Inspiration for improvisers
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Playing Techniques
Do you find yourself having trouble remembering the solos you’ve transcribed? Have you ever memorized the melody to a tune only to forget it a week later? Do you have trouble recalling the chord progressions to your favorite standards? If you are screaming “Yes, that’s me!”at the computer screen, then the solution to your problems …
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Chords, Ear Training, How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Playing Techniques, Premium Only, Scales
Can one note really change your ears and improve your creativity? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. But let me explain…A few years ago I took a lesson with the great trumpet player, improviser and composer Ingrid Jensen. As I hopped on the the N train and headed to the lesson I looked over my practice …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips
Remember those times in school, where you were assigned a huge project and given a deadline to finish it by? You know, the ones where the teacher threw an enormous assignment at you as soon as you walked into the classroom: “Write a 15 page paper on the history of the French revolution and give …
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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 …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Musicians, Premium Only, Transcribing
Sonny Rollins is one of those rare musical masters that seems to have it all figured out when it comes to improvisation. And if you’re a musician that’s been searching for the missing answers to improve your solos on the jazz repertoire, he’s the perfect player to study. …especially if you’re trying to develop your …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Myths, Perspectives
When exactly do I become good at improvising? Is there a single point that occurs where I can finally play like I want to? These are questions that inevitably pop up and hover at the back of your mind as you begin learning to improvise. Is all the work you’re doing now really going to …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips
We all have those days in the practice room…days where you can’t seem to get anything right. Where you’re fighting your instrument and you want to scream… I’m sure you know the feeling of a frustrating day in the practice room. It’s frustrating because you’ve set aside time in your day specifically for practicing and …
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Chords, Composition, Playing Techniques, Premium Only
Everybody wants to play “outside” the chord changes. They think there is something mysterious about getting outside the changes. In my experience, the phenomenal players that I’ve studied with along with the legendary players I’ve learned from on recordings, approach playing outside the harmony much in the same way they approach playing inside the harmony: …
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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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Chords, Composition, Jazz Language, Premium Only
As the article last Wednesday discussed, learning to apply language to tunes is crucial because it puts the language into context, allowing your ears and fingers to gain an understanding of how to integrate the language into your overarching concept. Over time, the language you practice this way will spontaneously materialize in new form, surprising …