A MUSICAL BASIS FOR

IMPROVISATION BY AURAL PERCEPTION

Course Content & lesson overview
Before we start we should mention that the methods and presentation
of material in this course is not always orthodox. The course covers
material for improvisation by aural perception and to simplify
presentation we have divided the study material into the usual musical
categories but the course is designed for aural improvisation; it is not
intended to teach conventional music theory or sight reading.
Rhythm
perhaps the most fundamental of the musical elements; rhythm is
concerned with the pOSITION and duration of sound in time. Rhythm
shapes time.
Jazz is essentially a RHYTHMIC music and the rhythms used in jazz,
are presented and analysed in a way which brings them under
conscious as well as subconscious control. The results of these studies
brings improvement in memorising as well as rhythmic improvisation.
Rhythm is the most neglected aspect of jazz instruction because it is
the most difficult to teach, but it is the core distinguishing feature of jazz
so we present an exhaustive rhythmic commentary in every lesson.
Melody
IDIOMATIC features of a melody line are presented in a way which
clarifies the characteristic differences in rhythmic STYLE. This is an

important consideration when we realise that we only have 12 notes to

work with. The study material goes from simple melodies through to
advanced improvisation concentrating on jazz interpretation, swing and
continuity.
Harmony
Harmony is developed from simple beginnings to advanced sounds,
the method of presentation is such that AURAL recognition is achieved
in a progressive manner. We demonstrate how modern refinements are
built from simple basic structures and why certain chord sounds have
evolved. Conscious understanding is thus developed alongside aural
discrimination.
The course is not instrument specific but we do cover the method of
chord note distribution to obtain the best characteristic SOUND for
each chord and progression. The layouts are applicable to all multi-note
instruments but also provide essential understanding for other
instruments.
Structure
Jazz improvisation is based on the structure of the jazz song. Although
these structures can be simple they are essential to understand if
creative self expression is to be communicated to a listening audience.
The tradition of jazz embodies both the songs and the players.
Apart from the rhythmic delineation of style, the big difference between
classical music and jazz is that classical music reinterprets the
composer's inspiration whereas jazz is inspired spontaneous
composition. Such spontaneity must have a reference framework; the
jazz song.
The various forms of the jazz song, which can originate in folk, popular
and often, theatre music, are recommended for practice to enhance
enjoyment while illustrating chord progressions and the lesson detail.
Dynamics
In spontaneous self expressive performances the musical subcomponents of volume, accentuation, together with texture, timbre and
tone quality and all aspects of dynamics are just as important as the
actual pitches used.

To quote a well known clich 'It ain't what you do, it's the way that you
do it'! The lessons will stress the importance of listening and imitating to
appreciate the subtle nature of dynamics and jazz rhythm.
Learning - psychology and cognitive science
The psychological aspects of music are of particular importance for
improvisation where subconscious activity dominates performance.
Insights from cognitive science are used to explain the processes at
work during improvisation. Most lessons involve advice and comment
which is consistent with our understanding of psychology and cognitive
science.
We suggest improvisation is based on recognisable patterns of sound
and characteristic sound clusters are presented in each lesson. Thus,
lessons will usually start with the study of harmony and the sound of
particular chords. Melodic, rhythmic and structural material will then be
developed from these chord sounds.
lesson 1
the concept of tonality & the sound of the home base
1.1 Tonality - the major scale. The piano keyboard, semitones, the
chromatic scale, sharps and flats, modes, tetra chords, aural
conditioning.
1.2 Harmony - thirds & chords. The importance of thirds, major and
minor chords. Recognition and memory, singing and imagery. Chord
voicing and spacings, inversions and doubled notes. Colour, variety
and style.
1.3 Chord progressions - the essence of tonal music. Sound centres,
tendencies and attractions. Basic harmonic patterns using the primary
triads and their tendencies and attractions which sound right.
Movement from and back to the home base.
1.4 Melody - the jazz sound & idiom. Jazz is rhythm. The chord sound
with the jazz rhythm. Singing. Aural examples not sight reading tests.
Songs not exercises.
1.5 Co-ordination - sound & smooth chord motion. Movement to the
subdominant and the dominant and back home. Voice leading.

1.6 Rhythm four to the bar & the rhythmic framework. Dance music.
Beats, bars, accents, meter, time signatures, phrases, sections and
structure. Swing and imitation.
lesson 2
the process of improvisation & moving patterns practice
2.1 Harmony - motion towards a cadence. Harmonic progressions with
the secondary triads. Cadences, chord substitution and the importance
of the chord notes..
2.2 Melody - harmonic rhythm & time keeping. playing with a moving
chord sequence. Metronomes and effortless continuity.
2.3 Rhythm - four bar phrases, dancing, lyrics & breathing. Rhythmic
four bar phrases in the blues, ragtime and theatre songs. Construction
four bar phrases from lyrics and breathing. The importance of eighth
notes.
2.4 Improvising - conscious practice & sub conscious performance.
patterns in the brain. Understand, listen, practice, perform. Finger
shapes and time feel. Try improvising.
2.5 practice - & practice. The practice schedule, fun and relaxation. No
other way, just hard work.
2.6 Advice - inhibition & impatience. Confidence and wood-shedding.
The basics of music and improvisation have been covered in the first
two lesson but all progress in music tends to produce a desire for
further advancement, for more dramatic effects, for more sophistication.
The material in the next lessons injects the simpler melodic patterns of
lesson 1 and 2 with some tricks which produce UNEXPECTEDNESS
or surprise and therefore tend to attract the attention of the listener.
The two important concepts of improvisation are developed using the
ear and familiarity to establish sound finger patterns and rhythmic
time feel.
lesson 3
ears, habits & sound / finger patterns

3.1 Harmony - hearing the chord changes. Listening for the land
marks, the vehicle for improvisation. Getting the sound stuck in your
head. The big notes and fit.
3.2 Acoustics - the tempered scale & the ear. Conditioned ears.
3.3 Melody - appoggiaturas. Unessential notes and decoration of major
and minor chords. Simple rules, dramatic effects. Dynamics. Reading
makes the ear lazy. Fitting a pattern to a chord sequence.
3.4 Absorbing sounds - sound / finger patterns. Combination,
recombination and displacement. Every jazzmans habit. Typical
melodic and harmonic material in presented progressively providing
characteristic sound / finger patterns.
3.5 Rhythm - syncopation, rhythmic phrase building & repetition.
Anticipation, delay. Dotted and tied notes. Tension and release.
3.6 Advice - progress & motivation. Steady self development. Not an
aptitude or a gift but motivation to practice.
lesson 4
ears, habits & rhythmic time feel
4.1 Harmony - the 7th chord. Forward urges. Recognised patterns,
expectations and surprise. Dynamic flow and tendencies from nature
and nurture.
4.2 Technique - proficiency through practice. Familiarity.
Embellishment. Songs not exercises and scales.
4.3 Melody - chromatic passing notes. Simple style development.
Relaxed swing from simplicity not flowery profusion.
4.4 Rhythm four bar phrases & rhythmic time feel. Developing
rhythmic time feel. Methodical learning. Rhythm trees of increasing
complexity. Ties across the bar line.
4.5 Learning - establishing patterns in the brain. Conscious habit,
unconscious playing. Vocabulary, grammar and idioms. Time is
needed.
4.6 Advice - understanding music. Catalyses learning, technique,
recognition, memory and confidence.
The next two lesson continue to add sophistication to the basics. As the
rhythmic melody lines of jazz develop, there is usually a desire for

harmonic advancement as well. This can take place in several ways,

one of which involves adding extra notes to basic structures causing
them to become less obvious as well as 'thicker' in sound and more
interestingly harmonically tensioned.
Musical know how can be used to enhance performance by using your
head and focussing on continuity and pleasing the ear.
lesson 5
interesting sound trajectories
5.1 Harmony - the added 6th chord. Add interest, avoid monotony.
5.2 Chord progressions - basic patterns, they all go the same old way.
Substitutes. Simplify to the basics and learn the exceptions. Down to
the subdominant, jump to sharper dominants and resolve back through
the dominants. Dissonant clashes and getting lost.
5.3 Melody - experiments & analysis. Experiment and initiative.
Staccato legato, accents, speed, swing.
5.4 Rhythm - staying off the beat & phrase continuity. Rhythm as a
pattern with continuity and swing. Trajectories, ground beat,
juxtaposition and swing. playing with records, rhythm section and
collective music.
5.5 Memory training - pattern recognition. Amazing recollection.
5.6 playing together - have a go. Collective complimentary
contributions. Roles of the different instruments.
lesson 6
pleasing the ear
6.1 Harmony - the major 7th chord. Substitutes for more variety.
6.2 By-tonality - rootless chords. Modern sounds. Intonation and
correctly pitching notes.
6.3 Melody - the leading note. 7th and 4th use with care.
6.4 Rhythm - drumming on your instrument. Jazz cannot be notated, it
has to be imitated. Rhythm distinguishes style and is dominant in jazz.
More 'off the beat' rhythms.

6.5 Work programme - ingraining sounds & habits. Any material as long
as it is jazz. Transcribing solos.
6.6 Ear training - learning to listen. Association and tone colour.
So far you have been using both your ear and your head to create
recognisable sound patterns. This is not easy and takes time because
your ear has to be conditioned to a particular idiomatic jazz sound and
which then has to be ingrained in your brain through extensive practice.
You will be frustrated and impatient because progress is never as fast
as you had hoped. Were now going to take a deep breath and
consolidate and summarise the considerable amount of know how
which has been acquired.
We are going to try to identify useful principles which may unify the
material in the first 6 lessons and make it more coherent and easier to
remember.
Finally before moving on to the blues we will summarise the particular
way of playing that has been the focus of these initial lessons.
lesson 7
consolidation & summary
7.1 Harmony the major 9th chord. Familiar structures. More
substitutes.
7.2 Chord progressions functional harmony. Tonic, dominant and subdominant. Moving bass lines.
7.3 Melody chord decoration & part playing. Simplicity. Recognisable
sound shapes and appropriate rhythmic idiom. Upper voice dominates.
7.4 Rhythm swinging permutations of ingrained material. The
dominant idea. Swing, four to the bar and juxtaposition.
7.5 Advice basic simplicity. Extending the basic principles. Listen,
imitate and practice.
7.6 The jazz tradition a special way of playing. Armstrong, Bechet and
Morton.
lesson 8
playing the changes

8.1 Harmony the minor 7th chord. Familiar structures.

8.2 Chord progressions IIm7 V7 I & the circle of 5ths. Ubiquitous
sequences.
8.3 Melody apply the basic principles. Decorating chords in a
rhythmic idiom.
8.4 Rhythm the emergence of the right note, place & time. Rests and
rhythmic permutations. Making it sound like jazz.
8.5 Co-ordination improvising over changing chords. Spontaneous
trajectories. Key chord notes and signalling the change. Different types
of jazz songs.
8.6 psychology understand, practice & perform. There is no secret.
Confidence and inhibition.
From the earliest blues singers to the latest pop groups we find
widespread use of certain characteristic scales which are not the
traditional major and minor, and seem to give an exciting sound and
'modern expression' to the music. Knowledge of these BLUES scales is
a MUST for any musician desiring to play, write or improvise in JAZZ or
related idioms. Learning these sounds by EAR through copying records
is a tedious business, luckily this is unnecessary as they can be
absorbed in a few weeks or so, on the conscious level.
lesson 9
blues theory & pentatonic scales
9.1 Style - two jazz styles; one rhythmic idiom. A different but
characteristic sound.
9.2 Melody - the pentatonic scale. Major and minor scales. Major
significance.
9.3 practical - absorb the blues idiom. Listen. Vocalise blue trajectories.
9.4 Harmony - basic chords & characteristic scales. Simple scale &
chords, good rhythm.
9.5 Technical details - why it works! Relationship of the pentatonic scale
to chords. Same scale changing chords.
9.6 Rhythm - Latin & early jazz rhythms. Simple syncopation and
secondary rag.

lesson 10
blues practice & blues scales
10.1 Melody - the blues scale. The characteristic sound.
10.2 Harmony - the importance of the 7th. popular keys. The blues 7th
chord, different purpose for the 7th.
10.3 Chord progressions - blues variations. The 12 bar blues and
variations. Basic flexibility. Turnarounds.
10.4 Co-ordination - think scales. Stop thinking chords.
10.5 Rhythm - setting up the ground beat. Drumming the timekeeping
reference beat.
10.6 Characteristic timbre - dirty blues. Originality and variety from
sound modification.
lesson 11
blues legacy & achieving an effect
11.1 Melody - achieving an effect. New harmonic systems. Simple
scale, strong sound.
11.2 Harmony - relationship between scale and chord. Most scale notes
fit the sound.
11.3 The Blues System - extending the effect. playing the same scales
over moving chords.
11.4 Rhythm - additive polyrhythms & juxtaposition. Swing again.
Thinking triplets.
11.5 Originality - individuality within a tradition. Your own sound but
comprehensible to others.
11.6 progress Report - conclusion to part 1.
john p birchall
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