Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment
Mike Titlebaum
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300 pages
English
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Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment
Mike Titlebaum
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About This Book
Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment teaches fundamental concepts of jazz improvisation, highlighting the development of performance skills through embellishment techniques. Written with the college-level course in mind, this introductory textbook is both practical and comprehensive, ideal for the aspiring improviser, focused not on scales and chords but melodic embellishment. It assumes some basic theoretical knowledge and level of musicianship while introducing multiple techniques, mindful that improvisation is a learned skill as dependent on hard work and organized practice as it is on innate talent.
This jargon-free textbook can be used in both self-guided study and as a course book, fortified by an array of interactive exercises and activities:
musical examples
performance exercises
written assignments
practice grids
resources for advanced study
and more!
Nearly all musical exercisesâpresented throughout the text in concert pitch and transposed in the appendices for E-flat, B-flat, and bass clef instrumentsâare accompanied by backing audio tracks, available for download via the Routledge catalog page along with supplemental instructor resources such as a sample syllabus, PDFs of common transpositions, and tutorials for gear set-ups. With music-making at its core, Jazz Improvisation Using Simple Melodic Embellishment implores readers to grab their instruments and play, providing musicians with the simple melodic tools they need to "jazz it up."
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I remember the time, back in college, that two things began to coalesce which had initially seemed unrelated: (1) classical music theory, and (2) my jazz professor Bill Dobbinsâs improvisation classes.
In music theory, we studied counterpoint and voice leading. We learned to follow the rules of composing a good cantus firmus and species counterpoint. And we learned how the great composers embellished and decorated harmonic tones.
In Professor Dobbinsâs courses we studied Charlie Parker, Lee Konitz, and Bill Evans. We learned the blues and Duke Ellingtonâs distinctive take. We learned jazz standards and improvised on the chord progressions. We also analyzed solos to learn how jazz improvisers embellished and decorated pitches of the chords.
I remember the time it hit me, one of those magical âahaâ moments, while we were studying Bachâs two-part inventions in music theory: Something sounded just a bit Parker-esque. Bach wrote the same kinds of melodic embellishments that the jazz musicians I loved did! Hmmm, I suppose the process was actually reversed historically â Bach came several hundred years earlier â but Iâm relating my process of discovery, which occurred the other way around. I suspect the same reverse discovery is true for other musicians too, because we are drawn to become music makers ourselves by interacting with the musicians around us and by what we hear in contemporary culture, not by learning the historical progression of who âdid it firstâ in a classroom.
To oversimplify my theory professorâs analysis of Bachâs music to an extreme degree, some melodic pitches are more significant than others in terms of illuminating the harmony. These are the chord tones. Chord tones serve the big picture of the melody like signposts. Remove any one of them and the sense of melody could be lost and the harmonic motion not as clear. These signpost melody notes either (1) define the chord of the moment (perhaps in Bachâs unaccompanied cello suites), or (2) are clearly inside that chord which is being sounded in other voices or instruments.
But the other pitches, those that do not serve the big picture of the melody, are more decorative. They are the embellishments around the primary chord tones. These are often nonharmonic tones, or non-chord tones, audibly outside the chord of the moment. The listener can still get the gist of the melody without these embellishments, but the melodic effect would not be, dare I say, as artistic. As original. As creative. As beautiful.
I believe the primary pitches of a melody â the harmonic signposts â to be like consonants in the English language, and the non-chord embellishments are like vowels. Consider the point that you can still recognize words with only the signpost consonants and without the embellishment vowels. Cnsdr th fct tht y cn stll rcgnz wrds wth nly th sgnpst cnsnts nd wtht th mbllshmnt vwls. Y cn stll ndrstnd th mnng f ths sntnc bcs f yr fmlrty wth nglsh nd th cntxt f th vwl-lss wrds. In 2008, Time magazine applauded this process, known as disemvoweling.1 The written Hebrew language even utilizes this shorthand technique. In the Torah, vowels are not written into the scroll, yet rabbis and Bar Mitzvah students can still read and understand the text.2
Letâs take a moment to test this analogy between the languages of music and English. Could a listener still recognize a melody if all the nonharmonic embellishments were omitted? Watch and listen to a short excerpt of the well-known piece in Figure 1.1 which has been modified to remove all nonharmonic embellishment. In this form, only the chord tones remain. Can you still recognize this piece even without the embellishments? (Donât read ahead to the answer until youâve listened to the recording.)
If youâve studied piano, youâll likely recognize the piece in Figure 1.1 as Bachâs two-part Invention no. 8 in F major. Do you agree that it is still recognizable, even with all non-chord tones removed?
Back in my music theory class, we identified melodic techniques Bach used to achieve his artistry, including neighbor tones, passing tones, and appoggiaturas. At that previously mentioned âahaâ moment, I realized that these melodic devices were no different than the embellishments we heard in the improvised solos of Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan, which we had studied in Professor Dobbinsâs class.
An in-depth study shows that these jazz musicians (and others) utilize several additional embellishment techniques that we do not hear in Bachâs music. The bluesy foundation of jazz provides an entirely new category of non-chord tones. To connect with the roots of the blues and to convey complex beauty and deep feeling, jazz musicians utilize blue notes, which can be defined as the lowered 3rd, 5th and 7th pitches in the key of the song (as opposed to the more common practice of relating pitches to the chord of the moment). Jazz musicians also utilize enclosures, heard frequently in the playing of beboppers Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, where a target harmonic pitch is preceded by several chromatic pitches both above and below the target. Weâll delve deeply into blue notes and enclosures, as well as neighbors, passing tones, and appoggiaturas in the chapters that follow.
There are other aspects of jazz melodic content worth noting. Early jazz musicians and Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths, partly inspired by French composers Debussy and Ravel, began to employ chord tones that Bach and other earlier composers had not used harmonically, such as major 6ths (sometimes called 13ths), 7ths, and 2nds (also called 9ths). Jazz musicians also use a swing rhythmic feel and were inspired by ragtime pianists to employ a greater density of syncopation than classical composers use. In tonal music, there is a delicate balance between the melody and the rhythm that helps the listener hear the chord of the moment because the pitches that define the chord often occur on beats that are rhythmically strong. Due to the pervasive syncopation of jazz, improvisers often place important chord tones on weaker beats or offbeats, perhaps blurring harmonic clarity for an inexperienced listener, but adding to the excitement and joy of discovery once they get it.
Thinking
When teaching a complex topic such as this, while grappling with the challenge of analyzing the detailed melodic content of a brilliant improvised solo by Louis Armstrong or Charlie Parker, a student will inevitably pose a variation of the following question:
Was [great improviser in question] really thinking about all this stuff?
I completely understand the impetus for asking the question. We admire these great musicians who make improvising seem so effortless, and we feel that we could achieve the same results by turning off the studious, intellectual parts of our brain. As aspiring improvisers, we want to flip the switch of our conscious mind off, to get to a mental place where creating music simply happens.
My answer to their question, long-winded as I often am, is something along these lines:
Not anymore. These artists no longer actively âthinkâ about this because they put in so much work mastering the concepts previously. Theyâve successfully achieved the advancement from the developmental stage of conscious diligent practice into the subconscious creation of high art. When we suggest that they are not âthinkingâ about these topics while in the throes of creating it, weâre ignoring the years of listening and daily grind (the âthinkingâ) they put into mastering their craft in the first place. It is a fallacy to think that we can skip past all the difficult parts of the process that feel like grunt work to get to the desired place of subconscious immersive spontaneous creation.
In his wonderful article âIdeology, Burgers and Beer,â Brad Mehldau describes how Charlie Parker (nicknamed âBirdâ) made âjust blowingâ appear so easy:
âJust blowingâ was what made jazz more punk than any punk rock band could ever be. To be able to blow a solo like Birdâprofound, gripping, full of urgency and beautiful mortalityâbut to do so, like him, with the casual ease of someone standing at a bus stopâwell, now that was something that might be called âgreat.â3
However, it wasnât always so easy for Parker. He famously practiced very hard to build his skills. Birdâs practice routine became legendary. Musicians inspire each other with stories about how a teenaged Bird practiced for months in a woodshed while on an extended gig in the Ozarks,4 emerging only for food, sleep, and gigs, until he had learned to play in all 12 keys with equal facility. Musicians even use the word âwoodshed,â or shortened to just âshed,â as a verb. To shed something means to immerse oneself into practicing that thing for however long as it takes to learn it, whether the time frame is hours, days, months, or years.
But after all this discussion of the toil and sweat, I donât want to minimize the fun thatâs involved. I do not believe aspiring musicians should wait until their skills are honed before they start creating. We should still go out at night and âjust blow.â You cannot achieve the end goal of highly artistic achievement in improvisation without having fun, being spontaneous, and subconsciously creating in the moment. Hard work and having fun are both integral parts of the process and must happen simultaneously. Organize jam sessions, perform songs with friends, write your own tunes, do gigs, record yourself, listen critically back to your creations, and improve. Seek a balance: Work hard by day, play at night.
I like to put it playfully: Making music is critical to making music. But so is diligent, thoughtful, organized practice.
Relationship between Composing and Improvising
In the preface I argued that singing and playing instruments are opposite sides of the same coin. Singing helps the instrumentalist inhabit their instrument, ensuring that what they play is an extension of their inner voice. Playing instruments helps the singer with their pitch and their awareness of melody and harmony. Singing and playing instruments are both essential parts in the process of learning to improvise holistically. Louis Armstrong was neither the greatest trumpet player who sang nor the greatest singer who played trumpet. He was the greatest jazz musician who played trumpet and sang.
Musical creativity is also like two sides of a coin; composing is simply the opposite side of the same creativity coin from improvisation. My friend guitarist/composer Chris Jentsch once told me âComposing is improvising slowly; improvising is composing quickly.â I agree. Some of my favorite recorded improvisations have a composed logic to them, yet at the same time some of my favorite compositions have a free-flowing improvisational spontaneity. Mehldau observes that â[Thelonious] Monkâs improvisations were informed by his compositions; Birdâs compositions were informed by his improvisations.â5
The same connection between improvising and composing exists in the art of comedy. Consider great comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. They both started in Chicagoâs improvisational comedy scene and have since...