I”m at a point in my sax playing where I”m enjoying a strange paradox. I am more concerned than ever with knowing the correct changes to tunes from memory, yet less concerned about actually playing them.\r\n\r\nLet me explain. Internalizing the changes roots me in the tune, gives me confidence that I know the song; the tune is in my head and in my fingers, it belongs to me.\r\n\r\nWith that knowledge and confidence comes the freedom to experiment, and the conviction to make my experimentations sound–hopefully–musical and interesting. I don”t have to make every note fit into the chord/scale scheme. I can, for that matter, range pretty far afield tonally as long as I have some kind of logic for what I”m doing.\r\n\r\nSequence is a biggie. Playing a pattern through a sequence provides a framework for superimposing non-harmonic tones of all kinds on a chord progression. Another thing I can do is play a ii-V7-I of my choice in a tone center other than what the music is calling for. Either of those devices creates temporary harmonic clashes–a technique known as “outside playing”–but the clashes sound cool and add interest provided I resolve them properly.\r\n\r\nDavid Liebman”s masterful book, A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody, freed up my harmonic approach when I first read it years ago. Just thinking of the book makes me realize I”m due to revisit it. I can use the creative stimulus of an improvising genius such as Liebman. If you”ve acquired a good command of your instrument and the basics of improvisation, I recommend Liebman”s book highly.\r\n\r\nHandle the wrong notes right and they become the right notes. Handle the right notes wrong and they”ll sound wrong. Learning how to choose your colors and expand your tonal palette is one of the truly enjoyable challenges of playing jazz.\r\n\r\n
Archives for November 22, 2008
November 22, 2008 by
