Piano Improvisation with Rosa

1.  Improvising on rhythms:

Improvise freely on the given scale, but limit yourself to the following rhythms.

Don’t worry about the notes, think only on the rhythm.

1  1 0     0    1  1 \    – –     –  1 –  1 –  1 \       1  1 0     0    1  1 \     – –     –  1 1   1 – \

Make up your own rhythm

2.  Improve with short rhythmic groupings:

Improves feely on the given scale, but limit yourself to motives of one, two or three notes interpersed with rest. Use any combination of quarter notes, 8th notes, triplets, or 16th notes.

Try to begin your ideas at different places in teh bar.

a. example of 3 note motives

2   b3  4 – – 1   2   3 |   0   –   b7 b7   1 2  – |  –   6 b7  1 –  5 6  7 |  0   6  5 4   0    |

• the b7 there are tie notes

b. a combination of one, two and three note motives

–  3 4  2 –   4 –  b3 |   0     –  1 –  b3 2    |   –  b7 2   1 –   6 – 4 |   4 (tie note) – – –   |

3.  Placement of the beat:

It is possible  to place your notes consistently slightly behind, in the middle, or slightly in front of the beat, all while maintaining a steady tempo.

Playing behind the bat creates a sense of relaxation, whereas playing in front of the beat creates a sense of urgency or excitement.

Clap along with a metronome. If you clap right on the beat, you will not hear the metronome.

If you clap slightly behind (called laying back) or slightly in front (tipping) you will hear it.

Now improvise on the scale given above, trying to play in front, int he middle, and slightly behind teh beat. Observe the different moods each approach creates.

4.  Phrasing

Phrasing is a rhythm on a longer scale. Instead of playing a series of notes, try to play melodies that make a complete statement.

In general, most musicians and composers construct melodies in one of two ways or a combination.

— motivaly using small rhythmic or melodic ideas which develop into complete phrases

— continuous melodic lines in which long melodic ideas, often in consecutive 8th notes, are continuously spun out.  Improve on the given scale, trying to create phrases using both the motivic and continuous melodic line approaches.

Don’t worry about the notes, think only about phrasing of the melodic line.

Rhythm is the most important component of jazz.

Melody and chords are less important.

Duke Ellington standard:  “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t go that swing.”

African American musical styles: blues, gospel, rap, funk and jazz — place a strong accent on the 2nd and 4th beat of the measure. These are considered weak beats in western art music traditions.

When the rhythm swings, an uneven division of the 8th note is used.

In medium to slow tempos, 8th notes tend to be played like triplets with the first two notes tied.

As tempo increases, relationship between teh notes tends to even out.  And within these parameters, each artist finds his or her own unique interpretations. Usually the first beat is played long while the offbeats are frequently accented.

It is like doo-BAH

When accenting the offbeats, and de-emphasizing certain notes, an underlying polyrhythm and infectious sense of swing is created. When too many downbeats are accented, music sounds corny and square.