The Surprising Secret to Sounding More Modern While Soloing
An interesting question came up on yesterday’s check-in call for students of my course, Making the Changes…
A student said he didn’t really like jazz but was wondering if there was any value in him studying it to improve his playing in more modern genres.
I asked him, “What do you think of when you think of jazz?
He said, “Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.”
I agreed that music from the 1940s definitely has an older sound to it. After all, it’s 80 years old.
But aside from the fact that jazz encompasses a myriad of sub-genres beyond the sounds of Bird and Diz, the question remains: Is there any value in studying the classics if you want to play more modern styles of music?
Many jazz fans, critics, and educators like to complain about musicians like Wynton Marsalis and Keith Jarrett… Musicians who “live in the past” and “keep jazz locked in a museum” and “do nothing to help modernize the music.”
IMHO, anyone that can play as well as Wynton Marsalis and Keith Jarrett can do whatever the F they want.
But let’s talk about you. Should you bother studying bebop? Is it worth the effort required if you’re only interested in playing modern jazz, funk, blues, or some other genre of music created after 1959?
My answer is yes. And it’s the same reason why classical musicians study 18th century counterpoint. Because bebop, like J. S. Bach, provides the map for navigating chord changes.
Once you understand how to read the map, you can go your own way.
All-star saxophonist Chris Potter is a great example of this evolution. Check out his playing on Red Rodney’s record “Then and Now.” Potter is 20 years old and sounds like a good great ol’ fashioned bopper. Fast forward fifteen years and listen to his record “Underground” (Big Top is my favorite track). It sounds nothing like bebop, but I think Chris would agree that his time spent “looking back” has helped him become the forward-thinking player he is today.
This philosophy is not new. I’m simply reaffirming that you should learn to play by the rules so you can break them at will, and do so creatively.
At the same time, I get that not everyone wants to listen to eighty-year-old jazz records. If you fall into this camp, might I suggest at least checking out a few classic records and supplementing with another resource that bridges the gap between the old and the new.
As it happens, I offer a resource that does just that. It’s called Licks for Days and includes over a hundred classic and modern lines that’ll show you how to follow AND break the rules.
Also, maybe you’ve heard people talk about how improvising is all about playing what you hear in your head, but you feel like the stuff you’re hearing in your head isn’t all that interesting. Well, that’s a clear sign that you need to “nourish” your ear with some high quality, easily digestible “ear food,” which is exactly what practicing the material in Licks for Days will do for you.
https://go.jeffschneidermusic.com/licks-for-days
- Jeff