Do this to improve your jazz improvising on trombone

[@mau5186]

vsauce meets alto trombone

[@jamespjohnson]

Thanks for sharing, Mike! Have heard this from various players re ear training and licks learning. You probably know this, but JJ memorized most Lester Young solos in his early years in the same way. Also helped him with his eventual stellar arranging skills. Painstaking but satisfying end product I can imagine. Gotta get cranking!

[@Jenjenn0710]

Great video! Thanks for this. This is what I'm doing. Not quite with Jazz, but I do foresee incorporating Jazz into my works in the future. You play great!

[@TheBerkeleyGang]

This is where I stopped taking trombone lessons. I find transcriptions to be very, very difficult. My mind just doesn't work fast enough, and I have to play back the solo over and over again trying to match the tones and the rhythms. It's not fun for me. When my instructor said he could no longer help me if I couldn't or wouldn't take the time to get competent at transcribing, I knew we were just wasting each other's time. It would take me a week to get just a bar or two of a solo. I've done Milt Bernhardt's solo in Sinatra's "I've Got You Under My Skin," and James Pankow's solo from Chicago's "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is," because I wanted to cover these iconic solos authentically in the big band I was playing in, but transcribing even these short solos was a painful experience. I guess if I'm going to grow as a musician, I'm going to have to overcome this. Ugh!

[@mymusicsavvy]

***** You're right. In the beginning, it's hard. But as I tried to convey, doing this will greatly improve your ear for improvising. Is it possible that you are diving into tunes that are too difficult for you right now? Start with something simple like Miles' first chorus off the classic Miles Davis tune "Walkin". By the way, you don't need to be limited to just trombone stuff. Walking is a medium F blues and is one of the great jazz solos - proving that great playing doesn't require lots of notes. Good luck!

[@jorymil]

+TheBerkeleyGang If it's something to "overcome," sounds like you might need to approach things from a different angle. You've gotta really like the solo you're about to transcribe - it's helpful if it's something that's already sunk into your subconscious from having listened to it many times already. Don't expect perfection from yourself, either: treat it as a puzzle where you're assembling the pieces. What key(s) is the solo in? What time signature? How many bars? What are the chord changes? Even having rough chord changes will help you know which notes are being played. And there's no shame in grabbing some software to slow things down, either: Audacity is a useful tool, but there's tons out there. There's a neat little program for Android called "Maple" that I've found useful. Jimmy P's little thing at the end of "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is" is really a cadenza: it's played out of time, it's short, and there's no real chord _changes_ - just a single chord to end the song. So you've just got a single scale to work with (the key of the song) to pick notes from, and you don't have to worry so much about nailing the rhythms dead: you can bet Pankow wasn't trying to fit things into a certain number of beats or stay perfectly in time. Perfection isn't possible here: sheet music can't capture every little accent, position relative to the beat, etc - there's way more information than you can capture accurately on the page. Get a rough transcription first: you can always go back and clean it up later. Depending on where you're at ability-wise, transcribing can also be about just training your ears. Can you hear a song on the radio, pick up your horn, noodle around a bit, and figure out what key it's in? Do that same thing on the song you're trying to transcribe, and then when you get to the solo, you'll already know roughly what notes the soloist is going to play. Can you tell if something's in a major key? Minor key? Know those scales inside and out. The better-trained your ears are overall, the easier transcribing a particular solo will be. I believe you've got the ability to transcribe solos - especially the ones you mentioned - just a matter of finding the right way to approach it mentally. You may not even need a _trombone_ teacher to help you transcribe: someone to help you figure out your stumbling blocks and ask the right questions is more important than what instrument they play. Best of luck!

[@gfexc]

It´s one of the biggest myths. The believe that if you do transcriptions you become a better player. Find already written solos, work them and look at their use. You are right. Transcription is not for everybody. The great Blues players didn´t even know how to write music, much less did transcriptions to hone their skills.

[@ziruini5071]

TheBerkeleyGang Start with really simple stuff. My first transcription was So What by Miles Davis

[@gfexc]

You have to have certain degree of proficiency writing music. The average "if you are starting to play jazz" person does not have that knowledge, Seems like somebody would spend a lot of time developing ear/hand skills to transcribe first, and then practice his instrument for improvisation learning. Long way home

[@trumpetbacon]

Awesome Mike, sharing with our students!!!!

[@annamilluzzo8077]

All inizio degli anni 80 facevo questo con gli assolo di Milt jackson ,e sono un trombonista ! Esercizio veramente interessante e formativo . Grazie from Italia .

[@tromboneJTS]

the intro was tasty

[@pflaht]

Thanks for posting this! There is very good software program I have been using called "Transcribe!" from seventh string software that permits the slowing or re-tuning of music. It's really helped with some Jack Teagarden solos. The cost is less than $50.

[@caoanhienmau-xubinhhoa-bin1576]

Love you much

[@aixamut3376]

Yooo you got sone nice tone man 👌

[@caoanhienmau-xubinhhoa-bin1576]

Please make more tutorial about jazz Bebop..thanks

[@Tylerbeofficial]

Hi! Great video. I was wondering what you were playing over in the intro. Your tone is so smooth.

[@jaman198]

Hello Altobone, when transcribing a solo what is your process? How do you know what pitch to write down just from listening to the solo? And also how do you know what chord changes occur in the music? I do not have much experience with music theory but I feel like I should know a lot more, especially because I'm the lead trombonist in my high school jazz band. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[@p8r8r]

I can't speak for Altobone, but I would say using an instrument myself. A lot of people would see how it sounds on their instrument (or piano) and then write it out. Chords can be harder to work out but are easier on a piano where you can play and hear multiple notes at the same time. Knowing chords and scales well helps

[@Jenjenn0710]

☆Tenor Trombone here☆ If your ear isn't already trained to pick it out, just get your horn out and fish at first. He mentions looking online, take the majority of what the online transcriptions are using, plug in the sounds with your own horn, make your own changes based upon what your ear is telling you. Once you have the root & tonic the rest will come.

[@accage2131]

nice instructional video

[@joshparks1002]

ARTHUR CAGE is

[@joachimbolanz740]

Mike, I might be misunderstanding you - but, with the greatest respect, your advice I think is kind of difficult/tricky: Just doing a transcription and playing it is nothing I'd call improvisation. it's just playing a solo, nothing else. If ev'body would have done this, Jazz would have died ages ago. There are some basic improvisation skills you need to teach yourself - and then: Practise, practise, practise(at least you need to find out if you got the balls to get up and do it without the safety net of a music sheet in front of you); in this we maybe are on the same page. I searched for an inspiration source, for me that was the fantastic artist 'Trombone shorty'; he plays exactly that way I would like to sound, that will be my way to move forward. Conclusion: If you want to become a great artist, don't walk in the footsteps of another great artist but search for whatever he was searching for. Kind Regards, tromboniac

[@sinatrabone]

Thanks for this video! I'm happy to find a serious jazz player who plays alto. I've never seen that before! Do you teach Skype lessons?

[@GamerPro433]

Dude! IT'S BEEN SO LONG! I'm so happy I actually found someone who knows how to play alto trombone! I hope you have tutorials on your channel, or thinking about it, because I have no idea how to play mine xD It's in the key of E, which is very strange to me. Anyway, thanks for this video!

[@mymusicsavvy]

+Roger Crumpkin Hey Roger, I just posted a video on an alto trombone tip you might find helpful. Check it out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqPXfqpqg7FkmpI

[@oneilchery1192]

+Altobone. thank you sir iv. had a hard time on my trombone.so much of a hard time i gets to a point when i get fustrated and i ant think im trying to learn. but thanks i love your videos i hope your. having a great day 👍

[@paulmullen2620]

Everyone always says to transcribe the solos to get better at jazz improv. I’d rather just find one already written out and study that. It can take me hours and hours to get something by ear, and that’s if I already know the key and chords. I find it exhausting so I tend to not do it.

[@mymusicsavvy]

My recommendation is to take the time to transcribe by hand because you will gain so much more by doing it. Precisely because you find it exhausting is a good reason to transcribe! The second one will be easier, the third one easier yet... Remember that one huge benefit of transcribing is to develop your ear, a benefit you won't get nearly as much if you simply read someone else's transcription.

[@TheJunebug65]

I believe practicing is the best way to improve, NOT transcription writing. The greats didn't transcribe yet they mastered their instruments. Sonny Rollins said the best way to improve is to simply practice. JJ told me personally the same thing many years ago, he never mentioned writing transcriptions. Now I'm not saying transcriptions are bad, in fact they certainly help but they should never be taught as the most important thing in helping you get better. They are a supplement at best while practicing is the meal

[@mymusicsavvy]

It's not an either-or: practicing OR transcribing. Regardless of whether JJ mentioned it or not, transcribing is important in order to see what other better improvisers play and to get the feeling of their solos. And you're wrong about greats not transcribing. Liebman did it. Steve Swallow did it, the Brecker brothers both did it. Richie Beirach did it. It is a common thing to do as one part of learning to improvise. I never said in the video, not to practice and only transcribe.

[@samorioussealey8267]

what key was that at the beginning

[@professorseverustobiassnap1566]

Samorious Sealey I do believe. It is concert. C. Major. All naturals

[@L33M_0]

What did you use for the backing track?

[@MarioGomez-uu6hu]

qué te lleva a tener que improvisar con un trombón alto? de locos

[@mymusicsavvy]

Because I think it's the best trombone for playing jazz. Without a doubt. The problem is that by the time tenor players realize that, it's too late for them to learn a whole new set of positions and overtones. Not that they could never do it, but that it will take too much time to match their tenor proficiency.

[@MarioGomez-uu6hu]

@@mymusicsavvy totally agree. But the inventor of the alto trombone made it difficult for us to learn that instrument. Eb? REALLY? I learning trombone alto classic

[@mymusicsavvy]

@@MarioGomez-uu6hu Don't think of it in Eb. Just because the fundamental is Eb doesn't mean it's a transposing instrument. The fundamental of a tenor is Bb and it remains a C instrument. With any instrument, the name of the note is the frequency of the pitch. Hear 440 Hz and call it A. I know that's not how the world works, but it should. I've made it so with the alto just as the tenor has always been.

[@MarioGomez-uu6hu]

@@mymusicsavvy I already know that the alto trombone is not in Eb. He complained about changes in positions. It seems to me that what you do is very difficult and I congratulate you for it.

[@bom.6658]

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[@tereo6749]

Six months ago it was zero now its 3 not bad though