Saturday, March 8, 2014

Jazz Improvisation & Your Brain

21st century jazz pianist Keith Jarrett said "By virtue of the holistic quality of it, it takes everything to do it.  It takes real time, no editing possible.  It takes your nervous system to be on alert for every possible thing in a way that cannot be said for any other kind of music" (The Art of Improvisation - video documentary).  Improvisational music relies heavily upon the conscious and subconscious areas of the human brain.  When a person improvises, they can perform in the present, past, and in the subconscious future.  All the elements of man's brain activity have relevance to their improvisational performance.  Improvisation is also a language which a person can be taught in a scholastic sense as well as exchanged in a musical environment.

Within the realm of jazz music, there seems to be a lack of a definitive and comprehensive philosophy of the improvisational element.  Musicians, scientists, and theologians have posed their philosophies, each describing a scientific, spiritual, emotional, and theoretical.  However, each respective philosophy that attempts to define improvisational, often ignores the others’ arguments and in many ways, contradict each other.  There seems to be at large three distinct philosophies of improvisation: The cognitive and physiological, the spiritual, the emotional.

The present article aims to describe each school of thought and to illuminate the gaps in their respective philosophies.  By illuminating the similarities and contradictions among the various schools of thought, I will attempt to conclude with a personal philosophy that encompasses various academic disciplines.

The following draws on the approach of three predominate musicians, psychologists, and neuroscientists.  As it will be shown, these individuals’ approaches, share similarities, but most importantly, in their contradictions, will expose misconceptions, and arguments in the meaning of jazz improvisation.

I.  Improvisation as a learned experience: the nature vs. nurture argument in improvisational music.

Trombonist Hal Crook, one of the most prominent jazz educators in the world, argues that improvisation can be taught in a scholarly and academic environment.  More to the point, he suggests that successful improvising can be taught.  In a sense, it extends the nature vs nurture argument to the realm of jazz, arguing that improvisation is learned (through nurture) rather than innate (through nature). To give legitimacy to Crook’s line of thought, it must be noted that he has in deed mentored some of the most prevalent jazz musicians of today including Roy Hargrove, Mark Turner, Danilo Perez, and Antonio Sanchez.

Crook suggests, that the experience of improvisation should contain a fully conscious element.  Regarding the conscious thought while improvising, he says, "For clarification, I have organized the components of improvising into three basic categories, labeled as follows: When To Play, How To Play, What To Play" (How to Improvise, p. 13).  Thus, the improviser is constantly aware and asses “what he is playing, “how he is playing” and “when is playing.  The improviser is aware of his articulation, dynamics, harmonic structure etc. This analysis is a developed thought process similar to a painter. The painters brush stroke is a preconceived act in which every movement is carefully thought through.

Crook suggests that improvisation“…one's total musicianship in every moment of the act" (How to Improvise, p. 10).  What he is saying, is that improvisation is the culmination of everything learned and experienced in one’s musical journey.  For instance, when I learned a Beatles’ song at age 9, I was also being taught fingerings for chord scales.  Crook would argue that these techniques would be stored in a musical lexicon that may be used in the future.  Extending this idea further, he says,

"Music is a language comprised of melody, harmony , rhythm, and the various effects created through its execution; hence, a language that is played on an instrument or sung rather than spoken. And, to the extent that music can be considered a language - specifically, improvised music in the jazz idiom - its words or vocabulary must consist of melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and musical effects which make the particular style sound fundamentally unique” (Ready, Aim, Improvise p. 17).

Just as language is learned throughout early childhood, so is music, further showing that improvisation is a function of nurture rather than nature.  So is improvisation solely a learned experience?  What are the emotional and intuitive elements in jazz music?

I agree with Crook, "Every musician who has seriously tried to improvise knows that (for an instrumentalist) the art of improvising is no less the ultimate musical challenge, demanding one's total musicianship in every moment of the act" (How To Improvise, p. 10).  It encompasses all of our being, and because of this, all aspects of one being, including should be studied.   This same idea is brought to light by pianist Keith Jarret who said in reference to improvisation, "By virtue of the holistic quality of it, it takes everything to do it.” (The Art of Improvisation - video documentary). Jarrett also describes improvising as "an impossible task."

II.  The Emotional Plane versus The Intellectual Plane

Pianist Kenny Werner is author of the book entitled "Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within." It is a book that many jazz musicians turn to in their study of improvisational music in search for something outside of a classroom. Werner's book encourages his readers to let go of all false confidence, become free-thinkers, and move forward in their creative pursuit.

Where is the self involved in improvisation?  Werner says: "In terms of a musical life, this translates into fearless: just moving from one note to the other, seeking unity with one's own inner self, and unlocking an ocean of music for others to replenish their spirits. The entire process of learning becomes a joyful game, because the student is not attached to results but observes himself with one-pointed focus" (Effortless Mastery, p. 78)

Werner argues that the self critical , should be absent during the process of improvisation.

Crook says ultimately the same thing:  "In the context of playing an improvised solo, then, our ego functions to distract our attention away from calmly hearing the details of the music and realizing the qualitative and quantitative facts about our playing, and redirects the attention to the feelings of pleasure and superiority (from the good results), or pain and inferiority (from the bad results) (Ready, Aim, Improvise, p. 313).  Crook continues, "Our primary objective when improvising, then, is to keep our ego still and quiet, to get out of the way so that It can flow through us and do its job, unobstructed and unburdened by our beautiful but nonetheless trite and trivial personality" (Ready, Aim, Improvise p. 315).  Thus, in terms of the ego, Werner and Crook agree, that the ego should be eliminated from real time improvisation.

Werner also says, "As you play, there must be no intellect instinct when it's time to play" (Effortless Mastery, p. 90). We find an opposite view from Crook's How To Improvise when he states "Improvising creatively and musically within the framework of certain musical restrictions is a more demanding challenge because it requires discipline and accuracy, and because it requires discipline and accuracy, and, because of this develops, ability in the areas associated with the restrictions. (How To Improvise, p. 11).  The "accuracy, discipline, and musical restrictions," Crook addresses stem from an intellectual approach to improvising.  The question of whether intellect should be present or absent during an improvisation is a problem most jazz musicians have comes to term with at one or many points in their musical journey.

Daniel J. Levitin posed the question, “Why are some musicians superior to others when it comes to the emotional (versus the technical) dimension of music?” in This Is Your Brain On Music  When I first read this question, John Coltrane immediately came to mind.  His tragic childhood, including the loss of his father and grandfather at the age of thirteen, had a direct influence on his music.  Overcoming his substance abuse problem lead to a spiritual awakening that transcended to an emotional breakthrough in his playing.  Coltrane’s physical gestures and facial expressions relay deep founded emotion.  It is undeniable that a musician’s state of mind reflects his technical ability and the ability to captivate his audience. Keith Jarrett supports this theory in saying "Music is the result of a process the musician is going through especially if he is creating it on the spot" (The Art Of Improvisation - video documentary)

II. Music and the brain:  cognitive elements of improvisation

When speaking about the differences between composed music versus improvised music, Keith Jarrett says "The worlds are so separate that I have to close the other world down. If I want to do justice to Mozart I have to stop playing jazz for that period of time" (The Art Of Improvisation - video documentary).  But is there any scientific evidence supporting this claim by Jarrett?  Do different parts of the brain turn on and off when playing different types of music?

I thought I would start this section by describing my experience working for Carnival Cruise Lines as an orchestra guitarist.  From 2007 - 2009, I completed three contracts and was challenged on a weekly basis. Our schedule on one particular day consisted of playing two jazz sets in the afternoon followed by two production shows at night.  When playing in a traditional jazz setting, I would be accompanying the soloists on standards.  My ears always had to be listening to the soloist not knowing what direction they would go in as we played different tunes weekly.  My job as an accompanist is a demanding one as I am in constant search to bring out colors under the soloist and create rhythmic counterpoint with what they are improvising.  When a soloists starts to improvise, anything would be possible.  To transition later that night to playing a production where I am entirely focused on reading music perfectly off a piece of paper was a great challenge.  These worlds are separate, but both require a different way of focussing.

Musicians are always discussing what is going in their heads throughout the practice of making music.  It is only natural for creative beings such as ourselves to not only try to explain what our mind is doing while we play our instrument or compose a new tune or arrangement, but inquire as to what we should be thinking about while we do these things.  In such an environment we often hear words or phrases such as “brain independence” or “left brain-right” brain, which are associated with certain aspects of our musical vocabulary and ability.  However, to truly understand what goes on in the mind as well as the brain itself, it is important to look at the science of the brain’s activity while we are engaged in various musical processes.  Furthermore, it is important to understand the differences in how the brain acts when we perform a piece from memory versus when we improvise.

First, lets examine what the brain does while we perform a piece of music from memory.  Looking at brain activity under these circumstances is certainly not a new concept by any means.  A February 2009 article in Harvard Science entitled The Improvising Brain, author Lesley Bannatyne states that, “The perception and performance of music have been studied by scientists; most famously, looking at what listening to classical music – like Mozart – can do to the developing brain.”  Bannatyne goes on to explain that using science to compare the differences between how the brain functions with memorized music and improvised music is a relatively new concept.

In the study described in this article, Harvard graduate student, Aaron Berkowitz, and professor Daniel Ansari created specific exercises that were performed by “12 classically trained pianists in their 20’s with an average of around 13 years of piano training”, all while being scanned in an MRI machine.  It is important to note that reciting a work from memory is not specific to music or musicians.  In a similar study done by Johns Hopkins professor, Dr. Charles J. Limb, as described in the 2008 Johns Hopkins Medicine article, This Is Your Brain On Jazz: Researchers Use MRI to Study Spontaneity, Creativity, we learn about a part of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.  Dr. Limb explains that this part of the brain “has been linked to planned actions and self-censoring, such as carefully deciding what words you might say at a job interview.”  From this information, we can gather that this same part of the brain is extremely active when we perform music from memory, because we are in essence, planning and filtering the notes we play as well as the rhythms and sounds we create.

Conversely, in looking at brain activity during improvisation, we see not only “a slowdown in activity” in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, as described by Dr. Limb, but we see an increase in activity in other parts of the brain.  The Johns Hopkins article describes an area of the brain know as the medial prefrontal cortex, which showed increased activity during a part of the study that had the test subjects improvise over a C major scale and with a recording of a jazz quartet.  The article tells us that, “this area has been linked with self-expression and activities that convey individuality, such as telling a story about yourself.”  Just as with memorized music, improvisation is something that is not limited to music.  Dr. Limb notes that, “people are continually improvising words in conversations and improvising solutions to problems on the spot. Without this type of creativity, humans wouldn’t have advanced as a species. It’s an integral part of who we are.”

Another aspect of improvisation that is described in the Harvard Science article is problem solving.  Ansari and Berkowitz noticed activity in a brain area known as the anterior cingulate (ACC). The two state that, “The ACC is a part of the brain that appears to be involved in conflict monitoring — when you’re trying to sort out two conflicting possibilities, like when you to read the word BLUE when it’s printed in the color red. It’s involved with decision making, which also makes sense — improvisation is decision making.”  In both the cases of improvised and prepared music, it is also important to note some of the other intangibles that affect us as musicians.

Things such as the style of music we are playing, the venue we are playing in, the instrument itself and the relationship with the audience all play a role in our musical personality regardless of whether we are improvising or performing from memory.  The factors that come in to place are countless.  Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau describes improvising in two different brain states.  He bluntly puts it in saying, ""It's not either or, it's both and. I can be very involved in it and also one part of my brain can be thinking about some anal stupid shit. Like I have to go to the bathroom or did I leave my wallet in the hotel. In some sense, it is like any other thought process. You can be thinking about a few different things at the same time"

Scientists have also explored neurochemical tags which are associated with memory.  Our brain can take a particular piece of music and label it with a tag.  During this process, when a musician becomes involved and stimulated by a piece of music, his brain will create a tag to encode it in his memory.

This theory is directly related to create an improviser's identity.  This stimulation referred to by Levitin is what creates the player's personality.  Once the ear has been acclimated to a particular harmonic or rhythmic device, the brain will encode a tag.  This is a blessing and a burden as a jazz musician known as "playing the same sh*t over and over" For instance, one might learn a consecutive eighth note line to play to play over a chord progression.  At first, it is very pleasing to the ear and once executed while improvising, a feeling of pleasure might arise.  The problem is that the phrase that was once learned is repeated consistently in their improvised solos.

The harmonic and rhythmic devices that a jazz musician use create his musical voice.  For example, two tenor saxophonists, John Coltrane and Joe Henderson.  A jazz enthusiast is able to easily differentiate these two saxophonists when listening to a recording. Jazz critic of the New York Times and accomplished author, Ben Ratliff supports this theory:

"One of the general listener's major misperceptions of jazz is that when the improvisers work at their best, they pluck ideas out of the sky, channeling heaven. No. Even at their least inhibited, Coltrane's solos still show the stamina that comes of hard, solitary practicing; it is immensely worked-out music. You can pick out dozens of devices in his solos that he was reusing and would continue to reuse" (Colrane,. xix)

IV - Conclusion

The ten thousand hour theory Levitin describes in This Is Your Brain On Music certainly caries over in learning how to improvise.  It states if one spends this amount of time practicing and perfecting their craft, they will excel and qualify as an expert in their chosen field.  It’s logical to assume that the more time we put into something, the more proficient we will become at it. Saxophonist Dave Liebman says "You can't begin to think about executing something. Technically pulling something off thats in your imagination and in your ear on the bandstand. It has to already have been covered in your practicing somewhere" (Dave Liebman - Saxophone Warrior, video documentary). I agree with Liebman due to the fact that improvising is speaking a language and everything I say has been said somewhere before.

Crooks describes it as “…one's total musicianship in every moment of the act" Whether it is practicing arpeggios, transcribing a trumpet solo, playing with other musicians, seeing a live concert, it is all of relevance when it comes to one's improvisations. Without a definitive system in successfully completing the process, one might wonder where to begin.  An infinite amount of questions might arise.  It is really up to the individual to come up with his own system. Improvising is an endless trial and error process, but extremely self-gratifiying and rewarding. In my opinion, speaking this language can feel like the musician is creating music on the highest possible level.




References

Books:

Crook, Hal. (1991). How to improvise: An approach to practicing improvisation. Advance Music.
Crook, Hal. (1999). Ready, Aim, Improvise: Exploring the basics of jazz improvisation. Advance Music.
Levitin, Daniel J. (2006). This is your brain on music: The science of a human obsession. New York: Penguin Group.
Raliff, Ben (2007). Coltrane: The Story Of A Sound. New York, NY: Picadour
Werner, Kenny. (1996). Effortless Mastery: Liberating the master musician within. New Albany, Indiana: Jamey Aebersold Jazz, Inc.

Articles:

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases/2008/02_26_08.html
http://www.harvardscience.harvard.edu/foundations/articles/the improvising-brain



Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZHfRjvpPxQ (Keith Jarrett - The Art of Improvisation)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkfq9GQ4n8I&feature=related (Brad Mehldau - Documentary)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GZFbF3Wk-g (Your Brain On Jazz)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvPQWPfQp08 (Dave Liebman - Saxophone Warrior)

No comments:

Post a Comment