Musical Elements

Simply put, improvisation means doing, saying, playing, or singing something extemporaneously, that is, not planned ahead of time. 

Jazz improvisation can be considered “musical conversation” (see Jazz Improvisation/Conversation analogy sheet). 

Jazz musicians learn how to improvise in a way that is similar to how kids learn how to talk. 

1.

Young jazz musicians learning how to improvise listen to other jazz musicians improvise and try to imitate them; kids (even babies) learn how to talk by listening to others talk and trying to imitate them. 

2.

Jazz musicians play their instruments a lot; kids learning how to talk, talk a lot. 

3.

To play better, jazz musicians study instrumental technique (the physical mechanics of playing an instrument) and music theory (how notes and chords fit together); to speak better, kids study pronunciation and grammar. 

When jazz musicians improvise, they are playing the notes that they “hear” (imagine) in their mind; they “hear” these notes just a split second before they play them (just like when you are talking, you “hear” the words in your head just a split second before you say them, that is, you are thinking the words in your mind immediately before you speak them -- it happens so fast and so naturally that it seems simultaneous, but in actuality, the thought occurs a microsecond before the action).