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Inspiration for improvisers
INTERMEDIATE JAZZ
IMPROVISATION: 5
EXERCISES TO BOOST
YOUR JAZZ LANGUAGE
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Intermediate Jazz Improvisation: 5 Practice Exercises • Jazz Advice 3/12/19, 7)47 PM
S
o you’ve finally realized the importance of
jazz language and you’re starting to learn
lines in all keys…it’s like a whole new world
has opened up. More creativity. More
possibility. More options…Done are the days where you
randomly mixed notes up from a scale trying endlessly to
improvise a lyrical melody over the chord changes. That’s
what a beginner does…
Well as a beginner, when you start to acquire jazz language, the first lines you
study are usually quite basic, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
They might start from the root of the chord, avoid “complex” chord tones like
the b9 or #11, and perhaps they use simple rhythms too.
But hey, if you’re new to the idea of jazz language and just taking a line through
all keys is di!icult enough, don’t sweat it!!
When you’re moving from beginner to intermediate, you don’t need to add
complexity to your language concept. That’s NOT the goal. In fact, there’s
nothing wrong with “simple” musical ideas. It’s what you can do with these
ideas and the musical information that matters…
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Over time, you want your facility and understanding of jazz language to grow.
You want musical freedom…
This freedom comes from the ability to play jazz language from any possible
angle, from – any chord-tone, any direction, and from any beat of the measure.
As you advance and acquire more jazz language for all the common chord
progressions that you might encounter, to reach this state of freedom you’ll
need to add some new creative practice tactics to your routine.
These tactics will get you thinking about and working on your jazz language in
di!erent ways, resulting in much greater improvisational flexibility.
And there’s this great Charlie Parker solo on Rhythm Changes that we recently
we’re looking at from a rhythmic perspective that is perfect to illustrate to you
some of the language concepts and exercises that we want to explore today.
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As I mentioned in this Charlie Parker Rhythmic Lesson, his lines are PACKED
with musical information. Well, today I get to prove that to you and you’ll see
just how much we can squeeze out of every note Bird plays.
To begin, the first intermediate jazz exercise will help you get rid of your root
dependency…
You know what’s slightly more di!icult to think about?? A line that starts on a note
other than the root…
But you know what’s quite a bit more di!icult??? A line that doesn’t even contain
the root.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with using the root in your lines. Coltrane, Bird,
Diz…they all do. So it’s not a rule or even a suggestion. This is an exercise, and
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the point of it is to learn to easily think through and play language without the
need to reference the root of the chord.
So for this exercise, you will be avoiding the root of the chord because it’s time
to finally rid yourself of your dependence on the root.
The Goal: To be able to think and play over a chord without needing to have the
root of the chord in the line. You want to train yourself to be able to know any
chord-tone as easily as you would know the root. NO more reliance on the root!
Directions: Find a line you like and transcribe it. Work on a piece of it that
doesn’t use the root of the chord through all keys.
00:00 00:00
Take a piece of the line that you like that doesn’t contain the root of the chord…
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00:00 00:00
To make this an Intermediate jazz exercise, DO NOT write it out in all keys.
Instead of writing an exercise out in all keys, create a narrative that will help you
initially think through it. For example, with our previous line it could be “Start
from the 6th of the dominant chord, then move down scale-wise to the 3rd, and
when I reach the 3rd, arpeggiate up to the 9th, and finally resolve to the 5th of the
tonic chord.”
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That goes for ALL the exercises we’re going to cover today. I know it’s di!icult. I
know it might seem impossible at first.
Resist the temptation to write them out. Struggle through it and force yourself
to put the line through all keys without writing it out.
The benefits of this exercise are great. With practice, you’ll be able to think
about a chord without having to put so much attention on the root.
And a"er you’ve made some progress with root reliance, it’s time to start using
all those tricky altered dominant chord-tones that you’ve been avoiding…
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All of these altered notes add harmonic and melodic depth to your playing, but
they’re not easy to use.
In fact, if you can’t visualize them clearly, or hear exactly how they sound
against a chord, then you’re going to have a very di!icult time playing them.
But once you have a foundation with the altered notes, you’ll want to practice
exercises that specifically target the use of these colors.
The Goal: To be able to think and play over a chord starting from less used chord
tones, especially altered chord-tones like #9, b9, #5, b5.
Directions: Find a line over a dominant chord you like and transcribe it. Work on
a piece of it that starts from an altered note. Or, modify the line so it does.
To show you this, let’s take the same Charlie Parker lick, but this time we’ll focus
on another part of the line…
00:00 00:00
Notice how he uses all sorts of altered notes on the dominant chord here?
He starts on the #9 of the chord, then uses the 6 (also called the 13th), the b6th
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(the same as the b13th, or the #5), followed by the 3rd, 5th, and 7th.
That’s exactly what we’re looking for in terms of a line for this exercise because
our goal is to get comfortable starting our lines on altered or less frequently
used chord-tones.
Now, take the line and put it in all keys around The Cycle like this…
Again, don’t write it out. Instead think through it in real-time as you play. Make
sure you always know what chord you’re playing over and what chord-tones
you’re playing.
If you’ve never done anything like this before, chances are it’s going to be very
di!icult. Take your time! Focus on one key at a time and aim to hear the altered
sounds in your mind.
The common root movements that people usually practice with are half steps
and Cycle Movement. There’s nothing wrong with these and you’ll want to
continue to practice these forever. They are crucial.
But you’ll also want to expand your root movement practice vocabulary to
include:
Whole Steps
Minor 3rds
Major 3rds
Now, when you practice in these root movements, unlike The Cycle or half-steps,
you don’t hit all 12 keys in one pass.
You see, for each of these less common root movements, you only cover a
portion of the keys with each “group” so you have to make sure that you still hit
all keys like this…
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Group #3: D F Ab B
Major 3rds – There are 4 groups
Group #1: C E Ab
Group #2: Db F A
Group #3: D F# Bb
Group #4: Eb G B
The Goal: To be able to play and think through root movements besides The
Cycle and half steps. And to be able to move musical information in creative
ways and to think fast! Remember, this is BRAIN training!
Directions: Find a line over any quality of chord you like and transcribe it. Take a
piece of the line and move it through whole steps, minor thirds, or major thirds.
00:00 00:00
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With all these root movements, make sure to practice both up and down the full
range of your instrument. A"er this grouping, you would then practice the other
3 major third groupings to cover all the keys.
If this is tricky for you, you’ll want to learn how to clearly visualize through these
root movements. If you want in-depth training of how to practice this, our
Visualization Course contains an entire chapter dedicated just to this.
So, now when you go to practice something in all keys, realize that there is not
just one way to take something through the keys. You can make it quite a bit
more challenging and force yourself to move melodic information in more
creative ways.
The Goal: To be able to start jazz language on a di!erent beat then it was
originally played from.
Directions: Find a line over any quality of chord you like and transcribe it. Take a
piece of the line and start it from any beat other than the one it was originally
played from.
So taking our Bird line, we’ll now use another piece from it…
00:00 00:00
And instead of practicing it starting on beat 3 as Bird played it, we’ll try
practicing it from other beats of the measure like this…
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Of course you can begin a line from an up-beat or even modify the rhythm!
When you understand the goal of an exercise, you can do anything you like to
the language to make the exercise more e!ective.
And finally, we’ll work on using the concept behind the line…
And one of the best ways to work on this improvisational freedom is to practice
improvising with the concept behind the line.
Exercise #5: Learning to improvise with the concept behind the line
The Goal: To be able to create improvised lines based upon the idea or concept
behind a line. The idea can be a harmonic concept, the shape, the chord-tones,
the rhythm, ANYTHING that you see or hear.
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Directions: Find a line over any quality of chord you like and transcribe it. Take a
piece of the line and figure out how you might think about what’s happening in
the line. Distill this into a solid concept and improvise with that concept in mind.
Back to our Charlie Parker lick to show you how to do this…we’ll take the piece
of the line we used for Exercise #4, but now we’ll think about the concept behind
the line…
00:00 00:00
And this is not some crazy theoretical concept that you’re a"er. You want to
determine a concept that you can actually apply and use with ease in real-time,
so….
For this line there are so many di!erent concepts you could think about. In
terms of harmonic and melodic thinking, here are a few that come to mind…
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If you now think about a C major #5 arpeggio when you’re improvising over D7,
you may come up with a line in real-time that is similar to what Bird came up
with. Or, you might think of an E major triad, or an A minor major 7 arpeggio.
There are endless ways to think about the concept behind a line.
Use your own creativity and constructs to determine what works best for YOU
when thinking about a concept.
Like the other exercises, this is going to be tricky at first. Go slowly and tackle
one thing at a time…
1. Rid yourself of root reliance – When you become free from having to think
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about the root of every chord, you can think about a whole lot more.
2. Start using altered chord-tones – When you can use these colors easily
and make them sound right, your playing will become more mature.
3. Get comfortable with di!erent root movements – When you can move
musical ideas through various root movements, you’ll have a new found
freedom with melodic ideas.
4. Learn to use every beat of a measure – When you can start lines from
anywhere, you unlock rhythmic freedom.
5. Understand the concepts behind language – When you understand
what’s happening behind a line, you gain a deeper understanding of what’s
possible with the harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic information.
If you want to excel and move beyond where you are now, then you need to mix
up how you practice the same old things.
Use the intermediate jazz improvisation ideas we talked about today to break
free from beginner habits and limitations. Remember, even though these
exercises are challenging, have fun while adding these new creative approaches
to your always evolving practice routine!
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