I'm definitely guilty of Mistake #3 -- learning things off the page and holding onto my music too tightly! I'm going to start listening to the melody in my head and playing / practicing without looking at the sheet music! - Violet
Great advice as always. I am off the page for at least 15 heads now with our trio. I am actually proud of myself, as my band mate encouraged me to learn the heads and then the rest is true improv (not transcriptions). I feel that this approach, the support from my band mate and your videos and backing tracks have accelerated my learning. Thanks again Brent. Merry Merry from Ontario, Canada.
As a classically training pianist, I definitely struggle with the last one. I'm also pulling up stuff so I can play it. I actually had a ear training teacher in college say to me, "It's like part of brain is broken, don't have any concept of what you're hearing." Ouch right!? But it's been one of the most helpful things I've done is just sit and try to figure out the melody, chord changes, and even lyrics and kind of compose the song myself in a way. Definitely appreciate the first two steps as well! Those are actually fun to do. The latter, not so much for an instant gratification fiend like me. Thanks again and keep it up man!
There's always at least one super useful takeaway from these videos. Learning the chord-tones throughout a whole song strikes me as a revelation. Think that'll give me basis for employing some chord inversions, later. Really enjoying these!
Seems simple but I’ve been doing all of these mistakes for years. Want to play Dixieland/ragtime by ear not by reading and have never been able to break out of this…baby steps and this vid seems like the first of those. Appreciate it
I would add, that when learning standards by ear, know most standards were actually songs with lyrics, so instead of listening to versions by Wes Montgomery or Miles Davis, try listening to Ella Fitsgerald or Frank Sinatra singing them. Learn the lyrics and you'll understand the intent behind the phrasing. Sinatra was a master of lyrical phrasing.
My problem with learning melodies by ear is that for any given tune I may have 3 or more recordings of it. Each of these will have individual phrasing embellishments which can make it difficult to determine what is the actual melody as written. Sp if I learn the melody from Ella it locks me into that recording as much as learning from a transcript locks me to that page.
I don't try to learn every embellishment from a recording. I just get the jist and the feel and develop my own embellishments over time. That way you start to own the melodies.
I’m a beginner guitarist and I’m enrolled in a jazz ensemble class at a local college. I don’t know the jazz vocabulary or much on chords for the guitar. But we are starting off with Autumn Leaves. The instructor told me I need to improvise over the chord changes but not sure how to go about doing that. In your video you talk about chord mapping. Do you think it makes sense to first create a chord map and just play the individual notes of the chords and have that be a base to start with and just use that as my improvisation? Then once I’m comfortable with each of the notes in each chord add a bit more flair to it? When I hear things like dominant 7th and diminished my head starts to spin and I lose interest quickly because I don’t understand the language. Right now I’m just trying to find out where to start so I don’t get frustrated and drop the course. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
To learn a passage in our native tongue, it's a good idea to start by trying to "understand what it means"". I think the same is true for learning a jazz standard: "What is the tune saying to me (emotionally)?" The standard approach of theory, I think, is to analyze all the chord changes (functional harmony). But that can be too much for beginning jazz students. But I have found a trick based on the fact that the 2-5-1 progression is everywhere in jazz standards. And, we can all feel the tension and resolution cycle in a 251. So, the first thing I do is to search for all the 251s in the tune. You'll find them all over the place in a jazz standard - not just at the end of lines. I find that that can show me how the harmony flows through the whole tune.
Well, I know the chord tones, I know the scales, but I definitively am stuck with the paper. By the way, any sax player here has an advice for a rockerman doubler who plays all the saxes but don't know how to memorize a standard for both Bb and Eb? Sorry my english!
I would say your #1 mention about using chord tones has been THE most effective for me.
I'm definitely guilty of Mistake #3 -- learning things off the page and holding onto my music too tightly! I'm going to start listening to the melody in my head and playing / practicing without looking at the sheet music! - Violet
Sensible advice. Thank you Brent!💜🎸
Great advice as always. I am off the page for at least 15 heads now with our trio. I am actually proud of myself, as my band mate encouraged me to learn the heads and then the rest is true improv (not transcriptions). I feel that this approach, the support from my band mate and your videos and backing tracks have accelerated my learning. Thanks again Brent. Merry Merry from Ontario, Canada.
Excellent!!!!
Thank you!!!!
nice video!
at 3.20 he actually played an Abmaj7 instead of Ab6 arpeggio (note G instead of F), but the concept was clear
As a classically training pianist, I definitely struggle with the last one. I'm also pulling up stuff so I can play it. I actually had a ear training teacher in college say to me, "It's like part of brain is broken, don't have any concept of what you're hearing." Ouch right!? But it's been one of the most helpful things I've done is just sit and try to figure out the melody, chord changes, and even lyrics and kind of compose the song myself in a way. Definitely appreciate the first two steps as well! Those are actually fun to do. The latter, not so much for an instant gratification fiend like me. Thanks again and keep it up man!
There's always at least one super useful takeaway from these videos. Learning the chord-tones throughout a whole song strikes me as a revelation. Think that'll give me basis for employing some chord inversions, later. Really enjoying these!
Mistake #3 !!! Please keep reminding us! Really hard to beat that addiction.
Super helpful well done 👍
Seems simple but I’ve been doing all of these mistakes for years. Want to play Dixieland/ragtime by ear not by reading and have never been able to break out of this…baby steps and this vid seems like the first of those. Appreciate it
Another beginners mistake is to overlook the melody. Mastering it, having it in the hears, relying on it is a great help for soloing.
I would add, that when learning standards by ear, know most standards were actually songs with lyrics, so instead of listening to versions by Wes Montgomery or Miles Davis, try listening to Ella Fitsgerald or Frank Sinatra singing them. Learn the lyrics and you'll understand the intent behind the phrasing. Sinatra was a master of lyrical phrasing.
Yep I've definitely made all of these mistakes haha
My problem with learning melodies by ear is that for any given tune I may have 3 or more recordings of it. Each of these will have individual phrasing embellishments which can make it difficult to determine what is the actual melody as written. Sp if I learn the melody from Ella it locks me into that recording as much as learning from a transcript locks me to that page.
I don't try to learn every embellishment from a recording. I just get the jist and the feel and develop my own embellishments over time. That way you start to own the melodies.
I’m a beginner guitarist and I’m enrolled in a jazz ensemble class at a local college. I don’t know the jazz vocabulary or much on chords for the guitar. But we are starting off with Autumn Leaves. The instructor told me I need to improvise over the chord changes but not sure how to go about doing that. In your video you talk about chord mapping. Do you think it makes sense to first create a chord map and just play the individual notes of the chords and have that be a base to start with and just use that as my improvisation? Then once I’m comfortable with each of the notes in each chord add a bit more flair to it? When I hear things like dominant 7th and diminished my head starts to spin and I lose interest quickly because I don’t understand the language. Right now I’m just trying to find out where to start so I don’t get frustrated and drop the course. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Question. If you practiced that lick in all 12 keys… what are you going to communicate in the next 4 bars ? 🤷♂️
To learn a passage in our native tongue, it's a good idea to start by trying to "understand what it means"". I think the same is true for learning a jazz standard: "What is the tune saying to me (emotionally)?" The standard approach of theory, I think, is to analyze all the chord changes (functional harmony). But that can be too much for beginning jazz students. But I have found a trick based on the fact that the 2-5-1 progression is everywhere in jazz standards. And, we can all feel the tension and resolution cycle in a 251. So, the first thing I do is to search for all the 251s in the tune. You'll find them all over the place in a jazz standard - not just at the end of lines. I find that that can show me how the harmony flows through the whole tune.
4:50
At 5:00 you're playing a ii-V-I in Eb but the chart says ii-V-I in C....Kind of confusing....
Well, I know the chord tones, I know the scales, but I definitively am stuck with the paper.
By the way, any sax player here has an advice for a rockerman doubler who plays all the saxes but don't know how to memorize a standard for both Bb and Eb?
Sorry my english!
Just learn the head in as many keys as possible.
I do copy and past
Is overly reliant on real book pages, should start transcribing
Don’t jazz, make mistakes