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Topic: Improvisation vs. Playing Parts |
Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
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Posted 20 Mar 2001 8:21 pm |
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Yeah, that's my point, rayman. I love hearing improvisation by the masters. Chet Baker could come up with alternate melodies as good as the original. Buddy too, of course. But most of us aren't blessed with the musical sense to compose on the spot.
As a listener, I'd rather hear good arranged parts than mediocre improvisation. |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 20 Mar 2001 11:01 pm
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Interesting b0b because I would almost always rather hear a musician take a chance if he is sucessfull or not than hear something I have heard before.
Bob |
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Gary Lee Gimble
From:
Fredericksburg, VA.
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Posted 21 Mar 2001 4:42 am
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"I would almost always rather hear a musician take a chance.."
Does that include atonal adlib too? Ain't no boo boos there!
Gary Lee
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Smokey Fennell
From:
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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Posted 22 Mar 2001 11:38 am
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I understand the need for having parts arranged, especially with more instruments. But, when it comes time to solo, how many have the solo worked out? How many have a basic pattern they follow? How many make it up on the spot? What about fills when it is your turn. Do you play it the exact same way each time or vary what you play?
I do a little of each. I love playing on tunes I have not played before just for the feeling of having to come up with something on the fly. Sometimes it is really good and sometimes I want to hide. It also depends on who I am playing with as to how much of a chance I will take on stage. |
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Jeff A. Smith
From:
Angola,Ind. U.S.A.
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Posted 22 Mar 2001 5:46 pm
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| I have an album of Charlie Parker outtakes. If you listen to a few successive versions of the same tune, you can hear how he often refined basic ideas from take to take. Of course that's in the studio. |
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Lee G
From:
Lebanon, OH, USA
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Posted 24 Mar 2001 2:26 pm
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I don't look at improvisation as a totally spontaneous crapshoot. I've always considered it to be more like an on-the-spot construction of basic elements that one has played many times before.
These elements can be anything from bits of scales, arpeggios, and chords to more common rock, blue, country, folk or jazz riffs.
If you have a good understanding of theory, the harmony and rhythm of the song your playing, and your instrument, then improvisation is less of a "gamble" than you think!
It's more like spontaneously putting together these things you already know in new and exciting combinations.
The masters of improvisation in any genre are really just masters of the basic building blocks of music. They just assemble them in really inventive ways, often thinking beyond the key and style of the composition.
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Herb Steiner
From:
Spicewood TX 78669
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