In a few weeks, we are going to be having All County Honor Jazz Band tryouts, and two of the tryouts pieces are a B Flat Blues Progression, and an optional Improvisation to the Progression.

The Improvistation will help my score, so I am going to try it. But, I am terrible at improving! I have an improv that I have been working on, but there is definitely room for improvement. Any help? Tips?

If you`re playing blues, then it should be straight forward to play good-sounding notes - but this also means that because its so straightforward, you should be able to form ideas within the improvisation to bump it up a level. First off, if you don`t already know, the notes of a Bb blues scale is Bb, Db, Eb, E, F, Ab, Bb. stick to these notes and itll sound alright. The next bit is to formulate ideas, kind of like making your own `head`. build on ideas, and don`t overplay! Silence is the biggest contrast you can get in a solo. If you play 12 bars of nearly straight 16th notes, then yes, it may sounds fast and tricky and whatnot, but theres no real feeling to it. For example, if you take a pretty stock standard jazz tune - Killer Jo (Benny Golson) - yes ok, its not in Bb blues, but you hear the head, and then think of a solo directly after that which is just a blur of scales and fast constant riffs. It wouldn`t feel right, and would ruin the feeling of the song. Also, listen to lots of good jazz musos, and hear how they play their solos, maybe even steal the odd idea! Hope that helped in at least a small way.