Improvisation in Eb

[shadowzerg]

Hey, I'm kinda new to the whole improv thing and would like to see what others think. Enjoy! 

[ted]

Well, if you really are new to improvisation, it seems to be quite an easy,  natural process for you and begs to be allocated more of your playing time. There are thousands of directions you could work on and I look forward to hearing more.

[shadowzerg]

Thank you ted! By the way, I'm kind of envious of the fact that you actually got the chance to converse with Bernhard! God, what that must have been like haha  . I'm looking to adopt some of the jazz idiom in my improvisation so any knowledge you might hold on that would be quite useful  !

[ted]

I have never conversed, in the literal sense of the word, with Bernhard. We did have a few interesting discussions on the forum. He is a remarkably generous person, who unstintingly shared all his superb teaching ideas without complaint, even when repeatedly asked the silliest questions.

Alas, I am not, and never was, a "jazz pianist". Friends, other players I know personally, and people on forums persistently and quite erroneously describe me as such. I haven't the slightest idea why. The truth is that I haven't a clue about the chords and harmonic processes they debate so fervently. I like the sound of some of what people call jazz, and no doubt I have absorbed something of it into my composition and improvisation, but that is instinctive, and a far cry from detailed knowledge.

As far as the creative faculty is concerned I feel the osmosis of taking in a vast range of sound and allowing it to enter the unconscious improvisation process over the years is completely independent of style or genre. In general I am not in favour of simply building up a huge library of  specific imitative tricks and trotting them out from memory as many players do. Ideally, it seems to me that the best improvisers generate their own forms and "tricks" at varying, often minimal levels of conscious intervention.

I would never advise a young person to reject or eliminate any sort of music. I rejected far too much when I was young because of silly preconceptions and extra-musical prejudice. If you want jazz to influence your improvisation then listen to a lot of it by as many different proponents as possible. Some of it you will like, some you will not. Sooner or later its sounds will result in profound changes to, and broadening of, your ideas. For anybody with a working brain that has to happen; it cannot occur otherwise.