Two Essential Skills For Improvisation
Skill #1: Learn The Sounds
What sounds?
Scales and intervals
Primarily major, minor (dorian), and dominant
Think sounds 1 - 5 and 3 - 7 of scales.
Learn interval sounds from tonic and 3rd of scale asc., 5th and 7th desc.
Also, blues scale. Later, additional scale forms.
Chord forms
Primarily major, minor and dominant 7ths
Jazz usages
Learning the jazz language is just like any other language: you have to hear it spoken.
Exercises for learning the sounds
The following exercises can be done unaccompanied or with a recorded rhythm section background.
Jamie Aebersold's play-along sets are available free from the Spotify service.
Prehearing scales, intervals, chord forms
See exercise pages Learning Scale and Interval Sounds
and Learning Chord Form Sounds
Practice singing an idea, then playing the idea
This can be a short musical phrase or you can record yourself singing a complete solo,
then transcribe it.
Practice trading simple ideas with your fellow musicians
Establish what notes you will be playing and a starting note.
Keep it simple.
This is beneficial for both musicians. It gives the sender practice creating ideas
and gives the receiver ear training practice.
You can use this for rhythmic as well as melodic practice.
Practice creating ideas in a single key.
Practice creating melodic ideas in a chosen key for 10 minutes. This will exercise your imagination
and technique, and acquaint you with your own sense of melody.
Listen to jazz recordings
Don't worry about what you should be hearing. Just take note of what you are hearing.
Listening to the great improvisers is inspirational as well as educational.
As you listen, reflect on what it is you like about this music.
There are many lists of notable jazz musicians available. You can use a list to guide you
in acquainting yourself with the players that have stood out over the years.
Skill #2: Learn to Stay Oriented
How do you keep from getting lost?
Identify the phrases
Most tunes are made up of 8-bar phrases.
The blues can be thought of as three 4-bar phrases or one 12-bar phrase.
Phrases have a harmonic shape. This gives the phrase the feeling of a stand-alone statement,
like a sentence or paragraph.
Practice keeping place within the harmony
Start very simple.
Don't take the next step until you are super-solid with the simple materials.
Exercises for staying oriented
Practice listening first
Practice listening to tunes while keeping track of the phrases.
First listen without sheet music; then, follow along with the sheet music to see
how the chord progression created the feeling of phrases.
Follow the melody through the chord progression. See how the melodic and harmonic
phrases match up. Your solo should align with the phrases in the same way that
the tune's melody did.
The following exercises can be done with a metronome or with a recorded rhythm section background.
Play chord tones
Get consistent playing the root of each chord with a solid sound and solid rhythm.
Then move on to the 3rd, 5th and 7th of the chords.
Create simple rhythms while playing the chord tones. Just don't let this distract
you from keeping your place.
Play two- and three-note groups
Examples of simple groups would be:
| root + 3rd | 3rd + root | 3rd + 5th | 5th + 3rd |
| 5th + 7th | 7th + 5th | root + 3rd + 5th | 5th + 3rd + root |
| root + 2nd + root | 3rd + 4th + 3rd | root + 2nd + 3rd | 3rd + 2nd + root |
| root + 3rd + root | 3rd + 5th + 3rd | 5th + 7th +5th | 7th + root + 7th |
| root + 7th + root | 7th + 5th + 7th | 5th + 3rd + 5th | 3rd + root + 3rd |