The Lesson Library
How to Completely Change How You Think About Practicing: Words of Wisdom from Harold Mabern
As he stood in the hallway, the students gathered round. You could see the crowd growing, one-by-one as the people walking by heard what was happening. Harold, animated and speaking with vibrant energy, was sharing his experiences with a group of lucky students that happened to catch him in-between classes. While I was at music ...
Why This Two-Step Approach to Jazz Language Will Take Your Improvising from Good to Great
Have you ever felt like you’re stuck with the same old licks when it comes to improvising? Or that you’re trying to create a solo from a strict set of scales. The truth is many players share this frustration and it all goes back to the practice room. You see when it comes to tackling ...
2 Simple and Effective Practice Plans for Jazz Improvisation [Free Download]
There seems like there’s so much to practice, but it’s actually an illusion. In today’s day and age, we’re bombarded by information. In approaching or learning literally anything, there’s a million resources for how to achieve it. Looking for the perfect way to slice an apple, or the best diet to get a six-pack? A ...
Why These 8 Jazz Standards Should Be Your New Practice Etudes
Every musician has spent time in the practice room working on etudes. Diligently running through exercises that cover various techniques like articulation, the altissimo range, or diminished arpeggios. This is a good start for most players, but where does the jazz musician turn to develop the techniques that are essential for improvisation? After all jazz ...
20 Practice Hacks for the Busy Musician
Time is the only thing we really have in life and there never seems to be enough of it. But whether your goals are to just play for fun or to become a professional musician, there are techniques you can start using today to make use of your time more effectively to become the musician ...
10 Surprisingly Effective Warm-Ups for Jazz Improvisation
You’ve been thinking about it all day. As you ate breakfast. On your commute to work. And while you were sitting at your desk watching the seconds tick by. You need to practice. You need to start making progress and achieving your musical goals. And you need to do it right now! But before you ...
5 Simple Ways to Escape the ‘Diatonic Trap’ in Your Jazz Solos
You want to play exciting solos. Ones that will make the audience sit on the edge of their seats, that’ll make you stand out from every other musician in the room. But when you improvise everything ends up sounding exactly the same.. Many musicians share this frustration and for many it goes right back to ...
How to Avoid the 4 Harmful Mindsets that are Sabotaging Your Practice Routine…
If you’re serious about reaching your musical potential or stepping up your jazz improvisation game then the majority of your time as a musician should be spent in one place: The practice room. It’s where you’ll do the dirty work of pursuing your musical goals and where you’ll build your foundation as a performer. It’s ...
How to Practice: The 3 Essentials to Practicing Jazz Improvisation [Free Download Inside]
Back in September we released a free presentation walking you through What You Should Practice. And in that presentation, we showed you and discussed the 3 essential pieces to practicing jazz improvisation… Getting new language Developing language Working on tunes But they’re not the easiest concepts to grasp… So, we thought it might be helpful ...
The Smart Improviser’s Process for Creating Stellar Solos Every Time
Contrary to what many people think, great solos don’t just happen by chance. They aren’t a lucky run of notes that happen to sound good or a sudden stroke of divine inspiration that hits once you walk on stage. If only it were that easy! The ability to get up and improvise in front of ...
What To Practice: A Free Presentation on The 3 Essential Pieces of Practicing Jazz Improvisation
Nearly every day we get asked, “What should I practice?” And, this is not an easy question to answer. In fact, it’s pretty complicated. So, in an attempt to help everyone who has always wondered what to practice and what professionals practice, I began to put together what I had thought would be a quick ...
The Secret to Getting Good Fast at Jazz Improvisation
Trust the process. Keep going and you’ll get there. Anything worth doing takes time. We hear these things over and over when we’re learning and it’s all good advice. But what they don’t tell you is that there’s one key thing that separates those who learn jazz fast, from those who get mildly better at ...