Student’s question:
I struggle to play interesting melodies. Everything I play feels very obvious, almost like a children’s song. Sometimes I like what I’m playing, but I worry that it sounds trite and predictable to others. Is this just something I have to be patient with?
How we think about this in IFR:
For now, don’t worry about being trite and predictable. Let’s first learn how to tell a story. And let’s make that story as understandable as possible. For this phase of our learning, trite and predictable are badges of honor. You want to become an effective storyteller. That’s a skill that you practice over and over again, and the best way to practice it is to allow yourself to play the most trite and predictable melodies you can, because that’s when you’re making MUSIC.
And the more you do it, the more your own ideas will evolve. Your vocabulary will expand. The songs you’ve studied will cross-pollinate one another. A musical idea that felt trite and predictable over Autumn Leaves turns out to be surprising and unexpected over Blue Monk. You become wise, well traveled and multicultural.
And here’s the danger. Your ideas are naturally going to become more complex and sophisticated. This complexity comes on its own. We don’t have to do anything to earn it. The real danger is that you lose the ability to connect with people, to create music that people can follow.
My hope is that you’ll always continue to strive to make connections between people. Never be afraid of the label of trite and predictable. Always choose to connect with your listener. Always prioritize playing something that your listener can understand and follow. This is how you’ll put your musical wisdom at the service of others.
Beginners always worry about sounding too naive. But that ability to say something coherent is the greatest gift you have. And that gift will become even more important as you expand your musical knowledge. If anything, we need to strive to KEEP those qualities that you’re describing as trite or predictable.
Especially after you’ve been around the block a few times and learned some things, you’re going to find that it’s all too easy to talk over your audience’s heads. The real challenge is to say something that they can understand and feel. So I encourage you to keep your focus 100% on composing sweet, simple melodies that touch people’s hearts the way children’s songs do. That is the very best education that any improviser could have.
