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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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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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Playing Techniques
How creative are you each time you play your instrument? Think about it for a second…are you actually creating new musical ideas in your solos? Are you actually free when you improvise?? As a creative improvising musicians, this is one question that we should all ask ourselves from time to time. It’s well known that …
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Chords, Jazz Language, Premium Only
You’ve heard about the scales. You understand the music theory. And you’ve even played through the patterns in a few exercise books. But when it comes to actually improvising with the diminished sound, something is missing. Well, today we’re going to show you how to bridge that gap… You see, scales, shapes, patterns, and harmonies …
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Inspiration, Jazz Education, Perspectives
When you’re frustrated with your playing it’s difficult to excel at all. It’s difficult to make a coherent musical statement, let alone even listen to yourself. These bouts happen to everyone. The key is to not get too discouraged and press on… Today we’ll look into some tactics for how to deal with frustration in …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Education
If you’ve read through Should I Go To Music School, and after some serious thought have arrived at the notion that you’d like to go to music school, the next step is finding one that’s right for you. Depending on your level of commitment, current level of musicianship, other areas of interest, personal goals, and …
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Anyone can improvise! – The phrase rolls off the tongue with the banality of many a late-night infomercial. “Anyone can get ripped abs! Anyone can make millions from home! Anyone can speak Navajo!” But when it comes to jazz, is this statement really true? This has been a debate in the jazz education world since …
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Composition, Jazz Musicians, Playing Techniques, Rhythm
John Coltrane is probably best known for Countdown and Giant Steps, or his earth-shattering intensity on A Love Supreme. But often overlooked is the depth and beauty of his phrasing and lyricism… When I first heard the album Kind of Blue, I was blown away. And I still am to this day. There is so …
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There’s one important idea that we must remember as musicians: When you practice, you create habits. Think about it, this is essentially the reason that we set out to practice in the first place. By consciously focusing on a single exercise or technique for hours at a time, we ingrain these skills on an unconscious …
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Inspiration, Perspectives, Playing Techniques
What if you could approach something in a completely new way than you’ve ever done before? What would happen? Perhaps an entire world of possibility exists from this new angle, but how do you get there? Trying completely outlandish, almost silly techniques can spawn immense creativity and improvement in one’s ability. In all art-forms, it’s …
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It seems like jazz musicians are always thinking about tunes; knowing tunes, learning tunes, how does that one go again? Performing in different situations we are expected to know certain tunes that other musicians will call or even people in the audience will request. This can seem like a very daunting task at first and …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Playing Techniques, Premium Only
Do you ever feel like you’re stuck in a routine? Going through the motions day in and day out. Performing the same tasks at the same time, no matter what. You can almost predict it like clockwork… The truth is everyone knows this feeling because we’re creatures of habit. We find the path of least …