Approaches to Improvisation
As we saw in an earlier lesson, there are different approaches to improvisation. Most Jazz teachers/courses begin teaching improvisation through the use of scales and modes – i.e. you are given specific scales/modes to use over a chord progression. This is called ‘horizontal’ improvisation. Now this is an approach to improvising, but it is not the only one, and indeed is not the easiest one.
Vertical Improvisation
Rather than using scales and improvising horizontally, you can also improvise ‘vertically’ simply by using the actual chords in the progression. To improvise vertically all you need to do is:
- Arpeggiate the chords
- Connect the chords/arpeggios with chromatic passing notes.
And that’s it! That’s all you need to create a half-decent solo (with a bit of practice, of course). There are, however, a few rules you should adhere to while using the above techniques:
- Start & end phrases on a chord tone
- Long notes (2+ beats) should be chord tones, short notes (<2 beats) can be chord tones or passing notes
- Play the full arpeggio occasionally to spell out the chord
This ‘vertical’ improvisation is really the foundation for all improvisation. You need to be able to improvise well using arpeggios and passing notes if you want to be able to improvise using more complex techniques.
This is also how Jazz improvisation got started in the early 20th Century. Early Jazz musicians didn’t know about modes. For them improvisation was simply arpeggios + references to the melody.
Spicing It Up
After a while just using the above ideas will start to be a little limiting. So there are a few more concepts you can use to spice things up a bit. These are:
- Enclosures (hitting the notes either side of your target note before hitting you target note)
- Cycled Patterns/Sequences
- Repetition & Motivic Development
- Targeting a note a whole step above the triad of your chord (e.g. Cm7 —> D, F, A)
Notice none of these techniques require you to learn even a single scale! By employing all the above you can create a really nice, interesting and sophisticated solo, and all without learning even a single Ancient Greek word!