Jazz Piano Skills, Improvising Minor

Jazz Improvisation, C Minor

6/23/2018

Introduction

Last week we took time to discover, learn, and play voicings for a minor chord. This week let's explore improvising the minor sound. Like with many jazz skills, when mentioning improvisation, most people begin to tremble - why? Because their understanding and idea of improvisation are misguided. The most common belief regarding improvisation is that you "make it up" as you go. That your hands actually play sounds and shapes that they have never played before. This belief, my friends, is simply not true and this understanding of improvisation is simply impossible. So, let's dig in and discover, learn, and play (improvise) the minor sound.

Discover

Jazz Improvisation, C Minor

As with any jazz skill we need to discover and begin with a snapshot of the sound we are exploring. In other words, we need a clear picture of what we are dealing with before we begin any attempt at developing and mastering the skill. To do this, let's examine the facts:

1. All sounds in music comprise of 7 notes.

(do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti)

2. The 7 notes can be arranged and played using 2 formats

(Format 1, Scale Motion)
(Format 2, Arpeggio Motion)

3. Regardless of format, the sound can only travel 2 directions

(Up or Down)

There you have it, the facts of music. You will do well to spend time thinking about these three facts and let them truly sink in. I tell all my students, it is your conceptual understanding of music, and improvisation, that determines your practicing success and development as a jazz pianist. If your conceptual understanding is complicated and confusing, then your practicing and playing will be complicated and confusing. It is imperative that your thoughts about music are true and accurate. Then the mental organization of those thoughts must be crystal clear. In short, if you have the facts (the truth), and they're organized, you're going to have success obtaining your goal of becoming an accomplished jazz pianist.

Let's learn the facts for minor improvisation!

Learn

Jazz Improvisation, C Minor

The minor sound consists of seven notes and those seven can be illustrated using two formats. Here they are using C minor as an example:

1. Scale Format: C D Eb F G A Bb
2. Arpeggio Format: C Eb G Bb D F A

Notice, both formats utilize the same seven notes. The scale format arranges the notes in sequential order while the arpeggio format uses an every other note order. Here's what it looks like using music notation.

We now have a very clean and tidy snapshot of the "C Minor Sound" using both the scale and arpeggio formats. Your job is to replicate the above illustrations for the remaining 11 minor sounds. Once you have an organizational diagram created for each minor sound you are ready to practice them (over and over again - repetition!).

Once you have done a sufficient amount of "grunt" work (paper practice and piano practice) for the "C Minor Sound", you are ready to begin developing your improvisation skills - you're ready to play!

Play

Jazz Improvisation, C Minor

To begin developing improvisation skills for the "C Minor Sound" choose one of the formats (scale or arpeggio) to focus on and explore before trying to utilize both simultaneously (it only makes sense). Likewise, choose one direction (up or down) to travel (again, it makes sense). So, today, I am going to demonstrate improvisation development for "C Minor" using ascending, arpeggio motion. Be sure to notice how I explore the "C Minor Sound" launching from the Root, 3rd, 5th and 7th. In doing so I cover the entire "C Minor Sound" from the 1 (root) to the 13th.

Once I am comfy with the ascending/arpeggio approach I can then explore the remaining combination approaches:

1. ascending/arpeggio (demonstrated)
2. descending/arpeggio
3. ascending/scale
4. descending/scale

Remember, always play using comfortable tempos - practicing is never a speed race! Enjoy the entire discover, learn, and play process for mastering improvising with minor sounds.

Final Thoughts

If you wish to discover, learn, and play more with jazz improvisation and other essential jazz piano skills, you should join JazzPianoSkills.com. In addition to receiving free professional jazz piano lessons on a regular basis via Email, your membership grants you lifetime access to all of my instructional jazz videos (which you can access and study as often as you wish). Additionally, your own private Mavenlink Support Portal is established, hosted, and maintained by The Dallas School of Music allowing you and me to easily interact with one another as often as needed each and every week. Likewise, you’ll receive tuition discounts if you ever choose to have private online jazz lessons with me through The Dallas School of Music.

I welcome the opportunity to answer any questions you may have regarding this blog so feel free to Email me drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com or call me 972-380-8050 Ext. 211. Please take a moment and listen to a few of my recordings or follow me at SoundCloud to get a feel for how I play and approach this wonderful art form we call jazz.

I look forward to helping you discover, learn, and play jazz!