Improvising

In addition to my main job as a Music Instructor/Band Director for more than 10 private schools in the D/FW TX area, I also teach privately.  As a private lesson music teacher, I mostly work with students that want to improve their improvising.  I currently only have the time to have 3 or 4 students, and each is dead set on their goal to be a better musician, focusing on jazz improvising and creative playing.

I've done a lot of thinking about this, and my main thing when it comes to learning how to be a good improviser is LIVING IT!  You must eat, drink, breathe it all in, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  I believe you do this by practicing with and away from your instrument through every source out there.  Jazz isn't just a type of music, it's a lifestyle, no matter how corny that may sound.  You don't live it 9-5, punch out, and go home and turn your brain off to it.  You don't take the weekends off.  You don't call in sick.  You don't take vacations.  It's every day, all the time.

Part of the learning process for jazz playing is reading and writing about it.  When I took saxophone lessons early on in college from a very intelligent player and teacher, David Lown, who played lead tenor in the One O'clock Lab Band at UNT, he had a goal for me to pick one player to transcribe that was around before 1965 (so it couldn't be anyone modern), and focus on them.  After I finally picked John Coltrane, he would have me do the following per solo:  1) transcribe the solo by ear 2) write the solo down on paper by hand 3) harmonically analyze the solo 4) put it into Finale 5) circle my absolute favorite lines from the solo and learn them all in all 12 keys 5) write a paper on it.

This is what I mean by writing about it.  This leads me to my point:  I am a very scatter-brained person, and with my students, the information I lay out for them is not intended to be by the lesson.  This is why I always encourage my students to sign up for 10 lessons in a row, all paid-up-front, not because I'm greedy--but so money isn't the issue.  As long as I give them the time they paid for (which would be 10 hrs. if they signed up for 1 hr. lessons), I try to make the lessons work on a quality basis.  If the student tires out after 45 minutes, I leave.  I write down that I owe them 15 minutes and at some point, this 15 minutes will be made up.  I usually throw in a whole bonus hour or even more sometimes.  Quality over quantity.  That all being said, I also keep in good communication with all of them--they can call and ask questions anytime.  That's also what these blogs are for.  Jazz is a lifestyle.  You have to read and write about it, as well as practice and listen.  Go see shows.  Now, go practice.  Then write your own journal entry about what you experienced!  And then tell your friends.  Share everything.  You really think if you reveal something cool in your playing your friend will use that information to get ahead?  Jazz isn't a competition.  The best player doesn't win.  We don't play music for medals.  It's all meant to be shared.