Skip to main content

Browse Mode
Journey Mode
Learning Trail Forum
Note Canvas Tool
Composer Forum

Improvisation and composition

...the two work closely together in jazz

Jason and Larry talking

The written and spontaneous parts of the music contribute equally to the impact of Where will it take you?

Here’s Jason Yarde talking about the art of improvisation and how it relates to what he writes for his musicians. Improvisation is sometimes called ‘spontaneous composition’, and it can be hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

Wwity, bars 7-10

Here’s an example of what he means. This is the first main melody of Where Will It Take You?, played by the piano against the bass clarinet, double bass and drums.

Just piano, bars 7-10

The melody line, if we just hear the piano on its own, goes like this.

Alto sax solo

Later in the piece, Jason uses that melody line as both a reminder of the tune and a prompt to the ideas of the alto sax solo he plays.

Tenor sax and piano

That original melody's still there, but in the middle of the texture, played by the tenor saxophone.

The improvised notes from Jason's alto sax seem unrelated to it – there are a lot more of them, they don’t refer to the tune, they go off into squeals at the upper end of the instrument’s range. And yet somehow they belong with that melody, and don’t include clashing notes (dissonances) that don’t belong to the scale the tune is in.

Like this? Send it to a friend

Like this? Send it to a friend:

Also of Interest

Also of Interest