SOLO BETTER by Mastering Melodic Development - From Jazz to John Williams
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- Опубликовано: 3 июл 2024
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In today's Jazz Piano Lesson, we talk about what makes a great melody, how motivic development works, how to write a great melody, how this relates to bebop, John Williams and film scores, etc., and how it all relates to jazz piano.
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Noah Kellman is a musician and teacher known for his unique approach to modern jazz piano.
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:51 Chord Tones and All the Things You Are
2:33 Donna Lee
4:00 Jurassic Park
8:38 Motivic Development
14:09 I Challenge You! 
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Absolutely! There are numerous examples of GREAT MELODIES that are predominantly built from chord tones. I think that helps them become memorable as they are "anchored" in the harmony, and so easier to listen or sing.
I think another tool for melody is the enclosure. Just off the top of my head, there’s the slow movement in the Rachmaninov piano concerto (the one in E Major). Also Norwegian Wood.
Hi, Noah. Not sure if this is the video where a “thoughtful comment” gets me entered into the drawing for the free course, but I have been wanting to discuss the topic of this video, so here goes! 😊
I watched this video and the improv styles video together and they’re kind of related. However, I think this video might be overly ambitious: melodic development and motif development may be related, but I think they should be approached separately, because they have different goals, even though they can use similar devices.
Both can use chord tones, repetition, shapes, rhythm, etc. But the end products are meant to be different.
A melody is frequently meant to be memorable, perhaps singable, and an element of a composition. Motif development in the context of jazz usually refers to an approach to improvisation.
I think your analysis of the bebop tune was overly detailed. Too much analysis can lead to a formulaic approach, and anyway, I don’t think this kind of head is all that accessible or memorable for the average listener.
When I studied improv with Gary Burton, his main emphasis was on motif development. What is the goal of an improvised solo? To tell the listener a story. (People always say that, I didn’t know what they meant.) If that’s the case, what is the subject matter of the story? It’s the harmony. So the goal of the solo is to describe the tune’s harmony, in an interesting way.
Gary’s approach is fairly simple: start your solo with a three or four note motif, most likely based on the harmony, but not necessarily. It doesn’t matter that much what the motif is. “We’re not writing a Bach fugue here.” Maybe repeating the motif helps the listener identify it. developing it gives them something to connect with.
You can develop a motif by playing around with the rhythm, the shape, changing it to fit the changes, etc. Remember that you are describing the harmony of the tune.
He would have us try to stick with the same motif for the whole chorus for practice. I think I started to really hear what I was playing when I focused on this approach.
A lot of great players use this approach. Pat Metheny does this, and really sticks with his motifs throughout a chorus.
Another point: Gary is against learning licks, so I always pause when you use the term. However, in most cases, I don’t think you are showing licks. Rather, you are teaching various pianistic devices or stylistic approaches. In your improv styles video, you even refer to “licks” as melodic styles, which I think is more appropriate. Even in your “121 Licks” pdf, I see these more as approaches or examples to open up one’s options, rather than as licks to be played back verbatim.
And that’s fine. What initially attracted me to your content was that, as piano is not my main instrument, I need to learn pianistic devices or approaches to improve my playing. For example, I really love using voicings to do two hand arpeggios, it’s really a sophisticated sound and has opened up my solo piano playing. But I see that as a pianistic device, not as a lick.
I hope this isn’t too long of a comment, but you did invite a discussion! And I hope this counts as a thoughtful comment to get entered into your contest! 😊
Hey Richard, thanks for the very thoughtful comment and I'm sorry I missed this before!
A few things I want to address here, the first being, in re-watching my own video, I agree I may have overcomplicated some things here and I appreciate the feedback, always room for improvement that's for sure.
I think I was using the terms melodic development / motif development a bit interchangeably, but I understand how and why they mean different things to you. I agree that motif development can also be thought of as a "tool" / device for improvisation.
With regards to the word "lick," I know sometimes it has a negative connotation. I always think of licks like a vocabulary word- if you learn that word and keep squeezing it into sentences constantly to show off that you know it, it sounds forced. But if you take it through the right set of exercises, you can truly internalize it in a way that it comes out naturally and in a context completely unique to you.
For that reason, I always advocate taking each lick / device, through a great integration / implementation routine so that the device itself isn't something you try to use directly, but rather something that comes out naturally in a whole variety of contexts not dependent on the original "lick" or "device." Does that make sense?
Cheers and thank you so much for the thoughtful comment!
Muito bom...Obrigado!
John Williams has so many memorable memories
Practically endless!
Great Video as Always Noah. Melodic/Motive Development is a Great way to Tell a Story in a Solo and not play the Same Licks over and over again. For anyone that's interested, check out Melodic Improvising For Guitar: Developing Melodic Ideas Through Chord Changes by Bruce Saunders. The techniques can be applied to any Instrument. Thanks.
Thanks for the suggestion, Michael!
Chord tones & voice leading is crucial for a beautiful horizontal melodic development. How to embellish (diatonically, chromatically, with more or less notes which can affect the rhythm and space, and with more or less drama and dinamics) diferent voices is the art of telling your own story improvising. In conclusion: a good mellody is a singable or cantabile one.
I like that simple way of breaking it down- is it singable. I think sometimes though a more complex (less singable) one can also be good, like Donna Lee for example, but I suppose it all depends on our definition of singable.
The skeleton of a melody (principal notes) must be singable, the embellishment can be more or less complex, but If there is no a good squeleton, at last for me, the improvisation becomes a little Athletic exercise with no direction.
PMG's Are You Going with Me? or James, which was dedicated to James Taylor, and just like JT-very simple but so very melodic, like most of Metheny's stuff. Not sure if that is the best example as far as Jazz on this subject, Noah, but man, there definitely are a number of movie themes, not just by John Williams, that are minimalistic, and equally inspiring! Hans Zimmer(Black Rain, Prince of Egypt), Jerry Goldsmith(Total Recall), Ennio Morricone(The Mission), Maurice Jarre(Witness), Vangelis(Blade Runner), the list goes on. I got a ton of melodic ideas from Biblical Film Scores--Jesus of Nazareth, King of Kings, etc.
Agreed!! Thanks for sharing this
What's the function of the altered III in the III-V-I progression in Donna Lee? V is the dominant and the I is the tonic, but what is the altered III?
It’s kind of like a surprise dominatized minor where ears expect the minor sound but you end up hearing dominant sound. There a book by John Elliot where he analyzed near 300 tunes. Go check out his analysis of Donna Lee
You've got lipstick on your forehead
Anyway, superb and pedagogic, like usual
hahaha actually scratched myself by falling asleep with my headphones on... the dangers of loving music