Thoughts on How to Play a Jazz Piano Solo

I was inspired to write a comment about this article on Linked-in about: 
How to Play a Jazz Piano Solo

I feel what's missing in this discussion is that any successful jazz solo on any instrument over any set of chord changes relies much more on the "ear" of the player than anything else. It doesn't matter how much you know about harmonic and melodic theory, extensions, chord scales etc, or how much "feeling" you want to put into your playing, if you don't "hear" what you're playing, it probably won't add up to much.

That is not to say that all the theory does not matter, of course! It's just that 95% of that should have gone into the practising and study in the months (years, decades?!!) prior to playing the solo, which was not necessarily even over the same tune! That's why any good improviser can blow successfully over almost any set of chord changes that are put in front of them.  Having improvised over that kind II-V-I progression so many times, it pretty much has become second nature to you, and your brain can be somewhat more preoccupied with musical concerns other than simply what the right notes are.

I wouldn't deny at all, of course, that a bit of study of the particular tune in question, and technical analysis of its possibilities, will yield benefits, but what I'm trying to say is that if more than one or two percent of your brain is focused on that when you're actually soloing, you are likely to be distracted from really creating a solo that hangs together and has the feeling that is so important.

All in all, I'm talking about ear-training here, of course. This can be done by formal study, which is very valuable, but in my opinion, the ear is also developed simply by your continual exposure to, and practice of, jazz, (and other music too). So along with traditional  ear-training things, simple things like practising scales, analysing music, and just playing a lot, can help your ear.

In a nutshell,  it's all very well knowing you "could" play a #11 or a Lydian flat 7 scale over that chord, but unless it's not only in your head, but also in your ear and your "heart" wants to hear it, it probably won't come out of your fingers successfully! That for me is the magic of improvisation, all of this comes together in the instant. And that instant is, in a way, the end-result of all your previous musical study.

If all this seems an impossibly long and steep learning curve to someone starting out, I'd recommend starting with "simpler" material. The Blues, for example (not that I mean to say the Blues is simple in many ways, but it does basically only have three chords). Make sure your  "head" understands what Blues scales, structures and progressions are about, that you can hear a Blues scale internally and sing it, that you can play it well, that hopefully it means something to your "heart" and hopefully  you are on the way to a good solo coming out of your fingers.

The Blues is a great place to start because it permeates all of jazz, in my view. I'd go so far as to say there isn't one great piano-jazz solo, from Art Tatum to Chick Corea and beyond, in which you couldn't find a trace of the Blues. And speaking of note-reading, I doubt many Blues-players in early 20th century New Orleans could read music, yet there's no doubt the music was in their head, ear, heart and fingers…