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Improvising means creating music that is spontaneous, of the moment, and
uniquely your own. So think of it as the instrument becomes a process
of self-discovery, finding out what your music really sounds like. You
develop a period of looking within, stripping away the excess and
listening for the simple voice that really is our own. It’s there,
listen for it.
Being able to improvise on I GOT RHYTHM
changes appears much more as a puzzle or study that must be negotiated
than as an opportunity look within and reach for new sounds you hear.
Improvising means creating music that is spontaneous, of the now, and
your own. It will not get played if you yourself don’t play it, and try.
You
have to focus your practicing for maximum progress towards creating a
powerful forward motion as a player. Add personal guidance of a master
teacher and artist, and you’re poised to grow as a musician and as a
performer. This is the way I learned with master players-educators like
Charlie Mariano, Charlie Banacos ( I was lucky to study with Banacos since 1994 till 2010
) Sal Nistico, Joe Viola, Andy McGhee and John LaPorta.These men were a
beautiful category of a jazz pro who both knows what he is doing, and
is willing to share. Thank god for them!
Todays student needs
substance ! Plus how to focus practicing of improvising on the essential
elements,the actual substance of what to play and how to develop it in
your personal style, and dealing with practicing of specific vocabulary.
It's what I call, what to shed! Then you got to understand jazz is part
of culture. Bird, Prez,Basie,Pee Wee Russell, Roland Kirk, Duke, Hawk
and all those giants who gave something to culture. What did they have?
They had the the building blocks of jazz improvisation. MELODY ! Then
guide-tone lines, and melodic Rhythm. Real world building blocks of jazz
improvisation. In a word- BASICS that last for your career.
Just some thinking on subjects we all love and are close to our agenda.
Here's some lunch for your ears, and I'll see you next week!COUNT BASIE & LESTER YOUNG - 'Taxi War Dance' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUZUIDhNnjY&playnext=1&list=PL3240B02C6ABAA1FBCharlie Parker Early Recordings 1943 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w6kJ9jyl7Y
Below...is some things to practice and study- have fun.
Till then......BIRD LIVES! Tim Price
This
is the _VERSE_To " Body & Soul" given to me by jazz legend Big Nick
Nicholas. If your familiar with the Coltrane tune " Big Nick"....Well
that's who this is.
I usually play this verse rubato then segue
into the tune. I'm posting this as a respect to my friend BIG
NICK..because he's not known as well as he should be, and by getting
this out into everyone's hands...we all can keep the VERSE to this tune alive...and also one of the real tenor players in jazz BIG NICK.
Big Nick was also the man Bird went to, to get songs and ideas for them for his " Bird With Strings" recording.I consider myself very lucky to have known Nick in this life...and this
is a great way to keep his name alive...and legacy. If you play
this...and pass it on...remember where it came from please.
Tim Price Bloggin' For D'Addario Woodwinds-
Bringing the you...into the music.
The point here is to emphasize what Rilling calls the "architecture" of
the music. For example, the way Pablo Casals varied the tempo according
to what he was trying to convey. The words , You Got to Be
Original, Man!Come from Lester Young.The quote said it all.
Hopefully, what's going to be remembered, the present living person
whoever it is, whether it's Casals, Bach, Coltrane or Lester Young in the context of the art form, its tradition,
its future, its present, and that whole mixture together. I have great
respect for the "tradition," the rules, and playing it within context
and everything, I think it's great, but…what are YOU creating as an
offering.Try to think the term "syntax" , which means a vernacular, a
way of speaking. This music is speech and dialect. And there is a way of
speaking. A common form and feeling.
The vibe of a sax player who walks
the bar and a guy cross legged in India in a trance blowing –It’s all
the same- they BOTH are after the same thing. It’s…that thang…that place
the music goes. Like that groove that exists in R &B AND Jazz and
Indian ragas.In essence, we really have something called the language,
the syntax, the vernacular, and it's immediately transferable to
personal creation anyway. So in jazz, the art form itself says you're
supposed to individualize it , that's the point . All that's understood,
but your goal is not to repeat or to objectify this thing. It's to take
it and have it be a living thing that you put your personality on. The
goal sould be- to try to bring a spiritual dimension to the music.Be it
some booty shaking funky jazz, a swinging standard or your agenda.
I feel that the music speaks absolutely louder than any dogma,
any words can speak at all. And in the end, the music is connected-
there's a great book by Hazrat Inayat Khan of the Sufis. It's
about how music ties into the "realms" and everything like that. It's
just an understood, it's a given.
In my thinking it is an artist's duty is to try to get in touch with
that vibe through his work.Not to get some in the shadow of another
player that it's just silly- or worse.Inspiration is one thing- being a
copy cat is just that.Do you want to cop Jagger or Sonny Rollins so much
that when folks hear or see you they say " Oh yea, he stands like
Jagger, or oh...he sounds sorta like Rollins. Be the best YOU you can
be- live with it.It's the work and it's the art that will do. SO.. it's
freedom, individual creativity ! Nobody can be a better YOU than YOU. It
is obviously possible, as many do, to improvise within certain
stylistic or other constraints.<> While this is perfectly valid,
and while it transcends such constraints, such as simplicity vs
complexity, tonal vs atonal, intellectual vs intuitive, and so on. A
step towards music-making where all possibilities can be genuinely
embraced.There is a strong sense in which this really is playing music.
Approached like this, it unlocks the natural, spontaneous creativity
within each participant who lets the process flow deep and operates
simultaneously on many levels. This is a very liberating experience and
is often found to be therapeutic as well. It feels good to start from
zero, or just be you.
So this is what's going on now, what I'm thinking about. Lester Young is
right.
I hope you enjoy it-
Peace and goodwill to you all, Tim Price
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