Linear Jazz Improvisation

Polytonal

Minor Triad

Etudes

Concert Instruments

Ed Byrne

© Ed Byrne 2008

CONTENTS

In this mini-book you will find many developments of Like It Is, an

angular eight-measure line comprised this time of minor triads, transposed

pantonally to great effect. Several methods of motive development are

employed here, including various forms of retrograde, transposition, mirror,

fragmentation, sequencing, and mixing and matching.

It takes great effort and much time to break these etudes down into

smaller phrases for internalization. It is important to improvise on each

phrase extensively in order for it to be fully incorporated into your

improvisation vocabulary—your story.

INTRODUCTION

This mini-e-book contains enough advanced modern vocabulary to keep

you occupied for at least a year! It begins with an eight-measure pantonal

line, the exposition to a recent composition of mine, 1Like It Is, which is

extensively developed in a variety of mind-blowing ways. Learn to sing and

play it ~ along with the free sound files. It will take some time and much

effort for you to internalize all of this, which includes improvising on each

and very aspect of its many developments.

How to practice these etudes:

1. Play back sound file in tempo (q.n.=175) repeatedly.

2. Sing with it.

3. Sing everything you practice. Slow the playback down to q.n.=80

and begin playing along with it. If you play guitar or another

instrument which allows you to sing at the same time, do both at once:

This is the most direct way to internalize a musical phrase.

4. When you have difficulty with a given section or phrase, stop and

insert repeats in the Finale file. Program it to repeat 20 times (or

more). Adjust the tempo.

5. Make frequent such adjustments in the playback file, guided by

how the work progresses.

6. Keep returning to the singing.

7. Most Important: Improvise at great length on each phrase in this

book, until this new vocabulary is second nature to you and is

incorporated into your overall musical story. Put on a metronome,

imagine a specific rhythmic style, and improvise.

1 To see the score of Like It Is, read an analysis, and listen to a MIDI realization of it, go to the Free Jazz

Institute: http://www.freejazzinstitute.org/showposts.php?dept=analysis&topic=20070425030205_EdByrne

I hope that you enjoy working on and performing these lines. I

recommend that you use the written page only to get started: Learn them by

rote with the playback files before weaning yourself off of even them. Learn

to sing and play them solo. Be able to improvise extensively on them, and

then you will be ready for just about anything.

Sincerely yours,

Ed Byrne