You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Running Out Of Improv Ideas? Do These 7 Things - #94

Episode Date: May 3, 2018

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is Adam Maness, and I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast. Daily Jazz Advice coming at you. Are you running out of improv ideas? We'll do these seven things. Is this some kind of infomercial or something, man? This is. And wait, there's more.

Come on. I'm not doing nine on this. All right. So, you know, we all get to that point in our practice routine, on a gig, even in a solo where it's just, you know, where it feels like, we don't have any more ideas, that everything that could be played has been played or that anything that we're going to play, we're just sort of regurgitating something we've already played. We're not feeling creative or whatever. So we wanted to give you seven, you know,

ideas of, you know, different ways of thinking about the music, maybe some different ways of practicing, just sort of different concepts to get those creative juices flowing again. Yeah, we all get kind of stuck in our own ruts. And so it's good to kind of try new things and maybe get out of your comfort zone a little bit. So yeah, I'll look forward to this. So speaking of comfort zone, we're going to start with number one, listen. Oh, this is new for us. Okay, cool. Listen.

Which is definitely our comfort zone. But now we're going to be listening for specifically new improv ideas. So the obvious thing is to listen to things you haven't been listening to. But usually things that we know really well that we've listened to over and over again. And, you know, we've talked a lot about on here like really what I would, you know, call focus listening. Not just, you know, you've got the music playing in the background while you're cooking pasta and drinking Kianti. you know, real like you're sitting there and almost meditating on the music, concentrating, listening to all the different parts.

So once you've done that enough on certain recordings, you feel like you really know them and you think, well, I'm not going to go there for my improv ideas. But because you know those recordings so well, oftentimes you can find new things. There's always fresh ideas that you missed or that you heard, but maybe you didn't apply to your playing. So that could be at any point within the recording on any of the different instruments. You can also certainly go to new recordings and stuff, but basically listen specifically for new improv ideas. So don't go to the things that you're already using.

That's great. And if I could add to that, go listen to live music, I think, can be very inspiring to help kickstart a new idea. Because you see someone sort of execute it live. Sometimes it sticks a little more than even recordings. Well, and I mean, also just the live situation of you're in the middle of a gig and you're like, I'm running out of improv ideas. I've got to solo next or whatever. Listen, listen to what's played right before you. Listen to what the other solos are doing because that can give you those new ideas.

That's not stealing. That's actually connecting with and making it comprehensive within the overall performance in a very organic way. Yeah, I mean, it's been part of how this music has been passed down for generation. Yeah, and that takes us to our second point, number two, which is learn a solo from a new artist, from an artist that you, you've not transcribed before, that maybe you've not checked out a lot. This kind of goes right with what you were saying. And maybe, you know, even think about it. Like if you have transcribed,

you know, a lot of Wint Kelly or Red Garland and Bill Evans, maybe go to Robert Glasper or even Teddy Wilson. Go, go to the extremes of something that's maybe out of your comfort zone stylistically. So Robert Glasper and Teddy Wilson are two piano extremes. I love that. I think that's kind of. But, I mean, both kill and play. who do very interesting and refreshing things in their era. And I think just kind of getting out of your stylistic comfort zone can really help spark some new ideas. Not that it's going to take you out of that style, but that you can add some things.

You can apply it to whatever you're. Totally. I like it. Number three, learn a solo from another instrument besides your own. This is one that I've done a lot over the years, and I'm always amazed, you know, what a different approach it gives you. in all the different ways and sort of tools that we use for improvising. So if you're a pianist and you learn a saxophone solo,

if you're a saxophonist and you learn a bass solo, you know, there's a lot of different ways to look at this, or even like learning a bass line up in your range, these are all, like it's almost easier to be creative with ideas from somebody else's solo when it's on another instrument because you're already having to translate it, maybe transpose it and, you know, put it in another, you know, another position for your instrument.

So that already gets it into a new area, and you can often find great ideas for improv in those situations. Yeah, I love that. I mean, there's something about playing the bass that's different than playing the saxophone where the ideas are just different. I mean, they just slays different, but it doesn't mean it can't be applied, and I think that's a really good one.

So our number four is to sing a second-line snare drum rhythm, and this sounds kind of weird or complicated, but it's really not. So listen to some New Orleans style music, listen to some great drummers, and practice actually singing like you're taking a snare drum solo and start playing those rhythms on your instrument and start leaving out notes from the solo.

So, you know, getting that syncopation going, and then you're thinking about one thing. You know, you're not thinking about changes or trying to shape a solo or a melody or something like that, that can often get me out of a rut. It's just a little trick that I use sometimes. That was great. I mean, I think that, I mean,

if you talk about just the concept of eighth note syncopation and then some triplet syncopation, you know, that is a great way of looking at new improv ideas where you would be using similar melodic ideas or patterns that you have and you're just changing that one element, the rhythmic element, by giving it more, you know, or different and varied syncopation. And you're right, like New Orleans-style snare drumming is some of the most creative use of syncopation.

So why not go to the source? And it's always swinging. It's always going to help you be in the groove a little bit more when you're playing this music. Great, great. Number one, three, four, five. Oh, this one I love. Practice tunes in different keys. So you would take a tune that you're maybe running out of some improv ideas, whatever that is of, you know, a rhythm change.

or a standard tune or whatever it is, and then pick one other key that you're going to practice soloing on it. I mean, you can certainly learn the melody and stuff too, but this is mainly about just going in and soloing another key. So it's going to be hard at first, and it's going to feel uncomfortable. You don't necessarily have to pick the hardest key, just pick another key. But what you're going to find is that you have to improvise differently, because you're not going to be able to transpose your exact ideas.

there's going to be things that are inherent to that particular key, how those core changes and that melody lays in that key that are going to force you into your own new ideas. And then if you do that enough, you'll be able to start bringing some of those that you like back to that original key. Yeah, I love that. I mean, not only because it lays differently in your hand or on your instrument, but because, you know, keys have different vibrations.

They feel different. Sometimes things feel better in B than they do in C. Sometimes it's the opposite, so I think it's good to get ideas like that. That's great. And this takes us to our sixth point, which is to handcuff yourself. This is to restrict what you play. So maybe you omit the thirds and the sevenths from every chord that you're soloing over. Or maybe you just only play the thirds and the seventh. But it's something. Maybe you only play rhythms that are on the beat and see if you can make that swing. Maybe you only stay in a particular range of your instrument, or you play only two different notes for your whole solo and see if you can make that work. That can really take you out of a rut.

It can really spark new ideas and can be very exciting and help you focus, I think. And then number seven, our final idea of something to do when you're running out. Psychedelic drugs? Well, that's, you know, desperate times, as we say. Yeah, no, for when you're running out of those improv ideas, I'm going to circle all the way back to the, beginning and that is going to be to trust yourself go back to the source and your most organic improv so you're not going to you're going to as much as you can just remove from your brain oh I'm running out of ideas and you're going to play whatever is the most natural

whatever is the most organic statement you can make on that moment and you can do this when you practice this is a form of restrictive practicing where you would just go through and play a number of courses or a number of solos even like however many courses they need to to be a complete solo. Do that a number of times where you say, I'm not going to worry about incorporating anything from a new key or a different instrument solo that I learned. None of that stuff.

Where you're just going to play what you hear. And this whole podcast is you'll hear it. And so you're really just going to do that. And yeah, you may start to feel like you're regurgitating some things. But, you know, after going through some of these other techniques, I think you'll start to see that you actually have more creative improv ideas and new ideas. And you might be further out of that rut than you.

you think you are. You'll least be able to find some things in your practice that you can apply and say, wow, actually, I have some fresh ideas inside of me. So that's great. And with that one, you might even say, you'll hear it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the You'll Hear It podcast. If you liked what you heard, please leave a rating or review. Yeah, I liked what I heard. I'm going to leave five stars, but you guys can do whatever you want. Today's episode was brought you by Open Studio, Jazz Lessons from Jazz Legends. Check out our brand new All Access Pass. All access. What is that? Like one or two courses you get? Dude, I said all access. It's access to everything. Every course, hundreds, thousands.

Tens of thousands of left. Wait, tens of thousands. Back up. Back up. Definitely hundreds. We're getting close to a thousand. Everything from Christian McBride, Peter Martin, Romero, Romero, Lubbombo, Gregory Hutchinson, Miles Davis, Meat, Lux Lewis, Jellyroll Morton. Now it's just getting ridiculous. No, some of those. The first couple, we've got them. Check us out. OpenStudio Network.com.