Five Levels of Fluency… inspiring insights in developing the skill to “speak” the language of Jazz.
Table of Contents
Prerequisites
LOVE of music and the discipline to study and practice the right things the right way.
Lesson Goals
To establish the proper mindset if you want to learn How to Play Jazz like an artist (not like a computer)…
Music is a Language
If you want to play jazz like an artist, you must embrace the fact that music is a LANGUAGE (not math)…. and must be studied, practiced, and performed as a language (not math).
With that in mind, let’s use the English language as a model to give some insights into what a fluent, coherent, and musical jazz improvisation might sound and feel like.
Levels of Fluency
One illuminating way to think about musical fluency is to relate it to various levels of verbal fluency applied to a six-line poem in the English language…
The “Knowing Some Scales” Fluency Level
For those us brand new to jazz, having learned a few scales and excited about trying them out, we might sound and feel something like this…
A B C D E F G…
WXYZ… ZYWX…
G F E D CBA… ABC
LMNOP… PPP!
Q P N M LLLLL…
N M L J I G D G… Woo!
This, for course, is just rattling off bits and pieces of the alphabet willy-nilly. It’s the equivalent of the “scale-happiness” school of jazz… typically starting and stopping on each bar line or chord change… oblivious to the form… oblivious to the meter… oblivious to the placement of chord tones within the meter… oblivious to phrase lengths… oblivious to the harmonic drive of the piece… oblivious to voice leading… oblivious to the rhythm… devoid of any unifying musical ideas… and typically lacking expressive dynamics and articulations.
The “Knowing a Few Licks” Fluency Level
With a little more experience playing scales and having learned a few licks, we might sound and feel something like this…
Hello! Hello! (again)…
A B C D E F G… GGGGGGG…
Up / Down… Down / Up…
Hello again…
LMNOPPPP…
How are you?
The weather’s fine!
This is the equivalent of mixing a few simple memorized licks with some mindless scale noodling. But again lacking any sense of form, phrasing, rhythm, or coherence.
The “More Notes the Better” Fluency Level
With a little more experience, knowing some more scales, some memorized lines, and being able to play fast (not to be confused with having technique), we might sound and feel something like this…
HeyMyNameIsJoeI’mSoGladToBeHereListenToWhatICanDo…
ABCDEFGHIFJKLOMPQRSTUVWXYZ…
[insert giggerish vocalizations]I’mReallyJammingNow!
CheckOutHowManySyllablesICanGetOutOneAfterAnotherNonStop
[insert more giggerish vocalizations]
HowAmIDoing? PrettyImpressive, huh? And…
This is not playing music at all. It’s just imposing the “cool” stuff we know how to play on whatever’s happening at the time, no matter what. It’s an easy out, because there are never any wrong notes. The truth, of course, is that there are tons of wrong notes, but they’re all easy to hide in an impenetrable sea of noise.
The “Almost There” Fluency Level
As we start to understand the form and grammar and internalize a more extensive library of stock phrases, we might sound and feel something like this…
Mary had a little lamb…
Long live the queen…
Mary had a little lamb… (again)
Four score and seven years ago…
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall…
Elvis has left the building.
Now we’re getting somewhere… by demonstrating some understanding of phrasing, meter, and rhythm and by really starting to say something that everyone can relate to. But, although each line is a coherent idea in and of itself, they still lacking coherence as a whole. We can do better…
The “Having Something to Say” Fluency Level
As we develop our craft by 1. deeply understanding the grammar (form, harmony, phrase lengths, rhythm, etc.), 2. internalizing a rich vocabulary of meaningful musical patterns (scale types, chord voicings, licks, riffs, pickups, breaks, ornaments, harmonic outlines, etc.), and 3. genuinely having something to say, we might sound and feel something like this…
Beautiful faces are they that wear
The light of a pleasant spirit there;
Beautiful hands are they that do
Deeds that are noble good and true;
Beautiful feet are they that go
Swiftly to lighten another’s woe.
— “Beautiful Faces” Author Unknown
Tips for Developing Fluency
Developing the “having something to say” fluency level is a perfectly learnable skill… that requires no special talent, but does require you to deeply appreciate the following insights…
- First and foremost, music is a LANGUAGE… a unique language that’s both universal and un-translatable… with its own wordless grammar and vocabulary.
- Learning how to improvise music is about learning how to speak the LANGUAGE of music.
- There’s a lot less making stuff up when you improvise than most people think. Just like speaking English, you typically don’t invent new words or phrases when you speak. What you ARE doing is spontaneously expressing yourself in your own manner of speaking… in a way that is appropriate to a particular situation. Improvising music works the same way.
- The ability to express ourselves in words is so commonplace, and we are so good at it, that we take it all for granted. In fact, I am doing it right now. But it’s easy to forget that the words that flow so easily now are the fruit of a lifetime of effort and experience: listening, speaking, reading, and writing… in a variety of real-life situations. We learn how to “speak” music the very same way.
- Just like learning any language, the more musical words you know… and the more musical grammar you understand… the more things you will have to say… and the more ways you will have to say them… in a variety of real-world contexts.
- Fluent improvisation is a very learnable skill.
- It’s not enough to know what a musical something IS. A real musician understands, hears, and feels what that musical something DOES!
- Learning how to improvise is no more difficult than, but requires no less effort than, learning to how speak a second language.
- Every musical pattern that you internalize has the potential to magically appear in your improvisations as needed… just as English words and phrases magically appear in your everyday conversations–without even thinking about it.
- You can only fluently play music that is already inside of you. In other words, No MUSIC IN, no MUSIC OUT! So, if you want to get more music out, you need to put more music in.
- You put music in by studying scales, chords, chord progressions, voicings, form, meter, rhythm, licks, riffs, and repertoire using all four musical intelligences: ears, intellect, eyes, and muscles.
learn more… Jazz Piano Lessons
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