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Improvisation
Part I
Improvisation is about freedom of ideas. Instead of being
locked into the specific notes and chords and rhythms and
melody of a composition, a person is free to take liberties
with the piece -- to make it their own -- to stamp their own
identity on it.
There are many
different types of improvisation, of course. Free form
improvisation implies that a person just sits down at their
keyboard and makes up music as they go along, with no skeleton
or roadmap to guide them. This is often used in "new age"
compositions and in some avant-guard jazz, fusion, and rock.
But most improvisation
takes place around a form of some kind, such as a popular song
or a pre-set formula, such as the 12-bar blues.
In this newsletter
we'll take a look at the 12-bar blues and how it is used in
improvisation, and then in the next issue we'll examine the
popular song, and see how it is used in terms of improvising.
The 12-bar blues is a
"skeleton" of chord changes that has been used for at least
100 years now, and probably longer, to allow musicians to
improvise over a set of pre-arranged chord changes. And since
all musicians that improvise in the blues idiom know and
understand those chord changes, each member of the band (or
combo, or whatever) can take their turn improvising for one or
more sequences of the 12 bars.
Here is the formula for
the 12-bar blues:
4 bars of the
I chord (in any key)
2 bars of the
IV chord
2 bars of the
I chord
1 bar of the
V7 chord
1 bar of the
IV chord
2 bars of the
I chord
and repeat as many times as
desired.
In the 9th and 10th bar
there is an option: you can stay on the V7 chord for 2 bars
instead of 1 bar of V7 and 1 bar of IV. Either way is
acceptable.
In the key of C that
would translate to:
4 measures of
the C chord
2 measures of
the F chord
2 measures of
the C chord
1 measure of
the G7 chord
1 measure of
the F chord
2 measures of
the C chord
In actual practice,
musicians usually add the 7th degree of the scale to all of
the chords in the sequence -- in other words, I7, V7, and IV7.
the seventh adds a "bluesy" sound to the chord sequence that
you just don't get if you don't use the 7th.
Once the framework of
chord progression is in place, then a melody is improvised
over the chordal framework. We'll discuss ways to create a
melody next time. Meanwhile, if you're interested in
improvisation, it would be a good idea to memorize this chord
progression and be able to play it in your left hand. Learn it
in several different keys -- not just C.
For example, blues in
Bb is a common occurance, so practice playing the progression
in Bb:
4 measures of
Bb
2 measures of
Eb
2 measures of
Bb
1 measure of
F7
1 measure of
Eb
2 measures of
Bb
repeat
(If you're interested in seeing and
hearing more about how this all works, click on the banner
below.)
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