Direction

This is a preview of the educational program A Jazz Improvisation Almanac which is under development for the Outside Shore Music Online School. Feel free to browse this preview and learn what you can from it. For a more completed product, though, check out the original freely browsable jazz textbook, A Jazz Improvisation Primer.

When reading a story, we may be impressed with the imagery, characters, and dialogue, but in most cases, we demand an interesting and cohesive plot to tie these elements together. It is the same with music. When playing an improvised solo in a jazz context, it is not generally enough to play correctly from moment to moment. One should communicate an overall direction as well.

A good solo is often likened to a story, and often follows the same general contour. A typical solo starts with a basic idea which is then developed, increasing in intensity, until a climax is reached, after which a resolution brings things to closure:

[EXAMPLE]

Of course, there may be subplots and minor climaxes within a story as well, and not all stories follow this same contour. But still, some sense of continuity and tension is needed to sustain interest, and the same is true for music. The key to accomplishing this is the ability to control and shape the intensity level of your improvisation. It is somewhat of an oversimplified cliche, but it is not entirely inaccurate to say that the way to increase intensity is to play louder, faster, and higher:

[EXAMPLE]

There are, of course, other ways of affecting intensity. Extended effects can be used:

[EXAMPLE]

The development of the phrases themselves can contribute as well. Repetition and variation tend to increase listener interest:

[EXAMPLE]

Even a single note, held longer than expected, can serve to increase intensity:

[EXAMPLE]

Pianists cannot sustain notes indefinitely, and must use rolling techniques to achieve a similar effect:

[EXAMPLE]

Once you have some idea how to control intensity levels, you must decide what to do with this ability. When in doubt, the "story" approach always works - start low, build to a climax, then release. However, there are other ways of organizing a solo as well that you may wish to explore from time to time. I tend to think of a solo more as a journey. There is no reason it need follow a simple story outline. A journey can visit many places along the way, and it can have several climaxes, separated by intervals of less intensity:

[EXAMPLES]

When there are several soloists, avoiding the simple up-and-down motion of the "story" approach may be wise. If every solo starts small, builds in intensity to a climax, then comes down again, the resulting "roller coaster" effect can become tiresome:

[EXAMPLE]

Instead, you can arrange with the other soloists to shape the overall contour of the performance. For example, if the previous soloist ends at a point of climax, you might continue right where the he left off and then gradually release the intensity. Using this approach, the traditional "story" contour is maintained between the two of you:

[EXAMPLE]

If a previous solo ends at a point of climax, you might instead choose to begin your solo with a sudden drop in intensity. In order for this to work, you will need to cue the rhythm section drop in intensity along with you. The resulting contrast can be quite effective:

[EXAMPLE]

The opposite approach is not generally used. It is considerably more awkward to suddenly jump up in intensity after the previous soloist has wound things down. However, it can be done, with the help of a sufficiently sympathetic rhtyhm section:

[EXAMPLE]

The direction of the solo need not be expressed only in terms of intensity. Just as balance is not always between tension and release, direction is not always up and down. When a journey visits several places, those places should be different enough to convey a sense of motion, even if one is not clearly more intense than another:

[EXAMPLE]

These types of decisions can often be made during performance in simple head arrangements. More complex arrangements can call for specifc contours for each soloist. Often, this is implied through arranged background parts. For example, in the following arrangement, the background parts clearly suggest the contour for the soloist to follow:

[EXAMPLE]

A direction can be a straight line. An arrangement might call for a series of solos, each at a different intensity level from the last, but in which the intensity level does not change much within a solo:

[EXAMPLE]

A soloist might choose to play at a high intensity throughout a solo, or to keep the intensity at a controlled simmer. Unless the arrangement specifically calls for a particular contour, though, there is no need to decide up front on a direction for an entire solo. Sometimes, the route may be suggested by ideas that are developed during the course of the solo. That is, the direction can be improvised as well:

[EXAMPLE]

What matters is often not the specific direction chosen, but rather the feeling, when the journey is over, that it was worthwhile.

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Direction