Jazz Help

[groovetuber]

Hello, I have been checking over the boards the past few days and this seems like a pretty cool place! Anyway, I am a guitar player and I have been playing for 7 years now. I have recently been getting into jazz a lot and I am starting to study it but I need some sort of direction. While I have heard a lot of jazz over the years, I am definately pretty new to playing it and definately new to analyzing. This is what I am going to be studying in college and I thought I would get a head start with this stuff. I can't wait to get deep into studying jazz! Anyway, if you guys can point me in a direction as to where to start I would be most thankful. I've already started messing around with II V Is, playing them and seeing them all over the place in fakebooks. I've also been transcribing some Miles stuff by ear. I guess my problem is that I have a hard time figuring out what to practice. I feel that I have pretty good technical ability from 7 years of practice, but I really need to work on my scales and just theory in general. I am really eager to learn and want to progress, but I am sort of stuck. Again, I would appreciate any a push in the right direction. Thanks!

[Jakeweiser]

As you are preparing to go into college for music I'll give you my own personal and current break down of what I think someone who is just starting this level of study should practice.

Practice Should be Fun but Scheduled

The idea that a student should be practicing 6-8hrs a day is a myth. Certainly some people do this, and those who can do it, more power to them. However, I found when I practiced on this level it hurt my overall musicality while only attaining a certain level of technical proficiency which today, years later is improved more with less practice.

Every day select small 1 to 1.5 hour chunks of time that you can practice in and within that 1.5 hour period have 3 categories of things to practice. Basically deal with one item for 30 minutes and then move on.

This enables you to focus, clearly and with a goal in mind that after 30 minutes it is time to move onto something else. In 30 minutes you can improve if you are focused enough on the task, AND this is 1.5 hours worth of your day, easily you can repeat this in the evening if your first 1.5 is in the morning. Giving you 1 hour on a given task. It helps to pass this time, making it easy to go through and fun for you to work on.

As mentioned, you can take 1.5 hours and repeat as many times as you can in the day if you feel so inclined. However remember that practicing music is only one aspect of getting better at it. PLAYING music is what really gets you better. When you're at school you have an indespensible resource of a bunch of young peers who are all there to learn (ideally) and therefore you should seek out kean students like yourself to jam with on a daily basis, even if it's grabbing a bassist for a few tunes in the afternoon on Monday. I always sacrificed practice time for playing time and I will always continue to do so.

Now, if you are working in 30 minute chunks for an hour and a half you can divide it into 3 things. Pick one item from each of these three major categories to practice in the 1.5 hours you work on. If you wish to repeat them later feel free, OR work on other things. For example, I would spend 30 minutes on scales in the morning and 30 minutes on arpeggios in the evening, but spend both 30 minutes slots on transcription in section 2, and in section 3 I would take 30 minutes or sight reading and 30 minutes of theory study. Catch my drift?

There is a lot to learn, and it is a life long presuit.

Technique: Here are some things you'll need to work out

Major, Melodic Minor, Harmonic Minor, Diminished, Augmented, Wholetone, Pentatonic and Blues Scales
Arpeggios of Triads, 7th and Fully Extended Chords Diatonically through Major, Melodic and Harmonic Minor as well as All Qualities by themselves
Hammeron, Pull Off and Sweep Techniques
Right Hand Speed
Wide Intervals
Chord Voicings Drop 2 and 3 Voicings on all available String Groups
Triad Voicings


Repertoire/Vocabulary

Transcribe Solos from albums or Solo lines from recordings
Learn Jazz Standards by Ear from recordings
Learn to Memorize Jazz Standards from Recordings or if need by an accurate Transcibed Fakebook
MEMORIZE TUNES. You don't know a tune if you need to read it from anything whatso ever, it must be INTERNARLIZED
Learn Jazz phrases or patterns that are considered to be part of the language
Learn voicing patterns and voice leading patterns through regularly seen Jazz progressions (eg ii V i, iii VI ii V I)
Build your tune library up every week by learning a new jazz standards
Learn jazz compositions that are not standards that you enjoy off your favorite albums


Reading/Theory/Listen

Practice sight reading from etude books or transcription books (Charlie Parker's Omni Book)
Practice sight reading a jazz standard and making it musical out of a fake book
Purchase a good Theory book and study it intently. Practice examples given in the book at the piano or on your guitar if possible. you need to relate the Theory to your own Ear.
Listen intently and actively to a jazz album every day. Don't listen when washing dishes or doing homework. Make it your complete focus

[groovetuber]

Thanks a lot for this reply! I really appreciate it. This should definately help me to get the ball rolling.

[EdByrne]

As you are preparing to go into college for music I'll give you my own personal and current break down of what I think someone who is just starting this level of study should practice.

Practice Should be Fun but Scheduled

The idea that a student should be practicing 6-8hrs a day is a myth. Certainly some people do this, and those who can do it, more power to them. However, I found when I practiced on this level it hurt my overall musicality while only attaining a certain level of technical proficiency which today, years later is improved more with less practice.

Every day select small 1 to 1.5 hour chunks of time that you can practice in and within that 1.5 hour period have 3 categories of things to practice. Basically deal with one item for 30 minutes and then move on.

This enables you to focus, clearly and with a goal in mind that after 30 minutes it is time to move onto something else. In 30 minutes you can improve if you are focused enough on the task, AND this is 1.5 hours worth of your day, easily you can repeat this in the evening if your first 1.5 is in the morning. Giving you 1 hour on a given task. It helps to pass this time, making it easy to go through and fun for you to work on.

As mentioned, you can take 1.5 hours and repeat as many times as you can in the day if you feel so inclined. However remember that practicing music is only one aspect of getting better at it. PLAYING music is what really gets you better. When you're at school you have an indespensible resource of a bunch of young peers who are all there to learn (ideally) and therefore you should seek out kean students like yourself to jam with on a daily basis, even if it's grabbing a bassist for a few tunes in the afternoon on Monday. I always sacrificed practice time for playing time and I will always continue to do so.

Now, if you are working in 30 minute chunks for an hour and a half you can divide it into 3 things. Pick one item from each of these three major categories to practice in the 1.5 hours you work on. If you wish to repeat them later feel free, OR work on other things. For example, I would spend 30 minutes on scales in the morning and 30 minutes on arpeggios in the evening, but spend both 30 minutes slots on transcription in section 2, and in section 3 I would take 30 minutes or sight reading and 30 minutes of theory study. Catch my drift?

There is a lot to learn, and it is a life long presuit.

Technique: Here are some things you'll need to work out

Major, Melodic Minor, Harmonic Minor, Diminished, Augmented, Wholetone, Pentatonic and Blues Scales
Arpeggios of Triads, 7th and Fully Extended Chords Diatonically through Major, Melodic and Harmonic Minor as well as All Qualities by themselves
Hammeron, Pull Off and Sweep Techniques
Right Hand Speed
Wide Intervals
Chord Voicings Drop 2 and 3 Voicings on all available String Groups
Triad Voicings


Repertoire/Vocabulary

Transcribe Solos from albums or Solo lines from recordings
Learn Jazz Standards by Ear from recordings
Learn to Memorize Jazz Standards from Recordings or if need by an accurate Transcibed Fakebook
MEMORIZE TUNES. You don't know a tune if you need to read it from anything whatso ever, it must be INTERNARLIZED
Learn Jazz phrases or patterns that are considered to be part of the language
Learn voicing patterns and voice leading patterns through regularly seen Jazz progressions (eg ii V i, iii VI ii V I)
Build your tune library up every week by learning a new jazz standards
Learn jazz compositions that are not standards that you enjoy off your favorite albums


Reading/Theory/Listen

Practice sight reading from etude books or transcription books (Charlie Parker's Omni Book)
Practice sight reading a jazz standard and making it musical out of a fake book
Purchase a good Theory book and study it intently. Practice examples given in the book at the piano or on your guitar if possible. you need to relate the Theory to your own Ear.
Listen intently and actively to a jazz album every day. Don't listen when washing dishes or doing homework. Make it your complete focus


Great stuff, Jake. Man, are you organized!:cheers :yeahthat: :thewave :tanz: :elephant: :dill: :banana: :clap: :banana: :guitar:

[Jakeweiser]

Granted.... I'm not super organized. I used to be.

I don't practice everything on this list anymore. Perhaps I should. However once things get mastered then they're not important to practice everything on there. But when starting out there sometimes can be that Huge mountain that you think you can't ever get over.

I thank myself that I'm not a Brass player anymore who must spend an hour just getting started every day and if you miss a day then you suddenly find yourself 2 steps behind when you wish you were 2 steps ahead.

Subsequently I bet my parents are glad I'm not a drummer :D

[EdByrne]

Granted.... I'm not super organized. I used to be.

I don't practice everything on this list anymore. Perhaps I should. However once things get mastered then they're not important to practice everything on there. But when starting out there sometimes can be that Huge mountain that you think you can't ever get over.

I thank myself that I'm not a Brass player anymore who must spend an hour just getting started every day and if you miss a day then you suddenly find yourself 2 steps behind when you wish you were 2 steps ahead.

Subsequently I bet my parents are glad I'm not a drummer :D

Please save all this stuff and write a great book.

[ingeneri]

Great advice as usual. I'd humbly add the following regarding learning tunes:

Learn standards, then learn them again. Meaning, once you get comfortable/bored with a tune, mix it up to make it fresh. Change the time, or turn the head into a chord melody, or revisit simple tunes to work out chord substitutions. In addition to keeping things fresh, this makes you flexible for when you play with actual other people who don't have to follow your arrangement.

As Ed always points out the tune (melody) is always the context. Everything else is just raw materials, so always apply any new technique, or lick, or voicing to an actual piece of music.

[EdByrne]

How to Learn to Improvise on a Tune

The three primary elements are all LINES: Harmony is secondary.

1. Reduce the melody by eliminating repeated notes and non-harmonic notes.

2. Learn the guide tone lines, based on the thirds and sevenths, which constitute the essence of the tune's harmonic progression.

3. Learn the song's root progression.

4. Develop these essential compositional elements by applying chromatic targeting.

5. Reduce the song's rhythms, and then develop them through permutation.

6. Combine all of these elements systematically and then ultimately intuitively.

Solo lines developed in this fashion will work with ANY harmonization.


Try taking any Bird line and learn it in all keys. After all, they are frozen improvisations comprised of formulas, or figures of speech. Start with one of his blues lines. They have been paradigms for two entire generations of jazz artists.

I started by paraphrasing written solos in big band charts (good way to start), and moved on to the scales, and so on. Improvisation is melted composition, while composition is frozen improvisation: They are two forms of the same thing. Indeed, the great European composers were all improvisers in the exact same manner as jazz musicians are today. When they composed they were often essentially notating what they had been working out extemporaneously on the gig. We jazz musicians tend to erroneously think that improvisation is unique to Western art music, which it is not. What is unique is the marriage of African rhythm, a unique style of articulations, inflections, vibratos, and the blues, with European tonality, harmony, and forms.

I approach my practice regimen on two essential tiers. One is the composition: melody, guide tone lines (the essence of the harmonic movement), and root progression--all lines. The second tier involves idiomatic formulas: blues licks, ii, V, I, and so on, which we learn in all keys--the entire range of the instrument. This is the traditional way practitioners learned. For me the challenge is to learn to make the second serve the first, to learn to personalize the idiomatic phrases and link them to the essential compositional material.

If you practice this way, you will gradually and naturally begin to shed (lose) the scales and runs naturally and organically; the composition will speak to you, suggesting ideas. I believe that the special challenge of playing the guitar, piano, and saxophone is that it's too easy for your fingers to run amuck. If I played guitar, I would sing everything I practiced, both with the guitar and without. This helps you get directly to the source of melodicism, since you will be disinclined to sing mindless scales and patterns.

The other important element is the rhythm of the composition at hand. These rhythms can be systematically permutated (developed). In the case of standards, which often don't come with pre-composed hip rhythms such as with jazz compositions, you can develop the rhythms you created on the head in your improvisation.

My improvisation method, Linear Improvisation, is a systematic approach to these skills.

[dandan]

I pick up quite a bit from arranging chord melodies, but I'm not in an academic environment. The chord melodies seem to get me into the harmony melody relationship in a way I could not get otherwise.