Playing Out[side the Changes]

Today, for the first time in several weeks, I returned to Jazz Improv II, guitar and amp in hand. 12:30 rolled around, and our usual prof, Freddie Mendoza, took his seat in an unusual spot--off to the side. For this meeting of Improv II, and for the next several, students would be sharing their nuggets of wisdom with fellow classmates. When I heard last night who would be leading today's class, I just couldn't stay away: the stylist of the ivories, James Ringholm.

It's always fun to play alongside Jamie--sometimes his tunes swing, sometimes they really swing, and sometimes they go so far out you'll think you're playing in some other dimension--but yes, they always swing, and it's always a blast. Possibly the most impressive aspect of his playing, beyond his deceptively casual navigation of changes and an occasionally frightening level of skill, is his concept of harmony and dissonance. Side-slipping and chromaticism abound and somehow weave, usually seamlessly, into his solo lines. Today's class gave all of us a rare opportunity to see deep into a fellow player's musical mind, and I left with some fantastic ideas. While the full recap of Jamie's lecture would be a long one (kudos to him for successfully filling an entire hour and 20 minutes!), there are a few key points in his discussion that are well worth repeating. 

1.) Symmetry

This concept really allows you to reach the outer limits during a solo. Harmonic movement in equal intervallic space creates a strange kind of consonance, one that almost exists in its own realm, apart from the changes. You can only slice the octave up in so many ways before you start repeating with inversions:

• Half-step
• Whole-step
• Minor third
• Major Third
• Perfect Fourth
• Tritone

...and of these, only the perfect fourth results in unequal divisions of the octave--this movement yields the circle of fifths (or fourths, same thing) upon which Western harmony is based. All the others create a different sound, every one unique, that adds a lot of flavor to an otherwise straightforward solo. The name of the game here is transposition: taking one idea and moving it through different tonal centers, with each movement intervallically equal to the last.

It's important to understand that licks, in the context of symmetric harmonic movement, needn't be overly sophisticated. In fact, the less convoluted a pattern is, the more likely it is that it will create a convincing sound, since it blatantly states the sonority from any given tonal center. Straight-up triad arpeggios are a fantastic tool for this, as well as basic pentatonics and scale tetrachords.

2.) Resolution

Of course, "out" must be juxtaposed with "in." Regardless of where you go harmonically, you should eventually return to the progression, or at least give it a nod, at some point in your solo. Luckily, at least half of the fun and hipness within these simple transpositions lies in opening new chord and scale tones as resolutions. There are two types of resolution you can target: single notes and tonal centers. 

Single note resolutions are arguably more common, since they involve (most often) a chord tone at the point of resolution. These can be defined simply by scale degrees: a few examples are seventh to third, ninth to seventh, thirteenth to ninth, etc., as defined by normal dominant-to-tonic (V-I) chord movement. Normal ii-V licks are rife with these resolutions.

The second form of resolution, by tonal center, is a bit more esoteric, but also phenomenally effective. The quickest example of this is side-slipping: start at one key, play around in it, move up a half-step briefly, then return to the starting key. The trick to this is convincingly stating both (or all) tonal centers. If the new "key" is stated too briefly, those notes will sound like errors, but you need to get the idea out quickly enough that you can catch the next chord. It's in this crunch time that your basic tools--pentatonics, simple scale patterns, etc.--serve you best. Play the new key, get the idea across solidly, then get back to the progression.

If your "deadline" is further away, you have quite a bit more freedom! Hang around a single key center for a while, and really drill it in your audience's ears. Those same condensed ideas are still hugely valid, but they can be more liberally applied. For example, over a Cmaj7 chord, try harmonizing the A Lydian Dominant scale in pentatonics, triads, cascade patterns, and more. The sound is quite dissonant, but as long as you return to Cmaj7, regardless of your specific resolution point, you have reintroduced enough consonance for your audience to perceive a resolution.

While poly-tonality isn't truly a new concept, using it properly in improvisation adds amazing depth to a solo. Thanks again to Jamie Ringholm for sharing his ideas! I'll cut this entry short here, but expect more soon on the topic of improvisation!