Repetition. It’s one part of learning to improvise that’s par for the course. We practice scales over and over again until the technique is securely in our fingers, we spend hours repeatedly working out ii-V7 lines that we’ve transcribed, and we memorize the melodies and chord changes to numerous tunes until we can play them in our sleep.
The great part about all of this repetition is that when we finally have something ingrained into our ears and fingers, we can play it anywhere, especially under pressure.
However, the one drawback with this type of practice is that it’s extremely easy to get stuck in a rut. If you aren’t continually incorporating new language into your playing and searching for new creative approaches to those familiar progressions, you’ll be left with your same old musical approach – and this can be a problem.
In the past I would find myself frustrated, bored, and completely out of ideas on the standards I was practicing. It seemed like I couldn’t think of any new ideas to use over the chord progressions and that I was playing the same stuff over and over again. Although, this didn’t happen without reason. Looking back, the way I approached these tunes mentally and technically contributed significantly to how I played over them.
In the practice room I would play a melody, reading from a page in the real book, the same exact way every time. Instead of getting out the recording, I would turn on play-a-longs and repeatedly approach the chord changes with the same licks and worked out harmonic tricks. Even on gigs I would play the melodies to those tunes in the same way and use the same devices in my solos.
This can be a frustrating hurdle to overcome. If the above description sounds like your practice routine, don’t despair, this is something that you can change today. Because we frequently encounter the same set of tunes in the standard jazz repertoire, it is important to avoid the trap of playing those standards in the same mind-numbing way every time.
For our purposes here, why don’t we take the well-worn standard On Green Dolphin St. and explore the variety of musical approaches possible on this tune. Written by Bronislau Kaper and Ned Washington in 1947, this standard has been played by nearly every notable jazz musician for the past sixty years. Chances are you’ve already played this tune yourself and you may have even become bored with it. Here are a few ways to find a new approach and reinvigorate your interest in those frequently called standards that you’ve begun to dread.
Find out what the tune is about
Many of the standards from the Great American Songbook were written for Broadway shows or movies and consequently have lyrics that tell a story. Penned by composer/lyricists like Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Johnny Mercer, and Cole Porter, these lyrics were very well thought out and actually corresponded to the melodies of the song – unlike much of what you hear coming from the radio today.
If you find yourself bored with a tune or regurgitating the same ideas over the progression, an easy way to find a fresh approach is to listen to the lyrics of that tune. Many of the standards that we play today have a meaningful story within the lyrics. Instead of looking at each tune as one more melody on top of another set of chord changes to learn, try to understand the unique message contained within the lyrics and strive to convey that to your listeners.
So, let’s check out the lyrics to On Green Dolphin St. Whether you are learning a tune for the first time or going back and the best way to do this is to find a vocalist singing the melody.
Sarah Vaughn:
Johnny Hartman:
Even if you aren’t a vocalist, knowing the lyrics to a standard will take the tune to an entirely new level of meaning for you. See if you can express the mood of the tune to the listeners without words, just using your sound and musical expression alone.
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