How do I begin to learn jazz if I'm already 'advanced'

AkshayB · Regular Member Joined: 03 Jan 2019 Posts: 16

Hello everyone. My name is Akshay and I've been playing the trumpet for about 6 years.

Recently I realized how amazing trumpet jazz is, and during quarantine, I envisioned learning how to play jazz. Like I said above, I've been playing for 6 years and would say I'm pretty familiar with the classical side of the trumpet (right now I'm working on playing the 1st movement of the Hummel).

My question is how do I start, knowing I have little to no experience playing jazz. I don't have lessons with my private teacher for a few weeks, but he recommended that I take a look at the Jamey Aebersold books. He said they were quite old, but retained a lot of useful information. Are there any other books, videos, or people I could look to to learn jazz.

Thanks in advance,

Akshay.

PH · Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 10:42 am Post subject:

Check out the thread called "Jazz Improvisation, Jamey Aebersold" that is a sticky at the top of this forum. It is incredibly clear and useful.
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kehaulani · Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 11:29 am Post subject:

For a general overview and preparation, I would read Improvising Jazz by Jerry Coker. Then start working on the Jamey Aebersold Play-long series. I would play Vols. 1, 2, 54. And read the text to Vol. I, plus using the material suggested by Pat, above.
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Pete · Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 11:41 am Post subject:

Listen to it. Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Arturo Sandoval, Bobby Shew, etc. It's a language.

Pete

mdarnton · Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:03 pm Post subject:

Definitely don't skip the listening step. When I started getting interested in jazz--to listen; the idea of playing trumpet was some years away--I subscribed to youtube's music service. Best $10 a month I have spent. In jazz, if it isn't there, it wasn't recorded. Now I put in hours at a time listening, and often keep it running through earphones all night long (I don't sleep well).

Go on binges of your favorite players, do period and style binges. Eventually it will start to make sense. As Pete said, it's a language. Then when you read the books listed above, you'll have moments of enlightenment of things you already hear, as you understand what was happening there, theoretically, and you'll get the feeling you could actually do that. And if you think you can do it before you get to the theory, go for it; the theory can catch up.

Note: I'm not dissing theory, but it works with ears, not instead of them.

Jaw04 · Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:36 pm Post subject:

JayKosta

khedger

BeboppinFool · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 6:12 am Post subject:

All the books on learning to speak a foreign language aren't going to help you know what that language sounds like.

Immersion in listening to that language is essential and is an excellent way to start. Think about a baby who only hears his parents and family and others and has no idea that there is a notation for the sounds they make. That baby will absorb those sounds and begin to be able to imitate and make use of them before too long.

If a baby only hears one person speak during those formative years, say a mom with a thick Brooklyn accent, what do you think the baby will sound like? The baby who hears tons of different people speaking will learn to sound more like himself than somebody else.

Cats who focus on one player for an extended length of time will tend to sound like that one player. That's why it's a good idea to listen to tons of great players speaking the language of jazz . . . you'll stand a better chance of sounding like *you* that way.
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kehaulani · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 7:38 am Post subject:

About listening and absorbing, what helped me a lot was listening to records and scat singing the solos. And this is not just singing along, but paying particular attention to singing articulations, proper phrasing, dynamics etc. Scat singing until it's characteristic.

BTW, it's being assumed that you're truly an advanced player. Playing the Hummel correctly after only six years? No offense intended, but what are you comparing "advanced" to?
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khedger · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 7:11 pm Post subject:

gwood66 · Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2020 5:32 am Post subject:

There are a couple of websites I have found extremely helpful with trying to learn jazz:

https://www.learnjazzstandards.com/

https://www.jazzadvice.com/

Here is a short video that kind of summarizes what most everyone has said up to this point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQpLueIC_bQ

I have found the following book extremely helpful in learning basic jazz theory:

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Theory-Improvisation-Craig-Fraedrich/dp/1312410051

plankowner110 · Heavyweight Member Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 3620

Listen to jazz artists every day and once you get the feel, start playing along with the recordings. You need to develop your ears so that you can actually play the sounds you create in your head. Play for hours every evening. Good luck exploring jazz.
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Turkle · Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:08 am Post subject:

Bflatman · Heavyweight Member Joined: 01 Nov 2016 Posts: 720

I have no idea what jazz is.

When I play a c major scale I am told I am playing jazz.

When I play anything lyrically I am told I am playing jazz but I play the melody simply or I try to

When I play a melody men and ladies shed a tear.

When I play a melody audiences become lost and are lifted and transported to a better place

Audiences in the street step under the wheels of cars.

I am not kidding I had to grab a 14 year old and drag him to safety

Is this jazz I like to think it is

How do I do it.

It is not enough to play perfectly without error it is not enough to play sweetly it is not enough to play with purity of tone.

The instrument must cry your soul must weep and the trumpet must wail.

You must lose all hope without redemption

And if you suffer enough your playing will touch the heart and caress the soul of the audience

This is jazz and this is blues

You can break their hearts and then mend them again and they will be reborn

Everything I play is loved because I play from my heart and my soul

Reach into your heart and play what you find there

HaveTrumpetWillTravel · Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2020 10:34 pm Post subject:

A challenge with jazz is that it "sounds easy," but there are a lot of skills you need. For an advanced student, some of these include: scales, transposition, learning jazz standards, and transcribing. It sounds hard, but a lot of them you can work away on. For me I'm now very comfortable with Bb->C transpositions and started on scales (which go beyond the major 12) and I am now a lot more familiar with the jazz classics. I haven't really started on transcription. This is just to say that most of us don't get there quickly, but there are a lot of tools that can help us make it there.

TrumpetMD

Mark Leccese · Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 11:52 am Post subject:

The book that helped me the most when I was learning to improvise was Hal, Crook's "How to Improvise." Especially the first few chapters.

https://www.amazon.com/Hal-Crook-How-Improvise-Paperback/dp/B00SB2J28U

The first time I felt as if I might be producing something musical was practicing Crook's "Play/Rest Approach." Try it.

Put on a tune from one of the Aebersold book with easy changes. Improvise for 1 bar, rest for 3 bars, improvise for 1 bar, rest for 3 bars, repeat.

Improvise for 2 bars, rest for 2 bars, improvise for 2 bars, rest for 2 bars, repeat. And so on.

You can work your way up to improvising for 4 bars, resting for 4 bars, improvising for 4 bars, resting for 4 bars, repeat.

What worked for me was that 1) it taught me to focus on phrase-making, and 2) the bars of rest allowed me time to pause and think so I didn't feel as though the chords are rushing at me like a river.
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kehaulani · Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 3:52 pm Post subject:

Miles kind'a opened my ears. When asked why some of his solos had so much space, he said because he was listening to the rhythm section. If it's a good group of players, they're doing much more than just laying down a bed. They're interacting with each other and with the soloist.

And listening to them can make it much more interactive, while giving you more meaty stuff to be playing.
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JoseLindE4 · Heavyweight Member Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 791

1. Listen regularly and intently for as much detail as possible. Style (articulation and phrasing) makes a line hip much more than the notes. Miles could make the smallest idea into art. Copy and learn style.

2. Study and copy players and solos by ear that move you. Something that moves you is trying to teach you something about yourself as a player. Embrace it; this is how you grow and evolve as a player. Copy lines, licks, and solos with as much detail as possible (style is supremely important).

3. Spend some time at a piano. Learn to play tunes and licks with simple voicings in the left hand and the melody in the right. Slow is fine. Learning to walk a bassline with your left hand and comp with your right hand (again, slowly) is helpful as well. You don't have to become a great pianist, but the piano is a wonderful visual representation of musical ideas. It's a great place to workshop ideas. Any book that you read should be read at the piano, trying things out and learning what they sound like.

4. Collect great licks and lines that move you. Learn them in many keys and be able to play them in any situation. Try to understand what makes them compelling to you and make up your own licks based on this understanding. It's ok and encouraged to copy lines that you love.

5. Allow yourself to fail. Mistakes are just a sign that you are stretching beyond your comfort zone. This is a sign of growth. If you play a "wrong" note, try to figure out how to make it sound right.

6. Learn and own the building blocks of music: scales/modes, arpeggios, digital patterns, guidetone lines, etc.

7. Sing everything. Practice is the process of connecting your internal imagination to the results on the horn. Singing is the shortcut to understanding what your mind's ear is actually hearing. This goes for classical playing too, but it's amplified when improvising. If you can sing it accurately and in tune, you can be sure that you are hearing it well. If you can hear it well, you will (eventually) be able to play it.

8. Learn the lyrics to the standards that you are practicing.

9. Don't just listen to trumpet players. Also, listen to modern players as well as the old masters. Jazz didn't end in 1959, so make sure that your listening reflects this reality. If you aren't spending time listening to the current great players who are pushing the art, then you aren't engaging in the same process that the old masters engaged in.

10. When possible, play with real people. The Aebersold play-along recordings have great players, but they can't respond to you.