In case you missed it, in our weekly Tips and Tricks section we offered a three-part series on improvisation, "Compose yourself" in which we looked at ways of injecting your solos with more sophistication. Sure, everyone just wants to lean back and blow once in a while, but many jazzers (and bluegrassers!) are prone to just letting the notes rip, with no direction or thought to the "whole" of their aesthetic statement. We propose these suggestions:

Antecedent/Consequent
Story Arcs
Course Correction

Each of these are simple concepts you can employ immediately, no matter what level you are playing. If you haven't already, check them out and see how you can get better in touch with your inner muse.

While you're there, check out some of the extra credit rabbit trails at the bottom of each article in the "Further" suggestions where we give related topics to further your path to jazz mandological excellence. If you like news feeds, use our RSS Tips links resource, too! http://jazzmando.com/tips/index.rdf

Posted by Ted at July 11, 2010 7:57 AM