Idea Generation

A Jazz Improvisation Almanac
Unit: Improvisation
Chapter: Melodic Considerations

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.

The origin of ideas is a mystery. I am not aware of any specific techniques that enhance your ability to think of new ideas. It seems to me that the best way to encourage the development of new ideas is to broaden your set of experiences. I find this somewhat ironic because one might otherwise think that the number of ideas you can hold in your head might be fixed, and that filling your head with other people's ideas would leave less room for your own. Happily, this does not appear to be the case, and there are thousands of examples to demonstrate this fact.

Consider that before the invention of the telescope, which enabled us to see other planets, Western literature was almost completely devoid of fiction about space travel. Stories in this genre have become increasingly common since it has actually become possible to visit other worlds. A cynic might observe that the plots to some of these are formulaic and devoid of creativity, but an idea such as the one underyling, say, the television series "Star Trek", would have been literally unthinkable eight hundred years ago. There is simply no way anyone without exposure to the concept of space travel, world exploration, democracy, or television would have conceived of that series.

On the other hand, familiarity with "Star Trek" alone is not enough to ensure creavity even within the genre of science fiction. You will also want to include elements of political intrigue, romance, and other aspects of the human condition, in order to produce a satisfying story. Therefore, you may want to explore other genres in order to get ideas. Exposure to different ideas increases your vocabulary, making it easier to be express yourself. It is still up to you to be creative within that vocabulary. But it is easier to think of new ideas if you have a wide range of experiences and are able to draw from all of them. You will learn what works and what does not and when, and you will be able to combine and relate ideas in interesting and useful ways.

The "Star Trek" example also suggests that the perception of creativity is subjective. Some episodes of "Star Trek" may seem trite by the standards of the 1990's, even though they were groundbreaking just thirty years before, and would have been impossible eight hundred years earlier. Someone attempting to write a science fiction story today without learning from the experiences of science fiction writers of the past would be doomed to repeat their ideas and look foolsh in the process. Keeping up with the the ideas of your contemporaries is not only a good idea to increase your creative vocabulary, it is necessary in order to avoid repetition.

It may be more important to have breadth of knowledge than depth. If all you have ever experienced is "Star Trek", then your creative output will probably be limited to stories that are similar to "Star Trek" episodes. Yet you must have some depth in a subject in order to learn from it and apply its ideas. If you have seen only one "Star Trek" episode and experienced no other science fiction, that is probably not enough to enable you to write good science fiction.

It should be obvious how all this applies to music. If you've listened to and played nothing but, say, folk songs in C major and 3/4 time:

[EXAMPLE]

it will be unlikely to occur to you that you can swing in Eb minor in 5/4 time. Whereas, this was not so unusual for Paul Desmond, and as a result, he was able to write "Take Five":

[EXAMPLE]

It is important to listen to a wide variety of music in order to be able to draw from the experiences of other musicians. But hearing one example of a style is not enough to make you expert enough to play convincingly in that style. At best, you may be able to duplicate particular elements of the performance you heard, but you will not be understand the parameters that govern it and therefore you will not be able to create within the style.

None of this is specific to melody or to improvisation. It has to do with creativity in general. However, it does have special relevance to the improvisation of a melody. In order to create a melody that sounds at all jazz-like, you have to have a concept in your mind as to what jazz sounds like. I suggest you start by reviewing the section on Melody from the chapter on Fundamentals in the unit on the Elements Of Jazz. Also, check out the unit on Jazz Styles for some examples of typical jazz melodies. Hopefully, you will have access to a jazz radio station, recordings, or live performances as well, so that you can immerse yourself in the music. Just as only a person who was thoroughly familiar with the concept of science fiction and the idea of exploration could have thought of "Star Trek", only someone who is thoroughly familiar with jazz will be likely to think of ideas like the following phrase from Charlie Parker's solo on "Koko":

[EXAMPLE]

When improvising, ideas like that do not normally spring fully formed from your head, like Zeus giving birht to Athena. Sometimes, this might happen. But for the most part, the first thing that occurs to you will be the contour of the idea. In the above example, for instance, it is possible that what first entered Charlie Parker's mind was the following:

[EXAMPLE]

How to realize that contour is discussed in the following sections. For now, I wish to concentrate on generating the contour. As argued above, the most important factor in your ability to be creative are probably your experiences. These will largely determine the type of ideas you will think of.

You may find your ideas become repetitive after a while. You may be subconsciously locked into one particular type of contour with which you are comfortable. For example, consider the following solo:

[EXAMPLE]

The first phrase is quite good. But whereas it is one thing to have your ideas relate to each other, the repetition of contours between phrases in the above solo is monotonous. Or, consider the following solo:

[EXAMPLE]

Here, the phrases seem varied enough. But what if the soloist were to then improvise the following on the very next tune he played:

[EXAMPLE]

While neither solo is bad in itself, the similarity of the two suggest that the improvisor is locked into one set of ideas, one way of thinking. As in the first example, where the phrases within the solo were too similar, the improvisor had some good ideas, but was not producing enough variety to sustain interest. This is a common trap for beginning improvisors to fall into.

Breaking yourself of this kind of habit is important but particularly difficult. The first step is recognizing that your are doing it. Because you are so wrapped up in the process of playing, sometimes it is difficult to truly hear yourself on this level while improvising. One suggestion is to record yourself improvising, and then listen to the playback critically. Listen not just once, but several times. If you notice certain ideas repeating themselves, try to be conscious of these ideas while improvising. Most likely, they will turn out to be patterns that are physically comfortable for you to perform. It will take willpower to avoid them in your improvisation. But the effort will be worthwhile.

Avoiding repetition is one part of increasing variety. Still, for every idea you edit out of your improvisation, you will need to provide something in its place. One answer is the use of space. If you don't have an idea for what to play, don't play anything. You may be surprised at how logical your improvisations become if you play only what you are truly inspired to play. For example, consider the following:

[EXAMPLE]

There are relatively few phrases played in this example, but they each were played very intentionally, and this comes out in the music. The use of space gives you time to think of a new idea that will have some meaning it, and not merely be a convenient thing to do with your hands.

One way to practice this is to sing each phrase before you play it. Doing this over a fast-moving chord progression is not such a good idea because an idea that worked as you sung it may not work over the chords that are being played by the time you get around to playing. But doing this over a single repeating chord, or no chords whatsoever, works well. For example:

[EXAMPLE]

You may find that your ability to execute what you have sung is not as good as you like. This will improve with practice as well. But meanwhile, do not let your mistakes defocus you from the idea you are trying to express. If you hear the following contour in your head:

[EXAMPLE]

and sing it like this:

[EXAMPLE]

do not be too concerned if the first few notes you play are:

[EXAMPLE]

Just finish out the idea as true to how you originally heard it as possible:

[EXAMPLE]

Making sure that each phrase you play was truly intended is a major step in the right direction. The next step is to give enough thought to each phrase to make it interesting. Here, you should try to keep in mind what you have played recently, so that you do not repeat yourself, and that you are truly going somewhere. For example, if you start with the following idea:

[EXAMPLE]

You may wish to develop this idea for a while (see the section on Melodic Development):

[EXAMPLE]

When it is time to move on to the next idea, you may wish to consider one that contrasts with the first idea:

[EXAMPLE]

There are many aspects to an idea that you can control the variety of. An idea may consist of mostly long or short notes:

[EXAMPLE]

It may use long and short notes in different combinations. For example, the following starts short and ends long:

[EXAMPLE]

While the following is precisely the opposite:

[EXAMPLE]

You can also vary the articulation and use of space within the idea: