Overview.

Traditionally jazz and classical musicians, together with their audiences, hail from different planets.   There was some crossover in the 1970s when jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, trained classically, and virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin recorded a string of six jazz albums for the EMI label.   Even then, Menuhin's solos were not improvised in the true jazz idiom but carefully written out by arranger and musical director Max Harris.

But fusion is in the air.   In recent times, pianist Joanna McGregor has linked up with eclectic jazz composer Dylan Bates, composer Mark Anthony Turnage, American jazzers Peter Erskine and John Scofeld, British composer Colin Riley and eminent saxophonist/composer Tim Whitehead with the Homemade Orchestra.   These collaborations have brought about a hybrid music helping to redefine stylistic boundaries and attract previously divided audiences.

With the ABRSM exams in jazz piano grades 1-5 being joined in March 2003 by exams for clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and trombone, more classically-trained musicians will be pursuing improvisation.

Having taught improvisation for the past 20 years, I believe that the discipline, talent and perseverance that enables musicians to progress in one style can be effectively transferred to another.   In other words, a reasonably accomplished classical musician can develop respectable improvisational skills, if introduced to it in the right way.

Skills for both are equally demanding and there are many similarities between the way classical musicians and improvisers develop them.   Qualifications in jazz, popular and world music, all of which utilise and include improvisation extensively, now happily sit alongside those for classical musicians at many universities and conservatoires throughout the UK.   And improvised music, in many cases, can be documented, researched and studied just as assiduously as classical music, from both technical and analytical standpoints as well as a historical perspective - all clearly the stuff of scholarly institutions.

The difficulties.

So what about the difficulties?   Improvisation may often introduce too many new concepts and challenges at once, such as:

• Learning new technical information about chords and scales specific to the music to be improvised over.
• Embracing new rhythmical and stylistic concepts
• Familiarity with and exposure to new musical idioms
• Playing and interacting with new and different musicians on a regular and intimate basis.

While one or two of these areas might offer a gritty challenge, the combination of several at once can suitably daunt a newcomer.   These distinct, new and essential disciplines are not necessarily closely linked to the skills they have developed as a classical musician.   They must therefore be taught individually, not tackled head-on.

The second problem is now pupils will sound initially.   Classical musicians are often trained to sound refined or polished when performing.   While most improvisers also strive to sound good, it is not always guaranteed, especially in a lesson or workshop.   With exceptions such as extempore cadenzas and aleatoric music, most classical performances do not include or encourage chance or individual creativity in the same way that improvisation does.   Because of this, many musicians with classical backgrounds are bound to feel exposed and self-conscious while attempting to improvise, especially in front of their peers or an audience.

That's why when classically-trained pupils want to take up improvisation, there's no way around starting from scratch.   The idea that an accomplished classical player would have to go back to basics to embrace another style does not sit well with some.   It can seem humiliating and can feel like working backwards.

Take, for example, learning scales, arpeggios and chordal materials.   Many classical musicians will initially read the scales and eventually memorise them, using the tactile feel of the scales and arpeggios on their instrument to help retention.   Improvisers, on the other hand, will often memorise material by the way it might relate to a given key centre or harmonic area.   They do this deliberately in order to train their minds to think this way as well as relating musical material to harmonic areas from which to develop improvisations.

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