Learning Jazz Improvisation

Jazz improvisation is a skill that can be learned. It is not necessarily something inborn.

Unlike classical music, learning jazz improvisation is based on learning to play by ear. Just as a painter must learn to draw before learning to paint, a jazz musician must learn to play by ear before learning to improvise.

All the skills necessary to become a good jazz player can be learned. Some of these are "relative pitch", rhythmic awareness and style.

Relative pitch is what enables a musician to get from one note to the next by ear. ie the interval like, third, fifth, tritone or whatever is recognizable without analyzing what it actually is. No time for analysis in jazz. Its all action and reaction. "Absolute Pitch" is also learnable. This means for any given pitch heard, the musicians knows what it is. He does not necessarily think "Oh, that's an F sharp", but he is able to play the pitch on his instrument without thinking about it. Somewhat like "Relative Pitch", but with no reference note. "Perfect Pitch" means not only can you identify the pitch with no reference, but you also know if it is slightly sharp or flat. This skill only among the 3 is probably inborn.

Rhythm is at the heart of jazz and an aspiring player must have awareness of not only the beat or pulse, but also patterns that overlap the beat, are part of the melodic phrasing, structure of the tune or patterns played by the rhythm section(most importantly the drummer or percussionist). In an ideal situation the rhythm section reacts to the soloist and the soloist reacts to the rhythm section.

During the actual playing, a musician must not analyze what is happening or it will be lost. The players must stay in the moment as much as possible. Being free inside yourself lets the music come out. I don't really know where the music comes from, but I believe most people have access to it.

Style is obtained by listening to the music of those musicians you like. It is not an exceedingly difficult, albeit time consuming, task to learn clichés or licks. Eventually and hopefully coincidentally the aspiring player must realize that no one wants to hear an imitation and that originality is also necessary.

Another component of style is "freshness" - jazz needs to sound spontaneous or "not practiced". Not recited by rote memory. In fact, great jazz still sounds fresh decades after it was originally recorded.