What’s up gang? Hope you all are doing well. I’m afraid the world we live in right now is a pretty crazy place. Most of the world leaders are nuts, and behaving like adolescents. The poor people of the world have had just about enough of the rich running the show, so the poop is hitting the fan big time. Aside from voting for politicians that you think represent a philosophy you are comfortable with, all we can do is spread the word of love, respect your fellow man, and emphasize the importance of the arts and humanities in the overall shape of things. All I can think right now is that we’re gonna need some powerful miracles from above to get through this mess. I’m hopeful that things will work out in time, Though, if we all keep the faith and remember what is important.

In my practice time I’ve been messing around with 5 -7 note motifs that I can move around various intervals apart. For example, I took the notes C, up to F, down to D, down to B flat, up to C, played as 4 eighth notes and a half note. I then played this sequence over different bass notes. It works over most of them, and suggests a different quality chord in each case. Next, I played the sequence minor thirds apart, major thirds apart, and a whole step apart. By leaving out a note here or there or adding a note or two to make it a 7 note group, say, I began to find some nice melodic material. I then tried to play this motif a minor third or tritone away from the tonic of the chord at hand. Some nice textures resulted.

You can find an infinite number of little motifs to fool around with. This exercise is a nice route towards thinking compositionally when you play. By getting some of these under your fingers you will eventually be able to summon up all or part of the motifs and join them together to form cohesive improvised lines.

Here’s another exercise that may help you to find some other stuff to play: choose a tempo and start to play in a swing feel with no tonal center. Let the rhythmic focus be your guide; that is, play rhythmic phrases typical of jazz phrasing, but with a random choice of notes. Try to throw in some really large intervals. Play any note! Infact the more outrageous the better. Tape yourself and see what happens. There may be some highly musical and personalized notes in there.

I once heard Art Farmer say to make sure it is time to move to the next note in a solo before doing so. By experimenting with intervalic and sequential playing you can eventually develop a vocabulary that will enable you to move from note to note. This is a really spontaneous way to improvise, and results in some pretty wild stuff that you may have never played before.

Keep playing, keep composing, keep searching, keep giving, keep loving, and most of all, keep the faith.