All time jazz great Bill Evans gets very serious about learning to improvise…
“People tend to approximate the product rather than attacking it in a realistic, true way at any elementary level — regardless of how elementary — but it must be entirely true and entirely real and entirely accurate. They would rather approximate the entire problem than to take a small part of it and be real and true about it, and I think this is a very important thing. That you must be satisfied to be very clear and very real and to be very analytical at any level, you can’t take the whole thing, and to approximate the whole thing in a vague way give’s one a feeling that they probably more or less touched the thing, but in this way you just lead yourself toward confusion, and ultimately you’re going to get so confused that you’ll never find your way out.”
Bill Evans – The Creative Process and Self-Teaching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEHWaGuurUk
WHAT?!?!?!?
This is the type of deep, great knowledge that passes for deep great teaching of knowledge. And it is a fail unless we are already quite advanced.
I suspect that even many of those who love this video, and are inspired by it, miss most of the specific, and very useful, education lessons here.
May I interpret some of this for you?
“People tend to approximate the product…”
People tend to practice desired end results they hear from professionals, or get from instruction.
“…rather than attacking it in a realistic, true way at any elementary level regardless of how elementary…”
Rather than finding all of the elements of that need development, simplifying them to whatever level skill they have at the time, and practicing that, no matter how simple.
“…but it must be entirely true and entirely real and entirely accurate…”
But it must sound correct. The proper notes in the proper place, entirely accurate, not endless fumbling around.
“…They would rather approximate the entire problem than to take a small part of it and be real and true about it…”
They would rather be consistently inaccurate by trying to do too many things rather than use deliberate practice to drill down and find the small issues of confusion and creativity and work with those.
“…and I think this is a very important thing.”
What he said.
“That you must be satisfied to be very clear and very real and to be very analytical at any level,”
That we find joy in breaking down the challenge so that we are free to think clearly, without confusion, about what we are doing and how we would like to use it creatively.
In this process we experience small bits of joy, over and over, as we successfully create at a basic level, rather than fail over and over trying to do more complicated things.
There is much joy and satisfaction to be had here.
“…you can’t take the whole thing, and to approximate the whole thing in a vague way gives one a feeling that they probably more or less touched the thing,..”
I tried to sound like the a highly skilled improviser. Even though I’ve failed at this many times I must be doing the right things.
“but in this way you just lead yourself toward confusion”
Why is it sooooo hard and why am I am I making so little progress?
“and ultimately you’re going to get so confused that you’ll never find your way out.”
This will never work. What is wrong with me?
Nothing is wrong with you, none of us been taught to learn, though Bill sure gave it a good try.
Hopefully this little interpretation is helpful.
How do we do all of this? Maybe I should write a second part and interpret some other great jazzers…
Stay tuned.
The Rosetta Stone of learning.
Reduce the cognitive load by taking just a few notes or even just two, listen intently, reflect on what you have just played and plan your next move, then play it again. Deliberate practice!
YES!!!!!!!!
Having now watched the Bill Evan’s interview I surprised myself that I would have understood what he was saying without Gregg’s help, 6 months ago it would have been the equivalent of of foreign language but his played examples of making it easy we’re not easy enough and far too long. This was very similar to the Chick Corea video, the greats can’t teach at a basic level.
Bill’s comments made immediate sense to me, partly because I have begun studying jazz arrangements that are easy to play but are harmonically complex enough to make for beautiful renditions of the tunes. This is allowing me to understand with my fingers what I know in my head about chord progressions and voicings. It made it possible for me to feel comfortable playing for others when before I had always had so much performance anxiety that I was an absolute wreck.
Thanks for this, great contribution.
Great job figuring out what you needed to do and working from there! That is one of those little things that few can figure out which appears to others as ‘talent’, but it is just good learning.
That is likely the reason you were able to understand the video. The irony is that in order to understand his advice you need to have taken his advice before you heard it!
How are you learning to improvise? Since you mention harmony are you doing chord substitutions and things like that, or have you focused on melodic improv (soloing)?
Thanks again. Great insights in your thoughts.
Well, as a singer, improvising a melody comes naturally, it’s already in my head. (and at age 73 and as a child of a jazz musician, I have absorbed huge amounts of music in my lifetime.) I don’t focus too much on chord substitutions, but I do pick charts that are created by musicians who have already done that work for me. But if I do want to make up something on piano, since I can play by ear, I just play what I hear in my head. Maybe this is cheating, but I think it’s what a lot of people do. I have been accused of being talented (LOL), but it’s mostly that I grew up in a family that valued jazz music so much that it was always around and I was given lessons at a young age. Unfortunately, those lessons were with a classical teacher whose rigidity forced me to be afraid of performing on an instrument, but I am starting to overcome that with help of people like yourself.