Sunday, November 14, 2010

Jazz Improvisation: Two Types of Jazz Etudes

Basically when it comes to learning jazz improvisation through the study of jazz etudes there are two types.  The first type of jazz etudes are those etudes that someone else made for you.  The second type are etudes that you made for yourself.  So are they really different? Lets find out.

Type One Jazz Etudes: Etudes made by others

For beginners type one jazz etudes are great.  Someone else has already done all the work for you.  They wrote the etude, decided what should be focused on, and they typically have a progressive format that is designed to help the player grow overtime.  Most often you find type one jazz etudes in books and available as online resources.  Matt Otto's Blog, and Tim Price's website are great online resources that a player can find exercises and jazz etudes to practice.  The main thing about type one jazz etudes is that it gives beginners a good starting place.  Intermediate players can find them helpful too, especially if they have legitimate jazz licks in them.

Some downsides to Type One Jazz Etudes

The downside of using jazz etudes made by someone else is they aren't always tailored specifically to you and your needs/desires.  Also you miss out on the benefits of writing out the etude yourself where you learn important lessons such as how to make jazz theory work in a musical context.  You discover how hard it can be to make the etude flow and feel organic while still keeping it's vitality and freshness.  This lesson in particular helps as your soloing live by giving you the knowledge and tools to improvise in the moment without completely falling back on memorized stuff.  It also helps you make the licks you have learned have that natural feeling.  The final downside is typically if you want to learn more advanced stuff the jazz etudes that are made by others in books and such aren't tailored for advanced methods of playing.  Most jazz etudes in books and on online sources are more geared to the beginning to intermediate players.  So where does this leave us?  Once you have the basics down and some understanding of jazz its time to develop your own jazz etudes and specialize them to your own goals and desires.

Type Two Jazz Etudes:  Etudes Made by You

We have arrived at the second type of jazz etude.  The jazz etude that you develop to further your own goals and develop your own style.  This is the professional approach to learning jazz improvisation through etudes.  What do I mean by this.  I mean that for those professional musicians that use the jazz etude as a way to improve there understanding of jazz improvisation they develop their own jazz etudes tailored to what they want to develop into there own playing.  There is a point in most musicians careers where they find that if they are going to progress to the next level they have to start relying on themselves instead of others.  This means developing their own exercises to help them reach their musical goals.

If you really want to grow musically then you need to follow the professional players lead and start making your own etudes.  What is so great about developing your own etude?  First is it helps you dive deeper into jazz and jazz improvisation.  To make a really good jazz etude you have to do your research.  You have to learn your jazz theory, and along with this you have to learn about the different techniques that players use in their improvisations to make a musical story.   The great thing about developing your own etude is you can take the varying techniques and elements that jazz musicians use and experiment with them in you own way.  Seeing what works and what doesn't work.  You also are able to focus on only one or two things at a time.  Then you can't deny the fact that writing your own music whether it is a tune or a simple etude is a great way to be creative.  In fact it can help your creativity.  It also helps you develop your own personal licks which later leads to your own style.

So back to the question at the beginner.  Is there a difference between the two types of jazz etudes?  Answer, only in the learning value and the growth that can occur.  Type one etudes are good for a start, but if you want to really explode your musical growth then you need to develop your own etudes or in other words be one of those who uses type two jazz etudes.  That's all for today.  Have fun playing and learning.

Caruso

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