The Biggest Lessons I Learned on How to Practice JAZZ IMPROVISATION

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

Hey guys, I'm happy to announce the release of my ebook "Jazz Improvisation for Beginners: Improvising with the Blues Scale". If you're new to improvising, this might be something for you! :) You can find more information here: www.thomashaehnlein.com/shop

[@andrewcharley1893]

Thomas, sincerely thankyou for your advice,I've been playing the sax since 1987 and you have inspired me to keep pressing on.

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

Thanks for your comment Andrew, this is really nice to hear and I’m glad you profit from my videos!

[@BluesBrogio]

"In the beginning, don't try to develop your own voice". I really needed to hear that, actually. I'm getting to study jazz now after many years of rock guitar vocabulary and it's being a humbling experience, to say the least

[@RockRabot007]

great advice

[@gregmcnair4272]

If you're not swinging when you play with a play-a-long, then it's necessarily the fault of the track. I've heard the drummer Omar Hakim play with a metronoom and he made that thing swing like crazy. He even made that thing sound like it was slowing down and speeding up. Not only that, not every ensemble you'll play with will swing. If it isn't, then it's challenge to get the group to swing. And sometimes that involves playing less.

[@Dayzarma2]

Danke für das tolle und verständliche Video, ich selbst studiere gerade am Konservatorium und fühle mich überfordert vom Jazz-Eisberg, jeder meiner Kommilitonen ist um 10Schritte weiter, kann alle Tonleitern, und und und..... da hat mir dieses Video richtig gut getan. Danke!

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

Kann ich gut nachvollziehen :) viel Erfolg weiter!

[@mr.bevens1594]

Thanks mate, this was really timely for me :)

[@Bwahzehdezooner]

That's a fine old Selmer!

[@johnw832]

Brilliant advice and i totally agree-john

[@leange04]

Hey Thomas, that s some good advises and make sens !

[@chernomorets-daniel]

So wise! Continue making that type of content!

[@owennovenski4794]

Thank you for your honesty. 👏🏽

[@saxophonistscorner]

Good advice! Being able to produce your intention is a big part of it. Also having good intentions, lol

[@lukejuras8024]

Question about noodling: if my goal is to build fluency, why not noodle for 10 minutes over a backing track?

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

I get what you mean and at times this can work. But I'd rather recommend to come up with a technical exercise, practice it with a metronome and be as accurate as possible when executing - this should prove more effective

[@rogerlachance632]

Thanks Thomas. Good advices. However I am a bit puzzled at your recommendation to practice slow improvisation with no play along. Say you want to practice improvisation over a 12 bars blues. You then decide to break it down into three phrases of 4 bars. You put IReal Pro in loop mode over the first four bars and practice at a slow speed improvising, with the four bars continuously looping. What drawback/issue/disadvantages do you see for that method versus what you are recommending? Thanks and keep producing such videos. Roger

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

Hi Roger, thanks for your question, I understand your confusion. I think your method is a good one too. Practicing without a play-along has the advantage that you can really take your time to figure out what you want to play without having to follow a pulse. Also you have full responsibility for f.e. how long your phrase is. Are you able to play a phrase without any accompaniment and still know when the next bar comes? You can f.e. say that you only play phrases that are exactly 4 beats long. This teaches you a lot and builds a very strong foundation for playing with others. Hope that helps!

[@floaty10]

Wise words. Thanks for the advice.

[@insidejazzguitar8112]

Great video, thank you. Didn’t Monk copy Art Tatum?

[@SupaSax1]

Have you experienced feeling like you should be more advanced than where you currently are and what were your methods or mentality for pushing through this way of thinking?

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

Yeah for sure, this is a very familiar feeling. What helped me most is to remember why I'm playing music at all, which is because I enjoy it. Also the books by Kenny Werner (Effortless Mastery & Becoming the Instrument) helped me tremendously!

[@micahslobcrud5958]

The slow improv exercise was not very slow. Shouldn't I be mentally singing/hearing the next tone just before (oder "simultan") I play it?

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

I see what you mean. I call it slow improvisation since you can stop at any time, it's not real-time improvisation. Maybe the naming could be better. The question if you should mentally hear what you're about to play is a difficult one. I've thought a lot about it and came to the conclusion that it doesn't really help to think about it :D I'd recommend to just play and as soon as something doesn't work out, you go back and fix it. I think hearing what you're about to play is a subconscious process that is trained by practicing like this. Hope that helps!

[@marktyler3381]

Make your own riff dictionary helped me

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

Yeah that's a great approach!

[@ralfbettker-cuza7432]

Das habe ich doch mal gleich abonniert. Als reiner Hobbyspieler, der nach >20 Jahre (Einstieg in Beruf und Familie) jetzt so langsam wieder einsteigt, niemandem mehr was beweisen muß und dem es nur um die Reise geht (doch die ist echt anstrengend :-) ).

[@mpl290]

Don' forget to subscribe?!? Don't you mean transcribe? ;-)

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

Michiel Poll from Amsterdam? It’s been a long time :D and of course TRANScribe ;)

[@mpl290]

@@ThomasHaehnlein yes, it has been a long time! Hope you are doing well. All is good here.

[@morenoluponi5006]

The simple word Conservatory is an antithesis to jazz music

[@alanhowell3646]

Yes jazz has now become this intellectualised musical pursuit studied mostly by geeky white people.

[@birdndiz10]

What a ridiculous comment…

[@saxman14214]

I gnorant

[@hansmathiasthjomoe4817]

To my opinion you can’t learn how to improvise. Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Paul Desmond have a special talent. The rest of us have to copy licks or play around the chords. I'm surprised about your comments about using Playing Along. Most of the saxophone teachers online are telling you to do that. Both of you can't be right. By playing along you are learning the song and you keep the rhythm.

[@farmpunk_dan]

I mean no offense but your “magic exercise” feels much too open and vague to be of any use to me. It’s like saying “just play jazz but slower”.

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

Hey man, I understand what you mean. You can give yourself some restrictions to make it work for you. F.e. you try to play always a full measure, starting on the one and ending on the 1 of the next beat. Or you might just try to find nice phrases over 2 chords you have difficulty with, trying to connect these chords as well as possible. Of course this exercise feeds from all the work you’ve done with transcribing, learning your chords, scales etc.

[@roderickberry2508]

Nothing wrong with his magic exercise, l was doing it earlier today and didn’t watch this until late this evening. We all do it , some may do it a little different but the premise is the same Hear it Attempt to play it Slow it down and refine it or correct it Put it in real time Get it under your fingers Move on Sounds like a plan to me and a plan I’ve been doing on my own for years. And that’s how Hassan Ali Andy Magee Billy Pierce Gerry Bergonzi Jackie McLean Ray Wright Lukas Gabric And a few I forgot showed and taught me.Thus that’s how I help me students with learning to play lines and phrases over changes

[@ThomasHaehnlein]

@@roderickberry2508 Great that you've been taught this and are teaching it to your students!