Texas Bandmasters Association
Bandmasters Review • December 2014
24
Let’s Play the Game
“Jazz Improvisation”
When asked to write an
introductory article based on my
recent presentation at the 2014
Texas Bandmasters Association
Convention/Clinic, my immediate
response was, “Yes, I’ll do it!” Like
a jazz musician improvising a
solo, I responded before I had any
time to really think about what I
would write down in prose. When
thinking about this topic, I am
always reminded of how much
“fun” it is to improvise in the jazz
idiom, but I am also reminded of
how intimidating or overwhelming
it can be for musicians who are
already accomplished in other
genres of music, but don’t want to
sound “bad” learning this skill. Not
knowing what to play or worse yet,
not having anything to read except
a lead sheet or chord changes, this
can be an intimidating venture.
First of all, I ama firmbeliever that
jazz improvisation
can be really fun
because there are
no wrong notes
when creating a
solo. Melodically
and harmonically
speaking, there are
only consonant and
dissonant pitches
being played and,
for the most part,
one is usually
only a half or
whole step away
from consonant
sounding notes. This is especially
true when playing or jamming on
such great standards as “Take the
A-Train”, “Autumn Leaves”, and
“Satin Doll”, for example. These
tunes exhibit simple yet sound
structural forms (e.g., 12-bar blues,
AABA 32-bar song form, etc.), lack
of modulation into remote keys,
and ii-V-I chord progressions in
major or minor keys. Of course,
there are many great tunes that
explore chromatic melodies, altered
harmonies,modulations intoremote
keys and/or bridges, and complex
rhythms, but for our purposes we’ll
focus on the more simple structural
forms.
As an illustration, just recently
the 2014 World Series of Poker
finals took place. It was pretty
exciting watching nine individuals,
who made it to the final table out
of 6000-plus players, play “Texas
Hold ‘Em Poker” for many hours on
live television. Needless to say, I got
hooked on the game, even bought a
fold-out playing table, chips, cards,
and a couple of books and then
invited some friends over to play. It
was quite simple to learn the basics
of the game, and then jump in and
start playing. We really had no idea
what we were doing, but we all
had a lot of fun. There’s a wealth
of history to the game loaded with
communication, technique, strategy,
nuance, bluffing, and luck!
Let’s use the above analogy
to recap the exercises that were
discussed and demonstrated at this
summer’s clinic by playing a cool
game called “Jazz Improvisation.”
First, the object of the game is
to have fun. Second, you are the
winner if you accomplish the object
of the game. In this game everyone
who plays and has fun is a winner
every time! Third, we must learn
the following rules:
Rule 1 :
In reference to the tune
in question (i.e. as mentioned
earlier with commonly played jazz
tunes with simpler forms, harmony,
etc.) we must ask before we begin
to play, “What key is this in?”
Dr. Aric Schnel ler