“I don’t think I think when I play. I have a photographic memory for chords, and when I’m playing, the right chords appear in my mind like photographs long before I get to them.” – Earl Hines

With the above statement, Earl Hines, one of the piano jazz giants and the foundational influence of Bud Powell, shared us, lay persons, an insight of how classic jazz giants could demonstrate their limitless creativity while staying with the basic structure of a tune.

When you improvise on a tune, you have to stay with the basic chord progression of the tune, but at the same time you want to deviate from the original melody and chords. The more you deviate from the original melody and chords, the more interesting your improvisation becomes, indeed. In improvising, your mind and soul should work together. Namely, your mathematical mind is verifying if the melody and chords you play conform with the original chord progression, and your soul is generating your melody and chords that best describe your feeling of the moment.

Hines’ statement above teaches that to be a fluent improvisor you should let your mathematical mind work at an unconscious level, and focus on the expression of your emotional contents. Repeated practice of the same song is essential to bring your mathematical mind to an unconscious state. Rather than playing 24 songs in a day, you may want to play 1 song for 24 days.

Resources for jazz musicians may be found in the following website.

http://classicjazzgiants.com