The Best Way To Learn Jazz Vocabulary - Guaranteed

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[@rudymahdeo8823]

Yes so true. I am a pianist and I build and play my own lines using this concept. And every time you play, things will sound differently because you'll be messing with rythym..notes..intervals..That is the real beauty of improvisation !

[@nickmainella]

Love this comment! ❤️

[@floridaguy1955]

You are so correct. Excellent video. I am a tenor player. I did the same thing by learning diminished patterns. After repeating them a 1000 times, I made them my own in all 12 keys. Now I don't think about which note to play, I just play to get the sound I want from the diminished scale. It is very refreshing. Same thing with Phyrgian Dominant of Harmonic minor. Concentrating on sounds means you do not have to think about the notes per se.

[@nickmainella]

Love this

[@floridaguy1955]

@@nickmainella I am also a Patreon subscriber of yours. At 67, I have learned a lot in life and one of those is that you cannot rush things; be it becoming proficient playing an instrument or making a fine wine. And yes, I am a homewinemaker. For Xmas I am opening up a recently bottled Zinfandel Port that was NOT rushed!

[@chago7268]

I cannot thank you enough. Of all I have watched, this is the first video that pinpoints and gives the answer to exactly what I've been struggling with. I do however realize that it must be easier said than done. But I have to try and I will. Thanks a lot.

[@CarlLaventure]

Wow! You sir are a lifesaver! I know everyone in the comments have said it already but you articulated what I've been struggling to conceptualize in my piano practice for the longest! Coming from a classical backround of memorizing notes, I knew I couldn't use the same approach with improvisation. It just felt like a waste of time memorizing notes and not being able to bring them out in your improvisation. Funny enough, I started to organize my music vocabulary into sounds like you mentioned i.e. whole tone sound, altered sound, phrygian sound, flat 13 sound. I did not know if this would work but to me I thought if I created playlists of this sound and listened to each playlist on different occasions, over time I would digest the sound easier just like learning a language. But now that I stumbled upon your video, you have confirmed my theory and now I'm super excited to incorporate this 100% into my practice regimen. The power of KZbin blows me away once again. Thank you so much for sharing this incredible knowledge. Hope we can meet and exchange musical ideas one day!

[@mattmugridge8839]

I have struggled with this for years, desperate to be able to improvise jazz and never managing to do it with any confidence. Such was my dismay that I gave up playing for years and only came back to it recently. It’s at this point that my thinking has shifted from playing endless scale based patterns to thing to learn lots of lock sand them dissecting parts of that in order to find the patterns within them, practising that. I have real hope that in the not too distant future, all of this work will finally come out in my improvising.

[@nickmainella]

Just keep coming back to your instrument and jazz consistently and you will make massive progress. If you don’t stop, you’ll get better by accident!

[@brian106699]

Nice concept.

[@davidtardio9804]

Makes a lot of sense. I’ve been trying to work on lines that start on different notes, to avoid always starting on the same note of the chord each time.

[@GuitarTeleMan]

Thanks, this makes perfect sense. I'm currently learning to speak another language and vocabulary and phrases are important, and equally important is to take bits and pieces from them to create my own improvised conversation. Thanks for your great approach to music.

[@nickmainella]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Belas_Photography]

Thanks, Nick. Your suggestion of getting the sound of the specific vocabulary into your brain makes sense. I have always struggled to memorize and regurgitate, so your approach is one I am going to incorporate into my practices.

[@neocolors]

This is incredible useful advice! Thank you! Now I just have to find a ton of vocabulary to practice!

[@nickmainella]

Glad it was helpful!

[@petromic1947]

Thanks Nick, you answered some of my questions. I am a self learned amateur violinist. I am trying to learn jazz violin. Your advice was great. now I have to learn the meaning of some music lingo you were using on the video, that would be simple as I know very little theory. It was a very good video. Thanks once again.

[@grucha456]

Give than man a cookie! That's the way I want to feel jazz and improvise. I think that this is neglected and unspoken truth during developing improvisation itself..

[@crystal-pupa]

Wow thanks for your wisdom! This makes so much sense now.

[@aljerones99]

I think I'll try this approach, Nick. It sounds very practical. Thanks.

[@robertgreen3702]

Great advice!!

[@kennysaxkin16]

Thank you boss,I really like this idea of yours 😊

[@nickmainella]

You are most welcome!

[@fouroutoffour]

This a great! Thanks Nick!

[@gerardbarrett8369]

Right on!

[@BetterDrumming]

Really great video! Excellent advice :)

[@DerekLam-fx6sp]

this video gives me hope!

[@nickmainella]

🙌

[@guilhermemoura4379]

Great video, thanks for the useful advice!

[@nickmainella]

You bet!

[@rob_ewing]

Good idea. Another related approach could be to just learn one line/lick that represents the particular sound and then alter and adapt it in as many ways as you can think of.

[@mjpslim]

This got my attention ☺️

[@Peppe73it]

What do you think, singing my pattern on the 2-5-1 all the keys, and then play it on the guitar, maybe using a different way , note, where to start?

[@danielgloverpiano7693]

This is such a different world from what I learned as a classical pianist. It’s like not even the same field of music. We concentrate on interpretation and not trying to make up something different every time. It’s a foreign language to me, and something I don’t understand or appreciate when I hear it. My mind goes numb and I lose interest. It’s like an actor learning a Shakespeare play, vs a stand up comedian making it up as he goes along. I definitely relate to the former more than the latter.

[@nickmainella]

This is such an interesting perspective. I would love to hear more! Do you have any desire to be an improvising musician?

[@danielgloverpiano7693]

@@nickmainella as you well know, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Liszt were well known improvisors. They say Chopin never played a piece the same way twice. There were always embellishments to the melodic lines. That aspect of classical music making has largely disappeared. I had a keyboard class in college where we were required to improvise. I was hopeless at it. As I said, the closest analogy is what actors do. When they interpret a Shakespeare play, they don’t generally change the words, but each actor brings something completely different to it, and makes it their own. A classical composer is equivalent to a playwright. They don’t expect the performer to improvise around their notes, but to play exactly what they wrote. Rossini nearly shoved a soprano out the window for using too many embellishments in his music. It’s just a different world from what you do. I’ve had the discussion with jazz players who don’t understand how we get gratification from playing the exact notes as written in the score. Since that’s my field, I don’t understand the opposing approach of improvising “around” what they wrote. I went to Juilliard and they didn’t have a jazz program then. One of my classmates, Wynton Marsalis was the first to try to integrate it into the curriculum. He’s done a good job of bringing a level of respectability that was formerly lacking. We were highly trained in theory, and I would imagine your level of knowledge is equivalent. But you work more with extended harmonies. We went as far as ninth chords and maybe eleventh chords. It wasn’t for the purpose of composition, but to analyze classical pieces.

[@nickmainella]

Wow, thanks for the great reply. I wonder if trying to improvise and not being good at it right away turned you off from the whole process? I know when I started improvising it was terrible! Just like when I played a piece for the first time studying classical saxophone in college. I think often people think about improvisation as being divine inspiration, but really it’s just hard work and practice to get to a basic level of being able to translate what you hear into notes from your instrument. Once you get a taste of it working, it’s hard to go back!

[@danielgloverpiano7693]

@@nickmainella I’m sure if I had been better at it, I would have liked it better. We pianists are totally spoiled. We have a massive repertoire of masterpieces which are inexhaustible. No pianist has ever played the entire repertoire. There is one pianist who has recorded the complete works of Liszt. It takes up 90 CDs, and that’s just one composer. This has been his life’s work. He does play other composers, but imagine how much work it would be to record 90 CDs of different repertoire, and demanding, at that. I think this is why being a pianist took me away from my first instrument, the trumpet. There’s no comparison in terms of repertoire. I have played a couple of contemporary pieces which call for improvised sections. In every case I virtually composed it in advance and didn’t deviate from it. I guess that would be a start towards learning to improvise. As you say, it’s all about practice and putting in the work. I appreciate your response. Thank you! The composer Frederic Rzewski is one composer who often asks for improv within his compositions. One of them says the improv can be as long as five minutes.

[@RockRabot007]

can you give some demonstrations of b9 sound you talk of, or send me to some sources to hear it?

[@colingardiner6516]

Great idea. You can do this with any of the 12 tones in relation to harmony. Thanks

[@nickmainella]

Absolutely!

[@Langley-22]

Excellent! Now, video # 2: how can i get the 9b sound in my ear?

[@madrugafighters]

I don't know if I understand correctly, so I should practice several different licks, which contain the note 9 flat, so I could memorize the sound of 9 flat, is that it? Is the goal to memorize flat 9? If that's the object, how would that make me sound more jazzy? 

[@beckyn9338]

Here I am again… I’m finally focusing on my very first lick (251) I am learning in all 12 keys. (4 keys to go) Then I will shoe horn it in as many places as it will work within a set of standard changes. Then when it is fully embedded in my brain, then maybe I can be creative with it in my playing. A crazy approach? You speak of learning several pieces of vocabulary and I get it. I understand how much different usage of a harmonic tool helps to increase understanding, but learning this one, very basic piece of language feels overwhelming. How does one do this with several (I assume all 12 keys) and not take 6 months to study only one harmonic tool enough to be able to use it? Apologies for yet another “baby steps” type question.

[@nickmainella]

No apologies necessary! To me, it sounds like you are overwhelming yourself. The first line will take as long as it takes. I would argue taking that 6 months to really learn something will benefit you far more than skimming the surface on many things. There are LEGENDS of this music that have based their entire musical identities on a handful of harmonic devices and sounds. They didn't feel the pressure to learn everything (or did but ignored it). Maybe a though to chew on??

[@ronaskew]

Geeez, thanks for the fishing lesson. I get the point, though the tortured analogy, though clever, was over the top. In spite of this, I place you among the top 10 KZbin jazz educators.

[@nickmainella]

Haha yeah I have a tendency to really try to hammer points home. Guess that’s just me 🤷‍♂️

[@kalerojahn]

and where does one find a bunch of vocab? I’m aware that I should listen and pick them out from records I like etc which I do, but it’s slow goin sometimes, despite hours of daily practice, I’ve got a mind like a flea on speed sometimes, bouncing all over the place. Are there any places that just have lists of vocab/runs, I can’t seem to find loads of books for slightly less advanced concepts.

[@TheMahaffeymg]

The issue I run into is finding vocabulary examples that utilize the concepts I’m working on. What I end up doing is transcribing a chorus and seeing what they did and finding alterations to that specific piece of vocabulary but I’d rather have a bunch of examples that demonstrate the concept I’m working on. How are you collecting bunches of examples?

[@nickmainella]

Great question. If I find some examples in solos or other places, sometimes what I'll do is try to write my own lines using the one I found as an example. This builds my own abilities in line writing as well. Does that help?

[@chrisspeksnijder1717]

Work the patterns by Klosé, the Repository of scales and melodic patterns by YL, Oliver Nelson, etc., etc., etc.....

[@mazzolfe]

Eccellente

[@mjpslim]

Ive struggled with the exact idea of learning language even if i learn someone’s solo by ear .. but it seems you’re saying learn the lick,solo, motif , but be aware what sound it makes and transpose all over my guitar neck? To get it in my head and fingers ?

[@nickmainella]

Exactly what I'm saying. Do the work and really learn the licks you like, but then forget about them and think about the underlying SOUND of the lick. Allows for greater creativity and less memorizing!

[@curtpiazza1688]

😊

[@grenvillepalmer2020]

Dead right