Inspiration for improvisers
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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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Playing Techniques, Transcribing
Transcribe, transcribe , transcribe. It is what you’ve been hearing since you started to learn how to improvise…and for a good reason. Transcribing is one of the best ways to learn the stylistic language of jazz, improve your ear and in short, become a better all around improviser. The mere act of learning a solo …
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Rhythm is often thrown to the wayside, in favor of working on harmony and melody. Perhaps this disregard is caused by a lack of understanding about how to approach this aspect of improvisation. Here’s a simple and effective process to find and incorporate new rhythms into your playing. Step 1: Choose a chorus You’ll need …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Language, Jazz Musicians, Playing Techniques, Transcribing
Recently I’ve been studying and transcribing a lot of Miles from around 1956-1957. Albums like Cookin’, Relaxin’, and Workin’. More than the notes or the harmonic devices in his solos, the one thing that sticks out about Miles is his sense of phrasing. This is what sets him apart and why so many listeners connect …
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Chords, Composition, Jazz Language, Playing Techniques, Scales, Transcribing
What’s the most important chord progression that you need to know as a musician? Well that’s a good question…In the past we’ve explored some common chord relationships that you’ll encounter as an improviser, but there is one chord relationship that sticks out above the rest. Any guesses? It’s the relationship of the five chord to …
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Ear Training, How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Education, Transcribing
You walk into your practice room. You sit back in your favorite chair and mentally prepare to play your first note of the day. You glance at your stack of etude books, the half transcribed solo sitting on your music stand, and your growing list of tunes to learn and you let out a heavy …
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Inspiration, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Musicians, Perspectives, Playing Techniques, Transcribing
There’s a secret hidden in every great solo. You’ll find it in those old records of Louis Armstrong and those videos of Bird and Diz that you watch on YouTube. You can even hear it in the players of today like Terence Blanchard, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Tom Harrell and dozens of others. It’s a secret that …
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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, Composition, Jazz Advice and Tips, Tunes
Here’s something that you’ve probably realized by now on your musical journey…that jazz improvisation can get very complicated, very quickly. In the blink of an eye your enjoyable musical hobby can transform into something that feels a little bit like homework – a tricky exercise with right and wrong answers. Suddenly the simple act of …
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How to Practice Jazz, Premium Only
In case you were starting to mistake jazz musicians for super-humans…Or highly talented individuals that know thousands of tunes, have perfect pitch, and transcribe solos in mere minutes, I thought I’d write a post to correct that picture in your mind. In fact, I want to show you one of the most important rules when …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Language, Rhythm, Tunes
Every single musician to ever embark on learning to improvise jazz runs into countless musical problems. That’s just the way it is. One problem after another, figuring out different ways to approach a progression in hopes of clarifying their musical ideas and better communicating them to the listener. So if you want to play jazz, …
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Composition, Jazz Language, Playing Techniques, Scales, Transcribing
Every so often you’ll make a musical discovery that will drastically change the way you approach improvisation. One day you’re struggling over the same tunes, growing more and more frustrated with your own predictable patterns and then it hits you – you discover a secret that was hidden right before your eyes. A subtle mental, …