Jazz piano improvisation. What are they actually playing?
An acquaintance asked me something like this.
The other day, I went to the bar on the top floor of a hotel for work. They had a live jazz piano performance, and the pianist wasn’t looking at any sheet music at all! They played for nearly two hours without any score!Can all jazz musicians do things like that? Do they have everything memorized?」
A jazz pianist who plays for two hours without sheet music
That's true, isn't it? It's strange, isn't it?
Memorizing two hours’ worth of music sounds tough, doesn’t it?
But that doesn’t mean I have the entire two hours memorized.
Actually, I also work as a background music performer, and like this pianist, I don’t bring sheet music.
I do 45 minutes, 3 sets, without looking at anything.
What this pianist and I are playing is, plain and simple, improvisation.
JazzI think people tend to imagine it as improvisational (ad-lib) playing, and that’s exactly what it is.
That said, not everything is improvised.
If it's a five-minute piece, about four minutes of it are improvised.
The remaining one-minute section is the main melody part, and I’m memorizing it by solfege.
If it’s about one minute long, memorizing the score isn’t that difficult.
Even though it’s called improvisation, it’s not just playing randomly—there are proper rules.
I think jazz has an image of being “free,” but it’s not truly free; it’s freedom within rules.
Jazz is 'coloring'.
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When I explain jazz, I often use coloring books as an example.
「There are boundaries, but within them you can paint any color you like.That’s what it means.
Depending on the person, some may use only primary colors, others may prefer many soft intermediate tones, some might paint using just a single color, and there may even be those who deliberately leave certain parts uncolored.
There aren’t any rules for this coloring page, right?
There isn’t a rule that says “this part must be red and this part must be blue,” right?
Jazz likewise has “rules” or a “framework,” but as long as you’re within that, you’re free to play however you like.
For example,Dead LeavesLet's say we watch it on YouTube.
A lot of related videos come up, and various people are playing Autumn Leaves, aren’t they?
There are so many different versions that it makes you feel like it might be a different song.
Even with the same piece, performances can be completely different depending on who plays it, because there are 'rules' or a 'framework,' but as long as you stay within that, you are free to perform as you like.
What exactly are you playing in an improvisation?
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So, how exactly do you play in an improvisation?
For example, suppose there is a song composed of a verse (A), a pre-chorus (B), and a chorus.
As for how to play this with some improvisation mixed in,
Verse A, Verse B, Chorus↓Improvise over the same chord progression as Verse A, Verse B, Chorus↓Verse A, Verse B, Chorus
It is.
After you finish playing the A verse, B verse, and chorus, go back to the beginning and improvise using the same chord progression as the A verse, B verse, and chorus.
Since the chord progression stays the same, you mean just changing and playing only the melody part, right?
If you want to make the performance longer, you extend the improvisational section.
So you're going to repeat it over and over again, huh?
In other words,
Verse A, Verse B, Chorus↓Improvise over the same chord progression for the verse (A-melo), pre-chorus (B-melo), and chorus, twice.↓Verse A, Verse B, ChorusThat's what it is.
If you repeat the improvised section three or four times instead of twice, the length of the piece will inevitably get longer, right?
There are other ways to play it, but in jazz the most popular approach is to improvise using the same chord progression as the main melody.
This corresponds to the “outline” in a coloring book.
There are several ways to do improvisation.
There are broadly three types of improvisation (I’ll omit the details here), but as long as you stay within the framework of “improvising over the same chord progression as the main melody section,” you can use any of the three methods, and you can also mix different playing approaches.
While classical music is enjoyed as “appreciating a finished painting,” jazz is about “creating the painting on the spot.”So that’s how you enjoy it.