As players today, we have a ton of resources to draw from in the practice room. But when it comes to the more musical areas of improvisation, something is missing. And for many of us, that x-factor is imitation…
You see, relying solely on a theory approach can make the process of improvising and playing tunes feel like an exercise created from notes and scales.
Deep down we want to be intuitive and free, and play music with feeling, but the typical learning process seems to pigeonhole us into one way of thinking and practicing.
So how exactly do we transcend theory and definitions and start playing with more intent, connecting to the music in a deeper way??
Well, as the great Clark Terry often said, you must “imitate, assimilate, and innovate.” The answers are in the music, you just have to go get them.
And as we’ll show you below, imitation is one of the keys to absorbing the elusive musical elements that will transform your playing…
Focus on the Learning Stage
This process, like anything else, starts with what we do in the practice room…
It goes back to the cycle of input vs. output – the musical information you’re taking in vs. what’s coming out of your instrument.
And for many of us, we are obsessed with our “output,” the exact notes we are going to play and how we are going to sound in a solo.
We impatiently want results the moment we start working on something – glancing at a tune and trying to play it right away, memorizing a chord or scale and expecting amazing lines…
When we spend less quality time in the learning stage of our practice time we get stuck. We’re chronically missing out on the deeper elements of this music that can only be addressed in a more focused input process.
Better Input = Better Solos
In order to strengthen our musical skills we need to devote more time and attention to the input process.
This means patiently ingraining the musical concepts that you want in your own playing and imitating these qualities from the players you love, without the expectation of instant results.
Concepts like swinging, phrasing, time feel, motivic development, and finding your voice aren’t going to be learned with theory definitions, scales, or from a book – you have to get inside the music and absorb it directly from the source!
This is the process of learning the art form of playing the music as opposed to only studying the raw materials that make it up. And this is where the practice of consistent listening and imitation can help…
By turning our attention to the “learning stage” and immersing ourselves in the music without worrying so much about the results you’ll slowly absorb the areas of musicianship that were so elusive before.
Before we get into some examples, here are a few fundamental skills that will make this process easier:
- Basic ear training skills
- Develop an understanding of harmony & common progressions
- Start building a repertoire of tunes or jazz standards
- and acquire technique and language in all keys
With some nuts and bolts locked in you can start focusing on the art of improvisation…
Thelonious Monk: Bag’s Groove
To show you what this process might look like, let’s check out two solo choruses of Thelonious Monk playing the blues, approaching it through the lens of learning musical ideas via imitation.
This is the perfect solo to dive into if you “know” the chords and form of the blues, but are still stuck on individual notes and chords when you’re soloing.
You can find this solo on the title track of the Miles Davis album “Bags Groove.” Monk’s solo begins at 6:48 in the recording…
Here are a few of the topics we’ll cover below:
- Connecting to the music with your ears and your mind
- A model for developing musical statements through imitation
- Starting with simple musical ideas
- Phrasing structure with a song form
Let’s jump in…
Monk’s first solo Chorus
In the first chorus of his solo, Monk plays the following phrase:
You probably noticed that these 12 bars are centered around one thematic idea:
Without thinking about chords or scales, we’ll focus on ingraining the sound and feeling of these musical statements – the melodic ideas that have musical intent, rhythmic definition, and relate to the musical background.
Remember, musical ideas don’t have to be complex…this phrase is similar to Ellington’s “C Jam Blues” or Parker’s “Now’s the Time” It’s what you do with the notes – how you shape them and craft them – that create melody.
Practice exercises
With a solo or phrase selected, the goal is to transform what we might habitually view as notes, scales, or chords tones into musical phrases that we can sing and play.
Here are a few ways to do this in the practice room…
1) Listen to the first phrase and learn it by ear. It’s as simple as that, listen to it and repeat it until you can reproduce the line along with the recording. As you do, try to hear the context of the accompanying chord, in this case a dominant sound:
Focus on all the details – the time, feel, every inflection, the sound, articulation – hearing it not as individual notes, but as one idea.
2) Learn it in other keys – With the melodic shape in your ear, begin to work it out in other keys, retaining the style and visualizing the underlying chord:
Now you’re working with a melodic idea, a musical phrase rather than individual notes – an idea that you can produce in any key.
3) Now with the central phrase ingrained, focus on how it is used within the context of the blues or the song form you are working with:
As you listen, note how Monk applies the melodic statement to the different sections of the progression. This is a great example to ingrain of a complete statement on one chorus of the blues.
4) If the initial melodic statement is your “home base,” how is it altered on different chords in the form?
Monk changes the F to F# on the D7 chord, introduces a Bb on the G-7 chord, then emphasizes the F# again as the tritone on the V7 chord (C7). Try to hear each of these changes as you play the phrase along with the form.
Monk’s 2nd solo Chorus
Monk’s 2nd chorus on Bag’s Groove has two thematic ideas or phrases, we’ll look at the first…
The beginning of his second chorus is centered around this thematic idea:
Be sure to focus on the rhythmic content of each phrase as well as the melodic notes…
Practice exercises
1) Learn initial phrase or ideas, playing along with the recording until you have it down. Start with the opening phrase over the I chord:
Then ingrain the next idea moving from the IV chord back to I:
And finally the end of the phrase on the I chord:
2) Now put the first four measures together as a single phrase applied to the opening 4 bars of the blues:
3) Next, learn this 4 bar phrase in other keys:
Now you’ve ingrained a musical phrase full of time, shape, and expressiveness on the opening measures of the blues. This is ingrained musical information that will help you create your own musical ideas.
Now repeat the same process for the remainder of Monk’s solo. theme with ascending 6ths reminicient of his tune Misterioso:
a musical Launch pad
Imitation is an effective learning process that’s directly connected to the music and the players that create it, one that calls upon all of our musical skills.
It’s a musical starting point for creating musical ideas, an intuitive aural approach to improvising over chords, progressions, and larger song forms, rather than a purely analytical one.
Remember, as you go through this process you don’t have to play these exact lines in your own solos, the benefit comes in learning by ear and absorbing each detail by ear.
And it doesn’t matter if you don’t see immediate results, a consistent approach to the process is what’s important.
Like many areas of the practice process we are absorbing, ingraining, and adding to our aural library that we will draw from in the future – days, weeks and months from now.
Over time this approach will unlock your innate musicality and your creative voice – not just your mind, making the entire act of improvising more meaningful and more enjoyable.
