Larceny
Improvisation (and Art in general) is all about theft. Find something you like, steal it, and make it your own.
An important part of soloing is having large number of riffs memorised that you can fall back on whenever you need. If you ever get lost, or run out of ideas during an improvisation – just play a riff. Playing memorised riffs buys you time to find your place and think of what to play next. And the way you learn riffs is by copying other people.
Have a listen to you favourite soloists, find a line or phrase you like, transcribe it, play it, memorise it, and steal it. Easy!
Clichés and Quoting
Musical clichés and quoting are a powerful and entertaining improvisation technique that can really engage your audience. It involves playing well known licks, riffs or songs within your improvisation. This creates a humorous effect within your solo and will bring a smile to the everyone’s face.
Some well known outro clichés are:
- V I Outro
- Blues Outro
- Take the A Train Outro
- Take the A Train Variation Outro
- Count Basie Outro
Quoting involves playing the melody of a completely different song over your chord progression. Some ideas for quoting are:
- Steal Nursery Rhythms
- Steal other Jazz songs
- Steal whatever you like
Have a Listen to
- Blue Skies ~ Ella Fitzgerald version (listen for the Wagner’s Wedding March & Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue during her scatting)
- Black and Tan Fantasy ~ Duke Ellington (listen for Chopin’s Funeral March right at the end)
- White Christmas ~ Charlie Parker version (listen for Jingle Bells)
- April in Paris ~ Count Basie version (listen for Pop Goes the Weasel)
- Most Dexter Gordon solos
Note: There are literally thousands of examples. The above ones are the most overt and obvious. Many are short (just a bar or two) and subtle and of less well known songs. Many Jazz musicians inserts quotes from Pop songs from their time.
