3 Concepts for Better Solo Improvisations feat. Patrick Bartley

[00:10] [Music]

[00:31] Hello. What's going on everybody? It's

[00:32] Patrick Bartley here and today I'm going

[00:34] to be talking about concepts for

[00:36] improvisation. So over the course of my

[00:38] career, I've been very fortunate to have

[00:39] some great students. And in all of these

[00:41] lessons, I get a lot of common questions

[00:43] that I feel like I want to address kind

[00:45] of all in one video. So hopefully this

[00:47] will be helpful to you. And of course,

[00:48] everything that we're talking about in

[00:50] this video today comes from our brand

[00:52] new course that we just launched called

[00:53] Approaches to Improvisation. And in this

[00:55] course, you'll find hours of content

[00:57] ranging from improving your swing field,

[00:59] playing ballads, extending your range,

[01:00] and much more. If all that sounds good

[01:02] to you and you want to check out the

[01:03] full course, go ahead and click the link

[01:04] in the description box below and use

[01:06] code improv25 for $25 off this course.

[01:09] So, let's get into the first concept of

[01:11] today. All right, so improvisation,

[01:14] we're talking improvisation now. You got

[01:16] to have things to play. So, I think one

[01:18] of the things I want to talk about is

[01:20] how to build lines. How do you build

[01:22] nice sounding lines in improvisation?

[01:24] So, in any type of improvisational

[01:26] playing, but specifically jazz

[01:27] improvisation, there's always going to

[01:29] be a mixture of like things that you do

[01:30] on the spot and then what you can call

[01:32] like stock phrases. And when it comes to

[01:34] building your own lines, what I like to

[01:36] do is a good exercise is kind of

[01:38] building off of stock phrases. And one

[01:40] of the things I like to teach people is

[01:42] how to take those existing lines to

[01:43] actually create your own lines. So, this

[01:45] might be also a way to blend in how you

[01:47] can take transcriptions and make your

[01:48] own solos from it as well. So for

[01:50] example, let's talk about this pretty

[01:52] simple 251 phrase. And this can be

[01:54] either over one bar or two bars, however

[01:56] you want to consider it. And this is a

[01:58] 251 in B flat concert. So the two being

[02:01] C minor, the F being the five being F7,

[02:04] and then the one being B flat. So let's

[02:06] take this very simple

[02:10] [Music]

[02:11] line, right? Simple enough. So what I

[02:14] want to do with that line is tell you

[02:16] how this simple as like a stock phrase.

[02:18] It's almost like you're talking about

[02:19] like, you know, making a soup or a salad

[02:22] or a dish or whatever and having like

[02:23] three ingredients and like putting your

[02:25] own ingredients in there, taking stuff

[02:26] out, whatever. What we're going to do is

[02:28] we're going to take this line and we're

[02:30] going to augment it, dim it, whatever.

[02:32] We're going to mess it up, stretch it up

[02:33] to the point you might not even

[02:33] recognize it anymore, and we're going to

[02:35] do it straight from these exact notes.

[02:37] So, the first thing you can do with this

[02:39] is have the exact same notes and don't

[02:41] even change them. You can change the

[02:42] rhythm. So, if I started on the down

[02:45] beat in that phrase, what if we

[02:46] anticipate the

[02:50] phrase? All right. So, everybody knows

[02:52] that one, right? That's that's fine. So,

[02:54] that's with an extension from the

[02:56] beginning of the phrase. But what if I

[02:58] try to extend it from the end of the

[03:03] phrase? All right. So, I extended it

[03:05] from the beginning and I extended it at

[03:07] the end. And now you can combine them

[03:09] together. What if you extend both ends

[03:10] of it?

[03:12] [Music]

[03:15] Sounds just a little more hip, right?

[03:17] Okay, let's do the inverse. Why don't we

[03:19] start the phrase smaller? Start a phrase

[03:21] a little

[03:22] [Music]

[03:24] late. Okay, that was the beginning.

[03:26] Let's do the

[03:28] [Music]

[03:30] end. All right, let's do

[03:35] both. So, with those six examples, I

[03:38] just created six new lines off of one

[03:40] thing, and that was just rhythm. So,

[03:41] what happens if we start changing some

[03:42] notes? All right, let's start changing

[03:44] some notes in here. So, now we're going

[03:45] to mess with the theory a little bit. If

[03:46] you notice the scales that I'm playing

[03:50] here for the most part, except with, you

[03:53] know, maybe like the Bbop scale has a

[03:54] chromatic note in it. It's all dietonic

[03:56] with a natural nine that G. Okay. What

[04:00] happens if we flat the nine going on the

[04:02] way out of the

[04:03] [Music]

[04:06] line? Very simple change. Okay. Now,

[04:09] instead of flatting one nine, let's flat

[04:11] two of the

[04:14] [Music]

[04:16] nines. You know, better or worse, your

[04:19] mileage may vary. But the point is, I'm

[04:21] just taking this one phrase and just by

[04:23] changing a few notes. I'm not even doing

[04:25] anything crazy. I'm able to make some

[04:26] new phrases. So, after doing that same

[04:28] thing a couple of times or add nauseium,

[04:31] however long you want to do it, you

[04:32] might find yourself bored with that one

[04:34] direction. Okay, why don't we go to

[04:36] another direction? I'm going to give you

[04:38] now some examples that you can try on

[04:40] your own of this one line that can go

[04:42] any different direction. I'm going to go

[04:44] up, down, I'm going to extend, I'm going

[04:45] to shorten, whatever. See if you can

[04:47] catch what I'm doing with all these

[04:48] examples.

[04:56] [Music]

[05:23] So, I could play as many of these

[05:24] different examples as I like, but the

[05:26] point is that it's up to you to use your

[05:28] imagination, your creativity, and most

[05:29] importantly, your taste to play this

[05:32] line or any other line that you like

[05:34] from one to two bars, however many bars

[05:36] you like, and make your own phrases and

[05:37] try and experiment with many different

[05:39] directions to see what you can come up

[05:40] with. And now, let's talk about the

[05:42] second concept of today's video. All

[05:44] right, so those of you who know me, and

[05:46] maybe those of you who don't, and just

[05:48] listen to me, understand that for me,

[05:50] rhythm is like at the top of my

[05:51] priorities when it comes to harmony,

[05:53] melody, and rhythm. That's the top of my

[05:55] list. So, today we're going to talk

[05:56] about a very important rhythmic topic.

[05:58] This is degrees of swing. And what I

[06:00] mean by that is not all swing fields are

[06:02] the same. You could take two swing

[06:03] fields from someone who listens to, for

[06:05] example, uh, Lewis Armstrong or someone

[06:07] who listens to Elvin Jones and they're

[06:09] going to sound completely different and

[06:10] those also might be your influences. So,

[06:12] how can you incorporate that knowledge

[06:14] and that understanding of the different

[06:16] swing fields into your playing? Let's

[06:17] explore that today. So, when talking

[06:19] about degrees of swing, one of the

[06:20] examples I love to use the most is

[06:22] actually one of the first solos that

[06:24] many of us as saxophone players learn,

[06:25] which is Charlie Parker's opera. Now, if

[06:27] you spent any time with the Charlie

[06:28] Parker Omni book, or if you spent time

[06:30] in your formative years transcribing a

[06:31] Charlie Parker Blues, you probably had

[06:33] some time with this one. But I'm willing

[06:35] to bet that most of you, or maybe none

[06:37] of you watching this video, who knows,

[06:39] have not transcribed the Miles Davis

[06:41] solo from this song as well. Now, why do

[06:43] I bring up this solo? Well, as saxophone

[06:45] players, first of all, it's really

[06:46] important for us to stay not just stay

[06:49] to our instrument, but actually kind of

[06:50] branch off and understand the musical

[06:52] big picture, the big picture of all the

[06:54] music, but also because it helps us to

[06:56] train our ears to hear the details. The

[06:59] details are what make the music. So,

[07:00] right now, what I want you to do is I

[07:02] want you to pay attention. Listen,

[07:03] listen to the last chorus of Charlie

[07:05] Parker's solo going into the first

[07:07] chorus of Miles Davis's solo and see if

[07:10] you can feel the difference immediately.

[07:11] It's like a switch from the time field

[07:13] that Charlie Parker is playing versus

[07:15] Miles Davis playing on this recording.

[07:16] So, first Charlie

[07:18] [Music]

[07:33] Parker. All right. Now, check out

[07:37] Miles. All

[07:47] right. Now listen to them together.

[07:56] [Music]

[08:17] Okay, now that you've heard both solos

[08:19] back to back, what did you notice? Are

[08:21] there any details that you picked out?

[08:23] If you said Charlie Parker's was swung

[08:25] and Miles was straight, well, you're on

[08:27] the right path, right? That's the

[08:28] general that's like layer one, right?

[08:30] But let's get deeper into the layers. So

[08:33] before I talk about any of those layers,

[08:35] what I want to do is first I'm going to

[08:37] play the solo and show you how I

[08:39] understand the difference between the

[08:40] two solos.

[08:43] [Music]

[09:04] [Music]

[09:06] So, I just played the last chorus of

[09:08] bird solo and the first chorus of mile

[09:10] solo back to back. Did you notice my

[09:12] mind switch? Did you notice anything

[09:14] that changed? See, for me, the reason

[09:15] why I said it goes deeper than just

[09:17] straight or swung is because if there's

[09:19] anything that I want you to take out of

[09:21] this lesson for today is that those

[09:24] terms straight and swung, whatever, if

[09:27] it's a uh what Latin field or whatever,

[09:29] no one talks about a jazz field. So, why

[09:31] are we talking about Latin field? But

[09:32] anyway, those terms are kind of

[09:34] one-sizefits-all terms that are there

[09:36] for efficiency. It's actually your job

[09:38] to do the work of interpreting what

[09:40] those words mean. So if you just say

[09:42] swung, the first thing you should be

[09:44] thinking in your head is swung like

[09:45] what? Swung like who? What's going on?

[09:47] And if it says straight, your first

[09:48] thought should be, well, is it like kind

[09:50] of funk rhythm? Is it kind of more chaa?

[09:52] Is it kind of what? What's going on with

[09:54] it? And the reason why this is important

[09:55] is because it helps you get into the

[09:56] details that make the music sound and

[09:58] feel right. All right, now let's get

[10:00] into the third concept. So now I want to

[10:02] talk about another thing that I really

[10:04] love, which is a very important part of

[10:06] learning the solo, building a solo. And

[10:08] so we got another question that talks

[10:10] about how do you build or create

[10:12] momentum in a solo or tell a story. So

[10:15] I'm really happy that today I'm going to

[10:16] be actually unveiling what I call my

[10:18] three-step or three chorus solo

[10:20] template. Basically if you use this

[10:22] template you're not going to be you know

[10:25] it's not exactly the perfect guide as in

[10:27] you're always going to follow this. But

[10:28] if you're feeling lost in creating a

[10:30] solo and you got three or four courses

[10:32] try to use this template and it might be

[10:34] able to help you guide your way through

[10:35] a solo. So the reason why I came up with

[10:38] something like this is because I

[10:39] thought, okay, every solo that I like to

[10:41] listen to or every solo that really

[10:42] impresses us, whether it's in the blues,

[10:44] jazz, or even even in classical music, a

[10:47] cadenza, there's always a certain type

[10:49] of flow that it has between all the

[10:51] great solos in history. So what exactly

[10:53] is that flow? So usually when I listen

[10:55] to a really impactful solo, I notice

[10:56] that there are three main phases that

[10:58] the solo can take in order to build. So

[11:00] the first phase is a phase I like to

[11:02] call the motivic phase. And basically in

[11:04] this phase, you're going to take like

[11:05] maybe two or three notes or maybe one

[11:07] note with a bunch of rhythms or maybe

[11:10] like a bunch of notes with one rhythm.

[11:12] Whatever it is, you're going to find

[11:13] your motif and that's you're going to

[11:15] use to guide where your solo is going to

[11:17] go in your first course. Now, the second

[11:19] phase is interesting because this is

[11:20] going to be where you really get to show

[11:22] how much you've practiced. I call it the

[11:23] virtuosic phase. And in the virtuosic

[11:25] phase, you're basically going to take

[11:26] something. Okay, we're going to really

[11:28] expand. This is what I know about the

[11:29] harmony. This is what I know about this.

[11:30] It's not really, you're not really there

[11:32] to impress with dynamics or anything

[11:34] like that. You're just there to show

[11:36] this is the maximum I can go with this.

[11:39] I'm going to develop and show you what I

[11:40] can do on these chord changes. And then

[11:42] the third phase, this is the dynamic

[11:43] phase. Now, in this phase, you're

[11:45] basically going to go wild. And it

[11:46] doesn't mean that you're going to be off

[11:48] on guard. It just means you're going to

[11:49] do what is the thing that you do that

[11:50] makes you unique? What is your standout

[11:52] thing? If you're a trumpet player, can

[11:54] you play really high? If you're a

[11:56] saxophone player, can you honk really

[11:58] low or can you can you do altisimo

[12:00] really crazy? Or, you know, if you're a

[12:02] bass player, can you play really fast?

[12:03] Can you play a nice groove? Or can you

[12:05] play really loud? Whatever it is, that

[12:07] last chorus is your chance to really

[12:09] deliver your message of who you are.

[12:11] Now, if you're a fan of the blues or

[12:12] rhythm in blues or even like swing

[12:14] tenner players like Illinois Jacket, you

[12:16] might have noticed this pattern actually

[12:18] already. And so what I want to do is now

[12:20] I'm going to demonstrate to you how I

[12:21] can conceive of this as an example over

[12:24] rhythm changes. I'm going to play three

[12:25] courses of rhythm changes where I'm

[12:26] going to demonstrate the motivic phase,

[12:28] the virtuosic phase, and the dynamic

[12:29] phase. And see if you can notice the

[12:31] types of devices that I use to get me

[12:33] through each chorus to kind of develop

[12:34] and make some type of actual cohesion.

[12:37] So as you're listening to me play these

[12:38] three courses, make sure you pay

[12:40] attention to the way I'm transitioning

[12:41] in between each chorus as well. Not only

[12:43] am I making use of motifs and virtuosity

[12:45] and dynamics, but I'm also making use of

[12:48] range. Range is also very important. So,

[12:49] just try to keep track of that when

[12:50] you're

[12:55] [Music]

[13:16] listening. Yep. All

[13:19] [Music]

[13:38] right, everybody. That concludes this

[13:39] video, and I hope you found today's

[13:41] video helpful. And once again, if you

[13:43] want to get deeper into these concepts

[13:44] on your own time, be sure to click the

[13:46] link in the description box below and

[13:47] make sure to use code improv25 for $25

[13:51] off your course. All right, thank you

[13:53] all for watching and I'll see y'all next

[13:54] time.