What is it called when you play your own thing following a melody line and chords? I love playing like this and it is something that I would like to teach alongside all the other things we do in lessons. It is very useful and teaches you a lot about chords as well as being fun.

I found a book recently in the library called 'How to play from a Fake Book. Faking your own arrangements from melodies and chords' by Blake Neely which is very good, very systematic and has a very friendly approach. But I still want a name for the skill.

So if you said I am going to play....................... style, what would it be? Any ideas?

Hi, Do you mean improvisation?

Try checking out some of the Jazz syllabus, you have to improvise so many bars, then you can improvise against the written elements within the Da Capo. The Jazz from scratch book is really useful for this as well (but expensive £18) and G5 Jazz is an alternative to G5 theory because you have to know all the chords etc inside out.

Did you know that in one of the early performances of Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin went on stage with 4 blank pieces of paper and improvised it along with his Jazz orchestra, great stuff

Or is it keyboard harmony too?

QUOTE

Or is it keyboard harmony too?

yes - I wondered that.
Adding chords to a given melody is generally called keyboard harmony - whether the chords are suggested or whether you are thinking up the chords I don't think matters.

If you are extending and re-inventing the melody I guess it's more like improvisation.
Both are great fun.

Maggie

I think of improvisation as not having a melody line to follow ie making up the whole thing, although I know with jazz you do have a chord structure to follow. And I thought of keyboard harmony as written theory???????

QUOTE

I think of improvisation as not having a melody line to follow ie making up the whole thing, although I know with jazz you do have a chord structure to follow. And I thought of keyboard harmony as written theory???????

Well yes, improvisation can be based nothing in particular, and just made up as you go along, or it can be based on something specific.

Keyboard harmony is usually done at the keyboard ! It's not usually linked to written theory, although it could possibly be preparation for written work.
Hope this is useful

Maggie

QUOTE (trio @ Oct 20 2004, 05:33 AM)

What is it called when you play your own thing following a melody line and chords?

I'm not certain - but is this regarded as "comping"?

QUOTE (spaceman @ Oct 20 2004, 11:09 PM)

QUOTE (trio @ Oct 20 2004, 05:33 AM) What is it called when you play your own thing following a melody line and chords?   I'm not certain - but is this regarded as "comping"?

"comping"? Not heard of this word before. Where does it come from?