I need help with learning jazz?!
Question: I need help with learning jazz!?
I'm a freshman at a performing arts high school and I am a trumpet player in the jazz program!. I don't know where to begin!. =/ I know I need to listen to some of the great players but I only know a few: Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, John Coltraine and Dizzy Gillespie!. Other than listening to others, what else could I do to improve on my jazz!? [mainly improvisation] Www@Enter-QA@Com
Answers:
Always work on developing your ears in as many ways possible!. Get a piano or keyboard; learn how to play chords so you can hear chordal sequences!. Remember that eye hand coordination does not benefit an improviser; improvising requires acute ear hand coordination!.
The improvising guru Jamey Aebersold once said that if he were to learn how to improvise all over again, he would play every truly familiar melody he knew in all twelve keys by ear to develop the link between ear and hands If you choose to do this I encourage you to start off with the simplest melody (or even melody fragments or hooks) possible!. By the way, Duke Ellington wrote "Do Nothing 'til You Hear from Me" from hearing one of his trumpeters (was it Cootie Williams!?) use that motif played in all keys as a warm-up etude!.
If you are a strong reader, I recommend studying transcriptions of solos by jazz greats!. Start with those who play your instrument (if for no other reason, because these will tend to lay better on your horn- I've studied for years out of the Omnibook and find Bird solos lay better on alto than on tenor simply because they were played on alto), but later branching out to transcriptions of saxophonists, pianists, etc!.
Four transcriptions of classic Clifford Brown (my favorite trumpet player ever) solos can be had via download in !.PDF form at www!.brownie!.com
That's the Clifford tribute site- read up on this giant who barely lived past his 25th birthday yet left us a staggering recorded legacy!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
The improvising guru Jamey Aebersold once said that if he were to learn how to improvise all over again, he would play every truly familiar melody he knew in all twelve keys by ear to develop the link between ear and hands If you choose to do this I encourage you to start off with the simplest melody (or even melody fragments or hooks) possible!. By the way, Duke Ellington wrote "Do Nothing 'til You Hear from Me" from hearing one of his trumpeters (was it Cootie Williams!?) use that motif played in all keys as a warm-up etude!.
If you are a strong reader, I recommend studying transcriptions of solos by jazz greats!. Start with those who play your instrument (if for no other reason, because these will tend to lay better on your horn- I've studied for years out of the Omnibook and find Bird solos lay better on alto than on tenor simply because they were played on alto), but later branching out to transcriptions of saxophonists, pianists, etc!.
Four transcriptions of classic Clifford Brown (my favorite trumpet player ever) solos can be had via download in !.PDF form at www!.brownie!.com
That's the Clifford tribute site- read up on this giant who barely lived past his 25th birthday yet left us a staggering recorded legacy!.Www@Enter-QA@Com