As musicians, all of us have sat down with our instruments, ready to embark on that most sacred ritual. You close the door to the room, say a silent prayer to the jazz gods, and begin shedding away on your instrument, desperate to reach that so-called ānext levelā.This was the time, the time you had set apart for this today (you missed it yesterday so of course you added that pivotal extra hour). After hours of flying fingers and a brain turned to putty, you realize you had just been mindlessly ānoodlingā on your instrument. You didnāt get anywhere! You didnāt break that barrier you hoped. That of the most ambiguous of activities had once again outwitted you: Practice.
Practice. Yes, thatās right. The curse of practicing started with those dreaded lessons you started as a kid; followed by your momās endless nagging, and now youāre addicted. Some time later, you started to love the instrument, love jazz music, got obsessed, and now itās an activity you cant miss without feeling at least a little bit guilty.
Like you, Iāve often had to sit back and ask the questions: What should I be practicing? How do I get better? These are really important questions. Maybe some of you are just starting out with jazz and simply donāt know at all what to practice, or maybe youāve been playing for years and just hit a wall and donāt know whatās next. Donāt worry! There is still hope! In this Jazz Guide to Practicing, Iāve included some essentials for your practice routine as a jazz musician. Practicing jazz can be overwhelming at times, but adding these important elements to your routine and heeding these tips will send you flying to the high road of improvement! So if youāre still with me, read on.
Listen.
Listen to jazz music, and make it part of your everyday routine. I know what youāre thinking: Thatās not practicing! Give me some real tips! But listen, internalizing this music is really what is going to help you over and above any technical exercises you like to do. I was in a master class with the great guitarist Bruce Forman once, and he stood up in front of all of us and said very seriously: āIf you donāt listen to this music, you are never going to get it.ā If you arenāt familiar with the language, how can you speak it?
I am a firm believer that listening to music is practicing, and itās some of the best you can get. Listen to the earliest of jazz, know the sounds, know the roots, and know the history. Listen to the most cutting edge modern jazz recordings, and know what cats are doing now. Thatās right, I am indeed saying that even when you are in the shower, in your room, driving your car (or the subway for all of us NYC dwellers), while listening to music: you are practicing.
Write it down.
Going into your practice room without knowing what you are going to work on will increase your chances of an un-productive session. Itās like hopping into your car for a drive without having a destination; you donāt know where youāre going and youāll probably end up running out of gas, or right back to where you started. Write down what you are going to work on that day. Be specific. You might end up making the classic mistake of overestimating what you can achieve, but hey, the rest is for tomorrow! Write down your musical goals. The statistics are out, and the results indicate that people who write down their goals are much more likely to achieve success in life than those who donāt.
Learn tunes.
I once asked the great guitarist Peter Bernstein during a lesson what he used to practice early on in the game. He replied, āTunes man. I let the tunes teach me.ā What he meant by tunes was jazz standards, or standard pieces in the repertoire. Learning tunes is essential to being a jazz musician, and here is why: itās the history, itās the language, and itās the common thread of communication.
Tunes are where you learn about harmony in jazz, and the melodies that influenced all of the greats from the past to the present. I donāt think I have ever heard a successful jazz musician say, āDonāt learn tunes man! Thatās useless!ā They are essential to the working musician. Iāve heard some guys make excuses before: āYeah I donāt know that many tunes, I write my own music, itās the way of the future.ā Wrong. Know your standards and write music. You canāt play a three hour restaurant gig, a cocktail hour, or a private party strictly with your originals most of the time, and thatās a lot of the work out there. You definitely canāt play at a public jam session with your originals. It never hurts to learn more tunes, and itās a great thing to incorporate into your practice.
Transcribe/Learn solos.
Let me be clear about something, you donāt need to write the solo down, but you can. Iāve only written down solos just several times myself. I think there is a lot of value in doing that, but the most important part is learning it on your instrument by ear. Learning solos and pieces of language from the greats was something that really helped ājump-startā my playing when I first started my journey in jazz. In fact, one year I had a teacher make me learn 32 bars of a solo every week! Iāll be honest, I think it was unnecessary to do quite that much. You donāt need to. You donāt even need to lift entire solos (although there is value in that as well). If youāre a tenor sax player, learn a line you like off of a Sonny Rollins solo. Piano: those Red Garland block chords. Bass: the walking lines from Ray Brown. Drums: Some trading fours from Philly Joe Jones. Not only will you be learning some language that will sink into your subconscious, you will be training your ear at the same time. Start easy, get a slow down program if you have to, but do a little bit when you can. It will do your practice session a lot of good!
Focus on fixing whatās broken.
Hereās another thing I learned from Bruce Forman: focus on whatever is giving you trouble at the time. In other words, if youāre feeling like your technical abilities are failing on your instrument, start shedding those scales, arpeggios, and technical exercises. If you went to a session and you didnāt know a lot of the tunes being called, start learning some more tunes. If youāre feeling like you lack language, start listening, transcribing, and blowing over tunes. Maybe your ears arenāt up to par; try practicing in all 12 keys. Itās simple advice, but very important. Donāt just keep practicing whatās easy for you. Figure out whatās broken and start fixing it.
Donāt burn out.
Weāve all heard the stories of John Coltrane locking himself up and practicing for an un-godly amount of hours. Iāve heard a lot of other stories of guys and their grueling practice habits, some even resulting in malnutrition and trips to the hospital! Crazy right? I used to practice long hours; I think the record being 10. But letās be honest, a lot of the time spent was un-productive, crappy overkill. I know that jazz musicians have big egos; your buddy is talking about how he practiced eight hours yesterday, and suddenly itās a competition. Donāt give in to the peer pressure; youāre better than that! I donāt think there is anything wrong with practicing long hours, but remember to ask yourself these questions: Is it still productive practice? Is it necessary? Am I still having fun? I think you can still accomplish just as much in a short time period if your practice is focused. Remember, you have the rest of your life to work on this music.
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