The Method Behind the Madness: Building Solos Using the Essential Jazz Lines Series

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Roger Austin
5 years ago
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1 he Method ehind the Madness: uilding Solos Using the Essential Jazz Lines Series by Collin ay I have found that the fashioning of solos from the Essential Jazz Lines series by Corey Christiansen tends to follow a basic pattern of construction; however, there are always curves that must be acknowledged and dealt with. he example included is a solo based on the Stella by Starlight progression. he vocabulary used in the solo is mostly from the forthcoming book Essential Jazz Lines in the Style of Grant Green; however, there is a fairly sizeable amount of my own original material included as well. In building a solo, one obviously must select a song to work with. he first step is identification. he player must skim the changes, identifying ii-vs, minor ii-vs, major material, etc. Next, lines can be plugged into the solo. his process tends to be more delicate than it initially appears. o shape a strong solo, one must consider many factors. he climactic development of the solo, for example, must be dealt with. here are other twists as well. he connection of the lines presents a challenge. ake measure 2 for instance. he line incorporated here is applied over a long (two-measure) ii-v in the key of D minor. he line ends on an followed by a G. he tune then goes through a minor ii-v in C minor. In order to connect the two lines in a seemingly natural, flowing way, I selected a line for the ii V in C minor that began on a. his choice works well because of the enclosure that happens between the two lines (, G, ). he purpose of making smooth connections between the lines is to make the solo sound natural and lyrical, much like a horn player. Horn players have to breathe as well.

2 s a result of this, the player must build rests into the solo. In order to place my rests in natural spots I play through my solo, singing along. When I run out of breath, I put a rest in. his may involve tweaking lines to make them work. I also might throw in a rest just because it mysteriously works. n example of this can be found at the end of measure 2. While developing a solo a player may encounter a difficult passage, such as measures 1-24 of Stella. One way to deal with such a passage is to use one idea and tweak it to fit the chords. In measure I used a two measure piece of Grant Green minor material. Keeping in mind the nature of the artist, I chose to tweak the second part of that line over the to achieve a blues sound while creating some motivic development through the repetition of the (altered) line. s a result I created a small piece of material I can call my own (even if it has been played by countless amounts of musicians). On a similar note, if the player is writing a solo for a tune and by the time the third section rolls around the player is tired of the same sound, the player might alter the chord changes to spice things up. For example, if the section has one long ii-v in C that tends to get a bit stale, one could play a short ii-v over the first measure of the ii- V, then play a short ii-v a tritone away (in this case, m, D ) over the 2nd bar of the long ii-v, then resolve to the tonic (C). his is also a good way to manipulate some of the duller ideas and make them hip. his sort of concept, when mixed with strong vocabulary, can improve solos by adding interesting sounds. I tend to mix my own original vocabulary into solos. I am either inspired by the lines of the artist I am using to create something original, or am, in a sense, forced to write original material due to situations that don t lend themselves to the vocabulary being used. dditionally, it is good practice to develop lines in the style of masters of the jazz idiom. y writing original material while working closely with the material of a jazz

3 master, one can develop strong lines that have a link with jazz tradition. Lastly, I might include some original material into a solo simply because I have a sound in my head that is satisfied by my own material. On a side note, the incorporation of quotes is another way to keep solos interesting (Do you recognize the television theme song in measure 24?). he process of creating a solo is a lot more complex than one would think. In a way it is sort of like Dr. Frankenstein, piecing together chunks to make a monster. I have created some pretty weak solos as well as some gems. It is fairly easy to create a mediocre solo, but, like many things, constructing solos takes practice. Once the formula is mastered, creating solos becomes almost second nature. I cannot stress enough how vitally important this process has been to my understanding of the jazz idiom. hrough the creation of these solos I have been able to reproduce lines of jazz masters in my improvising, and come closer to creating my own original voice. he results are definitely worth the time put in; the benefits yielded, immense.

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