10 Jazz Improvisation Patterns for a Great Sounding Solo
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- Опубліковано 27 кві 2021
- Jazz Improvisation Patterns - a quick tip to help your improv.
In this video, I'm going to show you how to play 10 jazz improvisation patterns based off of the pentatonic scale that will make your next solo sound great.
Today we're going to be learning some of the most common jazz improvisation patterns that are used in a lot of solos ive played over the years. These patterns always sound good and can easily be applied into what ever music you want them in. So take a seat, grab a pen or pencil and lets get started!
Interested in checking out more? You can get all of my video courses at courses.jazztargeting.com/p/t...
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Hi, my name is Jason Klobnak and I’m a jazz trumpeter from Denver, CO that helps musicians like you find a better way to improvise. If you’re looking for a quick jazz improvisation tip that will help your soloing then you’ve come to the right place!
#jazzimprovisation #jazzimprovpatterns #jazztrumpet
I'd also like to invite you to check out my band's latest here:
open.spotify.com/artist/1IlFe...
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Be sure to drop a comment, like, subscribe, share, etc.
More info on me can be found at jasonklobnak.com or jazztargeting.com
Another clarinetist here who is eternally grateful for this video.
Wonderful - thanks for checking it out!
BRO THANK YOU I GOTTA IMPROV A 16 BAR SOLO IN LIKE 4 DAYS AND WAS PANICKING.
Eternally grateful, thank you
Thank you - I hope this helps you on your solo. Good luck!
1st pattern: 2:07
2nd pattern: 2:32
3rd pattern: 3:28
4th pattern: 4:00
5th pattern: 4:26
6th pattern: 4:46
7th pattern: 5:10
8th pattern: 5:25
9th pattern: 5:40
10th pattern: 6:14
As a clarinetist who’s recently gotten into jazz improvisation, I absolutely love this video. It’s given me confidence and a solid vocabulary to be inspired and create my own solos. Thanks so much for sharing this.
Thank you - I love hearing from other instrumentalists that it's helpful for them in some way!
This is the best use of my 15 break on a Saturday afternoon at work🎺😎😃
I won't tell...thanks for checking it out!
@@JasonKlobnakMusicInc what would you be telling about? He just said he watches it on his break, not during work.
@@clawboss2028 relax - it's a tongue in cheek response (from 5 months ago no less).
@@JasonKlobnakMusicInc what makes you think I’m not relaxed?
@@clawboss2028 My comment to the original poster was meant to be lighthearted. Clearly there's nothing to report whether they were working or on break (it's irrelevant). I apologize if my response to you came across as dismissive or disrespectful. Is there anything else you would like to discuss?
Awesome melodic lyrical vocabulary, very vital info for all musicians, this helps to train my ear to hear the intervals, thanks for sharing
Thank you for dropping the nice comment and checking out the video!
Excellent tutorial. I'm just about ready to start to memorise these as I have the basic pentatonic scales internalised now! Trumpet Jazz iprov here I come! Thanks Jason !
Excellent - glad this has helped!
Nice video Jason, thank you. I play piano, not trumpet, but your inputs are all still valid for right hand soloing on piano. Well done!
Thanks for checking it out. I think any good concept should work well for every instrument and encourage others to check out instrumentalists and educators from other than what you play.
Just love how the jazz rhythm section is playing under your teaching,Kool dude😎👍🏾YEAH!!!!!!
Thank you! 🙌
I've always struggled with licks and improve ideas. This method seems way more accessible thank you. Subscribed.
Thanks for checking it out and hope you find some value in the other videos!
Thank you so much for helpful information with the various patterns. I really appreciate it 🎺
Absolutely - thank you for checking it out!
The perfect lesson, Jason, for me where I am currently at. Thank you! It will help me get out of this funk of being disenchanted with my playing for months which has led to going days without playing at all.
I have scoffed at the idea of practicing patterns for years, thinking it would be impossible to think of them when improvising. I don't think much when improvising beyond where to start the next idea and which direction to go. I have been stuck thinking I'm not smart enough to think and improvise simultaneously like others appear to do. The saying, "Forget what you have learned," in the context of improvisation, has been a mystery to me, but finally, I realize patterns are for the shed. I'm telling myself to work them, in time and within a harmonic context, and trust they will eventually become part of what comes to me in the moment without much thought, like all the junk I play already!. The deliberate practice of patterns is the process of getting there.
Any honest musician will tell you that feeling of being in a funk is real, but it's also cyclical if you can outlast it. The joy of playing comes back again eventually. I've said in many of my videos I don't think about patterns or licks when I'm actually improvising. I truly think about rhythm and where and what the last note of my phrase is going to be. It keeps me on track. The pattern work, though, is stuff to work on in the shed. Keep at it!
I Just Started Following You and i am Enjoying what i am Seeing. Wow!!!
Thank you for checking it out - I hope you find some of it to be valuable to your playing in some way!
The 4th be feeling so lonely 🥲
Thanks for the video! I find it very helpful since I always strugle with my solos!
I ❤the 4th when it's used appropriately!
Super, the best way how to explain, for us, who dont use notes, but chords, thank you.
Glad to hear you found it helpful!
This video just changed my life.
Thanks.
Alright then - thanks for checking it out!
super helpful--thank you!
🙏
Excellent Lesson! Simple, Straightforward and Practical. Some of the patterns remind me of Willie Thomas "Pentatonic Pairs".
Thank you - Willie's pentatonic pairs is a part of my teaching pedagogy when it comes to improvisation (although presented slightly different). Thanks for checking it out!
I just appled these patterns (in conjunction with guitar specifics) to Green Dolpnie Street standard and sounds amaizingly. This lesson (and your channel activities) is one of the most awesome education and practice tips source which lead straight to the point. Thank you for your input into jazz education. Of course it'll take a while to master all these 10 patterns (which you put into 9 min video) but it's awesome and it's absolutely worth it. Actually this is the only way to start improvising sounding like a jazz ))) Thank you, subscribed.
Thank you so much for checking it out! It takes time to take anything from practice to performance ready, but will be well worth it in the end.
Love it, Thanks Jason!
Thanks for watching!
The best lesson on jazz improvisation! Thank you!
Wow - thank you 🙏 There's a lot of great stuff out there from great people so that's high praise indeed!
Love it, I play guitar but this is great! Loved your playing at the end. Subscribed.
Thank you for checking it out!
Your positivity is infectious!
Thank you so much Jarod!
this is brilliant! exactly how my brain works. greetings from switzerland
Wonderful to hear, Bret. Thank you!
I love the concept of using these patterns as starting points for improvising. Very good lesson. Thanks!
I agree - thanks for checking out the video!
OMG! I can't even measure how much work this saves someone who is just starting out like me.
I am playing Clarinet.
I'm glad to hear you find it useful - best of luck!
Thank you, very helpful
Glad to hear 🙏
im a newes trumpet player on jazz, and im eternal lly grateful with you
Happy to share - please feel free to check out some of the other videos too!
really clear and so helpful, thanks!
Thank you, Sean- glad to hear!
Great tips! Thank you.
🎺
Thank you - I hope you find some value or benefit from some of them!
Merci beaucoup 🎺
Bravo 👏 Wonderful lesson and great tips!!! 😊
Thank you 🙏
Excelent video, thank you so much, best regards from Argentina!
I appreciate that - thank you!
thankyou thats a really useful aid and i like your solo a lot
Thanks Lucy - glad to hear and hope you find some benefit from them!
You've got a really nice tone, thanks for the video
I appreciate that, Ben, thank you!
Thanks for smiling during my struggly chorus ;)
I thought it would be better to smile than to vibe everyone while they're soloing. Thanks for checking out the video and playing along!
Well done. Thank you!
Thank You 🙏
I read and wrote music as a preteen .This has REALLY shaken the cobwebs and dust off .Thanks for SHOWING me .I'm a kinetic and visual learner, and this was all i needed .Thank you sir!
Glad you found some benefit from it!
OMG please I need in writing
Thanks Jason, great lesson!
I appreciate you stopping by and watching!
Awesome tutorial 🔥🔥
Thank you!
Lovely Lesson 👍😊👍😊
Thanks Nazzy!
A great small, but biiiiiig lesson! Thanx!
Thank you for checking it out!
The 9th pattern sounds like it’s a part of Miles Davis’ repertoire. Great info!
It very well could be! All of these patterns are pretty common amongst a lot of players so you'd be in good company using them...
Very nice and thanks!
Thank you - I hope you find some value/benefit from some of them!
Good stuff, thanks!!
Thanks for checking it out! 🙏
Great
Thank you Jason
Thanks for stopping by and watching!
This is great.
🙏
Very useful. If only guitarists could think like this:)
I think any musician can think like this and could find some benefit from it. Thanks for checking it out!
Thank you very much
Thank you for stopping by and checking it out!
Cool 👍 and made easy!
🙏Thanks for checking it out!
I second the other commenters here - I play guitar but I have some horn students, and I find this can be very useful for both myself and my students.
I just subscribed and I will check out your other material.
Hi Philip - thanks for checking the video out and subscribing!
Very straightforward and solid. Thanks! (You might have titled this "After 1-2-5").
Thank you for stopping by and checking it out!
This is fantastic
Thank you 🙏
Que maneiro, obrigado!
Thank you so much!!!!
You're welcome - thank you for checking it out!
Fantastic video! Many thanks from a sax player! I will use these 🎷
Glad to hear you find these beneficial! I think all instruments can use concepts like these.
Great lesson 👍
Thanks for checking it out 🙏
great stuff. thanks
Thank you 🙌
Jason, thank you. It's a nice and simple way to communicate this idea, or these 10 ideas. So many students have trouble understanding the concept of a jazz vocabulary at first, and play scales instead of phrases in their attempts to improvise. I blame the modal system, which is so often misunderstood for a "shortcut" to the eternal beginner's problem of "what do I play?"
Multiple paths to get to the same place, but some people definitely need a simplified approach in the beginning.
I appreciate this video so much. I’ll be taking these patterns through every key and interchanging minor and major like you did and i’m really excited to memorize these licks and then start creating my own.
🎶🎶🎶🎶
Nice sound 😎 👍🏻
Thank you
Looove it!!!!+
Love your solo!!!!
@@jwalker7277 - thank you and thanks for checking out the video!
Very nice
Thank you!
Super!!
Thank you 🙏
This was really fun Thank you!!!
Thanks for checking it out!
Jez! I knew it! I got on that video and checked it out last night and I knew that was your kind of stuff Jason !
Ahaha guess i'm t the right place 😄
@@yoannlardent9787 my man! This guy is SUPER!!!
@@jasonricci He sure seems like he is!
Maaan i was almost having a headache realising how much possibilities there is with those 10 paterns and the scales we commonly use...! Never ending process that is 🙄😛
Amazing
Thank you!
Also, sometimes you can repeat and “slide” these patterns chromatically in your solos so that even if the notes themselves don’t fit with the current chord, the relationship of the repeated notes gives the listener’s ears a sense of connection, tension, and resolution when your sliding pattern does end in its home key.
Absolutely true. It has different names, but I like the term 'side-slipping.' There's even degrees of how 'in' or 'out' you want to take it (which doesn't have to be chromatically either).
@@JasonKlobnakMusicInc “side-slipping” that was the term I meant. Thank you
@@artompkins7958 'slide-slipping' is totally valid too (especially for guitar players).
good basic tips which sound tasty
Thanks!
brilliant
Thank you
These ideas are called “Melodic Structures” by some.
As I guitarist primarily, I labored for years thinking that the pentatonic patterns were just a guitar thing, especially helpful to sounding like you might know what you’re doing when you really don’t. Then I started transcribing solos by horn players, and realized they’re all using these pentatonic ideas just about everywhere. Then I fully embraced “Pentatcism”, and I thank you for this very helpful video.
Pentatonics can get a bad rap because of its over-use by some instruments, but the value to them far outweighs the negativity. Especially if we view them as a skeleton to start from and add the rest of the body to it to make it unique.
I’m in a bunch of honors bands, and I still can’t improvise. This’ll help a lot. I’m 12 btw. Thanks
This should definitely help you get started. When starting out - think shorter and simpler lines to begin. We have to learn to crawl before we walk...before we run, etc. Keep at it!
Cool 😎👍
🙏
Gracias amigo soy guitarrista y me sirvió de mucho
de nada!
As a relative late bloomer with tuba this is exactly what I need to jump start tuba solo ideas for '20s era hot jazz and shore up remaining weak spots in my note / fingering choices?
Glad to hear John - thanks for checking it out!
nice!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for your concrete video.
A question : could it be used if playing a Bass guitar ?
Hi Patrick - absolutely! This idea can be used by any instrument.
An so my time has come to excel on the trombone😈😈😈 Thank you very much so kindly.
The concept works for any instrument 😁
Jason I admire your jazz-playing ability and your knowledge of the theory behind it. My whole life, I've been so focused on mastering the upper register of the horn and playing lead, that I never spent any time of learning how to improvise. In spite of that, in the local big bands in which I play, I am given many opportunities to play jazz solos because I can do a halfway decent job of it, and know how to play with expression and emotion and my upper register ability allows me to add some real fire to the solo when I want to. But here are my weaknesses: I do all of my jazz soloing by ear. Putting the chord progressions in front of me is meaningless. You might as well put Asian writing on the page, because I won't know what to do with it anyway. 😆 Sometimes I have the advantage of being familiar with the tune and what the chord progressions sound like and I can do OK, but in cases in which I've never heard the tune before and I don't know where it's going, I have to listen to the chords and play accordingly, which is essentially "reacting" to what I hear, which obviously puts me at a disadvantage and doesn't allow me to do as well. But here's another obstacle I'd like to lay down for anyone who would attempt to help me. I don't want to learn how to be able to look at the chord symbols in order to know how to play. I think I'm a little to old to start doing that and I think having to look at a bunch of symbols and then figuring out what to play would take more of my focus away from just relaxing and making music. Another weakness of mine is that I'm not able to spontaneously play fast licks, you know, with 16th and 32nd notes or a lot of quick triplets in succession. Most of what I play doesn't get faster than eighth notes with some turns here and there, kind of like "booby da bah doo-wop da diddly ah ba dee-bop. But every time I try to play a fast run, I might start out OK, but then get hamstrung the further along I get and have trouble connecting to the next phrase - I get kinda tangled up, so I just avoid playing fast licks, but I'd love to be able to play them. What I think would help me (and a lot of players whose situation is similar to mine) is to have a book of GREAT fast jazz and bebop licks that can be applied to a lot of chord progression scenarios that come up in a lot of the popular jazz standards to practice in all of the keys. I think if I could learn those licks by rote, I could then rely upon my ears to know when to apply them over the music that I encounter and let them just roll off of my fingers without actually figuring them out on the spot. I remember Joe Magnarelli asking the question in an interview once "are we ever really improvising?" - Which is basically an admission that when jazz players play jazz, they're not really inventing or creating on the fly. What they're really doing is just stringing together scales, patterns, and licks that they've practiced thousands of times before. I don't do that, I actually create everything on the fly, and that's why my playing is limited. If I could learn all of these great licks, that would be a tremendous help to me. Do you know of such a book that contains a lot of great licks like that? Sometimes people come up to me and say "hey, I like the way you used the mixo-phrygian-locrian mode combo to transition into the bridge on that tune." And I'm like, "what the heck are you talking about?" I don't want to learn the theory. I just want to learn the licks and I'll let my ears do the rest. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Keep on blowin', you sound great.
A lot to unpack here and something I honestly don't have the time to respond to all of it at this moment. Knowing a lot of theory isn't necessary, but some can be helpful. I typically teach beginning/intermediate improv students to think in key areas for standards and then use different tools to make their own coherent statements. I have a number of videos called 'Mapping Out Standards' that highlight that. It might be worth checking those out.
@@JasonKlobnakMusicInc Nothing to unpack. I gave a lot of personal background to illustrate why I'm looking for what I'm looking for, but all I was asking was a simple single question of what books are you aware of (I'm sure you have a pretty extensive bibliography of material that you utilized in your development before you started coming out with your own stuff) that are available out there that suit what I'm looking for. They may not be something that you wrote yourself, but perhaps some by other authors. I thought I heard of a title called "Bebop Vocabulary." The title sounds interesting, but I don't know if the book is any good. Besides, there are many other styles within the jazz realm that bebop licks don't always fit that well. I don't want to be shoe-horning bebop licks into everything I play.
@@artvandelay8090, reading everything you said, it looks like you want to do a certain thing but you want a direct route to doing it rather than learning every minute detail of the thing.
The unfortunate thing here is however that learning to be a great improviser is basically learning to compose music but on the spot. This means that if you want to sound a certain way, you have to study the rules of studying that way and then internalizing it completely so that you can do it at will. And those rules are what people call theory.
What this means is that you will unfortunately have to learn some amount of practical theory because you will need to know and understand how melodies were put together in order to be able to invent yours in the style you are interested in. And because you are in the jazz field, you will definitely have to cultivate the ability to look at a chord sheet and create fitting melodies to them (so much of jazz no longer use predictable chord schemas like the 2-5-1s, Coltrane changes, the blues and rhythm changes).
And the main reason why this is so is because it will be hard for people to write a comprehensive set of go to melodies which one can memorize and apply in any given situation simply because it defeats the point of creating music spontaneously. The best you can have are things like these where someone shows you examples and the thought process that went into creating these music so that you can grind it out yourself and come up with your own creative take on the music. The bebop Bible is really good, but just like you noticed, it does not fit in all conditions so simply copying it by rote will not be too useful. What will be useful is learning to deconstruct the ideas in there so that you can understand how they put it together and then you can use the basic idea behind putting lines together to create lines that sound good in other contexts.
Hope this helps.
@@pjbpiano Nah, I don't agree with this "composing on the spot" business. Heck when I listen to Charlie Parker play, I hear him play all of the same licks, just applied in different places. I've heard many other very well-respected jazz players say that improvising is not composing, or even improvising because everything they play are just a bunch of licks that they've practiced in every key many many times, so there really isn't any creativity about it. Improvising is just plugging in those licks in the right places and maybe throwing in a little spontaneous connective tissue in between them, which can just be one note played in a particular rhythmic pattern that just came to their heads. So it's really about 90% regurgitating licks and 10% ad-libbing. When a jazz player says "these people are my influences," what they really mean is those are the people whose licks I stole and incorporate into my playing.
I am not an improviser by far, but i’m studying music now and the more I study the better i get. my ears are pretty good ali can hear most things and translate them to my horn - however, i realized that my ear alone was not going to make it happen. the language has to be learned and like any language there is syntax and semantics you have to understand the characters to build words to form phrases and then those phrases have to make grammatical sense.
improv is really the same…. if you can’t spell then you might be saying something intelligible, but when someone reads it or listens back they notice all the mistakes you made.
so here’s my point. you can learn all the licks you want in all the keys and modalities, but you will eventually need to analyze what’s in front of you to understand it and make the most informed choices you can. its improvisation, but you have to plan it out a bit or at least work out some things that you think could work.
the automatic response is just an effect of having done so many repetitions of something (analysis, a lick, an embellishment or some other technique) that it’s engrained in your mind and you instinctively know how to get to it on your horn.
if all you’re concerned about is the performance then you may not be so pleased with the outcome. (another trumpet channel has a video specifically about this mindset and basically he says you have a .001% chance of nailing a performance you didn’t prepare well enough for. the performance is in the practice room.
Worked these patterns into my harmonica practices. The only problem is getting the minor progressions because a harmonica is not tuned to produce some of the notes unless your a Howard Levy. Great tutorial at any rate. Keep up the good work.
I mention this a lot in other videos and comments, but find what works for you and discard the rest.
bro just bend the 3d a half step in 2nd position for the b3rd/minor 3rd and you got all these licks in the 1st octave,!
Do you have a chromatic harmonica?
@@kevinhornbuckle I do not, but if it's working for these guys then it's all good for me.
@@kevinhornbuckle you can actually play three octaves of a chromatic scale on a regular diatonic harmonica.
Many people use Double negatives in language. Like 'Don't Forget' to give a thumbs up...Can cause the brain to forget! You may want to use the word 'Remember' to give a thumbs up! PS, I gave you a thumbs-up! Thanks for the video.
Thanks for checking out the video!
Do have a PDF of these patterns would be helpful for my students! Great Video!
No PDF of these patterns. We can apply our own rhythm and feel so you end up getting and creating your own lines with your own feel.
pro player..... wp man
Thank you
@@JasonKlobnakMusicInc kip it up !!!
Thank you
An other question on the second pattern : when you play the minor part , do you play just the b3 instead of the M3 or do you have to play the b6 also or the M 6 ?
Sorry if the question seems stupid but I am a beginner.
Not a stupid question at all. The only note I'm changing is from the M3 to the b3. The 6th stays the same. You CAN alter the 6th to create other pentatonic scale types that are good for different situations.
good on acoustic guitar also
Indeed.
Well shoot this is pretty sweet
Thank you for taking some time out of your day to check it out!
Useful and straightforward. Might be better if the background music was not playing during the played patterns.
Thanks for checking it out!
I love this ❤is possible for us to connect
As you play over the blues are you changing key with the chords or is everything approached as Bb is 1. I'm confused
It can be both. For beginners, I like to start them with the major pentatonic scale on the I chord and then change the natural 3 to a flat-3 when you go to the IV chord. You can do a lot with just that. But, as you grow you will want to add more. So the digital pattern changes based off of either the key you are in or the chord of the moment. I hope that helps!
Good lesson! Btw, in your solo, both choruses, on bar 6 (Eb7), you played pattern 3-5-6-5 of Bb major scale, D, F, G, F. Please kindly explain why it does not clash with Db of the Eb7 chord. Thanks.
I don't have enough character space to respond to why, but it comes down to our ears hearing things in tonal (key-based) chunks. We tend to hear things in context. If the target note (the last note we aim at one purpose) is consonant to the chord/key....it almost doesn't matter what we play before it because our ears fill in the blanks in context.
@@JasonKlobnakMusicInc Thank you, very much. That helps a lot.
At last! Where have you been?
Thanks for checking out the video - be sure to check out some of the other stuff on my channel (I've been around for a while 😃)!
Idk anything about jazz so there's a lot for me to work through here and I am bout to put in some real time with it. Question though: with faster chord changes, would it be accurate to say you're still thinking in terms of this 1-2-3-5-2-1 (or whichever) sequence, but adapting it to the new chord as it happens? So for example if there were 3 chords in this sequence, you'd have the 1-2 of the first chord, the 3rd and 5th of the second chord, and then the 2-1 in the final chord? Surely that probably sounds good but is there a better way you'd think of it?
Sorry if you answered in the video, I'm going through slowly 😅
Thanks yolo - you can do what you wrote, but in faster tempos I tend to think in key areas rather than chord - to - chord (exceptions exist TBH).
@@JasonKlobnakMusicInc Thanks for the reply! By "key area" of the song do you mean like the literal musical key, or like "important section" of the progression?
@@yoloyo7019 Both. Many times progressions have modulations and tonicizations to different keys other than that of the original. Try them both.
Do you have videos with altered chords?
I do somewhere in the vault!
Can I start these patterns from any note in the scale or is 1 always the root, unless otherwise specified?
1 is always the root. The scale type can change depending on what you need. However, that doesn't mean that you couldn't change it. For instance, on minor chords you can play the relative major patterns starting on the b3. So, in C minor that would be like thinking in Eb major. Not all patterns will work, but many will.
matur suksma
My pleasure!
Hey, when you are switching from the major to the minor , is the minor the relative of that major or is it any minor?
I'm keeping the same root, but lowering the 3rd scale degree in these examples.
Thanks
Hay algún pdf con los patrones ?
No hay PDF para estos patrones, lo siento.
I put these tone patterns through my trombone.
It works for all instruments!
I just got back into playing my trumpet after 15 years but I can’t past the D on the line .. how do you play the high notes?
Trying to answer that type of question with just text is tough to do. I would recommend getting a lesson with a good trumpet teacher (in person or online) and have them see what you're doing. It would be easier to diagnose that way.
what notes did you use on pattern 2
I believe these were all in concert Bb. So pattern 2 would have been D, C, Bb, G, Bb, C, D
And which can we use to play
Whichever ones you like and fit the line creation you are making in the moment.
Just an FYI involving patterns...pattern recognition is primarily associated with the right hemisphere of the brain. The right hemisphere is often regarded as being more involved in creative and intuitive processes, including recognizing patterns, interpreting spatial relationships, and understanding visual and musical information.
Where’s that backing track from?
I created it using BIAB