Back To Basics

The following is an essay I wrote that was published by the Baltimore Jazz Alliance on May 4th: 

Here's the link: LINK ... 

(This was one of a 3-part series contributed by different musicians in the jazz community here in Baltimore. You can check out Ed Hrybyk's "The Show Must Go On" Here and David Crandall's "Word from the Digital Frontier" Here.)

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With so many people suffering heartbreaking losses of jobs, health, and even loved ones through this COVID-19 crisis, music may offer us a semblance of connection and hope. Even so, musicians have nearly lost it all in the short term, with social distancing halting all live performances. My heart aches for the overwhelming and universal sense of loss. So, what are we to do? How can we help?

While many have turned to live-streaming performances to fill the void in the short term, I personally believe that our “Great Pause” implores musicians to dig deeper and replenish a sense of autonomy in our creative process. Wholehearted music transforms our energy through the power of sound; without the essential oneness with an audience, or the resonance of an acoustic space, this cannot be replicated online. Fortunately, we now have the time and space to rejuvenate our creative intentions and contributions. By revitalizing our personal creative processes, we can surmount this experience as inspired artists. This is our purpose.

Since my most recent performance on March 11th, I’ve reflected on questions that have long inspired me: What human qualities are exalted by great music? What vital impulse makes some music truly GREAT, or even timeless? What is the meaning of music when all is lost, and how long can we go without it?

Recently, these have led to more ominous questions: What is lost in our music if live-streaming substitutes for live performance? What role will these digital imitations play when we are able to perform for folks in venues again?

And I must ask:

What do listeners miss out on if we do not give them the opportunity to yearn for powerful musical experiences…that feeling of the instruments and energies resonating through the room into their bodies? Furthermore, what growth do musicians miss out on by grasping at digital straws rather than owning our solitude and developing ourselves alone in a room, like we did before we were established professionals? Reveling in sound, first and foremost.

Listening:

This prudent advice is extended to musicians and music-lovers, equally: Rather than settle for a simulacrum of live performance, I invite you to direct your attention to the life-affirming essence of creative music. For the time being, we need look no further than recordings from the master musicians.

Try this: Slow down and let the music envelop you. Pay attention. Revel in the power of music, rather than relegating it into the background of other activities. We need to listen deeply and gratefully, with the music front-and-center, not in the background. Hint: Turn off your phone, close your laptop, shut your eyes, and delight in the sensory bliss that is this music. You will not be disappointed!

Practicing:

Musicians have long celebrated solitude as vital to our artistic development. Let’s take this opportunity to nurture our PERSONAL SOUND, with greater compassion, in the privacy of our homes. Whenever we’re compelled to address our instruments, let’s proceed with curiosity, maybe even exploring sounds that could sabotage a restaurant gig. It’s possible that exploring outside of the melody-harmony-rhythm grid might express the truth where things ARE right now. Think of this as a creative “reset” button…let the MUSIC play YOU.

Whatever you work on, please play, practice, and listen from a deep NEED for the music. When the opportunity to perform for live audiences arises again, what joy might you have to share? Revel in the lush and malleable sounds you are so fortunate to make every day! What a gift!

Last question: What might thrive in each musician’s inner gardens if we stop pulling at every sonic “weed” and choose to nurture whatever wants to grow? These inner wildflowers are the seeds of one’s own personal SOUND. The music we make can only become deeper and richer as a result of doing this kind of digging. Musicians deserve time for that kind of artistic development to unfold, and so does our audience. Contrary to a call for productivity — this is a call to simply listen within and bring our deepest sound-in-potential to the surface. It takes time. Time that we now have.

This worldwide “solidarity in solitude” invites both musicians and listeners to reconnect with the universal healing energy of music. Only a rejuvenated and widespread enchantment with the creative process might deliver us through this experience with a deeper appreciation of the true gifts of music. This makes the music better than ever. Music for LIFE’S sake.

I eagerly await the opportunity to offer concert experiences that will celebrate these gifts with a deeper appreciation for their potency than ever before. Until then, stay safe, and enjoy the music.

Quarantine

If you're reading this, I care about you and value your attention, so thank you for reading!!

We don't know what the future holds...and while that is scary, it is also an invitation. Times of crisis remind us all to look inward and ask ourselves what is truly important and to reassess our current assumptions. I am working harder than ever to face these sobering questions - a process that I have long trusted to fortify my own music with a palpable sense of vitality and life force that cannot quite be verbalized.

Musicians are taking a hard hit from this coronavirus...

I've lost ALL of my paid work from Mid March-all of May. That's a hell of a hit, but I am not alone in this!!

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The State of Live Music Following This Crisis is Uncertain...
This has always been true, frankly, so no news there. The advent of live streaming concerts happened long ago, and had already been increasing steadily over the past few years. I always met these live streams with resistance - primarily because the quality of sound and picture are so often glaringly sub-par, offering little resemblance to the rich phenomenon of being in the same room with the acoustic vibration of instruments, human bodies, and resonant spaces. That rich experience is the REASON I make music, and stripping the music of that richness defeats the purpose with which I resonate a saxophone...

I do recognize a conundrum: 
Music is such an essential element of our human connection  - if we are practicing Social Distancing in order to protect one another from this novel Coronavirus, then the experience of music here and now, feeling the vibration of an instrument in the same room with us, is temporarily suspended. Now what? Each musician will adapt to these trying times in their own ways, and I respect the choices folks will make in order to share their music with people.

My Approach for the Time Being:
Out of love, respect, and gratitude for the privilege of presenting Radically Acoustic live music for open ears and hearts in the 21st century, I won't be offering live-streamed concerts in empty rooms for folks over the internet. Not right now, anyway.

What I am doing, instead, is cultivating my own vital energy around the music that lives within me, preparing to LIFT THE BANDSTAND even higher when we are all allowed to gather publicly again...

What I'm Offering:
I have a backlog of live performance video and audio from the last year of presenting intimate concerts at An Die Musik. I will be sharing these over the coming weeks, and I hope that when you feel the need to TRULY EXPERIENCE the healing power of music, you'll take some time - UNINTERRUPTED - to put on some headphones and listen to this music as if you are in the audience, sitting beside the folks who were in the room at the time of the recordings.

My computer is too slow to render any of these videos, so I have a friend helping me out to get this stuff edited and uploaded. In the meantime, here is a link to tide you over!

The Magic of Improvised Music

My mission as a performer and curator is to present improvised concerts that illuminate the infinite possibilities within this music. It brings me joy to nurture the bond between performer, audience, and atmosphere, fostering an energy that supports our music in healing the heart and uplifting the spirit. 

In nurturing this connection, my concerts have gone in a radically acoustic direction, honoring our performance spaces without employing unnecessary amplification. This enriches the communal experience immeasurably, and enhances our receptivity to the magic of the moment.

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What I've Learned:

Music that exists on the fringes of what is considered “marketable” can deeply engage listeners from all walks of life, if we care to engage them.

Creating a context wherein the music can develop organically has an incredible effect on the overall experience. 

Unapologetically setting our music at the center of the experience (rather than relegating music into the background) deepens the experience tenfold for both the musicians and the audience. 

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What Makes Or Breaks our Connection with the Audience?

Simple:

Performers, listeners, and venues must be equally devoted to nurturing the magic of the music!

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I have revamped my website to include a page dedicated to my efforts as a curator and concert presenter. This page discussed this musical magic and outlines the numerous concert series I've been putting together.

visit baltimoresaxophone.com/curating

"Derrick Michaels Presents" A 2019 Concert Series

In 2019, I made a big decision that scared the hell out of me: I chose to dedicate a whole year to programming concert events, and refused to be a leader on ANY gig where the music was intended incidental to some other social function. (A "Big Boy Move" as a friend so eloquently put it...)

What resulted were 20 concerts I produced, 12 of which were part of an engaging monthly concert series at An Die Musik in Baltimore. This series was my public declaration of a new direction in my music and my engagement with the community. Each concert taught me more about the inner workings of the music, the inner workings of the saxophone, the delicate yet powerful connection between players on stage, and the even more delicate yet equally vital connection with the audience...

There were major takeaways that will inform the music I make for years to come, and I'll expound on those in the next blog post or more...Thanks to everyone who supported these efforts, whether from the stage or the audience. Thanks to An Die Musik for opening the space to us. Here's to 2020!

Mission Statement:

“The wholehearted expression of music has the potential to uplift the spirit and heal our hearts. These 12 concerts are representative of a creative continuum which is designed to challenge convention & elude classification. I’ve stationed my tenor saxophone at the axis of a distinctive array of ensembles, putting full trust in improvisation as a potent unifying force across musical boundaries. The mission is to deliver music of substance - embracing the community, while affirming the exceptionally personal nature of creative process for the improvising musician.”

Thanks to this cast of musicians who through your creativity and spontaneity have all pushed me to become a more deeply authentic musician and human. My “ears” are bigger, and my heart is fuller.

John Dierker - reeds (Jan/Aug/Dec)
Tom Swafford - violin
Zach Swanson - bass (Jan/March/Oct)
Derek Wiegmann - bass (Jan/May/Dec)
Savino Palumbo - piano
Alex Weber - bass (Feb/July)
Dominic Smith - drums
Dalius Naujo-drums
Ellery Eskelin-tenor saxophone
Susan Alcorn - pedal steel guitar
Theljon Allen-trumpet
Eric Kennedy-drums (April/Nov)
Sarah Hughes-winds
Zack Branch-cello
Michael Formanek-bass
Dave Ballou-trumpet
Mike Kuhl - drums (June/Aug)
David Diongue-Alto saxophone
Jaron Lamar Davis-drums
Chris Pumphrey-piano/saxophone
Erin Connelly-trumpet
Nicole Connelly-trombone
Andrew Hadro-baritone saxophone
Jacqueline Pollauf-harp
Brent Madsen-trumpet
Jamal Moore-reeds
Jeff Reed-bass
Laura Banner-cello

The Purpose of Music

An Die Musik with Dave Ballou-trumpet & Michael Formanek-bass

"What is the job of a musician?”

This is one of many rhetorical questions I’ve been asking my students in both private and group settings. 

It is meant to arrest the student’s attention - to get them thinking in a new way. I always offer these questions in tandem with an impassioned one-minute improvisation on my saxophone, attempting to "answer" the questions non-verbally, using music (rather than logic) to make my own assertion, thus creating a posture of openness. I offer students an opportunity to consider practicing their instrument from a perspective of possibility, considering what effect their focused attention might have on the world around them. Practicing our instruments with the intention of bettering our lives, and the lives of folks around us gives a rich context and meaning to the hours spent absorbing information, practicing overtone exercises, learning repertoire, practicing permutations and arpeggios…this is the stuff musicians are made of. I believe this is our job. To invigorate the study and practice of our craft with a sense of adventure, urgency, and meaning. To deliver that sense of urgency with compassion and conviction, and the determination to heal and to uplift other people...

With so many music teachers and students returning to their academic posts this week, I feel grateful and fortunate to explore these sorts of questions with my own students at my home studio. To have the time to spend in a casual learning environment, sinking my teeth into these questions right along with my students, and removing the illusory boundary between “expert” and “student”. This level of openness illuminates the extremely personal nature of the music-making experience, and puts students in a position of personal power. Creativity is available to all of us, and the educators who make the biggest difference are the ones who are empowering others to make the most of what they have — demystifying the process of acquiring new skills and knowledge without glorifying that process as the end-all-be-all of artistic growth! Naturally, these kinds of lessons are of great benefit to more experienced students, but they can be quite effective for young, motivated students who are early on in their journeys, as well.

Other rhetorical questions along these lines:

What ROLE does music play in our lives? 

What function do these acoustic vibrations, melodies, layers, and rhythms serve for humanity? 

Why are we DRAWN to music in the first place? 

Is it possible for a musician to be always growing, improving, mastering new ideas, while also pursuing a deeper understanding of themselves — cultivating empathy, compassion, and love for what IS? 

How do we remain connected with the initial spark of inspiration that made us reach for an instrument that very first time, and how do we empower others to do find the same inspiration? 

Is it possible to be ambitious while also enjoying where we are in the process, here and now? 

What can we do THIS moment to make the absolute MOST musical statement with whatever ability and knowledge we already possess?

PRIVATE AND GROUP LESSONS OFFERED IN BALTIMORE AND NYC

Visit baltimoresaxophone.com for more information

or email me at derricksax@gmail.com

A New Lease on Learning & Teaching

Continuing Education

*Learning is never over*

I was fortunate in June to be among 16 musicians selected at the guinea pigs for a 4-day summer Improvisation Workshop led by drummer/composer Bobby Previte in Hudson, NY. Bobby is a brilliant musician, teacher, and radiant creative human being, and his enthusiasm captivated all of us from start to finish. I highly recommend you all check out his work if you haven't. Much to unpack there.

This workshop was a wonderful opportunity for me to set aside what I thought I knew about music and improvising (never easy to do) and simply enjoy the learning process with these other musicians, who came from 16 completely different musical backgrounds and had never played together. We quickly established a rapport, and I truly enjoyed everyone's creative contributions and individual personalities.

This was a hell of a process. 6-hours per day of intensive work together, exploring aspects of music so often forgotten or taken for granted, and far too often left unspoken in the academic sphere. 
By day two of this process, I already heard changes in everyone's playing (including my own).

 On day 4 we performed for about 100 people in Hudson Hall. It was an immersive concert experience, during which the audience and musicians were all in rapt attention while the music unfolded on its own. (I was excited to meet master improviser/violist Mat Maneri, who was in the audience that evening). It was a wonderful experience to share with so many folks, and I hope to create more experiences like this for people in the near future. 

One of my favorite experiences from the workshop was playing solo saxophone across the concert hall, delivering 30 seconds of my best musical effort for the other 15 musicians (plus Bobby), and then comparing that experience with the feeling of playing RIGHT ON TOP of that same group of folks, who were all standing right in my personal space! Wow...

The change in spacial relationship created a huge shift in the energy of the room! A powerful reminder that performing FOR PEOPLE is very different than being in your little bubble. We got to hear a few other musicians in the group try this same experience for themselves, I imagine it was as intense for them as it was for me. 

(Reminder: Get OUT of your bubble!!)

We composed and performed some graphic scores, too. here's a link to a local radio show in Hudson, run by one of the participants in the workshop, Chris Funkhouser. My piece "Clicker" is featured at the top of the show at the 00:47 mark! Thanks Chris! 

**Clicker was composed for 3 flutes, baritone saxophone, drumset, voices & synthesizer. It is a concept piece meant to simulate the feeling of turning radio dials through AM stations, and stumbling upon disparate stations along one's search for the right station.**

This whole experience in Hudson intensified my feelings about what it means to make music, and what it really means to TEACH music. Throughout the entire workshop, there were no discussions about what notes, harmonies, rhythms, or language we were expected to play! Rather, the whole series of exercises were designed to get us out of the "should" orientation, and into a frame of mind based in POSSIBILITY. What does the music need here and now. Nothing else matters.

Already, I can tell that my playing has changed since this experience, my listening has certainly changed, and my teaching concept is much much clearer to me. I've long wished to avoid "shoulds" in my teaching, insisting instead on empowering my students with the courage to CREATE from day 1.

Thanks to Bobby Previte, Hudson Hall, and all the musicians involved, for this wonderful experience!

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Benjamin Zander

Along this journey toward awakening possibility in each student, learning to teach the WHY and HOW of music, not merely the WHAT, I have discovered the work of musician & teacher Benjamin Zander. 

Benjamin is a fantastic musician, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic & Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestras, and a world famous speaker, teacher, & author. Benjamin & his wife Rosamund Stone Zander co-authored a wonderful book entitled The Art Of Possibility back in 2000, and they made and even MORE wonderful audiobook version that I just finished listening to this weekend. Their passion for people and our ability to create lives worth LOVING is infectious and actionable. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Also worth checking out are Benjamin's "Interpretation of Music" series on Youtube. Absolutely marvelous teaching and playing. Very thought-provoking, and an incredible reminder of WHY we play music!

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Recommended Videos

In 2 recent blog posts, I posited (rather strongly) that jazz education is largely missing the mark. I think it is important to use this platform to bring people's attention toward the gems as well as the pitfalls in this artistic pursuit of ours. Let's also remember that this is all about love, and expressing the human experience through song. Doesn't get much more direct than that!

Here are a couple of quirky yet extremely informative videos that bring attention to aspects worthy of more attention when we are teaching and learning jazz music. The processes highlighted here are intended to arm the student with the means of discovering themselves in their practice of standard songs, without prescribing the note choices or language required. The ear is here to guide us through the choice of pitches. Bill & Joe are offering us all a framework for discovery. 

(I'll add that Bill Frisell & Joe Lovano are two deep influences for me, and represent top-notch musicians of world renown who encapsulate both a love of musical tradition and a sense of adventure and possibility in their music.)

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**Pay particular attention to the way both of these great musicians are practicing RUBATO, free from strict pulse - allowing space to HEAR what they are playing, and deliver each phrase in its own unique way. Notice ALSO, the strength with which each plays when a pulse IS enforced. Clearly there is power in our phrasing and sense of rhythm when we do not simply take metronomic pulse for granted, but instead, practice "time" as its own discipline, inclusive of the challenges of playing rubato**

1.

Bill Frisell on "Days of Wine and Roses" & Practicing Tunes (Excerpt From The Guitar Artistry of Bill Frisell)

"Any song that I play, the MELODY is what gives an ARCHITECURE to what we improvise. If you combine all the theoretical knowledge: chords, scales, patterns, but keep the MELODY going - that's what will give you your own individual sound, really." - Bill Frisell

2.

Joe Lovano on "Developing a Personal Approach to Improvisation"

"You're not practicing 'PRACTICING' - you're practicing PLAYING!" - Joe Lovano

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Tootin' My Own Horn

A reminder that I am doing the life long work of integrating all of this into the work I am doing as a teacher for saxophonists & musicians who wish to get deeply in touch with their own creative impulses. 

I teach in the Baltimore & New York City areas.

visit my teaching page to learn more!

Interested students may email me.

Teaching & Learning Improvisation | Phrasing & Delivery

PHRASING

What is really happening when we improvise? What is happening when we interpret written music? What might be the same between those two processes?

Much of my background is in the study of jazz, and what I've found in my study & devotion to this music is a chasm between its practice and its instruction. 

While the history of jazz (in the broadest sense of the term) is overflowing with musicians who have expressed their basic creative impulses in a most dazzling array of personal achievements, jazz education is conspicuously bereft of the discussion of how and why one must cultivate their own creative impulse, and follow where that leads. 

Why is this??

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Form & Function

Jazz educators have long found the quantifiable intellectual properties of the music (form, melody, harmony, rhythm) to be the easiest to teach, drawing on the history of formal music analysis which predates the existence of what we call "jazz" by many many years.

This is important work! 

Thanks to educational innovators like Jerry Coker, Jamey Aebersold, Barry Harris, David Liebman, George Russell, and countless others, there is now plenty of information available to help musicians decipher the written language of jazz, train our ears to identify the gravitational tendencies within, and identify the properties of the idiom. As a result of decades of that work being codified, there is now an intimidating amount of information across the internet, decoding the mathematical relationships that would appear to reduce "jazz theory" to a series of explainable phenomena.

With that stated, it is an incomplete picture of what is going on when we improvise, and we all know this. 

What's more, we almost completely gloss over the delivery and interpretation of the melodies to these tunes...

Most of the information in the current jazz education paradigm is offered from a solely theoretical perspective, dealing with the nuts and bolts of what notes to play & where in your solos - according to "THE TRADITION". 

These are prescriptions of "correct" harmonic language wherein bits of preordained vocabulary are ascribed to phrases within the forms of standard tunes, and pieced together to make solos that make sense on paper, but often are devoid of personal meaning or character. 

That is damn near 95% of the discussion among jazz musicians. Whose solo was the hippest or the most "killing" at the jam session? How "crushing" the harmonic substitutions or modern, angular lines are from X player...So rare is the discussion of how MOVING someone's playing is. 

The tradition in jazz education is to deal with chords & chord progressions as if they are stationary snapshots (out of context) giving the jazz student the impression that harmony is rather static - moving in blocks - and encouraging the soloist to play "on" the chords, one at a time. Once the musician becomes aware of the notion that we move THROUGH chord sequences, their efforts are often concentrated on memorizing phrases that someone else played over that same set of chord changes. Once they have an array of preordained vocabulary locked and loaded, they hope they'll be well on their way to expressing real music in the moment! Yet this is much more a recreative process than a creative one. Is this the only way?

Many teachers fail to deliver with appropriate urgency the importance HOW & WHY TO PLAY, ACCORDING TO YOUR PERSONAL MUSICAL IMPULSES IN THE MOMENT! 

Listening to what your ears are telling you. Asking the MUSIC what it needs.

I am drawing a line in the sand right now - I am here to suggest that knowing the "language" of jazz is not NEARLY enough to make great music happen...

MUSIC is something else, not just the right notes on the right chords. Music is something that "happens", not merely a series of explainable intellectual phenomena. It is a happening. An occurrence. It is ALIVE. Music is you, me, the audience, the resonant acoustic space. Music is alchemy. 

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So there is the "problem" - how about a solution?

I wish to emphasize, first & foremost, that I believe the study of PHRASING (as it relates to the unfolding of a melodic idea) yields the greatest reward for the improviser. 

This orientation has immediate benefits in the short-term, while yielding tremendous long-term effects. 

1. RHYTHM may be understood as Mirriam-Webster defines it:

"An ordered recurrent alternation of strong and weak elements in the flow of sound and silence (in speech.)"

When we separate our notions about rhythm from the necessity of the metric component (even division of measures with a consistent pulse) even temporarily, it liberates us to explore the duration and stress of each note in a melody, observing how stressing some notes over others instigates a unique feeling of melodic motion. This puts us in a position of creative power, by comparing the flow and unfolding of melodic motion with that of our speech patterns. 

** Rhythm & melody are inexorably connected. **

RHYTHM IS ALSO OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE WHEN PLAYING RUBATO! (Rubato: the temporary disregarding of strict tempo to allow an expressive quickening or slackening, usually without altering the overall pace.)

If we are able to connect our sense of phrasing and rhythm with the flow of speech patterns, our music immediately takes on a more personal quality!

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2. Rhythm, Melody & Harmony are all expressions of musical motion!

These three components function together to create what we perceive as cohesive musical ideas. 

The discipline of confidently delivering each idea we play is what makes the difference in how our music comes across to the listener. 

There are simple yet profound ways we can harness this ability, using melodies, intervals, scales, exercises, or pieces of music as our impetus…

A great goal for all musicians to have would be BRINGING EACH PHRASE TO LIFE!

In this way, it simply doesn’t matter WHAT you are practicing or playing, it is important HOW you play it. 

With primary emphasis places on phrasing (long/short duration, loud/soft dynamics, long/short arcs, articulations, etc.) we can play any melodic idea with many interpretations.

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3. A GREAT EXERCISE FOR THIS:

PLAY ANY MAJOR SCALE 12345671 using LONG notes as STRESSED notes or ARRIVALS and using SHORT notes as PASSING tones.

EXAMPLE: [ONE 2 3 FOUR, FIVE 6 7 ONE] Arabic numerals represent passing tones, with Stressed notes spelled out in capital letters.

HOW MANY WAYS CAN WE CHANGE THE PHRASING OF THESE 8 NOTES BY DIFFERENTIATING ONLY THE STRESS/DURATION OF EACH NOTE??

THIS is phrasing. The shaping of a line. 

**What harmonic motion might we imply with the phrasing of our major scale above?**

Allow the duration to affect whether the note stands out as important or is only supporting other notes, by accenting the stressed 

notes in the line using dynamics! 

(much like the effect of emboldening or capitalizing words in a sentence.)

Now, try that same idea with the melody to “I Fall in Love Too Easily”.

Stressed notes will be represented by caps locked words in the lyrics:

 “IIII fall in LOOOVE too EEEEASILYYYYY … IIIII fall in LOOOOVE too FAAAAASTTTT”

(Check out how different the phrasing of this melody is when Chet Baker sings it from when Frank Sinatra sings it. We aren't looking to pick a favorite, we are listening for the subtle differences!)

The motion from these “stressed” notes THROUGH the passing tones and into the next STRESSED notes are what give shape to our melodic lines. THIS IS ALSO INEXORABLY LINKED TO THE FLOW OF HARMONIC RHYTHM! Of the stressed notes in the ballad above, how many of those words land on a chord tone on beat 1 or 3?? 

Our goal is to start connecting dots as soon as possible.

With only 12 chromatic pitches, a handful of harmonic colors (chords) & their corresponding scales – it is clearly our phrasing which defines the music we are attempting to deliver. Technique merely serves the phrasing. Yet, this is the single most overlooked aspect of music education to date.

I am making it my mission to bring this expressive power to all musicians, at all levels of performance & study.

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Application In Real Life...

There is a gap for all of the folks who are going into, coming out of, opting out of, or transitioning between music schools... there is a gap between knowledge and application, practice and performance, conception and execution. We all reach a point where the necessary move is to leave behind our hard earned “expertise” and begin anew. To get back to the beginning. To find OUR MUSIC.

Performance and instruction of music of any variety is enriched by the musician’s full embrace ... reconsidering the simplest elements of musicality, phrasing, delivery, and composition from one note to the next. One phrase to the next. 

As improvisers, we need to consider the compositional process. Again, and again!

As interpreters of written music, the same elements must be considered in order to perform fully realized interpretations!

 This means that all musicians must be able to improvise clear, direct melodic ideas that establish the rules of tonal gravity, as well as the power of intention - grouping even “random” notes together in a melodious fashion that creates a sense of pleasing motion, departure and arrival! 

This is not necessarily “jazz” in its stylistic conception, but rather a spontaneous process of musical expression that assimilates all of the building blocks available to the musician in real time.

Every improvising musician bears the responsibility for the energy on stage, and therefore the energy in the audience. This is paramount - the control we are working toward is about directly connecting with the music, and bringing its magic to life. 

This is a huge responsibility!

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Improvisation Instruction...

Improvisation is widely regarded as something that cannot be taught (by classical musicians and old school jazz musicians alike) - on the other hand, the working model for jazz education is largely predicated on the notion that “improvisation” is not a spontaneous creative process at all! It is instead represented as a clever reordering or recitation of preconceived “language” or “vocabulary”, acquired by copying recorded solos from the history of the music, and plugging these licks into the chord changes of a song...this cleverness is valued more than creativity, or should I say musicality, or taste. 

Classical musicians are experiencing a renaissance in exploring the world of improvisation in “new music” circles, and exciting explorations are happening, indeed. Extended techniques are largely emphasized, and improvisations are meant to give sections of the music an uncertain element of “chance”. This robs the performing classical musician of the gift of true study of improvisation in a melodic/ harmonic/ rhythmic (or should I say compositional or narrative) context. 

So what is missing in the study and teaching of improvisation is a method by which one discovers at their own pace, with their own ears, instrument, and value system - one note or phrase at a time - how to navigate and create strong melodic statements, without relying on cliches or preconceived lines, considering extended techniques to be fair game, while putting primary emphasis on the creation of clear and satisfying rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic motion.

 In real time. 

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