One of the greatestchallenges I've had in teaching students jazz improvisation and interpretationis getting the melodic lines they play to feel good and sound authentic. Putanother way, get them to "swing". Swinging is the central element toalmost every great jazz musician's conception.
The first and most important thing a student must dois to develop a good swing feel is to listen and copy the feeling that greatjazz musicians get on recordings. Getting that feel on a wind instrumentinvolves not only where the notes are placed in the beat, but also the way thenotes are phrased and articulated in combination with the shape and timing of aparticular line. I've heard many students play a Charlie Parker solo they'velearned from the Omnibook and sound nothing like Charlie Parker becauseof the way they phrased it. On the other hand, I've heard students who havesounded much more like Charlie Parker because of their conception of phrasing,even though they may have played some wrong notes.
At first, it's a good idea to find passages of quarternotes to study because it is easier to hear the time feel and phrasing. Inmeasures 49 through 53 of one of my etudes entitled Joe's Thing, thereare two series of quarter notes that are phrased short, but no staccato, andslightly behind the beat. This produces a kind of aggressive, cocky feelingwith the release being the last 2 beats of each two measure phrase. Otherphrases may have a combination of long and short quarter notes, and may be onor ahead of the beat; this produces a totally different feeling.
Next,
go on to the eighthnotes which are the unit of time jazz musicians most
often play. There are manyways to phrase eighth notes, depending again
on the shape and timing of theline, along with the tempo and a particular
feeling the player wants toproject. The most common way to phrase jazz
eighth notes is to articulate everyother note as in measure 18. But at
the slower tempo of Joe's Thing, itis also common to
articulate every note as in measure 38, or differentcombinations of notes
as in measure 29 and 30. When the phrasing is varied inthis way, it makes
the interpretation sound more interesting, musical, and lessmechanical.
But again, it is something you have to hear and absorb.
Triplets provide a lot of energy to a melodic idea andcan also be phrased differently, as in measures 6 and 21. Sixteenth notes arethe least varied in terms of phrasing because of their speed. These usuallyhave every other note articulated or slurred throughout, even though acombination of the two is used sometimes, especially at a high point of aphrase, or at an ending of a phrase.
Also, the intensity (how hard or soft) in which youarticulate can affect how a line swings and feels. Many players highlight somenotes in a phrase by articulating them harder, and using a softer, more legatoarticulation to give a phrase a smooth, silky kind of feeling.
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