BookatlasPiano Rabbit Hole: Improvisation Theory & Practice
7533 / 18210 · Workshop 58 — “The Bare Necessities” Arranging Laboratory: Swing, New Orleans, Stride, Boogie, Blues, Bossa, Funk, Waltz, Gospel, Minor Parody, and Playful Orchestration← prev⊞ allnext →

58.78Humor through expectation

This tune gives us a chance to study musical humor.

Humor often comes from:

  • exaggeration
  • delay
  • unexpected register
  • false ending
  • stylistic mismatch
  • sudden silence
  • overly serious reharmonization
  • abrupt return to simplicity

This is not unrelated to theory.

It is expectation management.