Inspiration for improvisers
By
Inspiration, Jazz Advice and Tips, Perspectives
Stuck in the same monotonous pattern? Not excited about playing lately? It’s time to start with a clean slate and welcome in the new year feeling motivated. Here’s 100 ideas to reinvigorate your energy for the music. Read through the list and pick one that gets you excited. Then, just do it. Transcribe your first …
By
Ear Training, Jazz Advice and Tips, Perspectives
Learning to improvise is a life long pursuit. Constantly, we’re bombarded with information on how to improve. From the teachers that give us private lessons, to friends who recommend their personal practice routines, it seems there is improvement information coming from every direction! We’ll even purchase expensive books and videos, searching for “the secret” (that …
By
Chords, Perspectives, Playing Techniques
A reader recently wrote us asking about what we think about while we improvise. He writes: “I’m a tenor saxophonist and still pretty new to the whole improvising scene. I was wondering what musicians “think” in their minds while improvising. Are you consciously focused on the scales and chord structures? Or do you just not …
By
Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Musicians, Perspectives
I used to frequent the Village Vanguard to go see my teacher Rich Perry perform all the time. As you gaze upon the walls of the Vanguard, you peer into the past…jazz legends, the inventors, live on the walls… You sit there in awe, knowing that at some point, they occupied the space you now …
By
Ear Training, Jazz Advice and Tips, Perspectives, Playing Techniques, Transcribing
I’m always trying to learn new bits of language.” – Michael Brecker. There are a lot of things to practice. What is truly vital to practice if you want to get better at improvising? Plain and simple: Language. Spending time with the actual language of jazz, the recordings of the greats, should be your number …
By
Ear Training, Jazz Advice and Tips, Perspectives
There are really two areas of musicianship, aside from technique on an instrument, that a jazz musician requires to be a complete improviser. One is developing great ears and the other is an intellectual understanding of harmony. These two qualities can especially be found among the countless innovators of the music. Take the musicians of …
By
Perspectives, Playing Techniques, Transcribing
Transcribing can be beneficial no matter how you do it. Often when I go to transcribe, I like to have a specific goal in mind of what I am aiming to accomplish, making for rapid improvement in areas that need the most work. It’s essentially a problem/solution approach: Identify what problems you’re having Find the …