Constructing a Jazz Solo

The aim of this book is to show how to construct a jazz ‘solo'' from a chord progression. As such, it is not really a manual on ‘how to improvise''; rather, it is more like constructing or composing a jazz melody. Nevertheless, the method given here has a couple of things in its favour. One is that it is a five-step ‘add water'' approach—that is, it doesn''t require any particular jazz talent to achieve a reasonable result. As such, it may be useful for those who have some knowledge of music, but little experience in jazz improvisation. The second is that, while ‘working out'' solos isn''t really improvising, the basic techniques given here should stand in good stead. With practice, these techniques will eventually become second nature and faster to recall when improvising. Ultimately, the improviser will abandon the step-by-step approach and internalise the material holistically.