Inspiration for improvisers
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Talent. It’s a word that’s thrown around in all professions and all parts of life. From sports and academics to art and music. And nowhere is it more prevalent than in jazz improvisation. We listen to the musical masters of the past century, we look at our teachers, the musicians at jam sessions and 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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Everyone sets goals, but only a handful of people actually achieve them. And out of these highly-motivated people that achieve their goals, only a fraction of them are truly satisfied with their accomplishments. So what is it that this group of awesome highly-motivated and satisfied achievers is doing differently than everybody else? When it comes …
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Chords, Jazz Musicians, Playing Techniques
It’s late. I’m exhausted. Been out all night at the jazz clubs and I just want to get home. I hop in the first taxi I see and get on my way. I’m listening to the radio and I hear something that sounds familiar. Trane? I know it’s him. His sound is unmistakable. But what …
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How to Practice Jazz, Inspiration, Jazz Advice and Tips
It’s a new year. I guess that means we should be making some resolutions right about now. New beginnings, a fresh start and all that other good stuff. For most people making “resolutions” translates into sitting down and writing out a list of goals. It’s not a bad exercise to do every now and then …
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Chords, Composition, Playing Techniques, Premium Only
If you took a quick survey and asked a few people to describe the components of bebop, you might come up with some answers like: “fast tempos, lots of notes, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, b9’s, b5’s, altered dominants, diminished scales.” While all of these are true, one of the most overlooked, but surprisingly simple devices …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips
In talking, practicing, and performing with many musicians over the years, it seems that a number of players are having trouble getting started with improvisation. Even more have a hard time moving forward, but can’t seem to figure out why. Time is spent in the practice room day after day, yet no results. There seems …
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Inspiration, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Standards
With all the play-along sets and backing tracks available everywhere today, it’s becoming less and less common for people to learn tunes directly from recordings. I mean, why waste your time figuring out the changes when a simple search online can tell you what they are, what scales to play, and provide you with full …
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August is finally here and with the approaching end of summer looms the shadow of the fall marathon season. Across the country runners are stepping up their training for races that they’ve been preparing for since the beginning of summer. As I have started to prepare for my own race, I’ve thought about how the …
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Chords, Composition, Music Theory
The melodic minor scale is a scale that every musician should be familiar with and eventually master. But what many players don’t realize is that this scale encompasses much more than 8 notes to drill in the practice room… Aside from a minor scale variation to memorize, the melodic minor scale presents a number of …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Transcribing
After hours spent practicing technique: endless articulation, tone, range, and fingering exercises, are you still not matching up to what you’re hearing on your favorite records? Are those same étude books and exercises you’ve been working on for years still not cutting it? It can be very discouraging when you don’t see any improvement in …
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Ear Training, How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Playing Techniques
Recently I’ve been checking out a book called “You are Your Own Gym: The Bible of Bodyweight Execises.” The author, Mark Lauren, is a former instructor and trainer for elite special forces soldiers. The central premise of his book, geared toward your everyday civilian, is that you don’t need all those fancy high-tech weight machines …