improv lesson

Introduction

This is the first in a series of essays with the aim of helping the interested student become a better improviser. This first essay will introduce the reader to the basic ideas of improvisation. Strangely enough, despite the fact that the practice of improvisation comes as second nature to the vast majority of so called "primitive" cultures, in the industrialized 20th century, improvisation in our culture and time has taken on an air of mystique. The population tends to view the improvisor as an exception to the population at large. Of course this view has been partly cultivated by the artists themselves, at least as far back as Beethoven. Artists learned that promoting the image of the Artist as a somehow superhuman phenomenon can be good for business. One of the sad results of this has been a loss of contact among the general population with natural understanding of the process of improvisation, something that requires no explanation to your average West African tribesman or Brazilian peasant.

As you shall see, this process, in theory at least, is not difficult to understand. In practice, however, it is another matter entirely and even musicians who are generally considered to be competent betray, to my ears at least, a lack of understanding to both the theoretical basis and the proper practice of improvisation.

Though the act of improvisation from the performer's perspective is a single act or series of discrete actions, the actual process can be usefully divided into three stages.

1. The musical idea-i.e. the notes or phrases that occur to the performer

2. The recognition stage- the identification of the pitches involved in stage one.

3. The performance of the idea using a voice or instrument.

I will talk briefly about each of these stages though there is much more that could be said about each of them.

The musical idea

This is the most difficult aspect of improvisation to talk about, for understanding the basis of ideas, musical or otherwise, is to attempt to understand the nature of Creativity itself. Surprisingly,in the vast literature and mass of knowledge humanity has accumulated, one can find very little responsible information on the nature of Creation, and even less that is agreed upon by those brave souls who have ventured to explain it.

It seems that there are two main camps: the Mystics and the Pragmatists (my terms). The Mystics ascribe the creative process to Divine or Metaphysical origin whereas the Pragmatists claim that creativity is a natural activity (though they don't seem too clear on how it operates) of the human brain. Without plunging headlong into the debate myself, I would say, based on my own long experience, that I can see elements of both ideas in my own work. It seems clear that creativity is most available when the improviser, for instance, is able to abandon the "doing" nature of his or her persona - a Zen like condition, if you will. That is, that he or she is just observing what pitches come into their perception, rather than trying to actively "make" an idea. On the other hand, most "new" ideas usually have some sort of relationship to older ideas that the performer has experienced-the new idea represents a creative mutation of something that has come before. Douglas Hofstader has written eloquently on this topic-he calls it "slippage" in his book, Metamagical Themas.

Regardless of the absolute truth,I find it useful to borrow whatever ideas that have practical applications.

In another essay I will discuss ways to enhance the application of these ideas in practice, for now we must be content with their exposition. As a teacher, I have found this aspect of improvisation the most difficult to teach- students either have an intuitive grasp of it or they don't, with little middle ground between them, but I feel it is possible to guide the student toward that intuitive state that is essential to improvisation.

Pitch Recognition

As I stated above this means being able to identify pitches heard whether they originate in the imagination (which is our focus) or externally. This area is easily the most neglected aspect in practice,which is a bit odd considering that it is an area that can be improved by merely technical means. Granted, it involves hard work on the part of the student, but the path to mastery is quite clear. Ear training is the key here and is something that traditionally has been poorly taught and and even more poorly practiced. By pitch recognition I do not necessarily mean that knowing that a given perceived sound is the pitch C or F# or whatever, but for the improvisor it is at least necessary for him or her to know where that pitch lies on their instrument. Ideally though, in the interest of musical literacy one wou;d like to be aware of the pitch-name.

Traditionally, ear training by Jazz musicians has been learned by listening to and transcribing recordings. This remains, in my opinion, perhaps the best way to achieve that skill, provided it is approached carefully and in a disciplined manner. Additionally, there are specific exercises and systems that can radically improve the student's ability to hear with accuracy. The best system I am aware of is the system developed by Dr. Asher Zlotnik and adopted by Peabody Conservatory and Indiana University et al. I am tempted to be tangential here and speculate on why people avoid this most necessary aspect of the improvisor's art. Suffice it to say that this area of study represents the single best way to improve one's improvisation and musicianship in general.

Performance of the idea

After one has been lucky enough to have an idea and is skillful enough to recognise the pitches, it is then desirable to share the idea with the rest of the world via the medium of voice or instrument. This is the most obvious aspect of our discussion but is worthy of some thought nonetheless. Again I feel that this area is unduly neglected by performers. The sheer obviousness of this aspect leads naturally to a superficial recognition of its importance. After recognition of the given pitches it is a simple enough matter, given a basic instrumental proficiency, to then produce the pitch. What is often lost is a proper attention to tone and character. In a sense, this step is related to stage one- that is to listen to oneself. For it is at this point the three stage cycle begins again. Playing in the most musical manner possible sets the stage for the creative state that produces the next idea. Often it seems that the performer's judgmental mechanism intervenes and thus interferes with the smooth progress between these stages. It is in effect a feedback loop where, as is true in computer science, garbage in = garbage out.

Putting it all together

Naturally this division into stages is at best, artificial though useful for our purposes. In reality this "loop" operates with no discernible time delay between the stages and the action of improvisation is a gestalt of these three stages. I have broken it down in order to focus on individual areas of study. In a future essay I will discuss concrete methods that the student may apply to each of these three stages in the quest to become a competent improviser. As with most things in life, understanding is the first step.

Lesson One:Essential Concepts of Improvisation