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Objective of Workshop

This workshop is designed to increase improvisational literacy through a methodology of rigorous time-based practice exercises. The goal is to instill muscle memory shapes under the fingers that go beyond the low hanging fruit of the blues scale or random chord notes.

Considerations on how to hear your solos

1) As you practice licks, you will start to pre-hear them when you solo, and you can put them into a sequence.

2) When you practice 'environments' (i.e. chord-scales), you will not be slave to the lick, but will have a window into more creative ideas. These ideas will later become part of your own personal vocabulary, which should be ever-expanding.

As you practice soloing, you will develop a sense for what are the "pretty phrases" - note choices, motif choices, articulation, time feel. Your taste is a critical ingredient, and can be developed by listening to the masters.

I want to guard the student against getting into solo ruts, i.e. soloing exclusively with cliches. It's better to leave the canvas open for creative ideas. It's better to try and fail, or hear something but not have the readiness to execute. You should revisit these tentative moments, and execute them the "next time round".

Preparatory Exercises


1) Play scales up and down on chords in song chart, for maj 7, m6, V7, m7b5, dim (note: ii - V7 = V7)

(Note: for sample song "There Will Never Be Another You", see here)

2) Play important triads and important (7th) chords on song chart.

Note: For Maj 7: maj.7 on 3rd, triad on 5th
          For Dom.7: minor triad on 5th; major triad on 7th; half-diminished on 3rd
          For Min 6: maj triad on 5th

3) Pick a lick, and cycle it chromatically through all keys.

4) Rhythm exercise: / / 7 6 5 4 3 2 1, 6 5 4 3 2 1, 5 4 3 2 1, 4 3 2 1, 3 2 1, 2 1, 1

5) Practice the half step rules on maj 7 and dominant

6) Practice enclosures. Nathan Greybeal's exercise:

7) Embellishments: triplets (discuss how they shift the down beat); 16th note triplets

8) Illustrate 5-4-3-2-1 phrases

9) Practice the chromatic scale, ascending and descending, from different points in the scale.

The Jigsaw Puzzle of Phraseology


1) To illustrate how interchangeable phrases can be put together, pick random phrases out of a pile of cards for each chord group. Each student can play them in sequence.

2) The beauty of musical phrases is that they do not have the strict grammatical rules that language has (noun - verb - noun), but fragments of ideas can still be musical.

Building the solo


1) Use scale fragments

2) Use triads and chords (i.e. triads plus 7th)

2) Use pivoting

3) Use enclosures

4) Use approach notes (from above and below)

5) Think laterally for playing on: half dim chords, tritone substitutions

6) Throw in triplets (both 8th note and 16th note)

7) Throw in acciaccaturas

8) Articulate up-beats

9) Start phrases on different beats, and "fix" with half-step rules

10) Explore "outside" notes: See: www.jazzadvice.com/lessons/5-ways-to-escape-the-diatonic-trap-in-jazz-improvisation/

Additional Advice

JazzAdvice.com has some good tips on how to build strong melodic phrases: www.jazzadvice.com/melodic-power-course/

                                            www.jazzadvice.com/lessons/5-ways-to-escape-the-diatonic-trap-in-jazz-improvisation/