Jazz Improvisation - Embellishing the Melody

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8 жыл бұрын

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In this series of videos I cover Jazz Piano Improvisation techniques. I'll explain, from start to finish, how you can learn to improvise over a jazz song and sound professional.
This Jazz Piano Tutorial is about how to improvise in and around the melody. This is a great improvisation technique when playing 'inside' and resolving tension. This is used a lot by all musicians and it works well because it reassures the listener that you are still playing the right song :)
Improvising while still hinting at the melody sounds professional and fascinating. The melody gives you a base to work off and if you ever get stuck you can just go back and start playing the melody again. Anyway, have a play around with this and see what you come up with.
Improvisation is combining:
- Scales
- Riffs
- Passing notes (e.g. chromatics)
- Melody
- Change rhythm of melody (keeping pitch the same)
- Change pitch of notes (keeping rhythm the same)
- Use ‘fills’ over long notes and rests
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Пікірлер: 24

@JoshBueno8 7 жыл бұрын

BEST PIANO LESSON CHANNEL ON EARTH!

@WalkThatBass 7 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Jy :)

@JazzExtension 6 жыл бұрын

I have to just go to say, your channel is simply amazing, you explain concepts so easily and it makes so much sense. Thank you very much!

@BinaryIdioms 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for taking the time to make these videos!

@thehappytwist 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you 😃 you've explained it so well

@drewnice 8 жыл бұрын

Nice work on these videos! You're a natural teacher!

@WalkThatBass 8 жыл бұрын

+drewnice Thanks, drewnice. You're far too kind.

@mariog1051 4 жыл бұрын

There's a key thing missing here: when changing notes of the melody (point 4.b in the index of the video), it's important when there's a chord change for the melody to fall on a note of the chord, and to play notes that are in a scale that fits with the current chord. Simplest case, just play the notes of the chord

@StreIok737 8 жыл бұрын

I'm enjoying and benefitting from these, thank you.

@WalkThatBass 8 жыл бұрын

+StreIok737 No worries. Glad you're finding these useful.

@JohnsonSmithson 3 жыл бұрын

Very helpful!

@woosix7735 2 жыл бұрын

“Nice and simple, at least in theory” You and I must have different theories my friend

@trendycore 8 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your vids, you are really good at explaining the stuff.

@WalkThatBass 8 жыл бұрын

+trendycore No problem. Thanks :) I'm never entirely sure if what I'm trying to explain will make sense to others when I'm recoding these videos.

@naharromusic3960 7 жыл бұрын

Great video! very useful!

@WalkThatBass 7 жыл бұрын

Thanks, mate.

@004asv 7 жыл бұрын

Greeeat chanel! Im really glad i found it. I have always improvised around the melody, its more intuitive. But usually just using a major scale and playing around feeling which notes feel better and also thinking about the mode im using (the tonal centre). I wonder if that´s enough for jazz (maybe musically poor) since jazz musicicians improvise over chord changes. (when its not a modal tune) So thats my question, can i use only this (thinking about the main melody and do stuff that is similar) to improvise in jazz or is it too poor and `changing scales` all the time (over chords) is what i should study? Hope i wasnt much confusing. Guitar and recently sax player as well here. Thanks in advance, keep the wonderful work cheers

@WalkThatBass 7 жыл бұрын

Hi, Sorry for the late reply. I was away on holiday for the last month. Improvising around the melody and using the relevant diatonic scale/mode is a very good place to start. This is what most Jazz players would call playing 'inside'. It sounds very smooth and consonant. However, you're right to say that this is a little simplistic. Jazz improvisation also requires you to play 'outside' - i.e. playing wrong notes to build tension in order to then resolve that tension. My playlist covers some techniques which you can use to add some more exotic and dissonant sounds into your improvisation. It can be as simple as playing chromatic passing notes or playing different scales (like playing the diminished scale over a Dominant Chord) or playing cycled patterns. But the short answer is that: if you want to do Jazz Improvisation, melody and diatonic scale based improv is not enough (though it would be enough for pop based improvisation). You really should try add some more 'outside' notes to create tension. Let me know if that answer helps at all and if you need me to clarify anything.

@004asv 7 жыл бұрын

thank you! so, as i said i base my solos on the maj scale. but i also use cromatics so i can also map some outside notes and use them to build tension and then resolve it with the notes i know sound good. Thanks a lot again :)

@WalkThatBass 7 жыл бұрын

Yeah, perfect. If you do that then you can already create a decent solo. In that case you don't need to worry too much about the scales. Scales are just a way of formalising the playing of outside notes. If you're comfortable creating tension without thinking about 'the wholetone scale' or the 'augmented scale' then you're doing just fine. I'm actually planning to create a video on 'why scales don't matter' in the future, essentially explaining exactly that. Scales are a good way to practice, because they force you play combinations of notes you might not ordinarily have thought of. But you certainly don't need to stick to them religiously or anything like that. The only scale that matters in the chromatic scale.

@sugastolemywig.4536 2 жыл бұрын

how do i know what notes to play if i wanna add notes🧍‍♀️

@mohammedfathalla9148 7 жыл бұрын

it seems you are practicing since years ago you really mastering and i benefit alot from you go ahead man ..but i have such aquestion your accent is like germans or british are you one of them :D ?

@WalkThatBass 7 жыл бұрын

Hey Mohammed. It's an Australian accent, actually :)