Harold Galper (born April 18, 1938) is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, educator, and writer.
This article from Hal’s Facebook page is so good, I want anyone who aspires to be a great player to see this. So I’m sharing it here for posterity.
The link to the original post is at the bottom of this page.
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ELEGANCE
During my days studying the Schillinger System at Berklee School of Music the revelation occurred that if something looks complicated, you’re looking at wrong. Any good theoretical concept will have infinite possibilities. To clearly understand an apparently complex idea one must reduce it to its simplest rules, the rules from which all the concept ‘s possibilities derive. If a concept looks complicated then you are seeing the results, the possibilities that are inherent in its basic rules, not the basic rules from which all possibilities are derived. Once a concept is pared down to its basic rules one can then “make up” one’s own individual possibilities.
My introduction to the term “elegance” began with my reading of Douglas Hofstader’s Pulitzer Prize winning book “Godel, Eisher, Bach” (1997 Vintage Books). Wikipedia defines the term as “the attribute of being unusually effective and simple. The proof of a mathematical theorem is considered to have mathematical elegance if it is surprisingly simple yet effective and constructive; similarly, a computer program or algorithm is elegant if it uses a small amount of intuitive code to great effect. “
In engineering, a solution may be considered elegant if it uses a non-obvious method to produce a solution which is highly effective and simple. An elegant solution may solve multiple problems at once, especially problems not thought to be inter-related. “
Jazz musicians of the bebop era achieved this elegance by reducing the number of chord/scales necessary to master the art of melodic improvisation to three chords: the major 6th, minor 6th, and Flat 9 diminished chords. Using the various chord tones as roots one finds most of the scales in common use at the time. For example, Dizzy would think of a minor seventh flat five as a minor 6th chord/scale with the 6th in the base, i.e., a B-7b5 would be a D-6th with the 6th in the bass. Pianist Barry Harris teaches this method to his students. The only way an improvisor can use complex musical elements is if they are reduced to their simplest and most basic elements. Once internalized, complex ideas will not distract the improvisor from the task at hand.
I had heard that the great improvisers could make up their own chord changes over a song’s original set of changes. I wondered how was this accomplished.
Being a pianist/accompanist, most of the Master’s I apprenticed with over the years were horn players. Notwithstanding my schooling at Berklee School of Music in the mid-fifties, these Masters were my teachers. I had the good fortune to hear them spin their melodic lines on a nightly basis. Most of them didn’t know music theory (Chord/Scale relationships), yet almost never repeated, spelled out the chord changes exactly, and when so inclined, made up their own changes over the original set with ease and all this played completely by ear! For example:
When I first joined Cannonball’s band I was advised by his drummer and bassist Walter Booker and Roy McCurdy that, as an accompanist, I would be in a difficult position between Cannonball and the rhythm section because Cannon often departed from the chord changes, making up or going “outside” the changes whenever he felt like it. (FYI, Cannonball was well versed in music theory). However, it was my good fortune to have apprenticed with Sam Rivers for six years. I was familiar with his goal to successfully “Play Anything Anywhere” and still make it sound good. Learning how to be free enough to “Play Anything Anywhere” has since been one of my career-long goals. Eventually I got to the point where, as pianist Richie Byrack puts it, “It’s all in to me” and had no problem following Cannonball.
Acquiring the ability to be free within any genre of jazz has historically been a common goal among many jazz musicians. Nat Hentoff, in his Forward to Gene Lees book “You Can’t Steal A Gift” (2004, University of Nebraska Press), quotes Eric Dolphy, who was considered on “the cutting edge of jazz, “upon his first hearing of the Eureka Jazz Band of New Orleans. “I stood right in the middle of these old men…and I couldn’t see much difference between what I’m doing, except they were blowing tonally, but with lots of freedom. You know something? They were the first freedom players. “
Philly Joe Jones, when asked why he didn’t play free music remarked “Man, I’ve always played free. “
During the many years I played with Phil Woods, he often referred to “the tyranny of the tri-tone.” The challenge of breaking away from the discipline the chord changes tend to impose on a soloist.
The solution to the question began with the realization that I suffered from a pianistic bias that colored my linear thinking. Pianists are harmonically oriented consequently their improvisations tend to be harmonically influenced. The Masters learned by copying melodic lines from their Masters.
Because they were single-line players limited to playing one note at a time, I believe they acquired a linear/horizontal perception of melodic lines as opposed to the harmonic/vertical approach favored by those who play harmonic instruments! This difference in perception between harmonic and single-line players is crucial to the thesis I present in this article: the melodic line takes precedence over the discipline imposed by the chord changes and like the other components of music (key, meter, melody and form) the chord changes my be used as a guide as well!
A contributing factor leading to this revelation was that for years I’ve used a Hohner Melodica in my student combos to demonstrate various aspects of group performance. I noticed, as a single line player, I felt less “tied” to the rhythm section, both rhythmically and harmonically. It dawned on me that horn players, because of the nature of their instruments, perceive the improvisational process differently than harmonic instruments. Pianist will agree that the piano is classed as a percussion instrument and as such is “tied” to, or at least heavily influenced, by the other rhythm players in a band. Playing Melodica, I experienced a feeling of freedom from the rhythm section didn’t feel playing the piano.
This is not to say that one can bypass the discipline of learning to play the changes. You can’t be free from the changes until you know how to play them.
The predictable elements of a song, its key, harmony, meter, melody, and form, are, for the most part, once internalized, “guides” to help you keep your place in a song. Hidden from the listener, and assumed among the players, these guides are used as Organizing Factors. As soloists and group members they allow us to keep our place and act as references as a source of inspiration for the soloist. The question then becomes, can there be a musical concept that fulfills the necessity of learning the discipline of spelling out chord changes, promotes the development of originality and, at the same time, allows the improviser the option to “break the tyranny of the tri-tone” enabling one to “play anything anywhere?”
To support my supposition that single-line players have a different perception of improvising than harmonic instruments, I sent a survey questionnaire to some of today’s top improvisors asking them the following questions (edited for clarity):
1. Which takes precedence in your mind or ears while improvising; The Melodic Line (it’s melodic content, shape and rhythm) or The Changes?
2. Do you often feel that the changes are confining?
3. If so, is this why some horn players prefer to play without a piano player or are they considered not good enough compers?
4. I assume all of you are at the point where you hear chord changes as colors. Do you hear your melodic lines as matching, contrasting or stimulated by the color of the changes or independently from them, as the moment dictates?
5. Like the other predictable elements use to keep our place in a song (the melody, harmony, form and meter), do you also consider the changes merely as guides to keep your place or to be literally adhered to?
Dave Liebman: “…As I’m sure a lot of the guys will say, it depends upon the tune. Probably familiarity is the most important factor in being free enough to not think about the changes, which of course is the goal. Improvising fresh melodies IS the point of what we do in the final result, not running arpeggios or scales. The changes are a road map to the destination. They give you the clean and most direct path as to what choices of pitches are available. But just like driving on a nice day, if you have time (maybe the aforementioned notion of familiarity is the equivalent of time in this case), you may go for a scenic, possibly longer route, and by the way, may even get lost. The harmony tells you what consonant is, what is slightly dissonant, more dissonant, etc.….”
John Scofield: …” This is a topic I think about a lot… I too have noticed that the great players often seem to play independent from the changes, really improvising and hearing alternate changes at times. Sometimes you don’t even notice because their melodic lines make so much sense…I feel I can’t improvise on a song without being thoroughly familiar with the melody and always actually hear the melody in my mind while improvising. The more I know the tune, I notice I’m able to improvise using patterns that sometime are not included in the changes or even go against the changes. That happens when I am REALLY FAMILIAR (emphasis his) with the tune both harmonically and melodically… The more familiar I am with a difficult set of changes I’m usually able to simplify them, so the improvisation is more natural…I think a lot of people like it when the piano lays out, simply because there’s more sonic space…Melodic lines usually imply changes but sometimes they just imply movement, i.e. chromatic? I’m not sure if I’m matching or contrasting to tell you the truth. It’s always important to be able to literally adhere to them (the changes) as well as being free from them. You must fully understand what you ‘re NOT doing as well as what you ARE doing.
Jerry Bergonzi: “The line is most important. The changes are structures that support your improvising and…as you become a better improvisor you no longer need the support and you can play them, play through them, play alongside them, totally ignore them. I kind of think of it as riding along a highway and alongside of this highway is a parallel highway (the intervallic highway). When you use this other highway, you can see the other changes going by and can jump onto them at time but don’t need to…once I get to know a tune, I feel free in it in regards to playing melodies.
Mel Martin: “…the goal is to try and play a melody that stands on its own…If I’m playing a standard, then I don’t really think about the changes except what I’m hearing in variations from the band. That’s where the harmonic dialog occurs…. Later, it becomes kind of a game where you are trying to tie all the elements together and occasionally get boxed in and have to work your way out of a particular situation. Actually, that’s part of the art of jazz…
Hearing chords as a color is the most important part of dealing with the changes. I don’t view the line as separate from that (the colors) or the sound of my instrument. At least half of what we do is instant orchestration; trying to make our sound blend with the other instruments and the mood and the harmonic colors. Lines are not independent of that just as a pianist’s touch is not separate from what is played. Chord changes are fluid and are only guideposts. They are not necessarily etched in stone. There are many angles at which a player can come at the changes even substituting entirely different sequences as Cannonball did. Theory comes after the music so each individual can work out their own approach.
My thanks to Liebs, Sco and Mel for being so gracious.”
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Galper | https://halgalper.com/
