Strategies in jazz guitar improvisation

[Bambus123]

Came across this interesting dissertation for the PhD degree, by Stein Helge Solstad at the Norwegian Academy of Music:

What strategies are used in professional jazz guitar improvisation? This project finds that three main strategies are used by professional jazz guitarists; a basic coding strategy named chunking, an extended coding strategy based on context seen as schemas and an altered coding strategy based on skilled interaction in context, defined as templates. Chunking entails grouping small information units into chunks; these can then be combined into larger, hierarchically constructed systems and function as a mental “store” from which the performer retrieves material during improvisation. Chunk networks are triggered in the form of a schema, which is an abstract general mental representation of contextual knowledge. Templates are large flexible schemas frequently used by experts.

The practice-led research strategy has allowed questions, problems and challenges to be initiated and worked on in fieldwork. The aim has been to investigate how jazz guitarists recall, integrate, organize and develop their knowledge in improvisation. The inquiry includes participant observation, playing with and interviewing five professional jazz guitarists in New York City. By examining the fieldwork a modal matrix for analyzing structure, time and form in jazz guitar improvisation has been developed. The fieldwork studies have been supplemented by theoretical and contextual studies. The intention has been to bridge the gap between the roles as a researcher and performer, and in this process illuminate the knowledge that might have an impact on different parameters in improvised music in general.


This research project finds that professional jazz guitarists’ strategies are crucially dependent on context, style and type of interplay. Improvising is based on listening to what is happening in interplay and having flexible actions available to match the given input. Interplay defines the ways implicit (sub-conscious) and explicit (conscious) knowledge is used; the more familiar the context, the more use of implicit knowledge and intuition. The findings collapse the dichotomy constructed by the theories of top- down versus bottom-up expert skill, emphasizing that both approaches are needed dependent on time and place.

Five professional jazz guitarists participated in the project. All of the guitarists are internationally known performers with extensive experience in both teaching and performing. Presented in the order of how I approached them in fieldwork, the guitarists were Lage Lund, Jack Wilkins, Ben Monder, Rez Abbasi and Adam Rogers.


https://nmh.brage.unit.no/nmh-xmlui/...=5&isAllowed=y

[Mick-7]

Looks extremely nerdy, 334 pages, but there's probably some good study tips in there, thanks.

[wolflen]

Looks extremely nerdy, 334 pages, but there's probably some good study tips in there, thanks.

hmmm..study tips..I wonder..

I took the time to read the index-yikes!!

then I read Ben Monders solo and the analysis..YIKES TWICE..I am a big Monder fan !!

Now I have read..over the years..many takes on the solos of very good players..Pass..Methany and others
but this take on Monders solo was almost from a sci-fi horror movie..Im surprised there was not a BP and temp reading.

If Monder is even half conscious of what the analysis shows.he is from another planet indeed.

I dont know if this would help your playing any..but it did open up my view of how intricate and meticulous ripping apart a solo can be.

Now where is that upbeat on the G7sus again?

[nyc chaz]

Came across this interesting dissertation for the PhD degree, by Stein Helge Solstad at the Norwegian Academy of Music:

What strategies are used in professional jazz guitar improvisation? This project finds that three main strategies are used by professional jazz guitarists; a basic coding strategy named chunking, an extended coding strategy based on context seen as schemas and an altered coding strategy based on skilled interaction in context, defined as templates. Chunking entails grouping small information units into chunks; these can then be combined into larger, hierarchically constructed systems and function as a mental “store” from which the performer retrieves material during improvisation. Chunk networks are triggered in the form of a schema, which is an abstract general mental representation of contextual knowledge. Templates are large flexible schemas frequently used by experts.

The practice-led research strategy has allowed questions, problems and challenges to be initiated and worked on in fieldwork. The aim has been to investigate how jazz guitarists recall, integrate, organize and develop their knowledge in improvisation. The inquiry includes participant observation, playing with and interviewing five professional jazz guitarists in New York City. By examining the fieldwork a modal matrix for analyzing structure, time and form in jazz guitar improvisation has been developed. The fieldwork studies have been supplemented by theoretical and contextual studies. The intention has been to bridge the gap between the roles as a researcher and performer, and in this process illuminate the knowledge that might have an impact on different parameters in improvised music in general.


This research project finds that professional jazz guitarists’ strategies are crucially dependent on context, style and type of interplay. Improvising is based on listening to what is happening in interplay and having flexible actions available to match the given input. Interplay defines the ways implicit (sub-conscious) and explicit (conscious) knowledge is used; the more familiar the context, the more use of implicit knowledge and intuition. The findings collapse the dichotomy constructed by the theories of top- down versus bottom-up expert skill, emphasizing that both approaches are needed dependent on time and place.

Five professional jazz guitarists participated in the project. All of the guitarists are internationally known performers with extensive experience in both teaching and performing. Presented in the order of how I approached them in fieldwork, the guitarists were Lage Lund, Jack Wilkins, Ben Monder, Rez Abbasi and Adam Rogers.


https://nmh.brage.unit.no/nmh-xmlui/...=5&isAllowed=y

Thanks for posting this.Looks very interesting.It reminds me in a way of schenkerian analysis i used to do in college but i doubt guys like Mozart were even conscious of thinking in that manner just as i doubt jazz guitarist's are thinking that analytically when improvising.

[emanresu]

Now I have read..over the years..many takes on the solos of very good players..Pass..Methany and others
but this take on Monders solo was almost from a sci-fi horror movie..Im surprised there was not a BP and temp reading.

I listen to the stars because they got the best group possible. Mostly, the improvisation is kinda samey. But the band is great almost always.

[Christian Miller]

Thanks for posting this.Looks very interesting.It reminds me in a way of schenkerian analysis i used to do in college but i doubt guys like Mozart were even conscious of thinking in that manner just as i doubt jazz guitarist's are thinking that analytically when improvising.

Yeah bingo. I think it’s important to differentiate academic musicology and analysis from practical music theory (if the latter is not an oxymoron.) Really they have two different goals.


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[princeplanet]

These kinds of dissertations seem to promise so much, as in, study these secrets to the modern greats because it's the only way to be able to understand them, and hopefully one day play like them.

But show me a single guitarist (or any instrumentalist for that matter) that got good by studying some dissertation. I think I read one regarding Parker a few years back (Owens). I would have been far better served by spending the time transcribing Bird instead, and drawing my own conclusions...

[Mick-7]

this take on Monders solo was almost from a sci-fi horror movie

If the Frankenstein monster was a mad nerd, this is how he would write [quoted from the thesis]:

"I use a mixed-method approach that is at its core a qualitative study (interview, subjective perspectives, constructed within specific contexts which have specific situational affordances) and I combine these with quantitative data/methods added to supplement and improve the qualitative study, using content analysis of a modal matrix to quantify the frequency of different parameters within the matrix. The performative dimension of my qualitative multi-method approach is that the inquiry is initiated and led by practice, promoting an experiential understanding as well as a formal explanation."

Act II: the monster runs amok in the village, murdering children with jagged polysyllables.

[Litterick]

If the Frankenstein monster was a mad nerd, this is how he would write [quoted from the thesis]:

"I use a mixed-method approach that is at its core a qualitative study (interview, subjective perspectives, constructed within specific contexts which have specific situational affordances) and I combine these with quantitative data/methods added to supplement and improve the qualitative study, using content analysis of a modal matrix to quantify the frequency of different parameters within the matrix. The performative dimension of my qualitative multi-method approach is that the inquiry is initiated and led by practice, promoting an experiential understanding as well as a formal explanation."

Act II: the monster runs amok in the village, murdering children with jagged polysyllables.

This is academic research: the author must describe the research methods.