Creating Tension is all about Resolving Tension
Before we learn how to create tension (play outside), we need to know how to resolve tension (play inside), because the most important part of creating tension is being able to resolve it. If you don’t know how to resolve tension and play pleasantly, it’ll just sound like you’re playing wrong notes.
Playing inside is theoretically easy, but a bit harder in practice.
Playing Inside – In Theory
To ‘resolve tension’ and play consonantly, you can:
- Play the chord tones (especially the guide tones). Because you’re literally just repeating the chord an octave or two higher, this sounds very consonant and resolved.
- For example, playing the notes C, E, G, or B (especially E or B) over a CMaj7 will sound very consonant because those are the notes that make up the chord.
- Play available tensions over a chord. These, by definition, sound pleasant and consonant.
- For example, playing the notes D, F#, or A over a CMaj7 will sound quite consonant.
- Avoid emphasising an unavailable tension over the chord. These, by definition, sound unpleasant and dissonant. (Treat unavailable tensions as quick passing notes).
- For example, playing the notes D♭, D#, F, G#, or B♭ over a CMaj7 will sound quite dissonant.
- Play an appropriate Jazz Scale over the chord. These, also by definition, sound good and smooth over a particular chord. We learned a number of Jazz Scales in the previous module.
- For example, playing C Ionian, or C Lydian, or C Lydian Augmented over a CMaj7 chord generally sounds good (again, don’t overemphasis the avoid notes).
Playing Inside – In Practice
In practice, it’s a little bit harder because you need to perfect your timing and phrasing. You want to finish your phrase on a strong note and a strong beat. You want your solo to sound interesting but not too busy. You want to leave breathing space (pauses) between phrases and include a certain amount of repetition (to build familiarity). You want to make some reference to the melody, and perhaps insert a few clichés, but still have enough unique content for the solo to be more than just a collection of riffs (this isn’t Rock!).
Most beginners, when they first starting trying to improvise, end up playing a scale up and down the chord progression. This is fine to begin with, but is not really improvisation. Below is a list of techniques you can use to expand your improvisation when playing ‘inside’ to make it more interesting and varied.
- Play scale and exercises
- Change Direction
- Change Rhythms
- Change Pitch
- Change Duration of notes
- Change Dynamics
- Skip Notes
- Circle notes
- Silence is ok (use it as thinking time)
- Repeat notes
- Repeat phrases & Sequence phrases
- Use Arpeggios (playing chord tones!)
- Use Phrases & Pause between Phrases (breathing space!)
- Start Phrases off the beat (just sounds jazzier!)
- Call and response (this is one of the characteristics of Jazz and Blues music)
- Theme and Variation
- Harmonising – use more than 1 note
- Use Riffs
- Use ornamentals – turns, trills, mordents, etc
- Use the Melody
- Use Guide Tones
- Cliches/Quotes
- Avoid ‘Avoid Notes’
But the two most important thing that you need to do to learn how to improvise is:
- Listen to lots of Jazz improvisation; and
- Practice Practice Practice.
