Inspiration for improvisers
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Ear Training, How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Perspectives, Playing Techniques, Transcribing
Practice is an essential part of your journey as a musician. We all do it every day…or at least we try our best to, however daily practice doesn’t always guarantee improvement. Why? Simply because not all practice is created equal. If you look at the big picture there are two basic types of practice: (1) …
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Composition, Ear Training, Perspectives, Playing Techniques
I have a vivid memory of the first time I tried to play in an early jazz group. I was in school and was asked to play the trumpet part in an ensemble that met each week studying the music of Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and other significant early players. Cool, building my jazz …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Standards
Have you ever thought about why you’re practicing every single day for hours and what you’re actually trying to achieve with all your hard work? To play better over a G7 chord? To master that tricky ii V I? To get a better sound? To improve your technique? To play fast and loud? Of course …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips
As an aspiring musician today, you should consider yourself lucky. What I mean is, right now, you have access to more information, more resources, and more answers than any musician to come before you… Think about it…in a few seconds you can find a recording and the sheet music to any jazz standard ever written. …
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Transcribing jazz solos is an essential part of learning to improvise. But here’s the catch: it’s trickier than it sounds, especially if you’re just getting started. Many hopeful players attempt to learn solos from recordings, but often give up in frustration. And this is exactly how I felt when I was beginning to learn how …
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In today’s world, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. We live in a time of excess information and much of it is misleading. But supposing you’ve separated the good stuff from the stack, it still feels like there’s so much to learn… Take this site for instance. I’d like to think that we have a ton …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips
Do you feel like you’re always trying to catch up? Like everyone else pursuing music started fifty steps ahead of you and the only way you’ll reach them is by moving as fast through the material as humanely possible? This is how most beginner to intermediate jazz improvisers feel and unfortunately, without addressing it, this …
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Chords, Composition, Ear Training, Jazz Standards, Transcribing
Learning tunes should be fun. If ever there was a secret to expanding your repertoire of tunes this would be it. You’re more likely to pursue an activity that’s exciting, interesting, and challenging rather than one that feels like an annoying chore. At the end of a long day you’re going to put the hours …
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Chords, Composition, Ear Training, Playing Techniques
Recently we’ve gotten a few questions regarding chord tones: how to work on hearing them, how to aim for them in your lines, and how to connect them when you’re improvising over a chord progression. Understanding the sound and function of chord tones is important to your success as an improviser. However, it’s important to …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Music Theory, Perspectives
Let’s face it, improvisation is hard enough as it is, even when we do spend the time in the practice room. But however much we study or practice, there are some key factors that can destroy our creativity and ability to improvise in seconds. We’ve all experienced this feeling before in performance. You hear an …
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Ear Training, Jazz Advice and Tips, Perspectives
Learning to improvise is a life long pursuit. Constantly, we’re bombarded with information on how to improve. From the teachers that give us private lessons, to friends who recommend their personal practice routines, it seems there is improvement information coming from every direction! We’ll even purchase expensive books and videos, searching for “the secret” (that …
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Composition, Ear Training, Transcribing
Have you ever wondered why great pianists, guitarists, bassists, and drummers often sing along as they improvise? Ever noticed how many of the best horn players also happen to be great singers? Great musicians all over, seem to have developed the ability to sing somewhere along the way, whether they’ve had formal training or not. …