Musicality define
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What comes to mind when you think of the word language? The prospect of creating a solo becomes filled with possibilities, where as before you were stuck in the flat-view of the world: plugging scales into chord progressions.Ĭoming to this realization is a major breakthrough in the process of learning to improvise and a stepping stone to maturing musically as an improviser. Now you’re starting to develop a sense of musicality.īy looking at music and the jazz tradition of improvisation as a language, your perception of the process of improvisation becomes completely altered.
Musicality define how to#
As you study lines and phrases you begin to see how to put those scales and arpeggios to use. While scales do have their place in the learning process, they are not the end result, they are merely the beginning, a doorway to learning language off the records.Īn important change occurs as you master the technique of scales, and more importantly the sound of chords, and move on to learning and hearing language over these progressions. The majority of struggling musicians that can’t seem to improve approach improvisation the same way, fitting scales into chord progressions. You can immediately hear the difference between the player that is listening to records and transcribing solos and the player that is struggling to create lines with memorized scales. What’s the main difference between a beginner and someone that sounds good soloing over chord progressions? It comes down to language. Think about the players you’ve heard at jam sessions and concerts. Language is not simply a reporting device but a defining framework for it.” ~Benjamin Lee Whorf “We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language.
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I knew my scales well, but I couldn’t seem to turn that theoretical knowledge into the creative lines and phrases that I was hearing on my favorite records. However, when it came to improvising interesting ideas and melodies, connecting chord progressions, and playing long, flowing lines in my solos, I hit a brick wall. I had all my scales memorized, could play them in thirds and fourths, and could even play arpeggios in all inversions. Before I began to transcribe solos and study the language of the music, I had my theory down cold. If I had to name the one thing that improved my playing more than anything else, the thing that made me finally “get it” when it came to improvising, it would have to be language. Without emotion, style, and shape those chords and scales would be, well, just chords and scales. What is it that defines the musicality in your playing? Where do you learn musicality without imitation or listening? Musicality is the reason you play music in the first place. So why bother spending that extra time to learn someone else’s solos and language? There is no mandatory rule that you have to improvise in a certain way and you can easily create solos with the “right notes” using memorized scales. When you get down to it, no one is requiring you to learn lines from the records or to imitate the style of a famous musician. Language is a very powerful concept when it comes to improvisation and it’s an idea that can drastically change your mentality about the music.īut, even before you get to the idea of acquiring, applying, and transforming pieces of language, there is a much more basic issue at hand here: Why should you even learn language in the first place? There is a reason behind all the repetition, however. Arecurring theme on this site seems to be language – acquiring, practicing, and applying the jazz language.