When a novice improviser strays too far from the beat, the band often quips, “Where’s One?”, meaning “Are you lost?”

As improvisers, we seek fresh, innovative approaches which still retain the coherence needed to keep listeners’ interest.   Sonny Rollins famously used “motivic development” to simultaneously add unity and variety to his improvisations.

Here is a melodic phrase which is then repeated verbatim.   What makes the second statement of this phrase sound different from the first?

Notice the “rhythmic offset”:   the initial statement of the theme begins on beat 3 (we’re in 12/8), while  the second statement begins on beat 12.   Jazz players call this “playing on the other side of the beat.”  If your band mates are sufficiently skilled to avoid getting lost, playing on the other side can be used to stunning effect.

Note also that the second statement of our melodic phrase – while melodically identical to the first – is accompanied by chords from a different key.   We might refer to this as a “transposed harmonic setting.”  The new harmonies give the melody a distinctly different sound, as if stage lighting on an actor had been changed from red to blue.

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