Musical improvisation is the spontaneous creative process of making music while it is being performed. Improvisation exists in almost all music, but is closely associated with particular genres such as blues, jazz, bluegrass, the Taqsim of Arabic and Turkish music, Indonesian gamelan, and Indian classical music. To use a linguistic analogy, improvisation is like speaking or having a conversation as opposed to reciting a written text. Among jazz musicians there is an adage, "improvisation is composition speeded up," and vice versa, "composition is improvisation slowed down." Improvisation is one of the basic tenets of jazz. Typically in a jazz piece, the "head" (the song's melody along with any backing harmony) is played once by the musicians and often repeated. Improvisation by any of the musicians follows, and this is typically the longest section of a song as each musician improvises their own melody over the harmonic and rhythmic foundation of the head. When the end of the head is reached it is repeated and a solo's length is specified by the number of repetitions of the head necessary. After one musician has finished improvising, another will begin, and no instrument is forbidden from improvising. A repetition of the head will usually end a jazz piece. There are many variations to this pattern; new sections can be added before and after the head, two musicians can alternatively improvise for short amounts of time (known as "trading"), or several musicians can improvise in a group (collective improvisation is common in Dixieland jazz). Improvisation is absolutely essential for jazz musicians. Illinois Jacquet, for example, is best known for a single solo on the tune Flying Home, and such solos are often transcribed. They are often not written down in the process, but they help musicians practice the jazz idiom. |
Improv Video - Note Usage Bb Blues Jazz Alto Sax improvised Jazz improvisation. Base of the Aebersold Book, Play a Long Volume 57, Minor Blues in all Keys. Blues in key of C. Bb Tenor Sax improvisation. Greg Abate explains his rules of jazz improvisation, breaking it down in a step by step process. Jazz Improvisation - Flute - Sax - Keys - Kora David Borgo, sopranino saxophone, improvising with algorithmic music software by Karheinz Essl (the piano part) set to computer animation created using Artmatic and Vtrack. Duo Improvisation Fujiwara (Alto saxophone) + Shiojima (Fractal guitar) |
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