THE GREAT SCORES GUIDE TO

JAZZ IMPROVISATION
PART ONE

Version 2.07

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Digital Sheet Music for Everyone

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CONTENTS

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE: GETTING STARTED

CHAPTER TWO: IMPROVING THE SOUND

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THE GREAT SCORES GUIDE TO JAZZ IMPROVISATION

Introduction
Jazz. Smoky basement clubs, late nights, people in berets smoking
French cigarettes knowingly nodding their heads at the
saxophonists solo, while you wonder what it is all about. Do those
guys on the bandstand know what they are doing? Are they just
making it up as they go along and how does it all work? Well with
our Great Scores guide we want to dispel some rumours and take
the mystery out of Jazz improvisation.
This guide is intended for people who have had no experience of
improvisation, as well as those who are more proficient at soloing
and are looking for ways to improve this art form as well as deepen
their knowledge of the subject.
The reason this guide is different from all the others is this: In over
ten years of teaching the subject I have noticed how many
textbooks and the various instruction approaches that exist are
stacked with theory and information, but they

Move on too fast, so the progress expected is too steep;

Are short on fleshing aspects of improvisation out with
examples;
Forget to address those areas where people often go wrong,
or struggle with, and therefore do not include exercises to
overcome these problems.

Consequently I have developed a fresh approach to learning

improvisation and have designed this guide to address those
problems where people hit a wall and get frustrated with their
own soloing in a practical and successful manner.
Mp3 sound files accompany this guide where necessary, and as with
all things at Great Scores, your feedback will be very welcome.
Lincoln Jaeger, London 2005
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CHAPTER ONE: GETTING STARTED

To answer the first question, Jazz musicians do know what we are
doing, well most of the time, but it comes down to years of practice
and dedication.
Its hard work, but with this guide and the play-a-longs we will get
you improvising soon.
The problem with improvisation is knowing what to play, and when
not to play!
We will be looking at the 12 bar blues for the next few chapters, as
this is one of the bedrocks of jazz. You will need basic knowledge of
harmony and jazz chords in order to understand this guide, so
please refer to the relevant Great Scores guide to complement this
improvisation guide.
The 12 bar blues has many different variations, but in its most basic
form in C major has this look:

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It would be a good idea to memorise this pattern or chord sequence

in the left hand, as this represents the harmony of the blues and
will become increasingly important in the following chapters.
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Let us start by playing all the chords in the left hand. Dont worry
about the timing, just get a feel for the chords. There are three in
total:
C7, F7, and G7, so chord I, IV and V of C major.
Once you have done that, try playing them in time. You can use a
metronome for this.
All the chords are in root position, which means the progression of
chords is not that smooth, but it will do for now. You will also have
noticed that the chords are all dominant 7ths, yet we are supposed
to be in C major? How does that work?
Well, jazz does not follow traditional Western harmony, as it was
born out of the meeting of African music and Western Music, with
many attributing New Orleans with its mixture of French, Creole,
English and African Slaves as the birth place of Jazz.
So traditional rules dont apply, which brings us to the blues scale:

This scale has a flattened 3rd, 5th and 7th note, the so called blue
notes, and the presence of a flattened 3rd may indicate some kind of
minor scale, but the blues scale does not really sound like a minor
scale. So traditional theory fails us in trying to explain this scale.
You should try getting familiar with this scale, so your fingers can
find their way around it fairly comfortably.
The fingering for pianists is:

The finger numbers in brackets indicate the fingering needed to play

the scale over more than one octave.
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Let us take just the first three notes of the scale and try and play
anything that comes into your head whilst playing along to the 80
bpm Blues in C play-a-long. If possible, be aware of the chordchanges, and the beginning of each new chorus.
Blues No. 1

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N.B. If you try the above example, you may want to finish on the
first chord of the piece.
It is best to experiment with just these three notes until you feel
comfortable with the speed of the piece, slowly become aware the
chord changes and generally everything will appear to be happening
a bit slower. This is no different to learning to ride a bicycle or to
drive a car or learn a language. At first, everything appears to be
happening far too fast. So give yourself time, and relax, as when
you play with an tense frame of mind, this will show in your music.
Once you feel as though you could do with using more notes,
extend to the G flat, then add the G and so on, until eventually you
use all of the scale.

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But give yourself time! Dont force it. Below is an example of an

improvisation using all of the blues scale.
Blues No. 2

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This is and the previous example are only one chorus long; dont
limit yourself to just one chorus. As I mentioned earlier, give
yourself time and space.
One important thing to consider is not to think of the scale just
consisting of the notes from C to C. Did you find yourself just
playing within that octave? Start branching out using more than just
one octave of the blues scale:

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Blues No. 3

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You may find that your own improvisation at this point does not
sound as convincing as the examples given, but do not worry, you
have only just begun; we will now have a look at what you can do
to improve your soloing on the Blues scale.

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CHAPTER TWO: IMPROVING THE SOUND

Melody
Its now time to look at some general pointers in improvisation. At
this point you probably find that you:

Ramble a lot, called noodlin;

Play too much;
Run out of ideas quickly;
Cant think of anything new;
Are getting bored with the sound of the blues scale;
the rhythms you are using are boring.

There are several factors that are contributing to the lack of spice in
your improvisation.
One of the most common things that happens to people when they
start improvising, is that they just run up and down the blues
scale, i.e. play from one note to the next with no smaller leaps in
the melody. This makes the solo sound very predictable, as the
listener can guess where you are going next for there are only
really tow options: up to the next note or down to the next note.
So if you find yourself playing something like this:
Not So Good

Try putting some smaller leaps of melody in, such as:

Better

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But be careful not to jump around too much, as melodies with many
large leaps sound disconnected and comical. It is a question of
getting the balance right. The example above also has several other
features that make it stand at out compared to the Not So Good
example:

there are fewer notes, enabling the music to breathe more;

the rhythms are more interesting as a result, especially as the
second phrase begins on the last beat of the second bar.

So the next exercise is for you to try and play phrases that consist
of the odd larger leap of melody; and remember not to overplay.
For some reason it always feels safer to play, than not to. Silence is
indeed brave. People also often think that they can rescue a phrase
(a coherent section of melody) that has gone wrong by playing
more. This hardly ever works, you will just end up noodlin around.
A method to stop overplaying is to play not on every impulse you
have to play, but let it pass and wait for the next urge you feel to
play a phrase. So: try and play and every second urge you have (to
play a new melodic line)!
You should spend a good few hours over several days on improving
the variety of melodic leaps in your soloing.
The problem of overplaying however, is one that even professionals
have, so you will be practicing that forever, really.
Rhythm
Another important aspect to spend some time on is that of the
rhythms you employ in improvisation. You will probably find that
your phrases use straight quavers or just crotchets, with little or no
syncopation. So let us work on this.
First of all, what is syncopation?
Syncopation is the rhythmic displacement of one our more notes
from the main beats in a bar.
So instead of playing:

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You can syncopate every note to get:

Obviously you dont want to play exclusively on the off beats (the
ands), but vary your rhythms. Below is a list of two-bar rhythmic
patterns that are typical of jazz phrasing. Clap these along to a
metronome, or keep time with your foot, and clap them or play
them on note of your instrument.

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Next you should try and make up your own phrases using these or
similar rhythms. I have included the same list again with actual
pitches inserted. But do try and come up with your own rhythmic
and melodic variations.

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All our examples so far have been played with a swing feel, and this
guide will not specifically deal with the intricacies of playing in this
style, as separate guide will be available for this.

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Timing
Another important aspect to consider when trying to improve ones
soloing is where in the bar does one start the phrase. If your solo
sounds leaden footed, then you are probably guilty of starting every
phrase on the same beat of the bar, most commonly people head
straight for beat one. Again, this will make the solo rather
predictable and boring.
In swing time, the strong beats are in fact the 2 and the 4, as
opposed to beat 1 and 3 in classical, folk and popular music.
This gives swing that very particular rhythmic feel. Starting your
phrases on beat 1 or 3 will therefore sound particularly leaden in
music that swings.
So, vary the places in the bar that you start your phrases on.
First of all:

just
just
just
just

on
on
on
on

beat
beat
beat
beat

1
2
3
4

Then head for the off-beats. This is much trickier. Beats 2 and, as
well as 4 and are particularly strong, but also difficult to start a
phrase on, so practice these especially.
Hence, practice starting your phrases on:

1
2
3
4

and
and
and
and

It is particularly useful to practice the same phrase, on every

possible beat and off-beat so you can play it anywhere in the bar.

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Here is an example:

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This is a very advanced exercise, so if you are struggling with it,

dont worry, we will we spending more time on this in later
chapters, and one does improve with experience.
If, however, you found the exercise manageable, try and come up
with your own phrases and displace them. If possible, write them
down as this will improve your understanding or the rhythms
involved in improvisation.

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CHAPTER THREE: GETTING DOWN TO IT

Let us now have a look of using a variety of rhythms in the course
of playing a solo. I have included three examples, first just a chorus
of a blues with possible rhythms to use. You should clap these at
first and once you have got used to them, use your own choice of
notes. If you dont always get the rhythms totally right, dont worry,
as the object of the exercise is to get you away from playing the
same rhythms all the time, and to get used to playing different
rhythmic shapes. Following each chorus of plain rhythms are three
choruses each of what you could do musically with those rhythms.
You should play these, along with the recordings, as well as on your
own, or with our blues play-a-longs. You should try coming up with
your own rhythms both before and after playing through the three
example choruses each.
Blues No. 4 (Rhythms)

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Blues No.4 (Melodic Variations)

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Click on

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Blues No.5 (Rhythms)

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Blues No.5 (Melodic Variations)

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Click on

to hear a recording of the above.

Click on

to play the above using your media player.

Blues No.6 (Rhythms)

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Blues No. 6 (Melodic Variations)

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Click on

to hear a recording of the above.

Click on

to play the above using your media player.

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