jazz - memorizing/improvising

[claudio]

my teacher gave me a copy of this great song: "what a wonderful world". it is this
typical jazz-notation with only the melody line and respective cord notations.

i am totaly new to this, but to be able to play it was one of the reasons i started
learning the piano. and i got lots of questions. here are the first ones:

i) how do you memorize this? would you focus on the text, the melody, do you
memorize the cords (e.g. F,a,Bb,a, etc.) or the changes (I,v,iv,etc.)?

ii) any suggestions for improvization? i know alberti-bass-figures and cords in their
various positions. anything else?

any advice appreciated, claudio

[Derek]

Yeah. If I were you I'd learn the straight chords and melody as they are, plain and boring, and then "spice them up."  this can be done in any way you can possibly imagine. Arpeggiate the chords. Turn the intervals of the chords into some kind of interesting ostinato.  Add stray notes to the chords and to the melody. Play over triplet rhythm.  In a sense you can do ANYTHING you want. 

Truly the best advice is to just start making things up and listening to your favorite artists. There is no real "algorithm" for learning to improvise...  the closest you can get to that is just playing your song in different keys and changing one or two things about it each time.

I would also advise you to try making up your own riffs and melodies, with little bits and pieces of things you hear in your favorite music. Over time this will give you such a flexible vocabulary that you may not even need the sheet music anymore to pick up a song.  I hope that helps....

[RJones]

Take a look at the following book:

How to Play from a Fake Book
by Michael Esterowitz


Not specifically geared to Jazz chords but it has all the background necessary to get you going.

Rodney