HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR KEYBOARD IMPROVISING 100% IN THREE WEEKS

McD

@GovernorSilver said:
Anyway, I would also encourage others to join and share progress - whether you play keys, Geoshred, whatever.

You and I are very close on the road to improvisational mastery. I also have a similar vibrato that I have trying to stop using since it has become a bit of a bad habit. I can see areas where you've but in the time.
I played a lot of blues so I tend to do a lot more bending and lately I've been using some palm muting after watching a documentary on Bill Frissell. He doesn't sound like any other player and has impeccable technique. His approach is very much inline with Connie's thinking about being you and not an imitation. I have had small bursts of playing that went in the direction really listening and connecting sounds.

It helped to drop the BPM to a degree that I couldn't miss executing an idea. Then I started see what kinds of sounds I could produce with muting, harmonics, sliding, playing a line on a single string up and down the neck, etc. Opening possibilities for making a solo that doesn't sound like a bad imitation of a competent jazz soloist but sounds like good guitar tones. Sometimes less is so much more... of course, it helps to insure the guitar sustains well with reverb, delay or lots of over drive to maintain the energy of the experience for the audience. More like Robert Fripp than EVH's approach.

I got a Joyo JF-14 Amp Sim pedal this week that provides great sustain even for clean tones like a really good Fender tube amp. It costs $40 and puts a better signal into the iPad. Here's my first project after getting it:

Bm - A - G - A vamp

ADverb2 and ToneBoosters Reverbs in use
Rooms! with an OwnHammer IR loaded for cabinet emulation

Mentally, I'm working on B minor pentatonic boxes and you can hear me grab non-scale tones if I try to jump outside playing scales. Sometimes, I'll try to use this mistakes as neighboring tones and resolve to the right notes. It's only a mistake if you don't justify the choice with resolution. Still, I'll bet you can her similarities in our choices at this stage with a few areas of difference.

McD

A great jazz improvisor and teacher wrote this on his FaceBook page:

I had an interesting exchange with a student today. After talking for a minute about how he felt his progress was going, we finally hit on what was bugging him. He said “When I hear myself, I don’t sound like I know what I’m doing. I said that’s because you don’t know what you’re doing! We both laughed and then I got serious.

Many new jazz players are under the impression that every note of a solo must be thought up on the spot. That working things out is somehow “cheating”. I’m not saying you need to take other people’s solos verbatim all the way through. And if you’re capable of coming up with good sounding ideas on your own, so much the better. But if you can’t yet, use some that are already out there. But work it out! Play it the same way every time until it’s so ingrained that you can access that line anytime you want. In at least a few different keys if not all Twelve.

I think one of the best ways to learn is to compose a solo of a chorus or two on a standard. Write it out and learn it as if it were another melody. I’ve had some good success with that method. We do it together. Usually they take over by the second chorus:-) There is a kind of basic vocabulary that can be learned fairly quickly. But it won’t just happen! You have to work it out.

Anyway the point is, you’ll never sound like you know what you’re doing until you actually do

LinearLineman

@GovernorSilver, your blues stretch was fine and a good starting point in your skills to experiment with this. An important co-component of this exercise will be the gentle (lol) suppressing of your judgmental mind. Either unfavorable or favorable opinions as you play will obstruct the connection. Search “The Judgmental Mind” on the forum and you will find the elements of that subject that Connie taught me. I will not post it cause the discussion became rather hostile (myself included) and best left buried. But you will find it interesting, I think.

With Billie and Ella as your inspirations you will have great help. I would add early Louis Armstrong and Lester Young (Billie and Prez recorded together, they are iconic creations). Singing with the greats was a strut of Lennie’s Nuclear Triad!

McD

@LinearLineman said:
Singing with the greats was a strut of Lennie’s Nuclear Triad!

What was the Lennie Niehaus Nuclear Triad?

1. singing with the greats

LinearLineman

Tristano you mean @McD. I was joking, but if I had to say.... scales and chords.

Samu

While this might not be 100% on topic I do find that using the old stuff really sparks my creativity and it's just so fun jam om top of auto-comp of the old keyboards with super cheesy sounds.

I need to find a screwdriver and see if I kan kick some life back into my old Yamaha PS-3...
If it doesn't work out I need to go yard sale hunting and see if I can get something similar.

I've fallen in love with 'the cheese'

GovernorSilver

@McD said:
I got a Joyo JF-14 Amp Sim pedal this week that provides great sustain even for clean tones like a really good Fender tube amp. It costs $40 and puts a better signal into the iPad. Here's my first project after getting it:

Bm - A - G - A vamp

ADverb2 and ToneBoosters Reverbs in use
Rooms! with an OwnHammer IR loaded for cabinet emulation

Nice tones and playing!

I am also an admirer of Bill Frisell and steal ideas from him for a stripped-down chord-melody approach, as well as improvisation. I jokingly referred to my approach elsewhere as a "poor man's Frisell" style. I favor subtle vibrato - the equivalent of LFO with low depth and slow to moderate rate - which is a Frisell influence, although I don't press on the back of the neck like he does on occasion, and rely more on violin-style vibrato. I also play electric violin.

I neglected pentatonic scale practice until a couple of years ago when I studied Tim Miller's "Creative Arpeggio Design" course, which teaches his 212121 arpeggio approach. It's 2 notes one string, 1 note next string, 2 notes next string after that, 1 note next string, etc. He said he came up with this approach while trying to figure out how to play the arpeggios that Keith Jarrett plays on piano, which don't translate easily to the guitar. The 5 pentatonic arpeggios taught in the course are taken out of what is likely same 5 pentatonic scale shapes as the ones you practice. Miller's 212121 system is inherently guitaristic, so it taken some time to incorporate elements of this approach with other improvisational concepts/ideas that are not guitaristic, such at the Barry Harris stuff, the melody-driven exercises in the OP, etc.

GovernorSilver

@McD said:
A great jazz improvisor and teacher wrote this on his FaceBook page:

I had an interesting exchange with a student today. After talking for a minute about how he felt his progress was going, we finally hit on what was bugging him. He said “When I hear myself, I don’t sound like I know what I’m doing. I said that’s because you don’t know what you’re doing! We both laughed and then I got serious.

Many new jazz players are under the impression that every note of a solo must be thought up on the spot. That working things out is somehow “cheating”. I’m not saying you need to take other people’s solos verbatim all the way through. And if you’re capable of coming up with good sounding ideas on your own, so much the better. But if you can’t yet, use some that are already out there. But work it out! Play it the same way every time until it’s so ingrained that you can access that line anytime you want. In at least a few different keys if not all Twelve.

I think one of the best ways to learn is to compose a solo of a chorus or two on a standard. Write it out and learn it as if it were another melody. I’ve had some good success with that method. We do it together. Usually they take over by the second chorus:-) There is a kind of basic vocabulary that can be learned fairly quickly. But it won’t just happen! You have to work it out.

Anyway the point is, you’ll never sound like you know what you’re doing until you actually do

Interesting perspective. I think working out stuff is fine. In the Lee Konitz book, Konitz claimed certain players pre-composed entire solos and would recite them on the gig; certain others precomposed a personal library of licks and would draw from those consciously, then of course the players out of the Tristano school had their own way.

https://www.press.umich.edu/130264/lee_konitz

To truly create on the spot is hard. If I found it easy I wouldn't need to learn anything, lol.

GovernorSilver

@LinearLineman said:
@GovernorSilver, your blues stretch was fine and a good starting point in your skills to experiment with this. An important co-component of this exercise will be the gentle (lol) suppressing of your judgmental mind. Either unfavorable or favorable opinions as you play will obstruct the connection. Search “The Judgmental Mind” on the forum and you will find the elements of that subject that Connie taught me. I will not post it cause the discussion became rather hostile (myself included) and best left buried. But you will find it interesting, I think.

With Billie and Ella as your inspirations you will have great help. I would add early Louis Armstrong and Lester Young (Billie and Prez recorded together, they are iconic creations). Singing with the greats was a strut of Lennie’s Nuclear Triad!

Thank you!

I took a glance at the earlier thread and it's an interesting read indeed. I'll probably make repeat visits to better absorb the useful stuff that was stated - the not-useful of course being the heated posts.

I do have judge my playing on the "gawd that sounds terrible" level, but also on the aesthetic level. There is an ideal that I aim for as an improviser, and this applies only to me - it's not a judgement of other people's playing. This ideal is to compose verse after verse of great melodies on the spot, while not sounding like I'm reciting exercises, or at least minimizing the exercise-sounding aspect. But obviously if I'm thinking "Oh man, I just ran a scale or swept this arpeggio again - sounds like an exercise!" in the middle of improvisation, I'm getting in my own way already.

Lester Young was one of the few horn players that Konitz admires in the book I mentioned in a recent post. I'll look for more Lester Young to listen to for sure. I've also neglected early Satchmo in my listening. The vibrato that he used with his horn is that fast (high LFO rate) style that I associate with 20s jazz - could be a fun challenge to reproduce on guitar.

McD

@LinearLineman said:
Tristano you mean @McD. I was joking, but if I had to say.... scales and chords.

Oops. Senior moment.

I was hoping more clues. I found Lennie's Ear Training approach to be the best I've ever heard.
Much better than the "this interval is this tune". That's like thinking of another tune while hearing a piece of music. But playing multiple notes and singing each note in turn and how it fits in the sound of the piano is genius.

There is a video of Connie demonstrating the melodic approach to develop improvising skills:

I think Dave Frank's modal vamp idea is closer ti my current skill level on the keyboard
and generally applicable to other instruments using a loop recorder to capture the
modal ostinato/vamp:

rs2000

@McD
I love such videos! The one by Dave Frank is great in that he breaks down an advanced concept into easy-to-grasp elements. Like Keith Jarrett for beginners.
Thank you!

onkey

@LinearLineman said:
I think you can find some Love Energy on Youtube, but it is worth downloading. You would like it, I am sure @McD. Very beautiful. I guess if ancient ideas are new agey, then I guess so. It’s pretty old stuff, I think, just applied to a modern art form.

I think for a beginner, in vivo, rather than just being talked about, he/she would find it a very pleasant experience as all the exercises are pretty easy. Here’s what I did in the beginning...
1. Sing with records
2. Play scales with unusual fingerings (1-2, 1-3, 1-2-3, 4-5, 3-4-5 etc) each hand separate, then together parallel and contrary motion, and slooow with a metronome,
3. Play those chord charts you referred to thru all twelve keys, minor, dim, 7ths, etc)
4. Intense melodic exercise as described in this post to standard tunes
5. Ear training (I couldn’t handle it)
6. Free playing
7. Some harmonic analysis

And that was pretty much it. For twenty years (I probably should be a lot better!). Nothing a beginner couldn’t handle with some patience and fortitude, IMO.

So I take it that the unusual fingerings of scales are about discovering articulations not normally available with traditional fingering or is there something more to it?

Very generous of you to share all this stuff btw.

McD

@rs2000 said:
@McD
I love such videos! The one by Dave Frank is great in that he breaks down an advanced concept into easy-to-grasp elements. Like Keith Jarrett for beginners.

Here's another approach some might take benefit from as a tool to build skills and vocabulary for
improvisation:

Amy Nolte has another one using this practice technique against the jazz ii-V-I progression.

It's a paired down approach to practicing over a loop. I think it's essential to pick a tempo you can play
at without hurting (i.e. without strain). It's probably also useful to sing a loop and see if your hands can do what you just sang. If not then drill that "melody" until you always know how it's played. Add enough good stuff you have in mind and in hand and choose a new loop to drill.

What Connie is trying to do is get you to be able to play with spontaneity but it certainly helps if your hands know how to play what you're thinking. And creating that link between mind and hands takes these types of exercises to forge the neural connections needed.

GovernorSilver

Saw this posted in another forum, and thought it relevant enough to share here:

https://www.jazzadvice.com/you-are-your-own-instrument/

As established in my Youtube vids, my improvisational skill has plenty of room to grow, but I can assure y'all that the real growth started in the first place by beginning work all the areas listed in the article under Ears, Mental Conception, and Physical Connection to Sound.

Before I took those things more seriously, my improvisational skill was limited to badly executed blues-rock licks and sloppily executed scale runs. Be glad y'all didn't hear/see just how bad I was.

LinearLineman

@GovernorSilver, I have been meaning to suggest to you that rather than play guitar with records that it is probably better if you sing with them. I guess the article you posted supports that. There is a lot to be gained, in addition, by approaching this devopment indirectly... In other words, sing instead of play, play slowly to get to playing faster, play scales as tho they were melodies, etc.

GovernorSilver

@LinearLineman said:
@GovernorSilver, I have been meaning to suggest to you that rather than play guitar with records that it is probably better if you sing with them. I guess the article you posted supports that. There is a lot to be gained, in addition, by approaching this devopment indirectly... In other words, sing instead of play, play slowly to get to playing faster, play scales as tho they were melodies, etc.

Yes, I'm a believer in hearing and understanding musical concepts without the instrument in/under the hand. This was impressed upon us by the professor who taught the year-long Music Fundamentals course at my university. I knew that I - personally - would be bad at sight-singing, interval recognition, etc. at the start of the course but I was shocked by all the fellow students who said they were classically trained, yet unable to sight-sing even the simplest melody from sheet music.

One practice method that he gave us that I've neglected but have revived recently is:

1. Choose a root note (C, F, Bb, or whatever)
2. Sing each interval going up from that note, up to the octave - sing the names of the notes as well as the interval name itself (minor 6th, major 6th).
3. From the octave note, sing each interval going down, back to the original root note.

Today I did F. Tomorrow, I'll do Bb.

I also try to sing the melody along with recordings if it is within my limited vocal range. If it's out of range, then I virtually sing it i my head. If I can't get the melody with the rhythm right, then I haven't really learned the melody - boy "Donna Lee" was a bear there.

I also aim to hear the chord progression for a tune as individual voices moving in time. The "chord" is really a snapshot of harmony. I got that idea from Kevin Anker, coauthor of some Logic Power books. Logic the DAW of course. He used to say "chords don't exist" to get a rise out of people, but it didn't take long to understand what he really meant.

I should revisit the "You can Ta Ka Di Mi This" book too. The konnakol system is great for practicing rhythm without a drum set or other drum-like thing - hands aren't even required.

McD

@GovernorSilver - That's a nice survey of areas to practice. We are all a work in progress and
can continue to develop new skills. Enjoying the time spent and the rewards of achievement make it worthwhile.

Telstar5

@LinearLineman , Warne Marsh used to live and teach in my building.
@McD Dave Frank’s videos are for more advanced pianists.
I find that if one’s keyboard ability is rather basic then these are some of the best videos I’ve seen.

McD

@Telstar5 said:
@McD Dave Frank’s videos are for more advanced pianists.

Yes. I only mentioned him as a disciple of Lennie Tristano. Lennie's teach was for
students seeking to innovate. Connie found him and set up her studio to pass on
Lennie's ideas to another generation. @LinearLineman found Connie and helped him find
the joy in improvising after years of playing and frustration.

I find that if one’s keyboard ability is rather basic then these are some of the best videos I’ve seen.

Good recommendation. For absolute keyboard beginner's I think this is a good teacher to invest for music lessons and to find community:

GovernorSilver

@LinearLineman said:
Then the third week record what you are doing.
Do the whole week without listening to what you recorded. Skip a couple of days, have yourself a drink or two, or at least pick a quiet time late at night and listen to what you recorded. The rest is for you to decide. I am reasonably sure that you will see a significant evolution in your playing. For many the change will be quite dramatic. Playing off tunes is great. Playing totally free can be even more satisfying. This melodic immersion will help with your free playing but requires other resources as well. All that for another time. May the melody be with you!

I'm about to start my 3rd week. Do I record now, or do I record at the end of the 3rd week?

I'm guessing it's the end of the week - that would make more sense to me.

LinearLineman

Yeah, @GovernorSilver, give it some more time. Congrats for sticking with it. I know many, including myself, look forward to hearing your experiences. Btw, don’t listen back right away. Maybe record two or three sessions and then give it a week. Good luck!

GovernorSilver

I'm a few weeks overdue but here's me playing Maiden Voyage again, after practicing under the Connie Crothers routine.

LinearLineman

@GovernorSilver, I had to listen to your “before” on page 2, of course, to get the picture. I think anyone listening to the two together will see a marked change in your playing. The phrases are 1. More numerous 2.better formed 3. More listenable 4. More adventurous, confident and less tentative.

I think this was a hard tune to use but, IMO, there is considerable increase in creative energy and output. More importantly, how do you feel about it? What, if any, are the changes you are experiencing? Will you continue the exercise?
Thanks for being the guinea pig and sticking with it. I hope others will comment.

GovernorSilver

@LinearLineman said:
@GovernorSilver, I had to listen to your “before” on page 2, of course, to get the picture. I think anyone listening to the two together will see a marked change in your playing. The phrases are 1. More numerous 2.better formed 3. More listenable 4. More adventurous, confident and less tentative.

I think this was a hard tune to use but, IMO, there is considerable increase in creative energy and output. More importantly, how do you feel about it? What, if any, are the changes you are experiencing? Will you continue the exercise?
Thanks for being the guinea pig and sticking with it. I hope others will comment.

Thank you for the kind comments. Coming from you, this means a lot to me. Another person who also thought I improved, thanks to this 3-week program, is a pro guitarist named Ed De Gennaro, although he expressed some disapproval over my experimenting with the Barry Harris 5-4-3-2 phrases in the context of "Maiden Voyage" after I'd passed the 3-week mark - although that might be off-topic.

I liked how it encouraged me to draw more from the right side of the brain than the left. I have been striving to improvise by composing on the spot, starting out with creating melodies as a series of intervals. This program made this approach start to flow more organically, rather than the total latency going from thinking of a melody, parsing it into intervals, then translating from head/ear to hands, there's almost no latency.

I will definitely revisit the exercise from time to time. For now though, I want to work on more through-composed pieces such as Bach's Cello Suite #2 in D Minor, continuing to learn more of the Double movement from Bach's Partita in B Minor, some fingerstyle stuff, the Larry Carlton arrangements of Christmas Carols I practice occasionally, etc. I get as much satisfaction on practicing composed music as I do improvising. Also, more right-brain oriented training methods like Connie's seem to become even more effective as the subconscious gets fed more vocabulary.

LinearLineman

Thanks for the insight about your experience @GovernorSilver. Good luck in your musical endeavors!

Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr

@GovernorSilver said:

@Mayo said:
This statement gives no importance to the sub conscious, a powerful potent well that we can dip in and out of as creators or improvisors.
I also think in the context of songwriters, the creative mind is the one to draw from - not the thinking mind.
From the studies I have done on great songwriters, most of them say the greatest songs of there careers just came through pure expression and improvisation - pretty much in one writing session.
None of them talk about any thinking/planning - left brain stuff.

In my world, when improvising or writing, the thinking mind is the easiest route, just a toolbox, and often my enemy.
The creative mind is freedom, my greatest asset.

@LinearLineman - thank you for another great discussion

Thank you indeed!

I have also seen reports from others, on a guitar-oriented forum, that for them, improvisation comes out of the subconscious. They generally report practicing various things like bebop lines/licks with the intention of drilling them into the subconscious. They have backed up their claims by posting videos/tracks of themselves improvising.

Improvisation seems like playing basketball. In basketball, there is so much going on around you at the same time, that your brain cannot afford to waste CPU cycles on conscious thought, otherwise an opponent can steal the ball from you, intercept a pass to your teammate, etc. while you're standing there thinking (consciously) about what to do. Anyway, the role of the subsconscious vs. the conscious in elite level sports has been well-researched and documented - should be easy out to find articles via Google or the like.

One person on that guitar forum that I respect a lot is a longtime educator who has seen hundreds of student go through his class over the years. He dislikes self-promotion but somebody got a hold of a couple of videos of him playing and I can report that his skills are a high enough level that anything he says is worth considering. Anyway, he recently said that there is much to be gained studying relationships between notes, properties of scales, etc. independently from one's instrument. He also had this to say:

In my experience, when most guitar players "work on scales", they're really working on fingering shapes. It's not uncommon for me to find students that can play the sh*t out of fingering shapes but be absolutely clueless about the scales contained therein.

I'm not sure why you'd want to do that, but to each his or her own, I suppose.

The brain is a pattern-seeking organ, it will establish shapes and patterns whether you want it to or not. It makes no sense to me to put all our conscious effort into that since our subconscious will already be doing that work for us. Put the conscious brain to better use, I think...

Oh and this same person reported this in another thread:

For many years I toured with Don Preston (ex-Mothers of Invention, Gil Evans, Carla Bley, etc....) and when I asked Don about this, he said: "I try to tap into a subconscious part of the mind that's infinitely more intelligent than the conscious mind and then not **** it up"

I've never been particularly good at improvisation, but over time I've come to realize these guys (and some gals?) were speaking the truth, not BSing at all. So lately I've focused more on practice/training approaches that work well with the subconscious instead of fighting it.

I heard Herbie Hancock say something like: sometimes the ear takes the lead and sometimes the fingers take the lead. I think that’s how it works for me, but it took decades to get there.

Edward_Alexander

Subscribed to thread for later consumption.

GovernorSilver

Wow, 10 months went by in a hurry. What a different world we lived in when it was November 2019.

I still hope someone else will try the 3-week method and post results. McD and I can't be the only participants. Well, I'm not sure if he ever changed his mind and tried the method but he did post his playing at least.

One thing I started getting into more after Nov. 2019 is internalizing chord progressions, so i can hear them in my head without having to play them on guitar, and also getting the rhythm down. For example, it's a big difference if you're working on crafting a line through a ii-V-I progression where ii and V are only 2 beats each vs 4 beats, and it also makes a difference if the rhythm is 3-beat waltz vs. 4-beat medium swing vs. some kind of Latin feel.

I've found this to be critical to creating a melodic statement that flows nicely through the chords. Guitarists seem to want to hold themselves back by clinging on to scale-based solutions for navigating chord changes instead of learning more about harmony. It's not that a scale-based approach is always wrong, it's just that refusing to put in the work to learn about harmony, learn about chord tones and voice leading, etc. puts a hard ceiling on your growth potential as an improvising musician. Another tendency among guitarists is underestimating the importance of rhythm and time. I just saw a thread about how to become a better rhythm guitarist and most of the responses were along the lines of "learn more chords/learn more harmony" - no, if you want your_ rhythm_ playing to be better, you ought to work on your rhythm first.

JeffChasteen

@GovernorSilver said:

@McD said:
If you can't hear the "new age" thinking in that video where she helps reach the "creative" mind by turning off the "thinking" mind then you've drunk the kool-aid and are a true believer.

I guess I'm a true believing kool-aid drinker because Joe Diorio pretty much says the same thing.

I've been name-called enough that I don't care as long as the results are produced.

I’m the least “spiritual” person in the world (even my best friend attests to that), but I’m with you.
I find nothing new age-y or kool aid drinking to that approach.

LinearLineman

@McD said:

@LinearLineman said:
Tristano you mean @McD. I was joking, but if I had to say.... scales and chords.

Oops. Senior moment.

I was hoping more clues. I found Lennie's Ear Training approach to be the best I've ever heard.
Much better than the "this interval is this tune". That's like thinking of another tune while hearing a piece of music. But playing multiple notes and singing each note in turn and how it fits in the sound of the piano is genius.

There is a video of Connie demonstrating the melodic approach to develop improvising skills:

I think Dave Frank's modal vamp idea is closer ti my current skill level on the keyboard
and generally applicable to other instruments using a loop recorder to capture the
modal ostinato/vamp:

Great to hear and see these videos again. Dave Frank is a true and original extension of the Tristano concepts. His advice for creating a solid left is spot on.

As for Connie, what can I say? I spent many a 120 minute session on that beautiful, and always slightly out of tune, rosewood 1921 Steinway A. Connie had a way of clucking her tongue when she liked something a lot. Stick stuck your tongue behind your upper front teeth. Open your jaw and keep the tongue stuck for a moment. When the tongue unglues you get the Connie Cluck. When I improvised for her I was always waiting for that reassuring sound. It came often, but never often enough!

When listening to Connie’s improv exercise on What Is This Thing Called Love, you have to run the melody thru your mind as she plays to understand how this is working. It’s like having a tape recorder
running while you play different notes.

Watching the video reminded me again about Connie’s hands. They're so fucking small! Yet that didn’t
Hold her back in any way, shape or form. She loved, while gorging herself, two handed style, at one of my barbecues, to extend her rib greased hand to a neighbor. “Feel it!” She would offer. Damn, were there any bones in that petite appendage? Like boneless ribs they were totally flexible. Connie’s vision went beyond the ordinary as she evolved. Her final stretches weren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Yet the principle behind it never varied.

She was not interested in creating duplicates of herself. She admonished her students to take the technique and apply their own unique voice to the method. Notice, not a word about chords. Of course, chord study was critical in her method... but, if you are stuck on a deserted island ( @Gavinski, not “desert island” as in the common parlance... a ridiculous image, to be sure) it can be posited that just playing melody will lead to every chord you would ever need.

Connie never presented her technique in the practical way Dave does in his videos. Both are viable.
Connie was more like the zen master... the Connie Koan was open yourself to the infinite. Dave puts the wheels on the ground.... “Slice of pizza, slice of pizza, slice of pizza... pie!”. I used both approaches in my evolution. It is what you make of it.

Here is an example of the results Connie’s technique brought out in my playing. Strayhorn’s Lush Life is a way difficult tune, but in the almost eight minutes of this improvised track you can hear the melody and It’s departure based on that melody clearly presented. Remember, try to keep the tape recorder going! BTW, I am playing on Connie’s idiosyncratic, but rich Steinway A.

https://www.newartistsrecords.com/1051-thoughtless