Saturday, December 1, 2012

Inflection and Improvisation

EDIT: There has been some confusion over this post, and I just want to make it clear. The point of this post is not that inflection is bad. The point is to warn of technical and artistic problems that commonly rear their head when inflection is used in improvisation. Whether you are a player who uses a lot of inflection or just a little, you should be aware of these issues.

This past week I had an opportunity to take a lesson with Walt Weiskopf, an amazing saxophonist and great teacher. I had studied with him during my undergrad at Eastman, and on various occasions I had heard his philosophy on inflection. It came up in our lesson this week, and I think, for the first time, I really understood the points he made.

The basic premise is that inflection can be problematic for a number of reasons. It can detract from time feel and content, and it can become a crutch. Walt is an advocate of minimal inflection for those reasons and others. I would like to outline those points in detail because many of them get at the basic mechanics of improvisation, and whether you play with heavy inflection (Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, Chris Potter) or much less (Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Walt Weiskopf) you need to understand how to deal with inflection. You do not want it detracting from your playing no matter your aesthetic. Following is a laundry list of guidelines that will keep you on the right track.

  • One of my favorite points that Walt made was that inflection takes time, just a moment, but it often adds time to the execution of an idea. Because of this it can detract from time feel and groove. It can ruin the forward momentum and feel of an improvisation if you let time feel take a back seat to inflection. Don't do it!
  • Inflection can also detract from content. Walt made the point that you can only focus on so many things at a time, and if inflection becomes your priority, content can suffer. 
  • I would add that inflection can get in the way of execution of an idea. Sometimes an idea is hard enough by itself and trying to inflect it adds to the difficulty and stunts your ability to play it. This has happened to me, and I have heard it happen to the best of players.
  • Inflection easily becomes habit. A great exercise, Walt's suggestion, is to improvise while trying to keep your playing free of all inflections. This will show how much of your inflection comes by choice and how much comes by force of habit. Every inflection should be an artistic choice.
  • Finally, inflection can become a crutch. As an improvisation progresses, some player rely more on inflection to carry their solo, instead of musical content. It can be a tell-tale sign that you are uncomfortable or running out of steam. At times like these it is important to keep focused and continue improvising creatively instead of resorting to a stylist-only approach.

I realize that is all pretty negative, but sometimes a good dose of cold hard reality is the best thing to improve your playing. For some, these guidelines will result in less inflection, and for other it will mean they need to execute their inflection more carefully, avoiding detracting from the groove or the execution of their content. Again, no matter the aesthetic, these guidelines can be helpful in maintaining a high level of playing and in focusing your improvisation.


  1. I LOVE Walt's playing and you both know way more about saxophone and especially jazz than I do but this statement confuses me a little bit:

    "some player rely more on inflection to carry their solo, instead of ." (my emphasis)

    I guess I'm confused because I think of all of it as musical content rather than differentiating note choice from what is essentially the presentation of those choices. From a logical (and probably contrarian) position I think you could make the case that an absence of inflection is also a choice that therefore becomes a type of inflection. ;-) Anyway, I totally get where the approach is coming from but I think if someone told Cannonball his inflection was slowing him down he probably wouldn't have cared. I guess other players that had a lot of inflection would be Dex and Johnny Griffin or a personal favorite, Warne Marsh.

    That said, I love that your are posting stuff like this that really makes me think.

    Thanks for that,

    1. Barry, this is the response I gave to someone on I think it pretty much answers the question:

      I am addressing both sides of the table, the Sonny Rollinses and the Coltranes. No matter if you love inflection or not you have to avoid its pitfalls. The best players who inflect a lot like Cannonball, Rollins, Potter or Brecker have overcome all or most of the challenges mentioned in my post. The point of my post wasn't to tell people to not inflect or that inflection is bad. It's to help players avoid weaknesses in their approach to inflection. Without proper technique or approach to inflection you'll end up sounding like a sad caricature of your favorite players!

    2. Now THAT I get. Thanks for the great response.

  2. Okay I tried to emphasize the words "musical content" but my emphasis stripped the words out...

  3. What exactly is 'inflection' inthis context?

  4. Mostly talking about pitch bending and changes in timbre.