How Improvisers Improvise

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The Five(5) Levels of Jazz Improvisation
Contents
0:00 - The Basics
1:36 - Level One: Use Your Ears
4:02 - Level Two: Use a Scale/Key
6:24 - Level Three: Chord Theory
9:11 - Level Four: Substitutions
10:56 - Level Five: Tension and Release

[jamesmachado]

High school band teachers need that to understand that being a marching band robot is not the same thing as being a musician. This is the main reason students stop playing after 4 years. They never got to even listen to Miles or Coltrane. When I hear a talented student with swing and tone I go and buy them a Kind of Blue CD. I'm a physics and chemistry teacher.

[Singer]

As someone who’s become pretty free with improvising on the piano, the best thing I’ve learned isn’t a bunch of licks or whatever. The best thing you can do is learn to hear music in your head, then learn to play it with your fingers. Sit down, play a note, listen in your head for where it goes. Just sit even without the piano and improvise in your head. If you’re only learning how to improvise with a few different licks and chord progressions, you’re limited. If you become very advanced at playing what your mind hears, then you can achieve freedom with improvising. And this applies to any instrument not just piano.
Edit: additionally, I think it’s so important to spend as much time just listening in your head as you do actually improvising on the piano. If you don’t hear anything, then you have nothing to play with your fingers.

[jselengut]

This is great. Thanks so much. I run a jazz band in Turkey and occasionally there are horn players that have professional classical training and have really good ears but they don't know harmony at all. Their solos sound like creative guessing but still kinda not great because they don't understand the harmonic context of their choices and often tensions show up in very strange places. These same players are occasionally very reluctant to learn about chords and scales because they want to jump right to your stage 5 and just play without worrying about that stuff. This video shares quite well all the things that I am trying to impart to them.

[enhancedlemons]

I'm lucky enough to be the "natural improvisor" type. And I know from experience that once you listen to people like charlie parker, you get humbled really fast.

[aaronbowman]

I first played guitar with a friend and realized i couldnt improvise over a decade ago, and about 2 years ago i really began taking it seriously and just started improvising. i am on the other side now and i can barely believe it, it felt so foreign and intimidating before and bow it feels so natural. This is a fantastic video! The most important step is to just play anything and you will improve no matter what.

[mtaur]

Here I was expecting the fish emoji to stand for bass...

[soldtoscience]

trained jazz piano player and bass player here. Love the organization of this lesson.

For all the folks saying rhythm matters too... of course it does, though my experience with a melodic instrument, gotta dig into that harmony first. Can't play in time with intention until you know what notes you want to explore and why.

Trying to play in time (even very slow) before I understand a concept feels like giving a speech while learning what you are talking about live.. its just not the most productive way for most to improve. I don't know many people who can learn, while already playing what their learning haha.

It's funny though, when teaching I usually bring up the idea of building energy and tension/release very early. As your target note gets higher in pitch and your rhythmic subdivisions get faster, energy goes up. Opposite to bring energy down.

Then Levels 2-4 are all about harmony.. gotta hot the books... then level 5 would be where you bring back rhythm and dive deep using all that harmony you've learned as a vehicle for rhythm. Playing behind or ahead of beat, poly rhythms... etc... along with subdivisions and higher pitches building energy... that's how I'd define what's being worked on in level 5.

At that point, the goal is pretty much to learn an advanced technique in practice and quickly convert it to an intuitive subconscious way to build or release tension/energy performing. When performing you are controlling emotion and energy with your band almost unconsciously because you've added progressively more advanced concepts in practice and cataloged how they make you feel. Eventually I don't even remember the name of what I'm doing or when I learned it. It's just there for when I want to make the music do... this!

At level 5, these expand into your band. Like the keys and bass player can hear each other hinting at that upper structure triad together and drag the rhythm together to sound naaaasty.. and the drummer keeps the time straight so there is a reference to hear the time then pop back to the song almost telepathically, leaving most listeners not knowing what just happened, but it makes em wanna wiggle..

Sorry that replay got long, I got excited haha. Great video. Cheers!

[terrycox]

Don't always begin or end on standard notes. Don't always do the obvious. Miles Davis might say... "show that you're working on something". After all, we are talking about Jazz. To what extent is a matter of preference.

[charliegordan]

I never get tired of your videos. I'm currently student teaching to get my certification. Once I have my own class I'm going to link your videos as supplemental materials for my curriculum

[drtimsparks]

I feel like in most pop and rock music you never need to leave level 2 (with a tiny bit of level 3). The next levels stray mostly into the jazz world and the niche folk world - but most amateur musicians I know stick in level 2 and are proud to get level 3 on the 'weird' chord in a song.

[AnthonyCollierMusic]

This is so good Brad! You packaged this information in such a receivable way. Keep up the great work!

[kozmobluemusic]

Just discovered your channel. Love your teaching style.
Subbed and sharing.

[AndresCastroGuitar]

I can't thank you enough for all this insane info, all around this channel is beyond amazing!

[josephmontz]

This is a great intro vid. I have been teaching myself improv over the past couple months and are around your Stage 3. Thanks for the video.

[AdamWestUS]

This contemporary on improvisation translates so very well no matter the genre or instrument! I hope tsoay if I use this as a template to make a video for harmonica students!

[tylert]

6:56 this part is probably confusing folks. the reason hes using the mixolydian is because thats the fifth mode of the major scale and the 7th extension is often added to the fifth chord of a key. hes also essentially saying to treat each chord C, F, G as their own keys, despite being in the same chord progression, and to use each mixolydian scale on top of them rather than just the C one, as C is the first chord and F is the 4th and G is the 5th

[NTAWeasel]

Loved the don't panic reference. Made the whole video

[honeyter]

thank you so much for this video! i've been getting into improvisation recently and this is so helpful!

[ctmcollins]

Just love your horn man! That 1st level was a tune in itself....please give it a name! Thanks

[skymooseft]

This was an awesome primer. I play bass and want to expand my knowledge. You look like a great resource.