Improvisation In Jazz: "Stream Of Ideas"-Analysis Of Jazz Piano .

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Improvisation in Jazz: “Stream of Ideas”-Analysis of Jazz Piano-ImprovisationsMartin Schütz*1*Institute of Musicology, University of Hamburg, Germany1m.schuetz852@gmail.comABSTRACTThe “stream of ideas”-analysis embodies a new way to analyze jazzimprovisations. The core of the “stream of ideas”-analysis, whichwas developed within an empirical research, is to translate animprovisation on a mid-level to a sequence of melodicphrases/patterns ( ”ideas”). On the basis of methods of qualitativecontent research and grounded theory an expendable anddifferentiable dynamic system of categories was created to representevery kind of melodic phrases, which occurred within the 30examined improvisations. The underlying improvisations were theresult of an experiment with five jazz pianists, who were asked toimprovise in several sessions on the same collection of different jazztunes. Afterwards each improvisation was categorized according tothe “stream of ideas”-analysis and presented as a sequence of used“ideas”. After analyzing the 30 improvisations, the system ofcategories consisted of nine main categories ( ”basis-ideas”), whichcovered every appearing melodic phrase. The nine “basis-ideas” aredefined with regard to either aspects of melodic contour orintra-musical aspects (variation of the theme, creating motifs etc.).Furthermore the “stream of ideas”-analysis makes it possible tocompare improvisations objectively between different musicians ortunes by using statistical methods (e.g. by dealing with frequencydistributions). It could be shown that each of the five participatingpianists used a quite similar combination of preferred “basis ideas”(individual vocabulary) to create his different improvisations (takes)on the same underlying tune. In addition, a connection between thedifferent tunes and the amount of certain “ideas” was recognized.I.INTRODUCTIONImprovisation is a process that happens in countlesssituations of everyday life. Although the word and its meaningis familiar to many people, the process is not easy to describeand to explain as a whole. In the large field of arts,improvisation is not only a general aspect of human behavior,but embodies a widespread stylistic tool. Besides certain kindsof poetry, theatre and visual arts, improvisation has a longhistory and significance in music. Improvisation is aphenomenon that occurs in many different musical cultures,styles and epochs. In jazz, improvisation plays an importantpart and, to a certain extent, even defines this kind of music.But even in the context of jazz, there are many differentconcepts and possibilities to deal with improvisation (e.g. theimprovisations during New Orleans-Style differ clearly fromimprovisational concepts used in Bebop or Free Jazz).Regarding the research on musical (jazz) improvisation inthe past decades, the large amount of published studies canroughly be separated into two domains. On the one hand thereare many studies concentrating on the personal style of theexamined musician by transcribing and analyzing hisimprovisations in a “classical” hermeneutic way (e.g. Owens1974). Although extracting individual concepts of musicalimprovisation leads to interesting results, these studies mainlyconcentrate on personal stylistics of improvisation. In thisway aspects concerning the general process of musicalimprovisation have not been considered satisfactorily.Obviously there are also publications, which combine thesetwo points of view. The standard work of Paul F. Berliner(1994) needs to be mentioned as an example in this context.On the other hand, a large amount of studies was publishedfocusing on general aspects of musical improvisation. Someof these studies used methods of (cognitive) psychology andneuroscience. Among the many publications the works ofPressing (1984), Behne (1992) and Limb & Braun (2008)represent interesting observations. However the achievedresults are hard to link with specific improvisations beingoutcomes of musical performances of certain artists.Furthermore the underlying experimental designs ofneuroscientifical studies often implicate a lack of externalvalidity.II. AIMSWith regard to the situation mentioned above the ambitionfor my research mainly consisted of two points:1. To develop and establish a new and alternative methodto analyze jazz improvisation. In this way the analysismethod should proceed from the specific improvisationexamined in each case. Besides identifying theindividual style of the improvisation the analysis methodshould also make it possible to compare differentimprovisations in an objective way. This is quiteimportant to gain results concerning the general processof musical improvisation.2. By using this new method central questions in the fieldof jazz research should be tried to answer: How is a jazzimprovisation structured? Are there any repetitions orsimilarities between the different improvisations (takes)by each jazz musician on the same underlying tune? Tosum up these questions the underlying hypothesis is:The creative effort of the jazz musician during theprocess of improvising is to a large extent not thecreation of new melodic material, but the selection,combination and arrangement of already existing/learned melodic material/patterns. In other words, therecourse to an existing vocabulary of already learnedand established melodic gestures and patterns plays alarge part in jazz improvisation. Therefore, the analysisof different improvisational takes of the same jazzmusician on the same underlying tune is focused, as wellas the connection between the improvisations and theirunderlying musical references (tunes).III. EXPERIMENTRunning an empirical experiment pursued the aims andquestions mentioned above. Therfore data for testing the newanalysis method (“stream of ideas”-analysis) was collected.Furthermore the empirical experiment was designed to followthe expressed hypothesis.903

A. SubjectsFive jazz pianists participated in the experiment. Four ofthe five musicians were professional or semi-professional jazzpianists. To collect information about the participatingsubjects, they were asked to fill in a questionnaire that wasdesigned for the experiment. Some important informationregarding jazz specific skills and expertise of the subjects isshown in the following table:Table 1. Musical background and jazz specific skills andexpertise of the participating subjects.ItemMeanRangeAgePrevious Musical ExperienceCurrent Extent of MusicalActivityPrevious Musical Experiencein Playing JazzIndividual Assessment ofKnowledge in the Field ofJazz38,4 Years29,6 Years22,4Hours/Week24,2 Years24-47 Years12-40 Years6-40Hours/Week10-40 Years6,25-75,74-7(Scale form 1-7; 1 None, 7 VeryHigh)Individual Assessment ofMusical Skills in Playing Jazz(ballad) or two choruses of improvisation. Besides this nofurther limitations were set to allow the subjects to improvisein their individual style and habit. The jazz pianists played ona digital piano (Casio Privia) with a full sized keyboard andweighted keys. The musical performances were recorded asMIDI files using a sequencing software (Cubase). The soundof the piano was mixed together with the sound of the backingtracks to present the subjects a feedback in real time. Thesound of the piano was generated by using a VST plugin.Before the recording started each pianist had been given timeto get familiar with the digital piano. Adjusting the volume ofthe piano sound and the backing track within the feedbackmixdown, as well as adjusting the sound produced by the VSTplugin seemed to be important to ensure each pianist feltcomfortable with his individual sound. The feedback soundwas according to the preferences of each subject eitherprovided by headphones or PA system.The recorded performances covered a total of 60improvisations (approximately 4000 bars of musicalimprovisation; five subjects, four tunes in each session, threerecording sessions). These improvisations represent the basisof the following “stream of ideas”-analysis.IV. “STREAM of IDEAS”-ANALYSIS(Scale form 1-7; 1 None,7 Highly Professional)B. Experimental Setup and ProcedureDuring the experiment each participating jazz pianist wasasked to improvise in three sessions on the same collection offour given tunes/standards. The three recording sessions wererealized in an interval of at least five days to avoid that thetunes were remembered too precisely. To avoid sequenceeffects the order of the tunes within the different sessions waschanged. Among hundreds of available jazz standards the fourtunes were selected with regard to certain characteristics:1. The tunes should not be too well known to avoid theeffect that the subjects had already established anindividually standardized improvisation on theunderlying tune. Therefore famous jazz standards likefor example “Autumn Leaves” could not be used. To becertain that this demand could be granted the subjectswere asked how familiar they are with the selected tunes.With one exception all the subjects either did not knowthe tunes or they listened to/played them very seldomly.2. Because the tunes were supposed to be mainlyunfamiliar the harmonic and melodic complexity of thethemes could not be too high to allow improvisationswithout previous rehearsal.3. The chosen tunes represent common harmonic, formaland stylistic clichés, typical in jazz.4. The four chosen tunes differ in tempo, style and formand represent a cross-section of common jazz standards(one jazz blues, one ballad, one up-tempo tune, onemodal tune).During each of the three recording sessions the subjectsplayed accompanied by exclusively for the experiment createdbacking tracks consisting of bass and drums. The pianistswere asked to first play the theme of the tune followed by oneThis new method to analyze jazz improvisation is inspiredby the pilot study of Lothwesen & Frieler (2011). I extendedtheir approaches and developed an own system called the“stream of ideas”-analysis. The improvisations recordedduring the empirical experiment were the data, which formedthe basis for the analysis. Because of the large time exposure30 (all improvisations on the blues tune “Kenny’ll Make It”and on the modal tune “Little Sunflower”) of the 60improvisations were first analyzed by using this method.The main concept of the “stream of ideas”-analysis was totranslate the improvisation into a continuous sequence ofmelodic phrases ( ”ideas”). Figure 1 on the following pageshows an example of the “stream of ideas”-analysis.Therefore the analysis worked on a mid-level and not byfocusing on the single pitches. The encoding process isinspired by the methods of grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin1996) and qualitative content analysis (Mayring 1995). Thisled to a dynamic encoding process: Each melodicfigure/phrase was isolated and defined as a certain “idea”.This “idea” was, according to its characteristics, assigned tothe suitable main category ( ”basis ideas”). If no categoryfitted a new one was created. After expanding the system ofcategories, each improvisation was checked again by usingthe new system. Shifting between encoding the data andcreating categories allowed a very precise and completeanalysis and a strong link to the underlying improvisation.Having encoded some of the improvisations the createdsystem of categories consisted of nine “basis ideas”, whichmade it possible to specify every melodic phrase occurring inthe analyzed 30 improvisations independently from theindividual musician. The so called “basis ideas” constitute asmain categories the highest hierarchy of the system ofcategories.904

Figure 1. Example of the “stream of ideas”-analysis. Two choruses of improvisation on the 12-bar blues tune “Kenny’ll Make It”.The nine “basis ideas” and possibilities to differentiate thesystem of categories by adding different levels ofhierarchically ordered sub categories are shown in Figure 2.Figure 2. Scheme of the nine “basis ideas” and possibleextensions (levels of sub categories).A. Definitions of the “Basis Ideas”The nine “basis ideas” were mainly defined with regard toeither melodic contour or intra-musical aspects. Dealing withmusical performances produced by pianists, polyphonicgestures were as well taken into account. In general there wasno distinction whether a melodic phrase was presented insingle notes or in a polyphonic way (e.g. as block-chords or intwo voices). However, the typical self-accompaniment that ajazz pianist usually uses (above all the actual given chords ofthe theme) was not regarded as a part of the particular “basisidea”. If the accompaniment contrasted clearly with thetypical expected accompaniment, it would be considered as apart of the particular “basis idea”. A short definition of each“basis idea” is given below to explain to which categoriesmelodic phrases can be assigned: “Void”: The “basis idea” “void” is used to name breaksbetween consecutive melodic phrases, unmated chordsfunctioning as standardized accompaniment orsustaining tones at the end of an idea. “Lick”: The “basis idea” “lick” describes a mostly shortmelodic phrase with a diversified rhythmical form. It isoften based on well-known Bebop-licks and presents anindividually established melodic figure, that sounds wellon a certain underlying chord or situation. “Vague/Atmosphere”: Musical phrases without anyrecognizable context, direction or form are assigned tothis “basis idea”. These melodic phrases are often usedas stylistic devices to create a sound effect or a(impressionistic) sound ambience. “Shifting-phrase”: This “basis idea” describes a repeated(sometimes periodical) shifting between two tones or(block-) chords. “Theme”: Melodic phrases, which pick up or vary themelody of theme of the underlying tune in a clearlyrecognizable way are assigned to the “basis idea”“theme”. “Motif”: Melodic phrases that occur several times withinan improvisation (repeated or varied) or a repeated905

melodic figure forming one entire phrase are called“motif”. “Line”: This “basis idea” is doubtlessly the mostfrequent one. It describes a sequence of tonesproceeding in small intervals of pitch and heading in acertain direction (ascending/descending/horizontal) orforming a more complex shape (e.g. convex, concave orwave-like). “Bellows”: This “basis idea” is one of the most complexones. It describes the phenomenon when two separate“lines” simultaneously form a melodic phrase. If one ofthese “lines” stays horizontal, whether the other heads ina certain direction or forms a complex shape, this phrasewill be called “bellows”. “Scissors”: This “basis idea” is quite similar to the oneexplained previously, but describes the special case oftwo separate “lines” heading in opposite directions.By using these nine main categories every melodic part ofeach improvisation recorded during the empirical experimentcould be categorized.B. Further Analysis of the Encoded ImprovisationsThe main achievement of the “stream of ideas”-analysis isto provide the possibility to compare different improvisationsin an objective way, irrespective of the individual musician orthe underlying tune (e.g. by using statistical methods). In thatcontext each improvisation is represented as a sequence of“basis ideas” and a frequency distribution of used “ basisideas”. Dealing with this kind of data, different aspects wereinvestigated:First of all, the comparison of the three takes of eachpianist on the same underlying tune focused on the search forsimilarities. This happened by using a chi-square-test.Although being aware of transgressing the requirements ofthis statistical test by dealing with dependent samples, I stilldecided to run it because of the lack of proper alternatives andto underline the descriptively recognized trends in a heuristicway. Secondly the “basis ideas” of all 3 takes of each pianiston the same underlying tune were summarized to a singlefrequency distribution and compared with the ones of theother pianists by again using a chi-square-test. In addition, theinfluence of the underlying tune, as the main reference for theimprovisations, was investigated. Finally, the aspectsmentioned above were included into one further test, bycalculating Euclidean distances between each sequence of“basis ideas”. In doing so, a matrix of distances wasdeveloped, which was the basis for a multidimensionalscaling.1. The comparison of the three improvisations (takes) ofeach pianist on the same underlying tune: The threerelated frequency distributions of each pianist were quitesimilar. Chi-square-tests have shown no significantdifferences in any case. Each pianist used an individualbut similar combination of “basis ideas” to create hisdifferent improvisations (takes) on the same underlyingtune (with the exception of pianist no. 3). In other words,each subject used a preferred and mainly constantvocabulary of “basis ideas” to create his improvisationson the same underlying tune and represents in this way afingerprint of repeated melodic phrases (see Figure 3).Figure 3. Improvisations (three takes) of pianist no. 5 on themodal tune “Little Sunflower”. Frequency distribution of used“basis ideas” for each take are shown.2. Comparison of the five different pianists: Although thecombination of used “basis ideas” of the threeimprovisations of the particular subjects on the sametune were quite similar and constant, the summarizedfrequency distributions among the pianists differsignificantly (shown by chi-square-tests). Thus, eachpianist used an individual vocabulary of preferred “basisideas” to create his improvisations on a certain tune.3. The MDS, used as an alternative, reflected these resultspartly. A difference between the improvisations on theblues tune and the modal tune could be recognized. Thisaspect will be taken up again below. Clear clusters of thethree belonging takes of each pianist appeared partly.For showing the differences between the pianists a MDSdoes not seem to be the best method, because of theomnipresent strong influence of the “basis idea” “line”.V. RESULTSThe encoding process of the “stream of ideas”-analysisoffers a new way to analyze jazz improvisation. By being ableto categorize each melodic phrase within the 30 examinedimprovisations, it represents a precise mid-level-analysis, thatmakes further investigations of the improvisations possiblewithout focusing exclusively on only one individual musician.Besides the method of analysis itself, it helps finding answersto interesting questions concerning the process of jazzimprovisation. Results of the further analysis of the encodedjazz improvisations are:Figure 4. MDS of Euclidean distances between all improvisations.Stress 0,144; RSQ 0,926. Marking: M modal tune, B blues;followed by pianist-ID (1-5) and take (1-3).906

Table 2. Use of “basis ideas” in dependence of the underlying tunes (in total).4. Comparing all the “basis ideas”, which were used tocreate the improvisations either on the blues tune or onthe modal tune, distinct differences could be recognized(Table 2.). The higher degree of freedom whenimprovising on the modal tune resulted in an increaseduse of the “basis ideas” “motif” and “void”. On the otherhand more standardized “basis ideas” like “lick” or“theme” were used more often during improvisations onthe blues tune, which offered a stricter formal-harmonicbasis for improvisation. One main achievement of the“stream of ideas”-analysis was to show these beforeknown assumptions both in a quantitative way ation.VI. CONCLUSION & FURTHER RESEARCHThe “stream of ideas”-analysis is a new and alternativemethod to analyse (jazz-) improvisations on a mid-level. Onthe one hand this method is based on the definite musicalimprovisation and therefore closely linked to the actual resultof the improvised musical performance. On the other hand the“stream of ideas”-analysis additionally allows, in contrast tothe common methods of dealing with improvisation within thefield of jazz research (investigating individual stylistics ofimprovising), to compare different improvisations producedby different musicians or based on different tunes.By using this option interesting results could be shownwithin an empirical experiment. Besides the influence of thespecific tune on the selection and use of certain“ideas”/melodic phrases to create a jazz improvisation, thecomparison of different versions of improvisations producedby the same pianist on the same underlying tune was a centralaspect of this study. The mainly constant individual use ofsimilar “basis ideas” by each pianist to create the threeimprovisations on the same underlying tune leads to theassumption, that the combination of already learned andestablished melodic patterns, as well as already establishedconcepts of performing, are very important for the process ofjazz improvisation.I continue working with the “stream of ideas”-analysis.Hereafter I focus on different points to extend this method:Since chi-square-tests and multidimensional scaling are notperfectly practical for dealing with frequency distributionsand the sequences of “ideas”, additional methods of analysingthe already encoded improvisations will be tested.For example the use of Levenshtein distances will beconsidered to compare the encoded improvisations. Secondly,different processes of validating the “stream ofideas”-analysis will be carried out. A cross-validation incooperation with Klaus Frieler and Kai Lothwesen is beingworked on. Additionally the participating jazz pianiststhemselves will be asked to analyse one of their ownimprovisations according to the “stream of ideas”-analysis.Finally these pianists will be interviewed to investigatewhether the “stream of ideas”-analysis is only an alternativemethod to analyse jazz improvisation or reflects the actualprocess of improvising by thinking on a mid-level-basis. Theensuing result could be the development of a new (cognitive)model on jazz improvisation or the enhancement of an alreadyexisting one.REFERENCESBehne, K. E. (1992). Zur Psychlogie der (freien) Improvisation. In W.Fähndrich (Eds.), Improvisation: 10 Beiträge (pp. 42-51).Winterthur, Switzerland: Amadeus.Berliner, P. F. (1994). Thinking in jazz: The infinite art ofimprovisation. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Limb, C. J., & Braun, A. R. (2008). Neural substrates of spontaneousmusical performance: An fMRI study of jazz improvisation.PloS ONE, 3(2), 1-9. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001679Lothwesen, K., & Frieler, K. (2011). Gestaltungsmuster undIdeenfluss in Jazzpiano-Improvisationen: Eine Pilotstudie zumEinfluss von Tempo, Tonalität und Expertise. In A. Lehmann, A.Jeßulat & C. Wünsch (Eds.), Kreativität: Struktur und Emotion.Würzburg, Germany: Königshausen & Neumann.Mayring, P. (1995). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse: Grundlagen undTechniken. Weinheim, Germany: Deutscher Studien-Verlag.Owens, T. (1974). Charlie Parker: Techniques of improvisation(Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations &Theses database.Pressing, J. (1984). Cognitive processes in improvisation. Advancesin Psychology: Cognitive Processes in the Perception of Art, 19,345-363.Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1996). Grounded Theory: Grundlagenqualitativer Sozialforschung. Weinheim, Germany: BeltzPsychologie Verlagsunion.907

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