Top 7 Don�ts for Successful Improvisation

1. Don�t try and make something happen. Trying blocks the creative flow and will result in blocks.

2. Don�t expect to create something good. Expectations will always come with judgements and, consequently, you�ll end up feeling let down.

3. Don�t worry about what is �coming out.� Improvisation is about play and freedom to explore. Abandon unrealistic expectations and experience the joy of improvisation.

4. Don�t try and please others. The first person you must please is yourself. This may seem obvious but don�t underestimate the strong need to please - ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO THE ARTS!

5. Don�t try and accumulate a �lot of knowledge.� All it takes to improvise is a few chords and the proper attitude.

6. Don�t think. Improvisation is about FEELING. It�s about being in the moment and experiencing the moment through the music. Thinking will take you away from your intuition, which will guide you if you listen to it. Intuition will lead you places thinking never could!

7. Don�t quit. Practice is what makes intuition stronger. The more you practice or play, the stronger your intuition will grow and the more you will trust it. Your unique voice will emerge and will grow stronger each time you sit down to play.

Edward Weiss

I don't really agree with #5.

#4 could be debated. If you please no one, what is the value of your "art". If nobody dug Picasso, his paintings wouldn't be worth a dime except to him (which puts no food on the table) and which gives no feedback. If you are playing in a jazz trio or quartet and when YOUR solo is over, no one claps and your fellow musicians seem unmoved (glad it's over, actually), I'm guessing you may change your approach to improvisation. I think art (in all of it's forms) IS about sharing and spiritual communication. If no one is touched by it, moved by it, is it art?

chas

Hi Taike,
is that taken from Edward's New Age Piano course?.
He comes up with some great ideas.

best wishes
Rikki
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Taike:
[B]

Hi Rikki,

Although written by him, it wasn't taken from his site.

I do enjoy reading his many articles. It's a breath of fresh air reading about music instead of gear for once.

Taike

There are probably as many different sets of advice about soloing (or just about anything!) as there are musicians... My favorite is the 'if you have to ask, you'll never know' but I forget who said it! (Armstrong?)

Mind you, it's probably just as incorrect to excerpt this quote without permission (and not even state it is a quote until the END) as anyone to post an MP3 of a signed artist.

Copyright laws... what a nuisance!

That quote's indeed by Louis Armstrong, Diki. Thx.

For those who''re into Satchmo's quotes:
http://photomatt.net/jazzquotes/Louis-Armstrong

My favorite one: "Man, all music is folk music. You ain't never heard no horse sing a song, have you?"

Taike

I've heard a few horse's a$$es sing songs...

Were they by the Grateful Dead?

chas

Of course, I KNOW you didn't mean that in a small and petty way, chas.

Where are your demos? (To quote Donny!).. Oh, that's right, you don't want to infringe any copyright laws yourself!

Of course, it's a lot easier to be a sniper when your target has no ammunition to shoot back... But of course, you didn't mean that in anything other than a positive, amusing way, so I am, of course, just over-reacting

But then again, maybe I don't even need to HEAR a horse's a$$ sing to recognize one...
------------------------------------------------
All in fun chas, all in fun... (just like your post )

The thing I like about you the most, Diki, is that you're bright enough that nothing gets by you. Of course it's all in fun but you know full well that neither of us is going to let an opportunity that good, pass. I just beat Fran to the punch.

chas

Just funning, chas...

Some of it we take REAL serious (like a manufacturer bragging about his plagiarism), some is just good horseplay, like here.

But the bottom line is, it's just a forum... No big wup...

Chas Abbott & Diki Costello

Worry and expectations will kill any art, or person.
If you are talking about an art, please someone has no place.

Sorry, but #5 ??? My opinion is to gain as much knowledge as you can and then make a supreme effort not to live by that knowledge. Work back to natural. (With your guns loaded)

This next part got me crazy until I took a closer look. I�ll write in two ways.

Don�t think. Improvisation is about FEELING.
Don�t think Improvisation is about FEELING.

Wow, what a little comma can do. That sounds like a song.

OMHO John C.