Inspiration for improvisers
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Chords, How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Language, Jazz Standards, Playing Techniques, Scales, Transcribing
Imagine that you’re a construction worker. You’ve just pulled yourself out of bed at 4 a.m. and slipped on your steel-toed boots. As you stretch your tired legs you let out a sigh as another long day looms on the horizon. No worries, nothing you can’t do after a strong cup of coffee. You arrive …
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Ear Training, How to Practice Jazz, Inspiration, Jazz Education, Jazz Standards, Perspectives
Take a peek into a high school jazz band rehearsal or grab a seat at a college jazz combo concert. Better yet, walk into your local jam session or take a close look at the jazz trio playing the next time you’re at a wedding. What do you see? In each case you’ll find the …
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How to Practice Jazz, Inspiration, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Standards, Perspectives, Transcribing
Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar:You walk into a jam session ready to play a tune that you’ve been sounding great on. As the band finishes up a set you gather up your courage, walk up to the stage, and call this tune you’ve been working on memorizing all week. But at the last …
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Ear Training, How to Practice Jazz, Inspiration, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Standards, Premium Only, Rhythm, Scales, Transcribing
We often get a ton of great questions from our readers about what to practice. These inquiries range from players that are stuck in a daily musical rut to aspiring improvisers that simply don’t know the next step to take in the practice room. The truth is, every musician encounters frustrating days on their instrument …
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Chords, Composition, Ear Training, Jazz Standards, Transcribing
Learning tunes should be fun. If ever there was a secret to expanding your repertoire of tunes this would be it. You’re more likely to pursue an activity that’s exciting, interesting, and challenging rather than one that feels like an annoying chore. At the end of a long day you’re going to put the hours …
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Composition, Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards, Playing Techniques
Creativity in its most basic form is simply the act of taking something old and making it new. Whether you’re a novelist, an architect, an engineer or an improviser, artistic creation stems from a desire to make something new within the existing confines of your craft. To put a personal stamp on your art form …
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How to Practice Jazz, Inspiration, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Education, Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards, Perspectives
On this site we’ve frequently written about learning tunes. This is no coincidence – learning tunes goes hand in hand with improving as an improviser. Whether you’re practicing, performing, or simply listening to a few records with some friends you’re dealing directly with tunes. Keeping this in mind, building a solid repertoire of tunes should …
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Chords, Composition, Jazz Language, Jazz Standards, Playing Techniques
How do I connect chords when I’m soloing? You’re asking yourself this question in the practice room and you’re frustrated when there doesn’t seem to be an easy answer. But you’re not alone. This is a question that every improviser struggles with as they create solos over tunes. Improvising over one chord is simple enough, …
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Learning jazz standards is a crucial part of every jazz musician’s practice routine. After all, as a jazz musician, the entire goal is to perform tunes, so it totally makes sense that they should be a central part of your practice… Now, when it comes to learning tunes, it’s how you first learn them that matters …
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Chords, Composition, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Standards, Playing Techniques, Premium Only
The process of learning to improvise is a journey. A long and rewarding journey and one that is punctuated by a series of milestones. This can be hard to see from that comfy seat inside of your practice room, but take a step back from your daily routine and look at the path that brought …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Standards
As an improviser, you can transcribe solos. You can improve your technique. You can listen to your favorite recordings for hours each day. You can practically live in your practice room. But, no matter what you do or how much time you spend, at the end of the day you still have to deal with …
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Ear Training, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Standards, Premium Only
Everybody talks about learning tunes. I mean everybody. It’s the one common thread that pops up at jam sessions, on gigs, in music schools and in conversations with great players. Hey, what tune do you want to play next? Do you know this tune? What tunes are you working on? I really need to learn …