Playing better solos isn’t something that happens overnight—it’s a process that takes time and an approach. Today we’re going to look at 3 concepts from Patrick’s “Approaches to Improvisation” course with Jazz Lesson Videos that will help your solo improvisation. If you’re looking to dive in deeper, check out Patrick’s full course, where you’ll find hours of content—ranging from improving your swing feel to playing ballads, extending your range, and so much more. And if you want to see how Patrick plays through any of the examples we cover today, make sure to check out our accompanying YouTube video, “3 Concepts for Better Solo Improvisations feat. Patrick Bartley.”

Let’s get playing!

Contents

How to Build Lines

Degrees of Swing

How to create momentum in a solo

How to build lines

Let's get into the first concept of today. How do you build nice sounding lines? 

In any type of improvisational playing, but specifically jazz improvisation, there's always going to be a mixture of things that you do on the spot, and then what you could call “stock phrases.” And when it comes to building your own lines, what Patrick likes to do is build off of stock phrases. And one of the things he likes to teach people is how to take those existing lines to create your own lines. This might be also a way to blend in transcriptions and make your own solos from them as well. 

For example, let's talk about this pretty simple, ii-V-I, phrase. This can be either over one bar or two bars, however you want to consider it. And this is a ii-V-I, in B-flat concert. So the ii being C minor, the V7 being F7, and then the tonic being B-flat. So let's take this very simple line.

Now imagine this phrase as like a recipe—we have a list of ingredients, but we can combine them in different ways for different effects. What we're going to do is take this line and stretch it out to the point you might even recognize it anymore, and we're going to do it straight from these exact notes. 

The first thing you can do with this is have the exact same notes, and don't even change them. You can just change the rhythm. We started on the downbeat in that phrase, so what if we anticipate the phrase? 

So that's what an extension from the beginning of the phrase looks like. But what if we try to extend it from the end of the phrase? 

Then you can combine them together. 

Okay, let's do the inverse. Why don't we start the phrase smaller? Start the phrase a little later?

Okay, that was the beginning. Let's do the end.

And let's do both.

So with those six examples, we just created six new lines off of one thing, and that was only the rhythm. 

So what happens if we start changing some notes? Now we're going to mess with the theory a little bit. If you notice the scales that we’re playing here, for the most part, with the exception of the bebop scale’s chromatic note, it's all diatonic. So let’s try flatting the 9 on the F7.

Very simple change. Now instead of flatting one 9, let's flat two of the 9s.

Your mileage may vary, but the point is, we’re taking this one phrase and changing a few notes, nothing crazy, and we’re able to make some new phrases. After doing that same thing a couple of times, you might find yourself bored with that one direction. So why don't we go another direction? Here are some examples that you can try on your own. We can go up, down, extend, shorten, and more. See if you can catch where Patrick was going with each of these! 

You can play as many of these different examples as you like. But the point is, that it's up to you to use your imagination, your creativity, and, most importantly, your taste, to play this line or any other and make your own phrases. Try to experiment with different directions to see what you can come up with.

Degrees of swing

For Patrick, when it comes to harmony, melody and rhythm, rhythm is at the top of the list. So we're going to talk about a very important rhythmic topic, which is degrees of swing. 

Not all swing feels are the same—you can take two swing feels, from someone like Louis Armstrong, and someone like Elvin Jones, and they're gonna sound completely different. When they’re your influences, you may have a different swing feel than other jazz players. So how can you incorporate that knowledge and understanding into your playing? Let's explore that.

When we’re talking about degrees of swing, one of the examples Patrick loves to use is actually one of the first solos that many saxophone players learn, which is Charlie Parker's “Au Privave.” 

And while many of you have probably transcribed Bird’s solo, it’s also likely that you have not transcribed Miles Davis’ solo from this song as well. As saxophone players, it's really important for us to not just stay to our instrument, but also to branch off and understand the musical big picture, because it helps us to train our ears to hear the details. The details are what make the music. 

Let’s look at the solos together. If you want to hear how Patrick plays them through, check out our accompanying YouTube video, 3 Concepts for Better Solo Improvisations feat. Patrick Bartley. 

What do you notice? Are there any details that you pick out? If you said Charlie Parker's was swung and Miles was straight, you're on the right path, right? That's the first layer. But let's get even deeper into the layers. 

Terms like “swung” and “straight” are kind of “one size fits all” terms that are there for efficiency. It's actually your job to do the work of interpreting what those words mean. So if you just say “swung,” the first thing you should be thinking in your head is, “swung like what? Swung like, who? What's going on?” And if it says “straight,” your first thought should be, “well, is it like a funk rhythm? Is it kind of more cha cha?” And the reason why this is important is because it helps you get into the details that make the music sound and feel right. 

How to create momentum in a solo

Now we’re getting into the third concept. We’re going to talk about building a solo. We’re going to be looking at Patrick’s Three Step, or Three Chorus solo template. This template is not meant to be a perfect guide that you should always follow for every solo, but if you're feeling lost in creating a solo, and you got three or four choruses, try to use this template, and it might be able to help you guide your way through a solo. 

So the reason why Patrick came up with something like this is because he thought, “okay, every solo that I like to listen to, or every solo that really impresses us, whether it's in the blues, jazz, or even even in classical music—a cadenza—there's always a certain type of flow that it has between all the great solos in history. So what exactly is that flow?”

So usually when he listens to a really impactful solo, Patrick has noticed that there are three main phases that the solo can take in order to build. So the first phase is a phase he likes to call the “motivic phase.” And basically, in this phase, you're going to take maybe two or three notes…or maybe one note and a bunch of rhythms…or maybe a bunch of notes with one rhythm. Whatever it is, you're going to find your motif, and that's going to guide where your solo goes in your first chorus. 

The second phase is interesting, because this is going to be where you really get to show how much you've practiced. We’ll call it the “virtuosic phase.” And in the virtuosic phase, you're basically going to take your idea and really expand it. You're going to show this is the maximum we can go with this. We develop and show what we can do on these chord changes. 

And in the third phase, this is the “dynamic phase.” Now, in this phase, you're basically going to go wild. And it doesn't mean that you have to be avant garde. It just means you're going to highlight what makes you as a player unique. What is your standout thing? Can you play really high? Maybe really low? Really fast? Slide into a nice groove? Play really loud? Whatever it is, you want to bring it to your last chorus so you can deliver on who you are as a player. If you're a fan of the blues or rhythm & blues, you might have noticed this pattern already. 

To finish out for today, you can see Patrick play through this concept over Rhythm changes in our accompanying YouTube video, 3 Concepts for Better Solo Improvisations feat. Patrick Bartley. You’ll be able to see how he develops the motivic, virtuosic, and dynamic phrases, and the types of devices he uses to get himself through each chorus with cohesion. And if you’re interested to learn more, be sure to check out Patrick’s “Approaches to Improvisation” course with JLV.

We’ll see you next time!