Learning music backwards? Part #1(Letto 52 volte)

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It doesn't matter whether we attended music schools or conservatories, or no schools at all, or whether we studied for years as self-taught musicians, but when it comes down to it, there is always a problem: our solos are mediocre, or they suck, or nothing comes to mind...

It's not that ARE WE TRYING TO LEARN MUSIC AND IMPROVISATION BACKWARDS?

We read theory books, theLet's learn scales, study triads and arpeggios in every key, memorise We practise chord progressions and learn new songs, and then we try to improvise, but nothing interesting happens...

Sound familiar? This is the standard approach to jazz improvisation that we find in schools, private lessons, masterclasses, and study rooms everywhere. It is what we have become accustomed to accepting as “THE WAY” to learn improvisation.

The truth is that this learning process that is prescribed to us can easily seem like a good exercise, mixing and matching notes on chord progressions. Of course, songs change, musical styles change over time, but in the end we will always face the same challenge: cTry to put together related notes, scales, chord tones, rhythms, to somehow create an interesting musical idea.

It is frustrating and pointless to try to come up with an idea out of thin air using only music theory. That is why you hear many students say, “I always do the same things, I keep using the same scales, how can I invent melodies and connect chords?”

This problem is much more common than we imagine.

It comes from the fact that we were taught (or learned on our own) the approach to improvisation. on the contrary! In other words, we were told to start with all the elements present in a musical discourse, without ever learning how to put them together – essentially trying to create fantastic solos through reverse engineering, starting from a handful of music theory rules.

This one-sided approach to learning improvisation causes a lot of confusion and discourages everyone. Even studying theory and memorisation techniques for a long time does not actually help us improve.

However, we don't have to start from scratch every time we play a solo or resign ourselves to putting together scales and chords. The model for creating great melodies and acquiring melodic skills is contained in the music we listen to every day.

The trick is to start with the information contained in the music we listen to, rather than trying to arrive at it by chance, starting from the rules.

MUSICAL THEORY SHOULD NOT TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER MUSIC

As mentioned earlier, the typical approach common to many types of jazz and improvisation learning in general revolves around individual elements of music theory.

From our very first lesson, we dive into a world of rules and definitions, believing that this is how our musical ideas will emerge. The expectation is that with enough repetition, with enough hours of study, all the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place.

When it is time to improvise, we will place all our trust in luck, hoping for a moment of inspiration that will transform all this information into a musical phrase.

But done in this sequence, we have no idea what we are trying to do, namely how to use this theoretical information in a musical way. We have no idea about the characteristics of a melody, or the specific skills needed to create one. It is a pile of information that is useless on its own, without instructions on how to use it, and something that does not work, whatever we are trying to learn.

Imagine giving someone the ingredients for a three-course meal without giving them the recipe and cooking techniques to prepare it. Imagine throwing the ingredients on the table and saying, “Right, now get to work!”.

You would not do this and expect good results, just as you would not give an aspiring writer a list of grammar rules and expect them to come up with a successful novel or a magnificent book of poetry.

Similarly, you would not expect a musician to start improvising like Charlie Parker after learning a couple of scales and chord progressions. Under no circumstances, even with hours and hours of study and memorisation, can this approach yield good results.

Let us remember that just because we have the information does not necessarily mean that we know how to use it, or that we have the necessary skills to start improvising. A scale is just a sequence of notes; it does not come with instructions for use. If we learn the Cyrillic alphabet by heart, it does not mean that we can immediately give a lecture on nuclear physics in Russian!

It is very difficult for many musicians to accept this, but simply understanding the theory and studying scales does not mean that you can improvise melodic lines at any given moment. You have to realise that understanding the sound of a major chord does not mean you know how to play melodic lines over it, and that playing arpeggios over a chord progression does not translate into the ability to improvise melodic lines, and that turning up to play a piece after memorising the theme and chords is no guarantee of a good solo.

Once we realise that theory is just one piece of the puzzle that fits into the bigger picture of “why we play”, we will start to see improvements in our improvisation.

PUTTING MUSIC FIRST

It is a fact that every musician needs to understand theory and have a certain instrumental technique, but improvisation requires much more than that. It requires creating melody on the spot, putting all our theory and technique together to tell a story. Even if we manage to come up with some good ideas, they would be useless from a musical point of view if we do not tell our story with our sound and our melodies.

THEORY DOES NOT GIVE US INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING MUSIC; IT CAN ONLY EXPLAIN WHY AND HOW SOME THINGS WORK AND OTHERS DO NOT.

Continued…