Inspiration for improvisers
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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, …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Language, Jazz Standards, Transcribing
So you’ve transcribed some ii-V lines. You’ve even learned a few solos note for note directly from the record, but, despite your efforts, you’re not seeing the results you expected. Transcribing those lines from your favorite player didn’t transform you into the great improviser that everyone had promised. At the end of the day, improvisation …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Language, Premium Only, Transcribing
Learning jazz language is vital to your success as an improvisor. Without it you’re truly lost. You may know a scale, a chord, a concept…but without the fundamental ideas of what to do with these tools, you’ll aimlessly wander through the harmony. These fundamental ideas are gleaned from learning and studying language. A reader recently …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Musicians, Perspectives, Transcribing
Have you ever seen a movie where a certain character stuck with you long after the film was over? Or what about a piece of artwork that kept popping up in your mind’s eye? Maybe you’ve witnessed a speech that had the same lasting effect or attended a concert where the performer played their instrument …
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There is a secret that all great musicians have in common. You won’t hear it on their recordings or even in their live performances. And some may even deny it that it ever happened at all. But look back even further and you’ll find it… The truth is that every great musician started out as …
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Jazz Language, Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards, Playing Techniques, Transcribing
What if there were a jazz musician that didn’t rely on scales, licks, or patterns, but instead sought only to play what they’d sing? What would this musician sound like? What kind of playing techniques would they use and how would they approach taking a solo? This kind of musician is what I hear when …
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Ear Training, Jazz Advice and Tips, Perspectives, Playing Techniques, Transcribing
I’m always trying to learn new bits of language.” – Michael Brecker. There are a lot of things to practice. What is truly vital to practice if you want to get better at improvising? Plain and simple: Language. Spending time with the actual language of jazz, the recordings of the greats, should be your number …
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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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Jazz ear training – What makes it different from general ear training? That’s a great question and when a reader recently asked this, it definitely made me think. They both focus on intervals, chords, root movement, and have other common ground, but how are they actually different? Over the years, I’ve taken quite a few …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Musicians
As he stood in the hallway, the students gathered round. You could see the crowd growing, one-by-one as the people walking by heard what was happening. Harold, animated and speaking with vibrant energy, was sharing his experiences with a group of lucky students that happened to catch him in-between classes. While I was at music …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Perspectives
Let’s be completely honest…My amazing teachers did tell me many of the things that I’m about to tell you…I just didn’t listen! Why didn’t I listen? I don’t know. Immaturity. Stubbornness. The belief that there had to be something else. Something more important. Something more complex. Something better, that mattered more… But these 8 pieces …
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Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards
Confirmation is one of those tunes that gives most people a difficult time. But somehow Charlie Parker had no problem playing the most beautiful lines over it time and time again. His lines flow naturally and effortlessly as if he’s composing a perfect solo in real-time… In fact, I remember Eric Alexander telling us students …