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Jazz Improvisation Exercises - Visualization
Jazz Improvisation Exercises - Visualization
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Countless hours in the practice room and rhythm changes or a simple bridge to a tune still giving you a tough time? This is a familiar situation to everyone of all levels. I used to waste hours mindlessly practicing, thinking that there was some secret I was missing, or if I just kept improvising over the changes, I would eventually just get it. Or maybe it wasnt the changes at all, but maybe it was something faulty with my equipment. Oh yes, that had to be it. If I could just get my hands on the right mouthpiece or that latest ligature thenthat had to be it!!! This attitude is completely delusional, yet many of us continue to think this way for years! Playing over a tune constantly, hoping that eventually youll play well over it is a mindless pursuit, as is blaming your equipment for your shortcomings as an improviser. In actuality, the problem is not external. We hold in our mind what we will play before we even pick up our horn, therefore, to change what we are going to play, we have to change whats stored in our mind. Sure, when you practice your instrument, your mind is altering its stored information, but what if you could simply go directly to your mind and start fixing the bugs? That is where visualization comes into the picture.
Defining Visualization
The dictionary defines visualization as the formation of mental images. For the purposes of this article, think of it as creating a mental image of chord tones and progressions in the minds eye, accompanied by a tactile and aural sense. Dont worry if you dont completely understand yet. It will become extremely clear as we progress.
Mental Roadblocks
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Ok. So youre soloing over a familiar tune and everything is going great. Youre feeling good and then all of sudden, you hesitate for a moment. You think to yourself, What chord am I on? By the time you figure it out, the chord is long gone. When your mind stumbles on a roadblock like that, your flow is broken and all sense of creativity is lost. These roadblocks that exist in our minds are made up of lapses in time. They could be the time that it takes to know the chord youre on, the right notes to play, where you are in a tune etc. They could be seconds long or they could be milliseconds. The point is that if they are there, that is bad. Practicing visualization reduces the time it takes to recall elements of the tune, until they are ingrained in your mind. In time, these mental roadblocks will disappear. Then, when you do go to the practice room or the bandstand, youll be armed with the confidence to have a more productive, positive, and fun experience.
Removing Roadblocks
Gradually, one by one these roadblocks can be removed, until all that is left is a super highway of your own creativity. How do you do this? Start with the exercises below and practice them diligently everyday. They really dont take much of a time commitment and the rewards are huge. Ive written out an entire series of exercises that I put on my night stand and for fifteen minutes before I go to bed, I simply run through them. Once you get proficient in visualization, youll be able to do it anywhere and take advantage of the many segments throughout the day that you have a few minutes to kill.
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1. Sit somewhere comfortable where you will not be disturbed. Later you will be able to do this anywhere, but right now use all the help you can get. 2. In your minds eye, see the chord symbol for C Major (I try to keep things as simple as possible, so even for C major seven, I would just visualize the image below)
3. Congratulations you just visualized! Easy right? Ok enough, celebration weve only just begun. Now see a music staff below the chord symbol
4. Once you can clearly visualize the chord symbol with the staff, add the root of the chord to the picture.
5. Now you are going to add an aural sense to the equation. Hear how you think that root sounds on that C Major chord. Often I hear piano and I try to hear a solid pitch. Dont worry about the absolute pitch. I do not have perfect pitch, however, through these exercises, coupled with daily ear training, you will develop the necessary relative pitch to hear chord motion while visualizing. As you get more advanced, you will want to learn how to hear the chord in the background of the pitch you are focusing on as well. 6. Next add a tactile sense. Feel exactly how it would feel to play that note on your instrument. If you play saxophone like me, at this point you will be seeing the image of the C Major chord symbol above a staff with the note C on it, while you are hearing the note ring in your head, and feeling how it would be like to push the key down with your left middle finger. So that is basic visualization. Here are some variations to try before moving on: See, hear, and feel (all at the same time) different chord tones on the C Major chord. For example, after you have done the root, try the third, and then the fifth and so on, until you have visualized all the chord tones. Try visualizing pairs of notes. A valuable pair as you would have guessed is threeseven. You could see them as a block chord or try seeing a half-note of the third and a half-note of the seventh.
Experiment with groups of three, four, or even five notes. The possibilities are endless. Be creative! Practice these steps until it is second nature to be able to see, hear, and feel chords and chord tones in your head simultaneously. When you feel confident, begin to apply these steps to some progressions.
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Since the ii-V-I is so common, it is always a good place to start. In this exercise, we are going to visualize a ii-V-I in C major. Follow these steps to get a handle on visualizing through progressions: 1. Again, sit somewhere where you wont be bothered to avoid distractions while you are first starting out. 2. First, see the chord symbols in your minds eye. 3. Next add the staff
5. Add the sound of each note and this time try to hear the chord in the background as well. Keep the note on the staff the prominent sound though. 6. Feel the notes under your fingers as you progress from one chord to the next in time. (Yes, eventually you want to keep a consistent tempo through the progression) 7. Now visualize half notes of the third and seventh of each chord, progressing in time from one chord to the next. Pay special attention to the transitions as the seventh of one chord goes to the third of the next.
8. Loop step 7 until you can instantaneously feel the chord tones, even before you arrive to them in the exercise. For instance, you are thinking of D-, yet you feel, see, and hear G7 before you even get there. Visualizing the third and seventh as in step #7 is essential to hearing a progression operate in your minds ear. After practicing these resolutions, your ear will guide you through the changes much more smoothly. Your dependency on background tracks or comping instruments will diminish and you will feel much more confident.
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If you've found this website helpful, please click the Donate button. The average donation is about $14. We greatly appreciate your support! Related Posts: Ingraining Jazz Language Through Visualization 10 Visualization Exercises To Boost Your Chord Progression Visualizing Musical Progress Visualization One Key At A Time How Thoughtful Off Time Can Help You Become The Player You Understanding Chord Tones Free Jazz Visualization Ebook Hey, Do You Know That Tune? 5 Solutions to Improvisation That Are Hidden In Plain Sight Resetting Your Mindset About Jazz Improvisation Fundamental Ear Training: Seventh Chords 100 New Years Resloution Ideas to Get You Amped For 2011 Ear Training For One 5 Essential Skills for the Performing Improviser Where to Start Learning Jazz Improvisation
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We are Forrest and Eric. Weve learned from a ton of great musicians (Mulgrew Miller, Rich Perry and many more). We are sharing anything that continues to inspire us as musicians and creative individuals alike. Enjoy.
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