I’m finding it so useful to really go back to these tunes from the great American songbook. I’ve been working on ‘Cheek to Cheek’ by Irving Berlin, featured in the film ‘Top Hat’. What a great song. Not to take away from Fred Astaire’s version, but I really love Ella Fitzgerald’s take on it. What a treasure her voice is!
One of the things experienced players will tell you about learning how to improvise is – ‘sing to the tune’. It really doesn’t matter if you’ve got ‘golden chops’, what matters most is getting yourself to hear the melody. When you can hear it, the notes will fall under your fingers. Well, it’s taken me a long time to heed those words, but I’m finding that my playing is really improved as I’ve concentrated on listening, and singing to a tune while learning it. What really helps is having a great model as an example. My feeling is you can’t go wrong with listening to the great jazz and pop vocalist from those great swinging years. Singers like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and others have such wonderful instruments in their voices. There’s a lot to learn from just listening to them sing these older swing tunes.
Of course, you have to know your instrument, as well. So, there is still a need to practice, arpeggios, scales, and learn to play various chord voicings. The trick I’m finding is blending all of these elements and feeling comfortable playing a tune – and that means playing it in a variety of ways until you own it.
Here are some examples of this tune I’ve found useful…
Ella Fitzgerald
Billie Holiday
Frank Sinatra
Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald
Check them out, and look for others yourself. Enjoy, and keep swinging…
