One of the hardest parts of improvising is the expectation that you need to be creative all the time. The pressure to continually come up with new and interesting ideas in every solo…
And as hard as you might try, the reality is that you’ll end up at a creative wall at some point or another, asking yourself “How exactly am I going to find something new to play?“
This situation often arises when you practice and perform the same set of tunes for an extended period of time – memorizing & breaking down the changes over and over again- until you eventually draw a blank.
It might be the blues & rhythm changes, a challenging jazz standard, or working through common chords and progressions like ii-V-I’sor turnarounds…
The more you practice and rehearse, the less creative you seem to feel. It’s as if you’re stuck in a musical box, only seeing a few lines or tactics for a tune, when in fact, you should have unlimited possibilities!
Sohow do you break free from the predictable routine of repetition and return the creative freedom of improvisation??
While there are many factors that contribute to your creative potential – from listening and ear training, to harmonic understanding and developing language – one of the biggest revolves around your rhythmic approach to the music.
Rhythm is essential for creating melodic statements and integral in developing musical ideas. In fact, ignoring the importance of it will lead you straight into a creative dead-end…
That’s why in this PRO lesson, we’ll focus on developing a rhythmic practice in your routine and finding new musical sources of rhythmic ideas to diversify your approach. Inside you’ll learn how to:
Develop an awareness of your own rhythmic vocabulary
Build a foundation of rhythmic fundamentals in your practice routine
Find new rhythmic inspiration from the music you already listen to
And 8 Rhythmic Tactics taken directly from the pros
Let’s jump in…
What happened to rhythm?
The typical approach to teaching and learning improvisation often gets reduced to the harmonic and melodic aspects of music theory…
Specifically, the notes, scales, chords, and progressions of any tune:
As a result, many players begin to conceptualize tunes and formulate their musical ideas solely around theory concepts.
This might sound familiar looking back on the instruction you’ve received over the years:
“…this song uses a dorian scale, play a melodic minor scale over this chord, emphasize the chord tones in your lines, use arpeggios, focus on the 3rds and 7ths, use the altered scale, try pentatonic patterns,play guide tone lines!”
But here’s the question: How do you turn all of these theory concepts into musical statements and develop creative ideas with them? How do you actually make music with these devices over a chord progression in real-time?
The answer goes back to rhythm.
Rhythm is the medium in which the building blocks of music are turned into musical ideas. And rhythm is the integral part of learning the jazz language as you listen to and transcribe your favorite players.
Without rhythmic definition and intent, all of these theory concepts are just…theory!
Your goal is to develop the ability to create musical ideas from a rhythmic starting point, along with the harmonic and melodic tools that you already have.
You’ll be more creative if you have a rich rhythmic vocabulary and strong time, as opposed to someone with an encyclopedia of music theory knowledge and no way of applying it in a musical way…
The trick is to switch the starting point of the creative process from one of definitions and theory to one of organic rhythmic ideas…
The good news is that by simply focusing on rhythm in your practice routine, you can transform your current ideas and musical language without having to build a new approach from scratch.
And this will work no matter your current level or musical vocabulary, whether it’s comprised of the chord tones and basic triads of a tune or more complex lines and harmonic language.
The beauty of focusing on rhythm to generate musical ideas is that it takes you out of the straight jacket of scales & chords and your familiar habits. You’ll discover the ability to be endlessly creative with the most basic of musical structures – chord tones, triads, or even one note!
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