Module 7: Improvisation ILesson 5intermediate⏱ 75 min + two weeks of daily work

Motifs, development and your first solos

Turn notes into music: state a short motif and develop it by repetition, sequence, inversion and rhythmic displacement, use space and question-and-answer phrasing, and build two-chorus solos on the F blues and the Autumn Leaves progression.

Why a solo needs an idea

You now have the raw material of a jazz solo: arpeggios, guide tones, chord tones on the beat and approach notes around them. What you do not yet have is a reason for one note to follow another. A listener does not remember notes; they remember ideas, and an idea in music is a short, recognisable shape, a motif, that comes back changed. The great solos on record are built from very few motifs, developed with discipline. The forgettable ones are built from many licks, played once each.

This lesson gives you the four ways a motif is developed (repetition, sequence, inversion and rhythmic displacement), the two things that make phrases breathe (space and question-and-answer), and a method for building a two-chorus solo on the F blues and on the Autumn Leaves progression. Everything is still played with chord tones and the approach notes from the previous lesson, so the harmony stays clear while the ideas do the work.

The progression: Autumn Leaves

The first eight bars of Autumn Leaves are the most-played eight bars in jazz, and they are a perfect laboratory for motifs because they are nothing but ii–V–I cadences: one in the relative major, then one in the relative minor. In Bb major (the key of G minor) the chords are shown below. The melody of the song is not notated anywhere in this course; we use only the chord sequence, which belongs to everyone.

The first four bars are ii–V–I–IV in Bb major. Bars 5 to 8 are iiø7–V7–i in G minor, the relative minor, with the i chord held for two bars. Learn the chords by numeral as well as by name; the whole form is the same two cadences repeated and rearranged, which is why one motif can carry a chorus.

A motif and its sequence

A motif needs two things: a rhythm you can clap and a shape you can sing. The one used throughout this lesson is four notes long: a quarter, two eighths, a quarter, then a beat of rest. Its shape, in chord degrees, is 3–5–3–1: up from the 3rd to the 5th, back to the 3rd, down to the root. Stated on Cm7 and then moved to each following chord with the same degrees, it becomes a sequence: the same shape at a new pitch level, adapted to the new chord's tones.

\tempo 120
.
\ts 4 4
:4 4.2{ch "Cm7"} :8 3.1 4.2 :4 1.2 r.4 | 2.3{ch "F7"} :8 5.3 2.3 :4 3.4 r.4 | 3.2{ch "Bbmaj7"} :8 1.1 3.2 :4 3.3 r.4 | 3.1{ch "Ebmaj7"} :8 6.1 3.1 :4 4.2 r.4 |

The sequence is the most used development in jazz, and the most abused. Four bars of exact sequence is already a lot; eight is a drill, not a solo. Use it to establish the motif, then change something.

Repetition is the simplest development: play the motif again, unchanged, over the next chord if its notes still fit, or at the same pitch over a chord that shares the notes. Over Cm7 to F7 the degrees 3 and 5 of Cm7 (Eb and G) are the 7th and 9th of F7, so the Cm7 motif can be repeated literally over the F7 if you allow the 9th; exact repetition over a chord change is a strong effect precisely because the chord moves under a line that does not.

Rhythmic displacement

Keep the notes, move the starting point. The same motif beginning on beat 2 instead of beat 1, or on the "and of 1", or on beat 3, sounds like a new idea while costing you nothing. Here it is through the minor cadence of the tune: on Am7b5 it starts on beat 2, on D7 on the "and of 1", and on Gm7 on beat 3, spilling into the following bar.

\tempo 120
.
\ts 4 4
:4 r 1.2{ch "Am7b5"} :8 4.2 1.2 :4 2.3 | :8 r 2.1.4{ch "D7"} :8 5.1 2.1 :4 3.2 r.8 | :2 r :4 3.3{ch "Gm7"} :8 3.2 3.3 | :4 5.4 r.4 r.2 |

Displacement is the development that makes a solo sound like it is swinging rather than marching. The metronome practice from Module 5 matters here: if you cannot feel where beat 1 is while playing a motif that starts on the "and of 1", you will drift. Practise each displacement with the click on 2 and 4 and count aloud until the motif can start anywhere in the bar.

Inversion

Turn the shape upside down. The motif goes up a 3rd, back, and down a 3rd; the inversion goes down, back, and up, so the degrees become 3–1–3–5. The rhythm stays the same, which is what lets the ear connect the two. Below, bars 1 and 2 state the motif; bars 3 and 4 invert it.

\tempo 120
.
\ts 4 4
:4 4.2{ch "Cm7"} :8 3.1 4.2 :4 1.2 r.4 | 2.3{ch "F7"} :8 5.3 2.3 :4 3.4 r.4 | 3.2{ch "Bbmaj7"} :8 3.3 3.2 :4 1.1 r.4 | 3.1{ch "Ebmaj7"} :8 4.2 3.1 :4 6.1 r.4 |

Two further developments you should know and try, even though the examples above do not notate them: fragmentation, playing only part of the motif (just the two eighths and the quarter, for instance) and repeating that fragment; and augmentation, playing the motif in longer note values (quarters become halves) so that it stretches across two bars. Both appear in the eight-bar solo later in this lesson.

Space and question-and-answer

Phrasing is the part of improvisation that players neglect because it is not about notes. Two habits fix most phrasing problems.

Space. A phrase needs silence around it to be heard as a phrase. Horn players breathe; guitarists have to choose to. Build rests into your motifs (every example in this lesson has a beat of rest in each bar) and leave at least a bar of silence every four bars. Silence also gives you time to hear the next chord and decide what the next phrase will do.

Question and answer. Two phrases of the same length, where the first ends on a note that wants to move (a 7th, a 5th, or any note on a weak beat) and the second ends on a note that settles (the root or 3rd on a strong beat). The pair sounds like a sentence. Here it is on the first four bars of the F blues: a two-bar question ending on the 7th of Bb7, then a two-bar answer with the same rhythm, ending on the root of F7.

\tempo 120
.
\ts 4 4
:8 2.3{ch "F7"} 5.3 :4 4.2 r.4 :8 2.3 5.3 | 3.2{ch "Bb7"} 1.1 :2 4.1 r.4 | :8 2.3{ch "F7"} 5.3 :4 4.2 r.4 :8 5.3 2.3 | 3.3{ch "Cm7"} 5.4 :4 1.4 :2 3.4{ch "F7"} |

The blues is built from question and answer: the form itself asks twice (bars 1–4 and 5–8) and answers once (bars 9–12). When you solo on it, let your phrases follow the form. A question over the I chord, an answer over the IV, a longer question over bars 7–8 into the ii–V, and an answer that resolves on the turnaround.

An eight-bar solo on Autumn Leaves

Here is the motif developed through the first eight bars of the progression. Bar 1 states it; bar 2 is the sequence on F7; bar 3 displaces it to beat 2 on Bbmaj7; bar 4 fragments it (the tail of the motif, twice) on Ebmaj7; bars 5 and 6 invert it through the minor ii–V; bars 7 and 8 answer with the motif's notes in longer values (augmentation) and come to rest on the root of Gm7. Every note is a chord tone.

\tempo 120
.
\ts 4 4
:4 4.2{ch "Cm7"} :8 3.1 4.2 :4 1.2 r.4 | 2.3{ch "F7"} :8 5.3 2.3 :4 3.4 r.4 | r 3.2{ch "Bbmaj7"} :8 1.1 3.2 :4 3.3 | :8 6.1{ch "Ebmaj7"} 3.1 :4 4.2 :8 6.1 3.1 :4 4.2 |
1.2{ch "Am7b5"} :8 2.3 1.2 :4 4.2 r.4 | 2.1{ch "D7"} :8 3.2 2.1 :4 5.1 r.4 | :8 3.3{ch "Gm7"} 3.2 :4 1.1 3.2 3.3 | :2 5.4 r.2 |

Play it until the developments are obvious to your ear, then do the thing that matters: write your own eight bars from a different motif. Choose a rhythm first (clap it until it is yours), then a shape of three or four chord degrees, and work through the same plan: statement, sequence, displacement, fragment, inversion, answer. Keep every note a chord tone for the first version. In the second version add one approach note per bar from the previous lesson.

A chorus on the F blues from one motif

The same method on the twelve-bar form, with a shorter motif: two eighths and a quarter, degrees 3–5–1. The chorus is organised as the blues itself is: question (bars 1–4), question again with variation (bars 5–8), answer (bars 9–12). Bar 3 repeats the motif twice (repetition and displacement), bar 7 inverts it, and the motif reappears on every ii–V so the chorus hangs together.

\tempo 130
.
\ts 4 4
:8 2.3{ch "F7"} 5.3 :4 3.4 r.2 | :8 3.2{ch "Bb7"} 1.1 :4 3.3 r.2 | :8 2.3{ch "F7"} 5.3 :4 3.4 :8 2.3 5.3 :4 3.4 | :8 1.4{ch "Cm7"} 5.4 :4 5.3 4.2{ch "F7"} 5.3 |
:8 3.2{ch "Bb7"} 1.1 :4 3.3 r.4 1.3 | :8 1.3{ch "Bdim7"} 4.3 :4 3.2 1.1 r.4 | :8 2.3{ch "F7"} 3.4 :4 5.3 r.2 | :8 5.3{ch "Am7"} 5.2 :4 2.3 :8 4.4{ch "D7"} 2.3 :4 3.2 |
:8 3.3{ch "Gm7"} 3.2 :4 5.4 r.4 3.4 | :8 2.4{ch "C7"} 5.4 :4 1.2 r.4 3.3 | :8 2.3{ch "F7"} 5.3 :4 3.4 :8 4.4{ch "D7"} 2.3 :4 3.2 | :8 3.3{ch "Gm7"} 3.2 :4 5.4 2.4{ch "C7"} 3.3 |

Building a two-chorus solo

Two choruses is the length of a typical solo at a jam session, and it is long enough to need a plan. Use this one for the blues and for Autumn Leaves alike:

1. Chorus 1, first half: state and develop one motif. Statement, then two developments, with space. Keep the register low and the dynamics moderate; you need somewhere to go.
2. Chorus 1, second half: answer and rest. Resolve the motif on the turnaround (or on the Gm7 of Autumn Leaves) and leave at least a bar of silence before chorus 2.
3. Chorus 2, first half: raise the intensity. Displace the motif, play it higher, add approach notes and enclosures, shorten the rests. This is where the chromatic devices from the previous lesson earn their place: they add tension without abandoning the idea.
4. Chorus 2, second half: come home. Return to the motif in something like its original form, lower, with space, and end on a chord tone on a strong beat, early rather than late. Ending a solo cleanly is a skill in itself; practise ending more than you practise starting.

Quiz