by Guto Andrade

The search for the full dominion - first part

Hello, people. How are you going? Today (and for the next 19 columns) I would like to talk about some things related to improvisation. Maybe this will be more an effort to show that improvising is not complicated, but there are some historically done ways that had worked and, by them, technique studies and a whole art related science were developed. This is also an effort to organize a little our studies and to include the maximum of information we get as we study.

Today, I want to give some tips and directives we are going to follow by all the way from now on. In order to get the best possible result, study as we will arrange now, ok? Read carefully:

1. Searching the full dominion - it is practically impossible to say who was the human being who achieved it, but it is necessary to believe that the full and absolute dominion over a musical instrument is possible not as a restrictive factor, but as an encouragement in search for its final point (if there is one!). It is necessary to believe that your thought on the musical instrument is done at the exact moment you think about it. I have sometimes read a Rubinho Barsotti's (Zimbo Trio's percussionist) phrase which fits it like a glove here: "Your body must be an extension of your brain. If your brain asks you to do some movement, do it." Explaining it clearer, it is necessary to look for a situation where your musical instrument works following the thought you have at the moment. You must do the musical phrase at the exact moment you imagine it. It is a little slow process and must be insistently studied. I recommend the following steps:

a) When you study any melodic material such as scale patterns, any exercise, phrases, arpeggios etc., try to sing the note as you play it. Do the normal procedures to any mechanic study using the metronome in diverse times, but sing the exercise notes together to the musical instrument. If there is perseverance in that study, you will realize that will be not necessary to listen to the played note in order to sing it. It will be easier to do both (play and sing) at once.

b) Any material must be studied in settled regions at the instrument arm, by some specific study necessities (e.g. 5 system) or by an end you have determined. It is necessary to set limits for you not to need them in the future.

c) Listen to many improvisations, of any musical instrument. It is necessary to get free from the guitar from time to time because beyond the universe of CAGED's, the phrasal pattern, lick, riff and groove, there is a whole different one in the other musical instruments. Many times it is not possible to do a saxophone phrase at the guitar making use of guitar fingered. It is necessary to have good sense and to make use of any guitar system as aid and not as absolute truth.

d) Play improvisations "by ear" and transcribe them. It can be a hard task in the beginning, but keep trying. The listening/transcribing exercise is one of the first steps for the thinking/performing exercises. These are the first step that we will add in the next subjects we will study.

2. Study organization - as we are going deeper in our study we will note that the amount of information to be studied is high. Actually, we have the notion that it is a very wide subject. What happens many times is that we do not have study program, we do not know how to organize our studies. To study for 15 hours per day is a relative question. We must ask: WHICH MATERIAL are we going to study for 15 hours? Depending on the studied subject and on each one's ability, someone can take 15 minutes, and another one can take 3 hours to absorb the same material. Because of that, I do not recommend you to set a daily time schedule to do it, but give yourself a safe conscience studying every day and perceiving if you are absorbing better some subject or not. Our program to the next columns is:

- improvisation using arpeggios

- arpeggio substitution -

using CAGED

- using patterns

- using prepared phrases

- changing prepared phrases

- motive thought

- distinguished rhythmic phrases (Brazilian styles)

- distinguished rhythmic phrases (Jazz) -

using blocks

- hemiolas and polyrhythm

- adding just the notes you need -chord/mode relation

- out side

- creating out side phrases

- changing out side phrases

- horizontal thought

- freethinking and performing

- improvisation suggestions

As in every sequential study, it is important that you go calmly, step by step, observing the details and trying to get most information as possible. At the end of each column I will always indicate some CD to be looked for and (the most important) to be listened to. As I am used to saying (although I am not the only one), we play what we listen to. Every musical study must not be apart off listening, after all, music is to be listened to. Today I propose the CD of the saxophonist John Coltrane, certainly one of the biggest improvisers. The CD is called "Afro Blue Impressions", 1973. Nowadays there are two CDs. Remember that each one of the matters we will study in this column is a patch to be patched for a long time. A column does not reveal the whole musical study need, so read much more, go after another sources, play a lot! I hope I can help your studies in the best possible way. See you in the next chapter of our travel to the improvisation planet!

Guto Andrade