Harmonic Freedom

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.

Throughout this program, I have tried to emphasize that improvisation, even in a bebop setting, is much more than stringing together scales over chords. The previous chapter dealt with some of the higher level issues of overall structure and creativity. The next chapter deals with some of the finer details of building a melody. The information in this chapter has dealt with harmony, but it is important to keep this in perspective.

Consider the problem of improvising music in which there are no prearranged chord progressions to use a basis. How do you approach soloing without chords to guide your note selection? This is interesting to explore whether or not you intent to play this type of music on a regular basis, as the principles you employ when playing without prearranged harmony may apply to improvisation over a chord progression as well.

Freedom from a chord changes should not imply complete randomness, any more than a chord progression implies that all the decisions are made for you in advance. A chord places some constraints on your improvisation, but the specific notes you play are still chosen by you. You know either a Bb or an E will sound good over a C7 chord. How do you decide which to play? Presumably, you are using some combination of your intuition and the information discussed in the previous and following chapters of this program. These factors are all still valid when playing without a prearranged chord progression. In fact, these other factors become that much more important in this case, because there are no chords to constrain your choices. So the first step in preparing to improvise with chord changes might be to review those other chapters.

There are several different ways to approach harmonically free improvisation. One is to invent your own chord progression as you go along. It need not be anything that has a regular chorus structure. It may simply mean choosing a different tonal area for each phrase you play. For instance, consider the following example:

[EXAMPLE]

Here, the first phrase came from C major, the second from Eb major, and the third started in D major and ended with F mixolydian:

[EXAMPLE]

The line was not created to fit a prearranged chord progression, but rather, each phrase was shaped to fit a particular tonality that was decided upon as the phrase was improvised. Many of the early freebop players used this approach.

You can choose your tonal centers to help control tension and release. For example, the following line contains the equivalent of a dominant/tonic resolution in the way it resolves a complex scale sound into a simple one:

[EXAMPLE]

Using tonal scales as a basis for your phrases tends to sound less dissonant than one might expect harmonically free music to sound. This is particularly true if you keep you ears open while improvising and choose your tonal areas to blend well with what the rest of the band is playing. This appears to be one of the bases of the musical theory Ornette Coleman calls "harmolodics". For instance, if you hear the bassist playing an F, you might want to base your phrase on F major, Db major, Bb major, or any other scale that sounds good over the F in the bass:

[EXAMPLE]

This is an oversimplification of what harmolodics is about, but it is a useful guideline nonetheless. It does, however, require exceptionally quick ears. Normally, you will not be able to consciously choose a tonal area in this manner. Still, if you have listen to much tonal music (as virtually everyone reading this presumably has), and have practiced playing tonally, then you will find that tonal lines come naturally to you. You can take advantage of this even when playing without a chord progression.

While you may find yourself playing lines that are essentially tonal even without consciously trying to, you may instead choose to exploit the whole chromatic scale in constructing lines:

[EXAMPLE]

It may in fact take more conscious effort to play an atonal line if you are more accustomed to thinking tonally, but there are advantages to lines such as the above. Because this line implies no particular harmony, there is little danger of it clashing noticeably with any other line being played at the same time:

[EXAMPLE]

These lines exist independently of each other, and the ear hears them individually. They are heard together as well, but not in terms of whether they form any particular harmony between them. The melodic and rhythmic interaction is more important than the harmonic interaction. When improvising in this style, you can pay particular attention to complementing your musical partners in ways other than the harmonic. For example, note how the following lines work together melodically:

[EXAMPLE]

Or how the following lines complement each other rhythmically:

[EXAMPLE]

Being able to improvise lines like this collectively takes well-developed ears, just as the more harmonic approach does. You must be listening to the other musicians in order to construct lines that will complement what they are playing. This takes practice, but you will find the practice applies equally well to playing changes as well, and the exercise can make you a better player in any situation.

Finally, I will note that harmonic freedom can often provide the opportunity to explore more non-traditional melodic, rhythmic, and timbral ideas as well. For example, saxophonists may use various extended techniques for effect, without fear of causing dissonance against the prevailing harmony:

[EXAMPLE]

Pianists may use clusters with similar freedom from concern over dissonance:

[EXAMPLE]

And in general, when the harmony is no longer prescribed, there is less need to keep a steady pulse. You may wish to keep it anyhow, but it certainly is not needed in order to keep your place in the progression, so you have the freedom to treat the pulse as you wish:

[EXAMPLE]

Again, these same techniques can be used in the presence of chord progressions as well. It there is a rhythm section laying down the pulse and the harmony, it can be extremely effective to use the above techniques to create tension against the groove:

[EXAMPLE]

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Harmonic Freedom