered scales. It sounds like that stuff comes naturally to you and allows you to express yourself the way you prefer.
But I see the musical results when I encourage a player to sing what they hear inside and then play that on their instrument, not thinking about anything but the melody over the sound of the chords. Is it perfectly aligned with the harmony? Not always. Did they miss that raised 4 or flat nine in the chord? Sometimes. But I don't think that technical precision is the primary goal of improvisation for many who want to improvise better.
Was Miles always technically note precise. No. He played what he heard, and his energy and melodic genius created great music. That's my model.
I did go to great lengths in the video to say that this way of approaching jazz is not objectively the only way. But for those with a certain sense for melody and whose left brain to instrument connection is not as technically proficient or quick as yours, I experience this as making them better and more satisfied improvisers.
@@mymusicsavvy I agree that scales are not melodies, but it doesn’t take much to go from a boring, mechanical scale to an expressive melody (add some rhythms, combine leaps and steps, chromatic embellishments, expressive inflection, etc).
Maybe you’ve had different results, but in my own experience (ten years working full time teaching college jazz students), asking a student to follow their ear without also methodically exposing their ears (and fingers) to the sounds of the individual chords and scales tends to have very mediocre results. We hear this in every middle school blues scale solo!
I suspect that if you asked a beginner jazz student to sing what they hear in their mind over a fairly complex tune like “Stella,” they would struggle a lot at first (my guess is that many wouldn’t even be able to hear the key area shifts), but after spending some time practicing the individual chords and scales (mechanically at first, then adding the other elements I mentioned, and also doing a lot of singing), they would probably be able to hear and sing something much better!
When students listen to great jazz recordings from about the late 1950s on, they are largely listening to players who were thinking about individual chords and scales (in addition to song melodies and key centers) as the basis of improvisation. Chet Baker would be one obvious exception in that he was strictly an ear player, whereas people like Coltrane and Michael Brecker went hard on the scale side. I think there is a famous quote from Miles where he says that his musical goal was to “learn all the changes” which seems absurd on its face but I think he meant that he wanted to go deeper into the relationship between melody and harmony. This interest is also clear form fact that he hung so much with Gil Evans and got into George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept. There is no question in my mind that although he performed with absolute freedom, he practiced in a way that dug into chords, scales, and harmony in a very specific way.
I know that students can easily get frustrated and overwhelmed with all the different scales and modes but I think it’s up to us teachers to make it as simple as possible and to let them know that it’s not as daunting as it seems (as you know, almost all the scales they need to know are modes of either major or melodic minor).
Anyway, thanks for your response and I enjoy your channel!
@@tbonealex Let’s conclude this conversation by stating that you and I are saying basically the same thing: learn your chords, scales, patterns, piano voicings, and other theory-but leave it at the door when you stand up to improvise.
I want to take a stab at answering the question before I hear Michael's answer. So I stopped the video to try my own answer first, just to honestly compare it to what a real musician will say. I question the player's contention that he can't understand chord changes. That seems a self limiting belief. He understands some things about chords, so could start with what he knows and build from there by using ear training and theory development. Find songs you like and write down, as in transcribing, why/how the solo you like traverses the chord changes. Persist and you will experience progress.