Jazz

:For other article subjects named Jazz see jazz (disambiguation).

Improvisation

Jazz is often difficult to define, but improvisation is unquestionably a key element of the form. Improvisation has been since early times an essential element in African and African-American music and is closely related to the pervasiveness of call and response in West African and African-American cultural expression. The exact form of improvisation has changed over time. Early folk blues music often was based around a call and response pattern, and improvisation would factor into the lyrics, the melody, or both. Part of the Dixieland style involves musicians taking turns playing the melody while the others make up counter lines to go with it. By the Swing era, big bands played carefully arranged sheet music, but the music often would call for one member of the band to stand up and play a short, improvised solo. Finally, in bebop, improvisation takes center stage, as almost the entire focus of the music is on clever, improvised solos, with little attention given to the melody, or "head", of each piece.

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When Jazz Musicians improvise they use a selection of scales, each in key with the piece or the corresponding harmony; such as the 1st & 5th being the dominant scales. The 3rds and 7ths can also be used but these are less likely to work. Each scale can work in a different key. Say the root scale of C(1)is C, but the dorian scale of D minor(2) is the C major scale. So the frigian scale of E minor(3) is C, the Lidian of F minor(4) is C, the Mixalidian of G minor(5) is C, the Aolian of A minor(6) is C, and the Lochrian(7) of B minor is C. All scales combined plus the use of major and minor pentatonics, blues scales and many other give a jazz musician a fat handful of notes and licks to play.

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As previously noted, later styles of jazz, such as modal jazz, abandoned the strict notion of a chord progression, allowing the individual musicians to improvise more freely within the context of a given scale or mode. The best-known example of this is the classic Miles Davis album Kind of Blue. When a pianist or guitarist improvises chords while a soloist is playing, it is called comping or vamping (also see ostinato

Related Topics:
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue - Ostinato

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