How To Create Your Own Jazz Exercises From a Transcribed Line
You hear it over and over. Just transcribe. You want to get better? Transcribe. You want to have a better sound. Transcribe. Can’t seem to play over Rhythm Changes? Transcribe. And yes, when people tell you this, they’re correct. You can learn pretty much anything you want from transcribing. But, what they don’t tell you ...
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10 Brilliant Jazz Solos And What You Can Learn From Them
There is a secret that all great musicians have in common. You won’t hear it on their recordings or even in their live performances. And some may even deny it that it ever happened at all. But look back even further and you’ll find it… The truth is that every great musician started out as ...
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The Real Reason You Should Start Transcribing Jazz Solos
Here’s a thought. What if you could go back in time and take a lesson with John Coltrane? Yes, that John Coltrane. I mean drive up to his home in Dix Hills, knock on the door, politely say hello to his wife, and walk in past the stacks of staff paper and saxophone mouthpieces into ...
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5 Skills You Won’t Learn in School, Skill Four: How to Speak the Jazz Language
Imagine that you’ve just stepped off a plane in a foreign country. You grab your suitcase and step onto the soil for the first time and suddenly you’re filled with a sense of excitement and anticipation. What new sights, new sounds, unusual food, and interesting people await you in this strange new place? Your mind ...
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The Secret Behind Every Solo that You Can’t Afford to Miss
There’s a secret hidden in every great solo. You’ll find it in those old records of Louis Armstrong and those videos of Bird and Diz that you watch on YouTube. You can even hear it in the players of today like Terence Blanchard, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Tom Harrell and dozens of others. It’s a secret that ...
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3 Essential Improvisation Tools that You Need to Know
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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6 Practice Essentials for Every Improviser
You walk into your practice room. You sit back in your favorite chair and mentally prepare to play your first note of the day. You glance at your stack of etude books, the half transcribed solo sitting on your music stand, and your growing list of tunes to learn and you let out a heavy ...
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What, Why, Where, Who, When, and How to Transcribe
Every day we receive countless variations of what, why, where, who, when, and how to transcribe questions in our inbox. Should I transcribe lines or whole solos? Do I need to transcribe from the recording or can I just use a transcription book? Who should I transcribe? Do I have to transcribe Charlie Parker? Can ...
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10 Easy Options for Expanding Your Dominant 7th Vocabulary
What’s the most important chord progression that you need to know as a musician? Well that’s a good question…In the past we’ve explored some common chord relationships that you’ll encounter as an improviser, but there is one chord relationship that sticks out above the rest. Any guesses? It’s the relationship of the five chord to ...
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Happy New Year! 8 Musical Resolutions That Will Change Your Playing
A new year is the perfect time to look back at what you’ve accomplished in the practice room and to look forward to what you still wish to achieve as a musician. It’s also a great time to make a fresh start, to realign yourself musically, and to set some new goals. So, Happy New ...
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What to do when You Crash and Burn on a Tune
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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The Philosophy of Learning Jazz Improvisation: Thinking like a Composer
Composition is selective improvisation – Igor Stravinsky. In 15 seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, while in improvisation you have 15 seconds – Steve Lacy. Learning to improvise is a big undertaking. Not only must ...
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