About practising "Jazz Scales"

There's a lot of detail you could go into about modes, chord-scales, unusual scales and so on. However, before getting into that, can I just say that in my view it would be best it the pianist was as completely in command as possible of all the "ordinary scales".

By that I mean majors in all keys, over several octaves, and similarly minors of all types (natural, melodic and harmonic) as fluently and rhythmically as possible. After all, you can argue that all the modes are just a re-working of those: same notes, different order, even though some may finger them differently. Chromatics are good too, and I'm now very grateful to my early piano teachers for making those the basis of my technique, though I'm sure I wasn't at the time! Blues scales are indispensable too.

Of course, all the other scales, such as whole-tone, diminished, Lydian b7 etc are great, and sometimes necessary, but they are, to some extent the "icing on the cake", in my view.

How to Develop ideas when solo-ing

Following on from my contribution to a discussion on Linked-in:

To someone who knows some chords and scales theory and so on but isn't sure how to begin solo-ing, (i.e. developing ideas, building phrases, "telling a story" musically, as it were), I'd advise the following.

Start with some "simpler"  material such as a Blues, or maybe something in an easy key involving diatonic ("in the key") chords and a II-V progression  e.g. Cmaj7, Emin7 , Dmin7 G7, Cmaj7.  Make sure you can keep a steady rhythm going with your chords in your left hand, or, if you need help, maybe play along to a simple drum beat on your computer.

Now you have a musical "bed" that will carry you along, try to invent a three-note phrase that suits the first chord, Cmaj7: let's say "E-G-E", in any rhythm that you like that pleases you. Now, your job in your next musical phrase as a composer (because that's what improvisation is: composition "on the fly"), is to develop that first phrase, which you could do by a number of tried-and-tested techniques.

For example, turn it upside down (G-E-G), or add to it (e.g. E-G-E-D-E) or play around with the rhythm by stretching it out.  Whatever you play must suit the chords you are playing over of course: that's where the  theory-stuff comes in, but hopefully you will have done that enough, and practised it enough aurally, for that to be "in your ear" already (and, of course, you can keep practising that).

If you could be singing or humming while you play, (like Oscar P. did a lot of!) you would be doing a great job, because that would prove that your fingers weren't just on auto-pilot! Instead, you would really be engaging you mind and your ear, as well as your fingers. Even if we can't hear you, like we did Oscar, that solo ought to be sounding privately in your head, so that even if you weren't playing your instrument, you could be singing it (if you could sing well enough!)

By developing a phrase (or motif, as some say) using such techniques as described above, you can hopefully build longer phrases and chains of phrases over your chord progression, which grow out of one another and, all-in-all, add up to a meaningful solo. It takes practice, just as it does using the verbs, grammar and sentence-constructions of any language to converse fluently in it.

Sorry if this sounds a little "dry" as advice, which is just the way it is when you try to put an "organic" process into words.  However, just as with the theory aspects, if you practice this kind of phrase development enough it should get "in your ear" and become second-nature, so you can just concentrate on the music! Apologies too, if it's too basic for some. Some people are lucky enough for this to come naturally to them for the word go, others maybe less so, but I would say everyone can always improve.

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…