Use the Power of Imitation to Unlock Jazz Improvisation
As players today, we have a ton of resources to draw from in the practice room. But when it comes to the more musical areas of improvisation, something is missing. And for many of us, that x-factor is imitation… You see, relying solely on a theory approach can make the process of improvising and playing ...
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How to Create a Thematic Jazz Solo
Have you ever felt like you’re missing a piece of the puzzle when it comes to improvisation? As if you’re following all the rules, yet still not playing the music you want to… Every musician has felt the sting of this frustration, especially when listening to all those important records and amazing players. It seems ...
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The Struggle Effect: How to Unlock Your Musical Potential
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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How to Learn a New Jazz Tune Every Day
Learning tunes goes hand in hand with being a jazz musician. But if you’ve ever tried to learn a tune by ear or attempted to memorize a list of jazz standards, you know it’s not the easiest task in the world… In fact it can be downright frustrating. Like many musicians, I struggled for years ...
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How To Play Like Michael Brecker For Mortals
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 Build Your Jazz Vocabulary Fast
When you’re first starting out on your journey learning how to play jazz, you’ll typically come across two different camps of how to go about things… One camp believes that you need a lot of music theory, particularly scales and modes, along with an understanding of how modes are applied to chords. Many refer to ...
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Learn the Secrets Behind This Crazy Freddie Hubbard Line
There is a common saying in learning the art of jazz improvisation… “If you want to sound like your favorite player, don’t just copy them, copy their musical heroes.” The logic goes, that rather than just copying and reproducing a master musician’s solo note for note, you should also model their process of becoming a ...
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5 Simple Things You Can Do Today To Play Better Solos
You’re constantly practicing, listening, and striving to improve your ability to improvise…yet for some strange reason, the next level of playing somehow seems to elude you. Etudes aren’t doing the trick. Scale patterns have become boring and predictable. And memorized lines simply won’t translate into amazing musical phrases. Despite all of your time and effort, ...
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How to Stop Playing the Same Ideas in Every Solo
Do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that you’re playing the same solo over and over again? As if you’re traveling down a familiar well-worn path in every single tune, regardless of the key, the tempo, or even the chord progression… Minor chords get your favorite minor lines, major chords get major scales, ii-V’s get ...
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Why Your Big Goals Are Hijacking Your Musical Progress
Setting goals is an essential part of improving at anything you do…whether it’s learning a language, getting in shape, or mastering an instrument and building your skills as an improviser. You see, your goals are those big targets that you’re aiming for out in the distance. The accomplishments you daydream about, the skills you wish ...
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The 6 Steps To Build Your Repertoire and Change How You Learn Tunes
Let’s face it, as musicians we’re all striving to know more tunes that we can improvise over with ease…because at the end of the day, this is how you get your musical message across to the listener. Whether it’s playing with our fellow musicians, walking into jam sessions, performing concerts or gigs, taking lessons, or ...
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How to Decode Greatness – The Process to Solve Any Musical Problem
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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