One of the most intimidating aspects of learning to play jazz is that there seems to be so much to learn. What’s worse, as you improve you continually uncover more things to work on.
Sometimes it feels like you reach the top of a mountain, only to find there’s another higher mountain in front of you that demands to be climbed.
The sheer amount of material to study and assimilate can lead to players becoming confused about what they should be practicing from one moment to the next. Often this means that they flit from one topic to the next without mastering any. Sometimes it leads to an uneven balance of skills in their playing.
Everybody ends up in a situation like this sooner or later. The good news is that with perseverance and by being aware of your weaknesses, your playing will eventually even out.
However, if you want to improve quickly and become an in-demand player, there are some basic aspects of musicianship that you need to get down at the earliest opportunity. Many jazz musicians spend most of their practice time working on improvising solos when soloing is probably the least important consideration when deciding who you want on a scratch gig.
So what are the important things to work on? Here, and in my next post, I’ll list some of the most common skills that people look for in instrumentalists. If you make sure you master these and do them consistently well at jam sessions and gigs, I guarantee you that the phone will start to ring. The tips are not in any particular order of priority but they’re all essential!
Get good time
Good time is probably the most important skill you can develop in playing jazz and yet it’s something that so many beginners neglect. If you don’t have good time nothing else that you can do really matters. Good time is the foundation of everything that happens in a jazz performance.
Learn to feel the pulse of a piece and internalise it so you don’t need anyone to tell you where the downbeat is. Good time will mean you won't get thrown if the drummer plays some cross rhythms or a melody is phrased it in an unusual way. Buy a metronome and make it your best friend. This will help with the next essential, which is also part of good time...
Don’t speed up or slow down
There’s nothing more uncomfortable than playing with someone who is continuously dragging you back or straining at the leash to speed up. The foundation of most mainstream jazz is a solid tempo that doesn’t fluctuate for the duration of the piece. Learn to be solidly ‘in the pocket’ and you’ll get the call over supposedly better players who don’t have such a solid sense of time.
For drummers and bass players, this is even more important because if you get it wrong, the whole performance will fall to bits (no pressure then!). A player with good time will always be in demand because he makes it easier for the other musicians to play.
Voicings
If you play a chordal instrument, learn basic voicings for every chord in every key and be able to execute them instantaneously.
Don’t worry about learning lots of different voicings to start with, just make sure you can hit any chord at any given moment: it’s no use knowing 20 voicings and substitutions for G7 if you trip up on B7#9.
Your main job when playing with other people is to provide the harmonic platform for the music. Lots of voicing options are icing; being able to hit at least one correct voicing for every chord in every key is cake.
Learn commonly played styles
Learn to play idiomatically. For most mainstream jazz gigs you’ll need to be able to play 4/4 swing at fast and slow tempos, jazz waltzes, ballads, bossa novas and possibly sambas. Learn stylistically appropriate rhythms and techniques for these different disciplines and your playing will sound authentic.
For example, if you’re a pianist playing bossa nova, make sure you understand clave and learn some idiomatic comping rhythms. If you get these basic styles down, you’ll be ok on 95% of tunes that get called in mainstream gigs.
Learn to read lead sheets and chord charts
It’s essential that if somebody hands you a chart and counts to four, you can play through that chart without getting lost or hitting a million wrong notes. Soloing over unfamiliar changes should be less of a priority to start with than getting the head right. Learn to sight-read melodies. Chordal players, make sure you can hit all those chords at the right time.
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If you can’t do any of the above things and you want to play live, forget whatever you’re working on and get them down. I promise you that not only will you get more gigs, you will be building an invaluable and rock solid foundation to your playing that will always serve you well.
Next time I’ll continue my list of things that will get you hired but until then, remember that getting hired is not about being the best player ever; it’s about doing basic things, and doing them well.
