Inspiration for improvisers
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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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Inspiration, Jazz Advice and Tips, Perspectives
Stuck in the same monotonous pattern? Not excited about playing lately? It’s time to start with a clean slate and welcome in the new year feeling motivated. Here’s 100 ideas to reinvigorate your energy for the music. Read through the list and pick one that gets you excited. Then, just do it. Transcribe your first …
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Chords, Composition, Ear Training, Jazz Standards, Scales
One of the most overlooked and useful elements of learning a tune is the way it’s put together on a macro level, the jazz form that the tune uses. Without this vital information operating in your brain on a deep level, you’re bound to get lost easily during your solo… You know how it goes…you’re …
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Composition, Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards, Rhythm
Phrasing is one of those things that everyone talks about, but most cannot clearly define. Like the concept of “swing,” it’s something you can feel and hear, but as soon as you start trying to use words to describe it, things get pretty ambiguous. First, let’s talk about musical phrases… In music, a phrase is …
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Chords, Jazz Language, Premium Only
There are certain things that you need to do if you want to improve your musical skills…Setting aside time each day to practice. Listening to important recordings. Seeking out teachers to guide you along the way. The same is true if you want to improve your jazz improvisation skills. You need to spend time listening, transcribing solos, building …
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If jazz is all about being in the moment, but all our practice time is dedicated to figuring out what we want to play when we perform, then how are we supposed to be in the moment when we perform? There’s this strange dichotomy… On one side, jazz improvisation is very rehearsed. And on the …
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When your goal is to improve at a skill like improvisation, you will stop at nothing to gather as much information as you can. Your search leads you in every direction: out of print books, the method books that the masters studied, seeking out jazz gurus and famous teachers, and searching for bootleg recordings. Along …
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Inspiration, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Education, Premium Only
People will tell you all sorts of things about learning jazz improvisation. But no one tells you many of the things that could actually help you the most. As we practice jazz improvisation, we develop a concept of how we think we should go about learning things. This concept primarily comes from what our teachers, …
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Bebop, or the innovative musical revolution of the 1940’s led by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, is one of the pillars of learning to improvise as a modern musician. …and it’s something that every serious player should spend some time studying. Chances are you’ve heard of Bird & Diz and the contribution of players like …
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Jazz Musicians, Playing Techniques, Premium Only
Michael Brecker is one of the greatest saxophonists to arise after John Coltrane. Like Trane, he took the instrument places it had never gone before, adding new fingerings, effects, and extended techniques that made him seem like more than a man…… Superhuman. That’s the word that comes to mind when I think of Michael Brecker. …
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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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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Language, Jazz Standards, Playing Techniques, Transcribing
Back in September we released a free presentation walking you through What You Should Practice. And in that presentation, we showed you and discussed the 3 essential pieces to practicing jazz improvisation… Getting new language Developing language Working on tunes But they’re not the easiest concepts to grasp… So, we thought it might be helpful …