The Solo Section

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.

Finally, you reach the solos. This is the meat of most jazz performances, and indeed it is what most of this program has been trying to prepare you for. I do not plan to say a lot more about soloing at this point. However, there are some logistical issues that are worth discussing.

To continue where the previous section left off, the first soloist often gets a two measure break to lead in to his solo. This device is dramatic in nature, and most soloists tend to exploit this by playing something correspondingly dramatic, whether it be especially fast, loud, high, or whatever:

[EXAMPLE]

Normally, only the first soloist gets a break, but you can arrange to do breaks at the end of each solo to lead into the next:

[EXAMPLE]

Occassionally, you may even put the break at the end of each chorus, so each soloist gets several breaks. This is traditionally done on certain tunes, such as "Moment's Notice" by John Coltrane:

[EXAMPLE]

It is prudent to remember that when you are performing, you cannot go back and take another shot at a particular passage if it doesn't come out right. Conversely, if you hit a wrong note, while you may be tempted to simply ignore it and go on, you should be aware that, depending on how bad it was, the audience may have heard it too, and if they did, it has become part of the music, and you should not be afraid to build on that. Sometimes, musicians joke that if you make a mistake, you should repeat it so they think you meant it. While this is going a bit far, there is something to the notion that you can "correct" a mistake in some sense by making it part of your improvisation. For instance, notice how the cracked note in the following example led the soloist onto a perfectly valid tangent:

[EXAMPLE]

When dealing with mistakes of any sort, continuity becomes most important, so you may occassionally wish to practice as if you were performing, in order to get accustomed to this.

Unless the arrangement specifies otherwise, you are usually free to decide for yourself how many choruses to take and what the overall contour of your solo should be. Charlie Parker was known for taking only one or two choruses in most performances, although this was at least partially dictated by the limitations of the 78 RPM recording format. Conversely, John Coltrane would often take dozens of choruses. All I can say is, take as long as you need to tell your story, then get out of the way. You should signal to the other players when you are finishing up your last chorus, so the next soloist will be ready to pick up where you leave off:

[EXAMPLE]

You should try to keep your solo in perspective as well. If there are several horn players on the gig, and all of them are expecting to solo, you might want to keep it relatively short so the other players do not grow impatient. Also, most listeners appreciate variety, and if every tune turns into a marathon, the audience may lose interest. You might want to try featuring a different set of soloists on each tune to keep things more focused. Even if you have only two soloists, and both tend to play short solos, you might want to vary the order of the solos from tune to tune, just to keep things from getting stale.

After the last solo, you may wish to trade fours, as described previously. The leader will usually hold up four fingers to indicate this. Whoever soloed first will normally go first in the fours as well, and then he will visually cue the next soloist or the drummer to take the next four:

[EXAMPLE]

There will not always be a signal, however. If, instead of playing the head after the last solo, one of the musicians starts to take what sounds like another solo, this is usually an indication that he intends to trade fours:

[EXAMPLE]

During the trading of fours, there is no time to develop an long idea. Instead, soloists usually build on each other's ideas, generally keeping a consistently high energy level throughout:

[EXAMPLE]

Often, the fours will lead into a full drum solo:

[EXAMPLE]

Sometimes, whoever plays the head out will take one more solo chorus before returning to the melody:

[EXAMPLE]

The eventual return to the melody is usually signalled by tapping one's head:

[EXAMPLE]

The most important thing is that you have fun expressing yourself. This is your opportunity to use what you have been practicing, but you should not be afraid to take chances, either. Making a statement is more important than playing the "right" notes.

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

The Solo Section