Thursday, October 14, 2010

More Keys of Success for The Traditional Approach

The Ear the Ear the Ear.  That is what the traditional approach to jazz improvisation is all about.  If you can't play what you hear internally then it's going to be difficult to have a good improvisation.  Last time I talked a little about developing you ear.  Today I would like to give you a few more drills that are helpful in learning to improvise.

The first is simple but powerful.  Play with the greats.  What do I mean by this.  Get your favorite jazz record and just play along with it.  Play whatever comes to mind.  You will find that the ideas of the greats will lead you to have your own great ideas.  This is not a transcription drill so don't try and copy the players just make your own improvised lines that will fit with them.  This drill is more a drill that helps you develop your creativity and helps your ear learn what notes seem to fit with specific sounds and what notes don't.  This is really your chance to play with amazing players in the comfort of your home or own practice room.  You can do the same thing with a regular play-along.  Just pick a play-along and start playing.  Don't look at chords or scales or anything.  Play intuitively.  This really helps you to play more freely and develop your ear finger connection.  Both records and play-alongs are great, but I thing that whenever possible it is better to play along with recordings.  I find that they provide you with insperation, ideas, and they are more enjoyable then just playing with a simple play-along.

The second drill I want to share is a self transcription drill designed to help you play the ideas that you can hear and sing but you don't know how to translate to your saxophone.  I hear it all the time.  "If only I could play what I hear in my head," or "I can sing some great jazz lines, but when I try to play them they don't come out."  This is a common problem for most musicians learning to improvise.  The simplest solution is to sing the ideas you hear in your head and record them.  After you have your ideas recorded you can then transcribe them using your saxophone.  If you do this enough then you will start playing the ideas in you head naturally.  What is great about this method too is that you can slow the ideas down if they are fast.  Just sing the same thing slower.  Also keep in mind the old saying if you can't sing it you can't play it.

I hope you can see that with the traditional approach to jazz improvisation the key really is coming up with drills that help you put the mind, ears and fingers together.  There are many variations that you can come up with.  I've just shared with you a few.  Now it is up to you to do the practicing and to come up with other drills of your own.  The Best of luck.

Caruso

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