Inspiration for improvisers
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Musicians, Premium Only, Tunes
Every musician dreams of creating solos full of flowing melodic lines. To play compelling ideas over fast tunes, ballads, complex chord progressions, and standard forms like the blues or rhythm changes… The only problem is that most of us are trying to achieve this melodic vision with the same old scales and exercises, piecing them …
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Michael Brecker talked about it. Mulgrew Miller mentioned it time and again in masterclasses. And if you’ve spent any time on Jazzadvice, you’ve seen multiple articles about the importance of learning it. But why should you start thinking about jazz language? You’re already practicing technique, running scales, and listening to a ton of your favorite …
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Chords, Jazz Musicians, Playing Techniques, Premium Only
Alterations are at the heart of jazz. In no other genre of music can you freely alter chords in a such a fluid and flexible manner. As chords whiz by, the soloist has the freedom to add all sorts of chord alterations to their melodic lines. But it requires a sense of how these altered …
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What comes to mind when you hear the word diminished? A chord? A scale? Wait, is it whole-steps and half-steps…or the other way around? If you’re like most players, the diminished sound often creates more questions than answers. But it’s a sound that the greatest players – from John Coltrane to Michael Brecker and beyond …
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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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Ear Training, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Education, Playing Techniques
Play what you’re hearing in your head! These are the instructions that numerous books, videos, and educators tell us as we struggle to figure out how to play over chord progressions. The only problem in situations like these is, as beginners, we aren’t hearing anything in our heads… Think back to the first time that …
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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 …
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The difference between many subjects and jazz improvisation is that the latter has no single correct and well-defined path. Every person takes a different route depending how they learn, how they hear, what they want to sound like, and countless other factors. Because we all are shooting for different musical goals and have different ways …
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Music is the space between the notes – Claude Debussy. The use of space is what defines our lines. Learning how to control our use of space allows us to define our lines precisely how we want to. To gain this control, we must focus our attention on where we rest. Most of our practice …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Playing Techniques, Rhythm
As melodic improvisers, we are naturally focused on the harmonic aspect of what we are playing. After all, there’s nothing worse than playing wrong notes, right? Our minds are so concerned with what key a tune is in, what note choices work well over a specific chord, and how to navigate a difficult progression, that …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Playing Techniques
Articulation…tonguing notes, it seems like a pretty simple concept, right? Well, not exactly. It has taken me quite a while and a ton of practice to figure out how to articulate my lines correctly when I’m soloing. If you think about it, articulation is not really focused on in jazz education when compared to the …
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Visualization can be a very powerful tool when it comes to achieving your goals. Everyone from professional athletes to ballet dancers have used this simple, but effective technique throughout training and competition to reach their peak level of performance. The simple task of mentally preparing for challenges and envisioning success can transform and drastically improve …