more on tension and release
This is a worthwhile topic, so here are some more thoughts continuing the discussion of tension and release. Actually, I found this text file sitting around (I wrote it but seemingly never posted it).
Here’s something I believe to be an axiom: creativity flowers in the face of constraints. Paradoxically, jazz is dedicated to the idea of absolute freedom to play anything. But that freedom is accompanied by a responsibility to say something meaningful with your playing. A responsibility to further some musical goal with your playing.
So when you play over a single chord, you have removed one of the principal devices used to create the tension and release. The tension and release generated by chord changes (harmony) is removed from the situation. People have used the term static to describe the condition where harmonies do not resolve. Drone is another term. What this does is heightens the player’s (and the listener’s) sensitivity to the use of the other devices to create tension and release. Cool, huh?
So let’s spend a minute talking about this idea that an improvised solo furthers a musical goal. I’ve discussed this at some length with various performers and what follows is pretty much my view, synthesized from conversations with people I respect. I like to think of a solo as having a shape. You can kind of envision a sort of graph of tension versus time. The most obvious shape a solo can take is a continuously building ramp of tension which is all released in the last few seconds (rather analogous to another pleasurable activity). Generally, this is successful, even if it’s not the most subtle. At minimum, the creation of such a shape in tension-vs-time demonstrates that you are exercising intent in how you shape the music (versus just running through all the patterns you know, then running through them a second time).
It’s possibly more interesting to create plateaus of tension, and mini-resolutions for these along some path to a kind of ultimate destination. The longer your solo is, the more this is a useful idea. Extended-form improvisation relies on the player’s ability to sustain the listener’s interest, and the use of shapes beyond the simplistic one is almost mandatory.
Okay, enough abstraction. Your practical techniques for playing an extended one-chord jam follow:
* start slowly, sparsely, softly, and lowly. Coming in burning seriously limits your ability to hold interest.
* think about progressing toward a goal, a climax in the musical sense. You need to withhold your virtuosity long enough to make the pressure to achieve that climax irresistible.
* make sure your rhythm section gets this idea of climax–if they come in burning behind you, it can mess you up. At minimum, they need to be able to back down the intensity when you do. Long, flat shaped solos are pretty boring. (unless you’re Kenny G, then they’re profitable)
* an obvious way to create tension is to play “outside” the scale that is normally associated with the chord. At the simplest level, you can play a lick from the scale a half-step above, then drop back down to the chord. At a more complex level, you can prolong tension indefinitely by playing outside, but you have to be sensitive to the need to resolve this tension, or you lose the audience. Tension absent release is just as boring as the absence of tension.
* make sure you end your solo with a statement that has some finality to it. It helps reorient the audience (and the band), which is especially important if you’ve wandered far from home.
Go listen to some of Trane’s playing from the mid sixties, and check out the ways he and his band members manipulate tension and release. But you don’t have to be a virtuoso on your axe to make these ideas work. You just have to understand where your limits are. Don’t start playing at your limits, start in a more comfortable zone and work toward the limits. Or a little beyond.
Thanks for your time.
