MUSICAL IMPROVISATION
PAGE 3
Examples in creative rhythm variation

 
To illustrate a useful way to develop a facility for producing rhythmic variation while improvising I have set up the keyboard for MIDI recording, taken a group of  notes and without stopping repeated the notes over and over again but varying the rhythm each time. Below are the unedited results. The notation gives no indication of accent, phrasing, dynamics which will be different for each person and the style in mind at the time. In this case the notes were played fairly straight but jazz players may care to use a degree of "swing" according to taste. This exercise can of course be tried on any instrument, the essential idea is not to copy what is below or from any other exercise book but to try and be different each time. A notation recording like this can be useful since this will reveal how ideas can develop and may be a source of further ideas, (the computer prefers to write tied notes and being pressed for time I have not changed these). Further comment below.

Ex. 1 just three notes

C, Eflat, and F. These could be from a minor scale, e.g. Dorian, or blues or diminished or from a minor seventh or similar chord.

Ex.2 Add a fourth note

A G is added to the basic cell, note how repeated notes become more frequent (remember all of this is unedited and straight from the subconscious mind which all of us have and can free-up!)


 

Ex.3 Further notes added

Including a distinctly blue sharpened fourth as well as the second (D), and an occasional Bflat. Sometimes it is a good idea to hold back certain coloristic notes and use sparingly for effect. The D appears like this in bar 47 being emphasised rhythmically giving a modal feel, this acts as a sudden contrast to the idiomatic clashing of F and Fsharp in bar 46. Accompanists might well feel the momentary relaxation of tension following the temporary dissonance and act accordingly!
 



And so forth..... The examples above show one way that a jazz solo could be built up from a simple start; adding notes, increasing rhythmic and harmonic tension to a mini-climax, in this example remaining within a segment of a particular scale and using only crotchets and quavers. It is worthwhile to spend a good part of practice time just trying to see how far one can go with such basic materials. As well as stretching the music imagination and developing unconscious processes, simple materials are technically manageable and provide the opportunity to learn in every key, (indispensible for todays music and an exciting way to provide chromatic contrast in more advanced solo development). 
 
 

 
Note:
The MIDI files could be posted and I may do this, but without the human element they would convey little of the intended rhythmic feeling, a WAV file would do this of course but server space is limited.
 
 
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