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Lesson time: (2min 42sec)
Zach Brock demonstrates motivic improvisation by jamming on the 'Danny Boy' melody, gradually varying a single motif in more and more creative ways.
This lesson is part of the course Learn Improvisation on Violin with Zach Brock & Snarky Puppy
Watch a preview of the full course below.
Lesson transcript:
Something that all great improvisers use to construct successful melodies, certainly over chord changes, but also on tunes that are modal or just stay in one tonality or key, is motivic soloing and motivic development.
What we did in that exercise is the ability to manipulate a certain motif and explore different transformations of that in your improvisation.
So, I'm going to attempt to come up with something. I don't know, and I'm going to use that opening Danny Boy motif. I'll be pretty literal about it at first, but then I'm going to try to expand on that using some of the ideas that I talked about, such as:
Okay, so I don't know. What am I going to do here?
Heralded as "the pre-eminent improvising violinist of his generation," Zach Brock is a violinist and composer whose music draws on the traditions of jazz, classical, world and popular music. Zach received his first Grammy Award in 2017 for his work on Snarky Puppy's album Culcha Vulcha. His acclaim as a bandleader has grown through appearances at venues such as Carnegie Hall and festivals like "Tudo e Jazz" in Brazil, while his reputation as a sideman has spread through his work with legendary bassist Stanley Clarke, contemporary instrumental super-group Snarky Puppy, and jazz masters Phil Markowitz and Dave Liebman. Zach has made ten recordings as a leader or co-leader and is the first violinist to record for the venerable Dutch jazz label Criss Cross. He has also represented the U.S. Department of State as a Musical Ambassador in the Solomon Islands, performed as a featured soloist for two Sundance Festival feature film scores, and is currently an Artist In Residence at Temple University in Philadelphia. In his course you will learn to improvise on the violin straight from the source: how Zach approaches melody, rhythm and harmony, and how to start finding your own voice the way he has alongside Snarky Puppy and beyond. read more
