Jazz Advice

A recurring theme on this site seems to be language – acquiring, practicing, and applying the jazz language.There is a reason behind all the repetition, however. Language is a very powerful concept when it comes to improvisation and it’s an idea that can drastically change your mentality about the music.

But, even before you get to the idea of acquiring, applying, and transforming pieces of language, there is a much more basic issue at hand here: Why should you even learn language in the first place?

When you get down to it, no one is requiring you to learn lines from the records or to imitate the style of a famous musician. There is no mandatory rule that you have to improvise in a certain way and you can easily create solos with the “right notes” using memorized scales. So why bother spending that extra time to learn someone else’s solos and language?

It all boils down to musicality. What is it that defines the musicality in your playing? Where do you learn musicality without imitation or listening? Musicality is the reason you play music in the first place. Without emotion, style, and shape those chords and scales would be, well, just chords and scales.

If I had to name the one thing that improved my playing more than anything else, the thing that made me finally “get it” when it came to improvising, it would have to be language. Before I began to transcribe solos and study … Read More

Time and again, we’ve stressed on this site that scales are not the secret to jazz improvisation.

However, scales can be beneficial if you practice and apply them in the right way. Once you aurally understand and ingrain the vital aspects of the jazz language (i.e. phrasing, melodic construction, expression, harmonic application, time, articulation, etc.) the scales and theory that you study in the practice room can substantially improve your technique.

Not only that, scales coupled with a deep harmonic knowledge can infinitely expand your options for musical expression.

Whoa, wait a second! So scales are horrible and to be avoided at all costs, but they’re also invaluable for musical expression? I know it’s sounds contradictory, but consider how music is presented in most educational settings. The crux of this matter lies in the way that the majority of musicians view scales.

Most beginning players, amateur improvisers, and even some accomplished musicians see scales as 8 notes that either ascend and descend. That’s it. Not related to musicality or harmonic application, just another exercise to be practiced in all 12 keys because someone told them to. What’s worse, many frustrated improvisers use this limited view of scales as the basis for creating solos over chord progressions.

One of the major problems that people have in learning to improvise is that they turn of their ears and only think of scales in order to come up with a solo. This simply doesn’t work. Scales are for the practice room and should … Read More

We often get stuck in a rut when it comes to practicing technique.

In the practice room we cover the same bases in our efforts to improve our overall technique. We run our major and minor scales in all 12 keys, we practice them in thirds and fourths and fifths, we use jazz articulation, we play with different dynamics, and on and on. These are all essential for improvement, but the problem here is that we often continue practicing these same technical exercises in an identical way, even after we’ve mastered them.

Note: If you aren’t challenging yourself – you’re not going to be improving.

Once you’ve got your scales and patterns together in all 12 keys and have even worked on getting them up to speed, it’s time to take your technique to the next level. Don’t keep playing those same patterns, thinking that they’ll lead you to a new level of technique! Start incorporating articulation, rhythm, time, larger intervals, and chromaticism into the mix to expand your musicianship along with your technical facility.

Technique isn’t only limited to how fast you can push your fingers down on your instrument. Just as important are the technique of rhythm, articulation, and time. When you can combine all of these ideas musically and creatively, you’ll be playing much more interesting lines.

Instead of practicing the same patterns with the same rhythms and articulations over and over again, as you’ll find in many improvisation books, simply alter your approach to these … Read More

Every so often we make a musical discovery that drastically changes the way we approach improvisation. One day we are struggling over the same tunes, growing more and more frustrated with our own predictable patterns and then it hits us – we suddenly discover a secret that was hidden right before our eyes.

A subtle mental, aural, or physical shift occurs and we are able to approach improvisation in an entirely new way. From then on, our eyes (and ears) are opened to a wealth of new possibilities.

Looking back at the last fifteen years or so of my own journey to learn improvisation, I have made some very important musical discoveries that have changed the way I look at the music. Some of these discoveries came rather quickly, with a small amount of practice and others I had to struggle with for years before I had control of them.

Regardless of how long the discovery took, the result was the same: from that point on my ears changed and I took on a deeper understanding of the music. Most importantly, I now went into the practice room with a renewed excitement for improvising.

On my journey to find these breakthroughs, I looked for information in all sorts of places. Some of this information I found in books on how to improvise and some of it, in contrast, was not mentioned in any texts, videos, or lessons. Some of it was handed to me numerous times while I foolishly ignored … Read More

A reader recently sent in this question:

I was wondering if you could explain to me how to interpret slash chords for soloing. It seems like different sources have conflicting information. Also, what would I do if I encountered a chord like C/Db, in which the top and bottom are not related diatonically?

Slash chord notation

One of the trickiest parts of dealing with slash chords is deciphering the notation. When you’re used to reading standard chord changes and you come across a slash chord, it can be confusing as to what is going on. If you’re like me, the first time you saw a slash chord you were probably asking yourself “Which chord is on top? Are both of the notes chords? How do you play over these sounds?

It’s a lot simpler than you think. Here’s the deal:

When you see a slash chord, the bottom note indicates a bass note and the top note indicates a triad in some inversion. For example, the chord symbol D/C implies a D triad over a C bass note:

Unless marked otherwise, the D is just a triad (with chord tones doubled or in inversion) and the C is just a bass note. It’s as straight forward as that.…Read More

When you first began to learn how to improvise, if you studied out of a book on jazz improvisation or took a lesson on how to solo over chord changes, chances are the first thing you encountered were scales. Memorizing lists of scales from Major and minor to diminished and octatonic. Knowing which scales work with which chords. It can seem like the practice of scales never ends. This philosophy has become so entrenched within the art of learning improvisation that it is hard to avoid thinking about scales.

Numerous jazz education resources today highlight scales as the method to mastering how to play over chord progressions and improvising like your heroes. Because of this, many students believe that studying scales alone is the answer to reaching their goals. You may have even thought to yourself as I often did: “If I only get all my scales together, then I’ll solve my difficulties with improvisation.”

We get a lot of questions about practicing scales and how they relate to improvisation all the time: How should I use scales when I’m soloing? What’s the best way to practice scales? Do I even need to know my scales in order to improvise?

If you’ve read any of the articles on this site, you know that thinking about a major, minor, or any other type of scale while you’re improvising is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to the musicianship and harmonic understanding that go into creating a great solo.… Read More

The ability to play fluently in all 12 keys is essential for every improviser.

Initially, it may seem like you rarely play in certain keys or even that it’s just not necessary to play in every key. So why bother with twelve keys, right? If you look carefully, however, many common standards that are in “easy” keys have ii-V’s in “hard keys” (F#, B, C#, etc.) hidden throughout the progressions.

For instance, you may think you aren’t going to play in B Major that often, but check out the bridge to Cherokee – a ii-V in B Major every time. If you’re fluent in all 12 keys this will be no problem, but if you’ve ignored unfamiliar keys, you’re going to be faking it in this spot like a lot of other people. Don’t accept mediocrity! And regardless, who knows when someone will call a tune in a different key or bring in an original that has six sharps in the key signature.

Becoming proficient in all 12 keys requires much more than simply knowing your major scales. As an improviser, you need to be able to develop ideas and navigate progressions in a split second, without thinking about fingerings or what the next note is going to be. This is a large undertaking that will take hours in the woodshed, but is necessary for any serious musician at some point in their development.

There are three steps to mastering any key. If you finally want to have freedom in … Read More

A reader recently asked:

I was wondering about how to play over altered dominant chords. What are some strategies for playing over Dominant 7 #9 chords, specifically.

This question comes up frequently for many improvisers. It seems like everyone has a “fail safe” scale or lick that they use exclusively every time they see an altered dominant chord. With all this conflicting information flying around, trying to understand what actually works can be especially confusing.

Whether it is a V7#9, a V7#11, or a V7 Alt., you ultimately need to study the ins-and-outs of these chords in order to develop your own approach.

Traditionally, the V7#9 chord or altered dominant chord occurs in a minor ii-V progression. Instead of the ii-V7 of a major progression, a minor ii-V contains a half-diminished ii chord and an altered V7 chord (b9, #9, b13, or #11 depending on the voicing). For example, look at a minor ii-V in C minor:

Improvisers, however, have been altering V7 chords in all progressions, major and minor alike, for quite some time now. Therefore, any dominant chord that you come across, whether it is part of a ii-V or standing alone, is pretty much fair game for alteration. The first step to navigating this chord is to familiarize yourself with it’s unique character.

Be able to identify the sound

The V7#9 chord is a very versatile sound, meaning that you can take one of many harmonic approaches to play over it. In order to fully utilize the … Read More

Several readers have written us lately asking how to practice scales. Simply practicing them is not difficult, but attaining a high level of speed and accuracy, while keeping your sound consistent throughout all registers is quite a task. This article assumes you are familiar with the 12 keys and the scale qualities of major, minor (natural, harmonic, and melodic), whole tone, and diminished.

Typical scale practice

Most college jazz programs, as well as most books, have a standard way they have their students practice. While effective, their prescribed method can be greatly improved upon for more rapidly acquiring the speed we all desire. Here’s what they say:

• Practice your major, minor ( all 3…natural, harmonic, & melodic), whole-tone, and diminished scales
• In all keys
• Full range of your instrument
• From root to as high as you can go, back down to as low as you can go, and then back up the root
• One mode up, the next down and so on (up and down)
• The scale in diatonic 3rds (up and down)
• In diatonic 4ths (up and down)
• In diatonic triads (up and down)
• In diatonic seventh chords (up and down)

Here are simple examples in the key of C:

Basic scale practice prescribed by books and colleges

Seems simple enough, right? Sure, it sounds easy, but that’s a whole lot of work. I can tell you from experience, trying to tackle your scales this way is overwhelming, tiresome, and inefficient.

Yes, eventually you’ll want to be able to … Read More