This stuff can and does get done faster with guidance. But with intense focused practice, I'm accomplishing them in a matter of a few months. But if you don't get ahead of yourself, it does pay off as the skill cannot disappear once mastered.īTW - some of these skills might take years for some to develop. Creating one's own music at millisecond speed cannot be a simple skill. There is no doubt that improvising in Jazz (or Blues) is a complex deal. There's A-Z, but maybe I will suggest you work on E first. I try to do the same here when I'm asked for advise. It's always an identification of a focus. If anything, a teacher makes sure you're not focusing your time on things you already know. Happy New Year to all and let's get to the next level in 2010! If anyone has issues with the same things I worked on here, let me know and I'll pass on what I did to get past these limitations. So all in all, it was quite a successful 2009. I'm not a "lick" guy so my study is slower and more intellectual so I can apply it to anything. I know all these in theory, but closely following a transcription of Chick and trying to play the line like he does just exposes some interesting patterns. ![]() But I discovered that plenty of what he does is the mainstay of Modern Jazz (intervallic playing, quartals, diminished scales, substitutions). For this, I've engaged in a long-span study of Chick Corea, something that would not even be possible years ago due to the complexity and speed of what he does. The final focus recently has been the enhancement of my Jazz vocabulary. This is a more long term project and involves Hanon (not usually my preferred but useful here) and contrary scales. It's not up to RH standards, but from where it came from, it's quite a jump. But the dexterity change in my LH has been amazing too. This is tiresome for my brain so I only do a little bit of it a day. I've been trying to improvise daily with my LH while comping with the RH. In a way, a weak LH also screws up time so they're all interconnected under the "technique" heading. The other thing I've worked on in the last few months is my Left hand. I've said this before and repeat it: you cannot swing well until you perfect your time. I'm not done with this yet, but the improvements have been amazing. Didn't I say that swing is based on time control? Well it's true. A month later, even my articulation changed. So I've just been heavily focused on exercises on refining my time. ![]() Although I could play well enough, it wasn't at the 'rock-steady' level that pros play at. The precision of swing and the ability to create the feel of swing is time control. The difference between professional players and what I can play is time. Then the next thing my teacher focused me on is the Time issue once again. Now here in the New Year, I'm pretty relaxed playing at 220bpm, which is a professional level tempo. ![]() Easy enough at slow tempo but usually causing lock-ups at 250bpm. And I realized that speed can't be developed until you really are able to relax everything but the active finger during playing. A little bit because of watching Dave Solazzo and how relaxed he plays, I challenged myself to improve speed. Before I started, I would never take a tune much above 150bpm. I attribute this a teacher's guidance as it focuses my practice on the things necessary to take the next step.īack in October, I was focused on building up my speed. First of all, the improvements in my playing seem to be geometric and I sound different now than even a couple of months ago. After passing the 5 year mark of learning Jazz, I'd like to describe what happens at this stage.
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