How do YOU improvise?

[eupher61]

Are you talking improvising jazz, or purely free improvisation?

BIG difference in some ways.

Free improv is possibly the hardest thing to do. A jazz format at least gives a basic structure to work in.

[Mike Finn]

Do you improvise in your instrument's home key?

1.) If I'm just goofing around with a simple funky bass line, it's probably going to be in or near the home key of the horn and have a lot of roots, octaves, 5ths, flat 7ths, minor 3rds and maybe a few diminished 4ths thrown in for good measure. Really large leaps are good too.
2.) If I'm just goofing around playing lyrically or melodically (by myself) I may meander through several key centers without regard for specific harmonic progressions.

Now, if you're talking about playing actual songs with a group, then the rules change drastically.

1.) For Dixe I usually stay pretty close to the melody, with lots of arpeggios (embellished with half-steps) thrown in the spaces or instead of long tones. I also will quote parts of other songs every now and then. "Woody Woodpecker" anyone?
2.) for "Real Book" gigs (country club, fancy restraunt, wallpaper music) I still stay fairly close to the melody with my phrasing and contour, but do NOT play arpeggios if I can help it, unless they extend past the 9th where they sound more appropriate. (Descending lines also seem to have more of a coolness factor in this style.) Still a few "quotes" here and there, but from more sophisticated music, perhaps "My Favorite Things" or "'Round Midnight".
3.) for Bop stuff, my lines are more angular and frankly less enjoyable to me and the listener! (I'll stick with dixie, funk, and easy swing)

YMMV

MF

[dmmorris]

You mean improvisation like..........

Carl Ludwig Hubsch

Wolter Weirbos


.....I wish!

[windshieldbug]

To start off with, get familiar with the changes of the piece. If you're playing the bass, you may already know them by name.

The goal is to have the musical thoughts in your head. At the start of your improvisational journey, learn some blues scales in the keys of the changes. Then just riff, and stop for a second when the harmony feels good. Try to build to a musical climax during your solo.

Actual improvisational thoughts can come when you get comfortable doing this. Fluffs, tweets, and pedals sounds more like a lot of the less gratifying 20th century electronic music I did when I was in school! (and ducking pterodactyls)

[Toad Away]

Oh, I just sort of make it up as I go along…

[P8822]

Following the melody and the harmonic accompaniment (ie. “the changes”) is a great place to start.

Then, incorporate the use of scales to match the chords/changes. (chord/scale relationships)

Imitation – Listening to a favorite improviser and figuring out what he/she has played, learning it by ear and transcribing from recordings. You must imitate EXACTLY - phrasing, notes, and articulations - everything to develop a vocabulary in this idiom.

After many years of performance and study, the creation of your own “voice” in jazz improvisation will hopefully take place.

In my opinion, the jazz concept of the tuba and euphonium should be more than the wiggle fingers, press harder and hoping you hit a right note. Listen to the jazz masters and keep your improv very simple at first. Miles Davis is a great example of a simple swinging approach to jazz. To further develop as a musician, you must be listening daily to all kinds of music.

Keep your enthusiasm and apply some pedagogy to your jazz performance. You will see it improve steadily.
Good Luck,
Paul Weikle

[Dan Schultz]

I don't improvise. I wish I could. I had the pleasure of loaning a tuba to a fellow from Baltimore over this past weekend. He did an absolutely fantastic job of playing with three musicians who were visiting from Germany and had a couple of gigs while in town. They played traditional New Orleans style Dixieland jazz. The tubaman had never played with these three guys before and I swear... he didn't miss a lick! If you guys out East don't already know Frank Wiedefeld, you need to look him up.

[Art Hovey]

The most difficult thing for most tuba players that I hear trying to solo in traditional jazz is to escape from the habit of playing a bass line. The solution is to play the melody. Most melodies have spaces or long notes in them, which are opportunities for a little noodling on the chord, but the melody is never wrong.
If you really want to get comfortable with improvising solos, learn to play the melodies in EVERY KEY. (Of course that will be difficult if you have not yet learned your scales and arpeggios in every key.) As you gradually become more fluent, introduce small improvements and rhythmic embellishments. (Steal ideas from the cats you admire.) But if you stay close to the melody then you will escape from the bass line and start to sound like a soloist.
One other thing is important: If your tuba does not fit you just right then fatigue will prevent you from putting in the hours needed to become fluent. You MUST find a way to be comfortable when you are playing, even if that means modifying the tuba or mouthpiece.

[eupher61]

I repeat my question to Bob...what kind of improvisation do you mean?

Playing dixie is a lot different from playing bop; playing jazz is a lot different from improvising a cadenza; a cadenza is totally different from an aleatoric improvisation.

[Donn]

I'm not a fabulous improviser (though I think I'm better at it than I am at sight reading), and I think most of the advice above would be good for me.

The trick is in how you apply that advice. When I sit at the computer and read articles on Tubenet, I'm using mental faculties that help me get through life in many ways, but aren't much use in making music. There's a part of my brain (maybe the right cerebral hemisphere if you like) that plays the tuba, and another part that just gets in the way, but can get stuff from Tubenet and other places where symbols are traded around as a currency of knowledge. Maybe somewhat like the relationship between player and teacher. So my left brain can be all kinds of help in feeding the right brain the stuff it needs - exercises, recordings, etc. - but my right brain also really needs to be able to somehow tie that guy up in the basement when we start playing, or it turns out very poorly, as if your teacher came with you to the performance and was pointing at valves for you to push and stuff like that. (But it's really worse, because at least your teacher could presumably play tuba, which my left brain persona cannot.) When I do well, it's like my body was stolen by someone else and the music comes out with no appearance of planning, but absolutely not by accident. Possibly some of you whose musical faculties are stronger, would be more conscious of what's happening.

Tuba players, like any bass instrument, are of course two kinds of improvisers - whether you play solo breaks or not, you might also be improvising a bass line the rest of the time. That's really where it's at, for me. A good bass line makes a really critical difference to the music and is quite a subtle art. Solo breaks are comparatively irrelevant.

[J Stowe]

I've had the awesome opportunity to sing in a vocal jazz group, and even performed with Darmon Meader. It's incredible how well I can improvise vocally, and how difficult it is for me to transfer it to an instrument. However, the advice about knowing the melody and quoting it is a very helpful start (plus more - paraphrasing is very interesting to the audience). Also, knowing the progressions is key; I think people sometimes get the false impression that you can either can or can't improv. This is very untrue. Plenty of amazing jazz musicians talk about knowing scales, progressions, and the melody - it's a matter of sitting down and remembering what you like. Sure, a lot of improv is on the spot, but someone picking up the horn to improv isn't picking it up for the first time. It's more than ok to have a plan about improv, imho.

Jamey Aebersold materials are an awesome resource.

I know this is a very scattered-brained paragraph, but hopefully it reinforces these great ideas given before.

[eupher61]

Really anything, I suppose.

OK, then, here's a couple of thoughts from me. Well worth what you pay for them.

I'm talking tuba, in the older style that I prefer, vs whatever in the newer style.

Early jazz forms are vertically oriented--MELODY is the thing. Improvised solos need to be melodic, linear, while heeding the changes. More contemporary (read: bop and beyond, even to some extent the hard swing from pre-WW II) jazz forms are horizontal, the harmony is more important than the melodic characteristics. Play the changes, don't worry so much about making a pretty tune. Or any tune.

Improvising bass lines: Again, somewhat different, but more similar than solo. Earlier jazz--learn the changes AND the tunes. Especially with "dixie" styles, think Sousa, and let the formality relax a bit. I-V gets really boring to play and to listen to, so learning the melody will help you fill in with other chord or non-chord elements.

For newer styles, take a look at this tutorial by Rob Reck He plays euphonium and bass, and it's a great introduction.

[Donn]

I-V gets really boring to play and to listen to, so learning the melody will help you fill in with other chord or non-chord elements.

The bass line can be another way of looking at the structure - related to the chords, but with a linear movement that isn't expressed in the chord notation. From the bass line (or trombone), you can sometimes hear the next chord coming, for example. Given a sequence of chords, they might carry a very different impression if played with an ascending vs. descending line. Etc. Maybe the bass is really the core of a tune's structure, and the chords are just there to flesh it out.

[TubaCoopa]

"To improvise properly, clench the fist and bang it up and down on the valves, or just wiggle the first valve, preferably in time with the music."

--from 'Marching Band Improvisation (I did it, and you can too!)'

[PWtuba]

How do YOU improvise?

Not at all.

[SplatterTone]

I learned to improvise from the best -- Red Green.
Lots of duct tape.

[tubatooter1940]

I usually play a duo with rhythm guitar or with a trio with a harmonica. The harmonica isn't that much help if the tune has more than four or so chord changes.
The guitarist makes a recording when he is gigging alone for me. I can then play along with him lots-o-times at home without taxing his fingers or his voice.
I may not play a solo the same way everytime - I do have a tad of spontenaety - but I need to be sure of where I am and where I'm going on a solo so others can know when to come back in. I get to try any lick I can come up with along with the recording to see what works best.
It's great to have the freedom to compose bass lines and solos but I never forget to ask for suggested changes form other group members. Their input adds much to my final version.
The problem is that John records himself on a quiet weekday evening with a small crowd in the joint. Often the first time we play a new tune together, is on a weekend night when the bar is packed. Tempos are up, the energy level is mucho higher, and I need to be ready for things to happen more quickly and with lots more intensity.

[eupher61]

Completely free improvisation, say a tuba player sittin' on the stage by her/his self, playing what comes to mind, is MUCH more difficult than playing to changes.

If the intention is to be totally free, avoiding a structure is important. That means playing random sounds, lines, whatever comes to mind. But, is that interesting? I dunno, it depends on the listener and the performer.

I've done an improvised bit where I use 2 or 3 different tunes thrown together as the basis of the improvisation, but I don't play those tunes. F'rinstance, 8 bars of "Bill Bailey", 8 bars of "Do You Know What It Means" (the bridge works well as a change of pace to another tune) and 8 bars of "Baby Face". Or anything else.
Changing the tunes frequently within the improvisation adds to the perception of pure improvisation.

It's tough to do, though, and I haven't done it in lotsa years. There's little reason to do it except to show off. Range, technique, lyricism, you have to have control of the horn to make a free improv work.

[tclements]

I look at the trombone player and say, "TAKE IT!!"

[windshieldbug]

You know what they say when drums stop...



"Bass solo!"