Post from Dan Taylor:
Blog update between sessions on 8-15 and 8-22
Hello everyone. We are looking forward to our next session on 8-22 and our last gig down at Anthony’s for Sea Jazz on 8-29. Avenue B will also be performing Tuesday night at Romeo’s, so go down and support them and listen to jazz if you can. It has been a great summer and we hope that you have taken some useful concepts and techniques from us that will benefit you and your playing for a long time.
Last week we talked about active listening and elements of a successful practice routine. Make sure you take the time to really listen to and study your favorite recordings, as well as recordings recommended to you by other artists and teachers. Ask yourself if you can recognize the form, identify the genre and style, guess who the musicians are, and analyze the harmony or melody. Sit down with your music and find transcriptions to look at as you listen, or better yet, transcribe it yourself or learn it by ear. Find out all you can about the composition, the composer, or the performer. Active listening is something that should be incorporated into your practice of the art of music.
Developing a good practice routine is a major key to success if you want to be a good musician. Everyone has a different approach to practicing. Some people need to schedule every minute and make a strategy or plan of attack every day to be successful. Others can plan a little less and still get lots of good work done. The amount of time you can spend with your instrument is always going to be a huge factor in how you can practice. No matter what type of person you are, elements of a good practice schedule will almost always include:
Fundamentals and warming up: Working on long tones, sound, air, embouchure, posture etc. These are the things that you do every day to get yourself ready to play and keep you in shape and sounding good.
Technique: Musical exercises. Working on scales, etudes, lyrical studies, patterns, rudiments and licks, etc. This is the stuff that improves your facility and “chops.” For rhythm section players this is very, very important. For everyone else, this is very, very important.
Repertoire: This is when you work on actually learning and performing pieces, tunes and compositions. Memorizing jazz heads and chord progressions would count as working on repertoire in the same way as learning a Bach cello suite or a Beethoven Sonata. Many of our technical exercises and fundamentals can be taken from and found in our repertoire. This is what you end up playing for people.
Creative: Improvising, transcribing, composing, listening, jamming, experimenting, etc. Creative time is when you let loose and do things that you like to do. It is also the time to do all the extra musical stuff that may or may not involve your instrument directly. Maybe you use this time to learn other instruments. Recording yourself during these times is a very good idea. Recording yourself is always a good idea.
Not all of these four elements will be included in every practice session, and some practice sessions will include elements that are not discussed here. The most important thing is that you find some things that work for you and be as consistent as possible. Listen to your teachers. They are giving you things that are designed to get you where you want to be the best way they know how. You are all very lucky to be living in this part of the country with all of these wonderful people and musicians around you.
This week we will be doing some playing, some improve and some theory. But we will also be doing some serious listening. Bring a notebook or listening journal so you can take notes of what you see and hear. See you all on Wednesday!
Hello everyone. We are looking forward to our next session on 8-22 and our last gig down at Anthony’s for Sea Jazz on 8-29. Avenue B will also be performing Tuesday night at Romeo’s, so go down and support them and listen to jazz if you can. It has been a great summer and we hope that you have taken some useful concepts and techniques from us that will benefit you and your playing for a long time.
Last week we talked about active listening and elements of a successful practice routine. Make sure you take the time to really listen to and study your favorite recordings, as well as recordings recommended to you by other artists and teachers. Ask yourself if you can recognize the form, identify the genre and style, guess who the musicians are, and analyze the harmony or melody. Sit down with your music and find transcriptions to look at as you listen, or better yet, transcribe it yourself or learn it by ear. Find out all you can about the composition, the composer, or the performer. Active listening is something that should be incorporated into your practice of the art of music.
Developing a good practice routine is a major key to success if you want to be a good musician. Everyone has a different approach to practicing. Some people need to schedule every minute and make a strategy or plan of attack every day to be successful. Others can plan a little less and still get lots of good work done. The amount of time you can spend with your instrument is always going to be a huge factor in how you can practice. No matter what type of person you are, elements of a good practice schedule will almost always include:
Fundamentals and warming up: Working on long tones, sound, air, embouchure, posture etc. These are the things that you do every day to get yourself ready to play and keep you in shape and sounding good.
Technique: Musical exercises. Working on scales, etudes, lyrical studies, patterns, rudiments and licks, etc. This is the stuff that improves your facility and “chops.” For rhythm section players this is very, very important. For everyone else, this is very, very important.
Repertoire: This is when you work on actually learning and performing pieces, tunes and compositions. Memorizing jazz heads and chord progressions would count as working on repertoire in the same way as learning a Bach cello suite or a Beethoven Sonata. Many of our technical exercises and fundamentals can be taken from and found in our repertoire. This is what you end up playing for people.
Creative: Improvising, transcribing, composing, listening, jamming, experimenting, etc. Creative time is when you let loose and do things that you like to do. It is also the time to do all the extra musical stuff that may or may not involve your instrument directly. Maybe you use this time to learn other instruments. Recording yourself during these times is a very good idea. Recording yourself is always a good idea.
Not all of these four elements will be included in every practice session, and some practice sessions will include elements that are not discussed here. The most important thing is that you find some things that work for you and be as consistent as possible. Listen to your teachers. They are giving you things that are designed to get you where you want to be the best way they know how. You are all very lucky to be living in this part of the country with all of these wonderful people and musicians around you.
This week we will be doing some playing, some improve and some theory. But we will also be doing some serious listening. Bring a notebook or listening journal so you can take notes of what you see and hear. See you all on Wednesday!
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