Expanding Your Overall Range in Improvisation

Is your improvisation limited by your range?

I don’t mean the range of notes you can play, but other more important considerations. Here are six musical attributes that players often limit themselves within:

• Note range – Improvising within a narrow range of notes, perhaps only within an octave.
• Dynamic range – Improvising within a limited mezzo forte or forte dynamic through an entire solo.
• Articulation range – Improvising using a narrow range of articulations, typically only basic legato articulations. Each note is attacked in the same way and the same length (especially wind players).
• Phrase length range – Each phrase within an improvisation is pretty much the same length. Similarly, each phrase may start and stop on the same place within the bar or beat.
• Rhythmic Range – Playing every musical idea using the same basic rhythm, typically eighth notes or some repetitive pattern (daa da daa da daa da daa…).
• Harmonic range – Playing only within the diatonic center of the tune instead of exploring outside the basic harmony and scales related to the changes.

I’m going to divide these topics into separate posts, each discussing one of the above attributes. In this post I want to address the most basic, which is note range limitations and how to work your way free out of that limitation.

Note Range

For each of these improvisational limitations, including this one, I suggest listening to a recording of your playing. Find something representative of your playing that you’ve recorded in the recent past and listen to it. Neither the best nor the worst. In this case, you are listening for the range of notes within your improvised phrases. (High notes to low notes.)

Do your lines seem to circle around a limited range of an octave or so?

Expanding your note range will help your improvisation become more expressive and elicit a more emotional response within your listener. Just listen to any great player and you’ll hear how their wide range of notes adds an emotional element to their playing. Here’s one example with David Sanborn. I’ve always loved how he twists those high notes to wring out the emotion in them. Listen to his solo around 2:20.