INTRODUCTION Jazz improvisation is the spontaneous creation of music in the jazz style. Like traditional com¬position, jazz improvisation is a craft. It is a conditioning of the mind, body and spirit, brought about by the study of musical principles. This conditioning becomes a necessary prelude to the professional practice of the art, despite the implications of the word spontaneous. Just as spontaneity is combined with conditioning, so is the existing style of jazz combined with originality of expression. One is lost without the other, and so we seldom hear an improviser’s solo that does not contain melodic fragments or patterns: from the melody of the tune used, from a fellow per¬former’s solo, from an influential player of the time, from a different tune altogether, from material previously improvised, or from patterns (original or borrowed) currently studied in individual practice. Another obvious combination is creation and performance. The jazz improviser pre-hears in his mind the next musical event, and then has the added task of playing it cleanly and with feeling. This is the process of jazz improvisation. There are habits involved with pre-hearing. Some are really habits of an aural nature (causing the improvisor to hear related musical events in a certain order more than once) and others are finger habits. In the latter, the player may decide to play something which is not necessarily pre¬heard, but a pattern of notes that is understood to work (by cognizance of the theoretical reasons and/or by previous experience), or a sequence of notes that feels comfortable to the fingers and hands. Indeed, the improviser may even be resorting to finger habits and aural habits at moments when he pre-hears nothing of interest. The frequent mention of melodic fragments, patterns, and sequences of notes in the fore¬going discussion, suggests the need for a collection of patterns to be practiced diligently by the serious student of jazz improvisation. Such a collection is one of the purposes of this book. The patterns are arranged in an order which we feel will best serve the student. In the first portion of the book we have stressed rudimentary exercises, rather than practical patterns, feeling that the student should first absorb the foundations for patterns, such as scales, modes, simple chords, and four basic kinds of chord movement: (I) cycle of fifths: (2) chromatic; (3) stepwise; and (4) in minor thirds. Usable patterns begin to occur after the initial exercises, moving into more complicated patterns, chords, and scales, and eventually progressing to interval studies and free-form patterns. The authors feel that the practice of patterns has little value unless the student understands what musical situations befit the pattern. Used in the wrong place or the wrong key, the best patterns will fail, even in free-form jazz. We have therefore placed accompanying chord or scale symbols above each pattern. The observation of that symbol while practicing, then, becomes crucial to an understanding of how the pattern is used. Most of the patterns contained herein are presented in eighth notes (the rhythmic level of most jazz improvisation), in a continuing fashion, without rhythmic variation, and without rhythmic phrase-endings. This was an arbitrary approach, so as not to dictate what the rhythms should be, nor to restrict them to a single rhythmic approach. When the practiced patterns are applied to an impro¬visation, it is expected that the rhythms would be loosened, so that the idea takes on a more lyrical, natural, and less mechanical feeling. This book is meant to be played, rather than to be read in an armchair. To aid this approach we have inserted all theoretical information, condensed whenever possible, all along the way, so that the student may never need to leave the music stand. Terms and symbols in music often vary from text to text. We have tried to stand on the middle ground, using the most common and accurate terms and symbols we could find, inventing no new terminology. The smarter students will learn as many alternate terms and symbols as possible, making investigation into any method considerably easier. This book can be used by players of any instrument. The clef sign and the octave used in pre¬senting the patterns should not restrict, say, a trombone player from playing the method. In the jazz idiom the emphasis is on content and feeling, rather than on getting instrumentalists to sound like the instrument they play—or more accurately. the way in which the instrument has been handled by composers and arrangers. The patterns are flexible-enough to be played in other octaves and by any instrument It would be advisable to extend all patterns to the full range of your instrument, rather than to stop with perhaps only one octave, as it may appear in the written example. No one person has priority on the major scale or the cycle of fifths. Everyone uses them freely without compunction. Similarly, because patterns are so flexible in expression, it is common practice to borrow large numbers of patterns from other sources (sometimes the source is unknown). Be¬cause of the building-block status of most patterns, much of the interest in a given solo is determined by the manner in which patterns are developed and woven together in sequences, or by the non¬verbal feelings that affect the manner of phrasing. The identity of the patterns’ source might mean very little, if anything. This book has borrowed patterns which may be familiar or unoriginal, but if we are to capture the essence of any musical style, originality should take a back seat, a lesson painfully learned by a number of early music theorists. When a source or the source is known, we have supplied the particulars in footnotes, so that investigation (through listening) can give the student insight into the potential of a given pattern, heard through the ears of an accomplished improviser. The care and feeding of the ears cannot be overemphasized. If an improviser pre-hears an idea, he must know exactly where those pitches are on his instrument—a sort of instant music dictation— or he cannot successfully realize his pre-hearing. The names of the pitches may carry little import¬ance at this rapid tempo of thinking and feeling, but the fingerings or positions need to correspond to the pre-heard pitches. Practicing patterns is one way to make such correlations. An unusual scale, for example, may be too new to be heard, but practicing patterns which use that scale un¬locks the door to hearing it. Our ears also assume the important function of deciding what will be pre-heard. That is, even before the ears are helping to decipher pre-heard pitches into fingerings, they are involved in the selection of what is pre-heard, sometimes a creation, always affected by taste or the lack of it, and very often working in conjunction with memory. Improvisers are highly spontaneous, so that the music they hear in their mind or in the mind’s memory at the moment of creation (pre¬hearing) has everything to do with the content of that next musical idea. Consequently, the student will want to imbue his memory with choice musical sounds. For this purpose, an essential disco¬graphy is supplied in the appendix. It is not intended to be an historical discography, but a col¬lection of some of the most significant records of today’s jazz music, and meant to be listened to often and carefully. The metronome markings can be applied as desired. The minimum tempo given should be achieved before going on to the next pattern, since the patterns increase progressively in difficulty. In many instances, it would be helpful to play the patterns very slowly at first, to aid in hearing the pattern, and then work up to at least the minimum tempo. The maximum tempo is given for the more ambitious students, and also to keep students from constantly reviewing the same patterns, even after they are well-absorbed, which could result in a discouraged look at the many patterns to follow. The instructions for transposition, sometimes even the completion of the pattern in the given key, must be followed to achieve adequate results. A pattern can be used in any key with any kind of chord, if you can transpose and sometimes adjust that pattern. The thorough student will want to practice some of the more difficult patterns with various rhythms besides the usual eighth notes, such as dotted rhythms or swingy eighth notes (12/8 feel¬ing). The articulation throughout the book is slurred except where marked, but the articulation could be changed like the rhythms, if by practicing the pattern different ways it is learned more completely. No one knows what the future holds for jazz stylistically, and only the foolhardy would ven¬ture to guess. The only thing we can say for sure is that it will change, and on a continuing basis, too. Consequently, the serious student of jazz improvisation will want to add continually to the patterns contained in this collection. Knowing the limitations of any collection to survive change, the authors would hope that this book will endure as an introduction to pattern-playing in jazz, and as a springboard for the development of other, still newer patterns, scales, and harmonies, as they present themselves.

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