[Tradjazz] Improvising--McNichols

[Ken Gates]

Bruce McNichols wrote-----
>
> I tried to form my solos, around the chords. It worked, sort of. My solos (and ensemble 
> playing too), were rather stilted. Just a bunch of notes. Simply "not playing wrong notes" 
> isn't really good enough. I had to memorize the chords, for each song. I had zero ears.

===========================================
Bruce--
Interesting and insightful post.  Yes, my present state of development is how you describe
your earlier state.  Notes are okay (not wrong)---but not melodically interesting.

I know lots of tunes----I can't possibly memorize the chords.  So I have to rely on my ears.
And they need improvement.  There are good ear training methods out there---if I were to
devote two hours a day to the exercises---my ears would improve a lot, I'm sure.
Motivation to do that has not arrived thus far.

So there you are.  Those who really want to improve can find a way.

 --- Just a few really good notes will suffice---I think Bix said something along those lines.

Ken Gates