PlayJazz

I've set up a new email address specifically for the blog if anyone has questions, queries, remarks or other feedback that they don't want to leave in the comments section. You can now email me at:

playjazzblog@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks!

Barry

PS Spouses/sons/associates of deposed/deceased African Kings/Princes shouldn't bother emailing - even if we are 'Brothers in Christ'.

PPS I know I haven't won any kind of lottery/prize draw by the simple virtue of not having entered any. Don't bother trying to tell me otherwise.

PPPS I'm really not interested in increasing my length or girth, nor do I require any kind of boner pills - regardless of how unbelievable the price is.

Over the summer, I’ve been going to quite a few local gigs and making a real effort to support the grassroots jazz scene after reading some research done by the Musician’s Union which shows a fall in the number of small venues in the UK featuring live music.

Two things have become abundantly clear to me over the last couple of months:

1. There are plenty of talented musicians around who aren’t getting the recognition they deserve.
2. There are plenty of talented musicians around who just don’t help themselves.

To save you the bother of having to go to any gigs yourself, I have compiled my research into the following, free and incredibly handy guide...

The Free And Incredibly Handy PlayJazz Five Point Guide On How To Put People Off Coming To Any More Of Your Gigs

1. Don’t decide what you’re going to play in advance

It always looks really cool if everyone can tell you haven't spent any time thinking about what tunes you’re going to play. It’s even better if you spend 3 or 4 minutes between each song debating what you should do next with the rest of the band and flicking though fake books. If you can turn your back on the audience, that’s even better.

Make sure the gap between songs is always long enough for the audience to start getting bored and begin chattering. This way, the people who don’t take the opportunity to slip out the door won’t be listening when you do eventually start your next tune.

There is no such thing as taking too long to pick a tune, but however long it takes, never, ever, discuss the ending of that tune so it’s always a bit of a train wreck when you get there.

2. Make sure you look a mess

Wear the oldest, scruffiest clothes you can. Ideally, you’ll look like you’ve just crawled out of a hedge to start playing. Shorts and flip-flops in the summer months are hugely appropriate (especially on evening gigs) and the audience will think you must be super-hip and cool not to care about what they think you look like.

As an added bonus, the person who has booked you will be really happy that you’re more casually dressed than even his scruffiest customers because everyone will be able to tell who is in the band.

What’s more, he will then recognise the fact that you are artists forced to jump through his corporate-bullshit hoops to pay the bills and he’ll respect you for not comforming to any bourgeois ideas about the ‘tone of the place’. If he wants your genius, he gets it on your terms, right?

3. Ignore the audience

Try not to talk to or otherwise engage the audience in any way whatsoever. Ignore them as much as possible and pretend you’re just rehearsing in a garage somewhere. If the audience isn’t hip enough to realise how awesome your music is then that’s their loss isn’t it?

Don’t announce tunes or explain anything about what you’re doing – if it’s a standard, they should know it and if it’s an original, the music should speak for itself, man.

If it’s a particularly quiet night, then some kind of snotty, knowingly ironic remark about the size of the audience will always go down well.

And if you absolutely must say something over the mic, make sure it’s one positioned at the bell of a saxophone so you have to crouch down or bend double to talk into it. When you do talk, make sure you mumble unintelligibly and never look directly into the audience or they’ll know you’re selling out.

4. Don’t vary your set

If you want to be really hip, make sure all your tunes are mid to up-tempo numbers and play them at full-volume. Make sure everybody solos on every tune and that solos follow in the same order. For example, the correct arrangement for all quintet tunes is:

• Head
• Horn solo
• Other horn solo
• Piano solo
• Bass solo
• Drum solo or trading 4’s
• Out head

This should never be deviated from. If you have funny ideas about 'variety' then you are allowed to have the drums solo only on every third tune - but the rest remains unaltered.

Play the same solo on every tune if you can. The correct formula is to start with some token short phrases (so it’s clear you’re ‘telling a story’) for a couple a bars before launching into a frenzy of double-timing for the remaining 98% of the solo.

If you’re a horn player, you should get up to the top end of your range as soon as you can and stay there. The dynamic marking should never fall below fffffffffffffffffffffffffff - unless you have a collapsed lung. ffffffffffffff is acceptable in such cases.

Make sure you never leave a silence longer than two beats and, particularly if you’re a horn player, make sure that all that pesky space around the melodic phrases of the out-head gets filled with gems of improvisational genius.

Make sure everybody plays all the time; Never create space, texture or dynamic by letting instruments sit out.

If you must ignore the earlier advice and play a ballad, make sure it always ends with a Sonny Rollins-esque unaccompanied saxophone cadenza before the final chord.

5. Drink (lots) on stage

Let's face it, this is a terrible gig isn’t it? You don’t want to be playing in some crappy bar or restaurant, you should at the very least be in a proper jazz club – if not a concert hall, so why shouldn’t you have a drink?

Besides, as soon as you start playing, the audience will recognise your musical genius for what it is and understand the only way you can stand to play here is by numbing the pain with alcohol. I mean, they might be here voluntarily but you have no choice – you have to be here. They’ll understand that this place may be alright for them, but they’re not tortured geniuses are they?

It’s perfectly acceptable to use the lengthy down-time between songs to acquire more alcohol – just unhook your instrument and go to the bar. If you’re already some kind of sell-out and are worried it may look unprofessional, then simply ask someone to bring you more drink over the microphone.

Besides, drink never affected your ability to play and you’re probably looser after a couple. In fact, if Branford called you up tomorrow to play at the Royal Festival Hall, you wouldn’t go on stage without a pint in your hand would you?

_________________________

Stick with the advice above and you’ll go far. Always remember, jazz is not entertainment, it’s art and you should do everything in your power to make people understand that, being a jazz musician, you’re more cultured, sensitive, intelligent, hip and creative than they are.

If the world’s not yet smart enough for your unique genius or society has dumbed down too much to appreciate jazz - that’s not your problem is it? You stick to your guns my friend and don’t think of doing anything differently. After all, as Frank Zappa famously said ‘Jazz isn’t dead, it just smells funny’.

I went round to a bass player's house the other day for a bit of a jam. I'm always interested in how other musicians practice and the way they approach their music. As I sat at the piano, I noticed a piece of paper pinned to the wall outlining a list of things to practice. It said something like:

• Scales& Arpeggios
• Major & minor ii-V-I's in all keys
• Rhythm changes (all keys)
• New tunes
• Maintaining existing repertoire

"Interesting routine" I said "Do you manage to stick to it?"
"No" he said with a laugh "does anyone?"

I've written before about practice routines and how they're not as useful as people may tell you, but something has occurred to me recently in structuring my own practice that I thought may be worth discussing.

Here in Liverpool, there's a very good gig and jam session that takes place on a Tuesday night. Sometimes, when I'm practicing on a Tuesday afternoon I think about learning a new tune to play at the session that night.

So I pick out a tune and start working on it. I play the head through a couple of times and then start blowing over the changes. Now, improvising is by far my favourite part of playing jazz and once I get into this, this inevitably takes up the majority of the session.

Unfortunately, several times I've got to the jam and not been able to call the tune because, whilst I know the changes and can blow over them perfectly competently, I realise I can't remember the melody!

For me, improvising is the icing on my musical cake. It's the tastiest, most exciting bit that makes it interesting and appealing and delicious! Unfortunately, the basic melody is the cake itself and if you don't have that, you have nothing to put the icing on!

I don't know if this is a common experience or it's just me, but I do know that I can avoid this situation by simply deciding exactly what it is I want to achieve at the start of the session and making sure that all the bases are covered by the time I finish.

You see, if I don't consciously direct myself to do things that need to be done, the creative part of my brain takes over and just drags all my attention to whatever is the most fun at the moment – in my case, that's blowing over the changes, not learning the melody.

I think that the creative nature and desire to express that musicians naturally have makes it hard for us to stick to regimented regimes such as the one my friend had pinned up in his practice room. However, this doesn't mean that we can't take care of all the details in our playing if we want to improve.

I have found it helpful to think about my practice as consisting of two distinct disciplines - Big Picture Practice and Detail Practice.

Big Picture Practice relates to the music as a whole. It could just involve sight-reading the melody or ploughing through the changes and getting from the top of the chart to the bottom. When learning an uptempo tune, it could involve ramping the tempo up and simply trying to exist on the tune at that speed.

Whatever it involves, Big Picture Practice deals with a thing in its entirety and is useful for two reasons.

1. It helps you to conceive a tune as a whole and not a series of sections bolted together. Understanding the 'big picture' always makes for a more musical performance when it's time to play live.
2. It helps you learn how to cope with music you haven't had a lot of time to prepare – an essential skill at any gig or jam session.

Detail practice is just the opposite. It involves breaking things down and working on the...well...details! For different players, that will involve different things; for me that could be making sure I have memorised the pesky melody properly! For somebody else, it may be something different. Whatever it is, Detail Practice involves perfecting things you have been fudging in Big Picture practice

To take a different example, let's say you're learning to blow on "All The Things You Are" (or All The Chords There Are as it's sometimes called!). You have been doing Big Picture Practice for a while and can get through the tune, making all the correct key changes and staying in the right key. People listening may not realise there are any details that need work.

However, when you switch to Detail Practice, you now go into more depth. For example, you may be fine on the 'A' section but what about the 'B' – especially that tricky bit in E major? Are you always playing the same ideas in that part to get by?

Big picture Practice may have helped you to cope in that section, but in Detail Practice you now go into depth and make sure you can really nail it.

Generally this involves working on expanding your options – it could be working on different scales you could use in your improvisation or coming up with more chord voicings instead of the default ones you have used to get by in Big Picture Practice.

Whatever it is, you narrow the focus, expand your possibilities and take care of the details.

This way of thinking doesn't only apply to tunes either. Let's say you're trying to learn a new scale for improvising over ii-V-I progressions. You may start with detail practice, getting the basic scale under your fingers.

Then, once you have it down, you may put on a playalong and try to take it through all the keys.

Finally you would note the keys that aren't as fluent as some of the others (because there's always a couple isn't there?), switch back to Detail Practice and iron out the flaws.

The beauty of this way of thinking is that you don't have to do Big Picture and Detail Practice one after the other or even in the same session - just do whichever you're in the mood for. However, I would advise you to keep a written record of what you need to work on when it's time for Detail Practice so you don't forget.

Sometimes, you can feel really motivated to do Detail Practice – this is what lets you stick to that rigid regime on the wall for a few days before you give in! If you are in that mood then definitely go to town on the details. If not, work on the Big Picture for something else and do details another day.

As long as you make sure you have done both kinds of practice before trying something new on the bandstand and you'll almost certainly give a good account of yourself.

By thinking in this way, you can add structure your practice sessions whilst still being creative and flexible. What's more, you can avoid the guilt and frustration that comes from setting yourself impossible practice goals that you can't and won't stick to.

Give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

Here’s a quick tip for adding a touch of the unexpected to the ending of a tune and holding the audience’s attention until the very last bar.

Quite simply, if a tune in a major key finishes on chord I, delay the resolution by playing a maj7 chord a half-step above the tonic before you finally hit the I chord. In other words, if the piece finishes on an F chord, hit a Gb first.

Let’s look at a notated example to give you an idea of the sound. Many pieces end using a standard ii-V-I progression.

We can delay the resolution temporarily by hitting a Gbmaj7 chord before ending on the Fmaj7. Remember, Gbmaj7 is a half-step above the final chord of this piece. Our ending could now look this:

Don’t worry if you can’t reach the tenths in the left hand in the above examples. You can always play the top note on the lower stave with your right hand if you wish and feel free to voice the chords however you like once you have grasped the basic principle.

This technique is particularly effective if the melody ends on the keynote as that will be the major 7th of the penultimate chord and the root of the final one. In the key of F major, the note of ‘F’ is both the major 7th in a Gbmaj7 chord and the root of an Fmaj7 chord.

There are a probably millions of tunes that end on the tonic but here are a couple of suggestions for common tunes to get you started. I’ve tried to ensure the copy/commonly played keys are all different so you can master the technique in different tonalities:

• I Should Care (C major)
• Stardust (Db Major)
• Blue Daniel (D major)
• Misty (Eb Major)
• Georgia On My Mind (E major)
• I Thought About You (F major)
• Here’s That Rainy Day (G major)
• All The Things You Are (Ab major)
• Triste (A major)
• Everything Happens To Me (Bb Major)

That should cover 10 out of the 12 keys! If anyone has any suggestions for tunes that end on the keynote in Gb or B major, please let me know.

Enjoy!

Last time, I talked about backing tracks, playalongs and the increasingly common role they play in musicians’ development. Whilst I believe that playalongs are a fantastic tool, there are some things I think it important to keep in mind if you intend to use them in your practice. Here is the PlayJazz guide to getting the most from Playalongs.

Listen!

The thing that makes working with playalongs different from real musicians is that playalongs are always the same. Even if you’re using a program like Band-in-a-box, which is capable of providing some variation in the rhythm section parts, the ‘backing’ is consistent but broadly unchanging.

You must be careful that using playalongs doesn’t result in you teaching yourself to ignore a rhythm section. If you’re shredding changes with a frequently used playalong, it can be easy to focus almost exclusively on what you are doing – after all, you know exactly how the rhythm section will play; exactly the same as always.

Focusing only on your playing is a bad habit that you don’t want to take onto the bandstand. The best jazz performances are ones where the musicians are really listening to each other, feeding each other ideas and improvising as a group.

Even when one musician is soloing, the others aren’t there to provide ‘backing’. They are also improvising, working with the soloist to provide counterpoint to his ideas and give him suggestions and options about the direction of the music.

The repetitive and predictable nature of playalongs means it can be easy to relegate the rhythm section to your subconscious and make it all about you. Don’t let this happen.

Variety is the spice of life

It is also important not to use playalongs exclusively for practicing tunes or progressions. One of the delights of playing jazz is that you never play a tune the same way twice. If you sit in at a session to play ‘Stella’ and have only ever played it as medium swing (because that’s how it is on your playalong), you’re going to struggle if the rest of the band decides to do it as a blistering Samba.

You should practice tunes in different styles, at different tempos and with different changes, aiming to become becoming flexible and versatile – two hallmarks of a good jazz player.

Don’t stop making music

Playalongs are often used in technical practice when learning how to navigate through certain changes. Often, the goal in these sessions is to be able to shred through these changes without stopping. After all, on the bandstand, you don’t want to be limited by technical deficiencies and if you can shred through chorus after chorus of a tune without stopping, you will have the facility to play much more of what you hear in your head.

There’s nothing wrong with this; but if you do this kind of practice with playalongs, you must make sure you balance it with other, more musical playing. Don’t fall into the trap of playing with a band as you would with a playalong.

On stage, what you practice most tends to come out in your playing and if all you’ve have been doing for the last fortnight is unmusically shredding with a playalong, guess what you’ll sound like on the gig?

Practice not just shredding changes, but spend time working on how to structure a solo, developing thematic ideas, phrasing and all the other things that make a great jazz solo more than a technical exercise

Turn off the piano channel

Another potential downfall with the repetitive nature of a playalong is that you can allow your phrasing on a tune to be dictated by what the pianist plays on the record – especially if you have worked with the record a lot and know what it’s going to sound like.

Turn off the piano channel every now and again so you have the freedom to direct your lines anywhere you wish. In a live situation, the piano (or any chordal instrument) will work with the soloist, but ultimately, the soloist should have the ultimate say on where the music goes next.

Don’t EVER use playalongs live

This is a personal bugbear of mine, but I have had the misfortune a couple of times to come across solos or duos in pubs and restaurants using playalongs as backing tracks. Please don’t do this. It sounds rubbish and it’s tacky.

Apart from anything else, many jazz fans are also players and as soon as they hear Jamey Aebersold counting off the tune they’ll know exactly what you’re up to, how little effort you’ve put into the gig and they won’t be impressed. I don’t care if your favourite music of all time really is “ii-V-I in all keys”, leave the playalongs in the practice room where they belong!

________________________

In summary, whilst playalongs are undoubtedly a great resource, they are no substitute for interacting with real musicians. Jazz is at it’s finest when a group of players are all working together, improvising as a group and driving the music forward (and at it’s worst when they’re ignoring each other and going through the motions).

If I had to condense the post to one point it would be this: Playalongs are useful and should be used as one part of your practice routine. However, relying too much on them, or using them exclusively can lead to bad habits which will lead to you coming unstuck when it’s time to play real music in the real world.

PlayJazz, with a PlayAlong? By all means, but PlayMusic - always.

Generally, I think that studying with a good teacher is the best way to learn jazz. However, good teachers can be hard to find. Fortunately, there are lots of resources on the market that can help the improving jazzer on his/her quest.

In the previous post, we looked at some of the books that I've found useful in the past, and today I want to talk about the best way to use another potentially fabulous learning tool – the playalong.

In recent times, The playalong has become an increasingly common tool amongst students of jazz. With the advent of digital media, the ubiquity of portable audio players and the ability to offer specialist products to the whole world via the internet, there has never been a wider range of playalong material to choose from.

The most famous playalongs are probably the Jamey Aebersold series of recordings. These have been around for a long time; they were initially released in the era of records and tapes (you may have to google those terms if you're under a certain age!) and the range has continued to expand over the years. Today there are well over a hundred volumes in the series.

An Aebersold playalong is essentially a recording of real musicians providing backing tracks for improvisation. The CDs come with books containing lead sheets and instructional material concerning improvisation. There are three main categories of Aebersold playalong:

1. Collections of standards (such as Autumn Leaves, Girl from Ipanema, Stella etc.)

2. Recordings of tunes by a particular artist or composer eg (Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington etc.)

3. Records dealing with specific study topics such as the ii-V-I progression, turnarounds, blues, rhythm changes etc.

The recordings have the bass and piano tracks panned fully to left or right channel so musicians that play those instruments can effectively mute a part with the balance control on their hi-fi.

A more recent option for generating backing tracks is the Band-in-a-Box software from PG Music. Unlike a pre-recorded playalong, here you simply enter a chord progression using standard chord symbols (like Bbmaj7, G7#5 etc) select a style and a backing track is generated for you to work with.

As you are essentially dealing with midi information, you have a whole host of options you don't have with audio playalongs, such as altering the tempo, changing the key, muting any instrument or changing the style. For example, you could punch in the chords to Nature Boy, practice it as a slow bossa and, with a couple of mouse clicks, transform it to an up-tempo swinger.

The flexibility of midi files makes them a popular choice for providing backing tracks and there are many you can find free on the web which naturally vary in quality. However, as a tuition aid, I can heartily recommend the excellent and FREE midi files of Doug McKenzie.

Doug is a very talented pianist and is passionate about helping others to learn jazz. Many of the free files on his site contain markers embedded in the song which describe some of the techniques he is using at that particular point in the music.

The great advantage of this is you can hear a cool sound and instantly find out how it's being made: It's like sitting next to someone while they're playing and getting them to stop and show you what they did when something grabs your attention!

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In recent years, the playalong has become an increasingly important tool for learning jazz as the opportunities to play live on a regular basis have been dramatically reduced.

Before being replaced by DJs and recorded music, live bands were pretty much everywhere. In those now long-gone halcyon days, if you wanted music in a venue you hired a band and demand for live music meant that making your living solely from gigging was not only possible, but normal. This contrasts dramatically with the current situation when even the finest musicians often have to rely on other sources of income (such as teaching) to make a living in the field.

In practical terms, the improving musician no longer gets to ‘go to school on the bandstand’ and this means that a lot of a musician's development must happen in the practice room.

As a result, playalongs have become increasingly popular and, used in the correct way, they can be an invaluable practice tool. However, there are some pitfalls that you need to be aware of so the next post on this blog will talk specifically about the best way to work with playalongs, what to keep in mind when using them and how to make sure that they aid, not damage your development.

I hope you'll check it out.

Recently, I've been looking at some of the resources available to the jazz student who is trying to teach himself - and I'm about to post another article on this topic.

As I was finishing that particular article this morning, it occurred to me that it contains links to commerical products which may colour your perception of what I have to say. I want to be clear about why those links are there and what my involvement with these products is, as I'm bound to talk about available products and resources in the future.

I am not affiliated with any of the companies or products I mention anywhere on the site. Naturally, if you click on a (blatantly obvious) Amazon associate link and buy a product then PlayJazz will get a small commission which I will use to pay the costs of maintaining the blog – the same goes for the google ads on the right.

However, I have no commercial association with any of the other sites/products I may link to on PlayJazz and they are in the blog purely because I think they could be of interest and useful to you as a developing musician.

The 'Hidden Gems' series is the perfect example of this. A cynic might think that I write those articles to make commissions but the truth is that I write them because I genuinely love the albums I write about. Yes, I stick an Amazon link in the article but I'm not really bothered whether you buy it from Amazon or not. I would just love you to have a listen because I think the albums are awesome.

Sure, if you want to buy a product after reading about it on here, I'll gladly take a commission. Why wouldn't I? However, generating commissions is NOT the purpose of this site.

In all honesty, I'm not even doing the amazon affiliate link thing properly. At the moment, those links just send you to amazon.co.uk (as it's my home country) but I'm well aware that a lot of people who read this blog are from the US so they should be taken to amazon.com.

Apparently, if I sign up as an affiliate on all the amazons, there is some geo-uber-thingy that I could use to take you to the amazon for the country your server is in - but I haven't got round to figuring that out yet. Hardly the behaviour of a commercial mastermind eh?

I don't write this blog to make money – which is just as well as I'd starve if I did! The purpose of this blog is to help people learn to play jazz, allow me to share some of the stuff I've picked up along the way, and (to be brutally honest) to give me the opportunity to shoot my mouth off about the music I am passionate about and the way I think it should be played.

The reason I'm keen to make this clear is that any products I mention on here are ones that I've used myself and recommend to my students all the time. I don't want you to be reading any of my advice thinking that it is a sales pitch.

It's not.

Right, with that out the way, on with the blog...

In the last post I talked about the best way to select a teacher. However, many people will live in areas where there isn’t much choice. Jazz musicians often move to cities seeking more opportunities to play, but if you live outside the city it may be a struggle to find a suitable teacher.

Fortunately, there are many products on the market today that are designed to help you develop your own playing and in this and a couple of future posts, I’ll be taking a look at some of the most popular resources. First up is…

Books

There are hundreds of tuition books on the market covering all kinds of instruments, methods and approaches to playing. There are books about harmony, theory, chord voicings, soloing, intros and endings, turnarounds, licks and pretty much every aspect of jazz you can think of.

Books can play a useful role in learning – particularly in regard to understanding harmony and theory. In fact, most of my basic jazz theory knowledge came from them and there are plenty of useful techniques I still use regularly that I got from books. In a moment, I’ll mention a couple of titles I have personally found useful, but first of all, a word on book learning in general.

The great thing about books is that you can absorb the information at your own pace. If you don’t get something straight away, you can always come back to it at a later date when you’re ready. Many books contain a lot of information and you will return to them many times over the years as you improve and are ready to assimilate material that was previously too advanced.

There are more books on the market than ever before and whilst it’s always great to have so much information available, beware of falling into the trap of buying books instead of practicing! Some people will buy book after book, constantly searching for the the magic sound or the secret jazz scale that will suddenly make them sound like a jazz musician.

Buying books does not automatically make you a better player and is not a substitute for practice. You will not absorb anything by osmosis so if you do choose to learn from books, make sure you read them with your instrument and put the techniques into practice or you’re wasting your time.

Also, whilst books are useful in some respects they are totally useless in others. They’re great for learning theory, voicings, and approaches but you’ll never learn to swing or have good time from a book. You can’t learn to play purely from books so make them just one part of your development.

The Jazz Piano Book

The book that I first bought when I started learning jazz was Mark Levine’s The Jazz Piano Book after it had been recommended by a couple of more experienced players. I was very glad I did.

In this comprehensive volume, the material ranges from the very simple (intervals and triads) to the more complex, (fourth chords, upper structures and melodic minor harmony) and the material is generally easy to read and well explained.

Most of my basic knowledge about chord/scale relationships came from this book and Mark does a great job of explaining how chords and scales are essentially the same thing and how to select a scale for improvisation based on a chord symbol.

There’s a huge amount of information on voicings here; everything from skeletal Bud Powell voicings to quartals, ‘So What’ Chords and upper structures are covered and I have kept returning to this book whenever I’ve felt the need to expand my harmonic palette. I still haven’t absorbed everything. The section on latin jazz and salsa is also excellent and explains clave and montuno patterns beautifully.

Whilst I would thoroughly recommend this book, I do have a couple of criticisms.

Firstly, this is not really a book you should work through from front to back. The chapters are organised in strange order; for example, Chapter Four is devoted to sus and ‘phrygian’ (susb9) chords. The latter are hardly essential knowledge for the beginning jazz pianist.

The author claims the book is designed to increase in difficulty as it goes on but I don’t think the format really works – if that is the case then should tritone substitution (chapter 6) be considered significantly easier to understand than pentatonic scales (chapter 15)?

Secondly, the book focuses very much on playing piano as part of group. If it’s learning to play solo piano you’re really after, this book isn’t going to be quite as useful. The chapter on stride piano is good, but is about the only one specifically aimed at the solo pianist.

Thirdly, whilst the book contains lots of good information on chord/scale relationships it doesn’t really go into too much detail about building a solo. Once you have learned to associate a particular chord with a scale (or scales) then you’re on your own. The soloing approach is exclusively scale based (there is almost no mention of lines built using chord tones and chromatic approach notes for example) and there is no real help with phrasing or advice on building idiomatic jazz lines.

Finally, this may be something that’s a personal gripe, but some of the musical examples given seem a little esoteric. Mark has tried very hard to keep his examples within the context of compositions by major artists and tunes that you are likely to play. However, sometimes the desire to stick to this criteria can make them hard to contextualise. For example:

“in figure 14-6…the upper structure #IV minor chords are on the third and fourth beats of the sixth bar of Thelonius Monk’s ‘Ask Me Now’.”

In cases like this, there is just the one bar of notated music shown. Even if you already know ‘Ask Me Now’, it’s hard to place one bar in the context of a tune. If you don’t know the tune, you’re going to have to go and get a lead sheet from somewhere to give the example context and meaning.

I do understand the desire to keep examples relevant to the repertoire of a working jazz musician, but sometimes I think the information could be better conveyed by an exercise written specifically for the purpose.

If a student has to go and find a lead sheet and learn a tune to contextualise a single bar of voicings, it wouldn’t be surprising if he/she lost focus or, worse still, simply turned the page without absorbing the material.

Despite these criticisms, if you aspire to play jazz piano in a group, this book will act as an invaluable resource that you’ll find yourself returning to time and time again as you continue to improve.

The Jazz Piano Book is well worth the investment as long as you don’t look at it as an progressive method book. You’ll get much more out of it if you view the chapters a series of individual articles on different aspects of jazz piano and dip in and out whenever you’re ready to tackle a new topic.

The Jazz Theory Book

For other instumentalists, the The Jazz Theory Book is probably a better bet. A lot of the information is the same as in the jazz piano book, but the chord/scale theory is a little more detailed and also looks at some common chord progressions.

There is also more information here about building solos, although the focus is still very much on a scale-based approach to improvisation. Sequencing, bebop scales and playing outside are covered in some depth and the section on pentatonic scales is more comprehensive than in The Jazz Piano Book.

The final third of the book is devoted to reharmonisation. None of this material appears in the other book and is an excellent study of ways that chords can be altered or substituted to give new sounds and add a personal twist to a familiar tune. This is one of the strongest parts of the book and I haven’t seen such a detailed look at reharmonisation anywhere else.

Overall, like its predecessor, The Jazz Theory Book is crammed full of useful information and I have found myself returning to it time and again over the years. Again, it should be treated as a reference volume rather than a method book – although there are often useful exercises included that are well worth studying.

The examples can still be hard to contextualise sometimes and it should be noted that whilst the chord/scale approach is probably the one most employed by the modern jazz musician, it’s certainly not the only approach to improvisation.

Despite a couple of criticisms, The Jazz Theory Book is still a fantastic resource and improving jazz musicians will find a wealth of knowledge in its pages.

Metaphors for the Musician

Randy Halberstadt’s Metaphors for the Musician is one of my very favourite jazz books. Again, this is not a jazz manual but a collection of hints and tips regarding some of the most common issues that Randy has seen students struggling with .

Whereas Mark Levine’s approach can be erudite and professorial, Randy’s is friendly, informal and designed to put you at ease. The book is filled with metaphors, personal anecdotes, humour and a warmth that hardly makes it seem like you’re learning anything at all. This is the book to turn to if you’re feeling insecure about your playing or having a ‘I’m never going to get there’ moment; Randy’s voice is always understanding, sympathetic and reassuring.

His ‘harmonic astronomy’ metaphor is particularly novel and illuminating and is highly recommended to the beginner looking to figure out how the harmony in jazz standards functions.

As the author is a pianist, there is also a wealth of information on chord voicings and here you will find information on voicings for solo, duo, trio and quartet playing that can serve as a basic toolkit for playing in any situation.

As Randy says himself, Metaphors for the Musician is not designed to be a how-to-book but is a collection of ‘nuggets’ designed to sit along more comprehensive books on jazz theory and improvisation.

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These three books have been the ones that I have learnt the most from over the years and, whilst I will certainly review other books from time to time, it would have to be a very special book that would replace any of these in my recommendations. It is true that they’re not cheap but I’m convinced they remain a valuable investment if you’re learning to play.

However, keeping the cost in mind, I would initially recommend going for the Randy Halberstadt book and one of the Levine books. This combination will cover a hell of a lot of bases for you – providing you practice!

Don’t forget that buying book or reading books is NOT practicing and the information on the page is only of use if you put it into practice on your instrument.

Next time we return to look at self-tuition material, we’ll be taking a look at the pros and cons of playalongs and how they should best be used.

Until then, good luck and don’t forget to practice!

I’ve always believed that you teach yourself music – particularly jazz. Learning to play is not simply about obtaining knowledge you don’t possess from someone who does: Music is an art, not a science.

A musical journey is a very personal odyssey and, for the most part, you’re on your own. However, a good teacher can help to lay strong foundations for your playing, speed up your learning process and generally point you in the right direction.

However, finding a specialist jazz teacher can be a tricky venture – particularly if you’re inexperienced and don’t know what to look for. To help out, here’s some advice I would offer for your search.

Listen to the teacher play before you take lessons

Anyone can advertise as a teacher. The majority of pupils are beginners and some teachers claim to teach styles or instruments they’re not particularly proficient at because a smattering of knowledge allows them to bluff their way through with a beginner.

One example of this is classical teachers claiming to teach jazz when they can’t blow themselves to save their lives. In the U.K. these kind of teachers may have been on a one-day workshop to ‘learn’ how to teach jazz and will simply put the student through the ABRSM ‘jazz’ syllabuses without laying proper foundations for jazz playing.

For this reason, you should always get a potential teacher to play for you. It’s also wise to ask them to improvise something to make sure they haven’t just learned arrangements of jazz tunes from sheet music. Many teachers offer free trial lessons or consultations before asking you to commit to lessons and it’s wise to take advantage of these to make sure that the teacher can Walk The Walk.

Know what you want to learn

Often, pupils looking for a jazz teacher will be intermediate players; they may have had classical lessons or already have some jazz ability but are looking to develop.

If this is you, it’s important to be clear about what you are looking to learn. For example, if you play piano, do you want to develop purely as a solo pianist or are you more interested in skills you can develop to play with others? What style do you want to play in? which players do you admire? Are you looking for help to be a better soloist or do you need someone to help you understand jazz harmony and theory?

If you are clear about what you want to learn you will have a better experience than simply presenting yourself as an empty vessel for the teacher to fill with knowledge. If you are learning what you are most interested in then you’re more likely to practice. There’s no point sitting through lessons in stride piano if you have no interest in playing solo and just want to learn how to play in a band.

There are so many aspects to jazz that it’s impossible to learn everything at once so pick what you’re most interested in at the moment and get someone to teach you about that. You can always go in a different direction later if you wish.

Make sure your teacher can teach you what you want to learn

Again, this will apply most to players who already have some knowledge. There are many different styles and approaches to playing jazz and even really good players can’t do it all.

For example, if you specifically want lessons in how to comp like Herbie Hancock, there’s no point studying with a guy who plays like Erroll Garner – even if he is a great player. He probably won’t have the knowledge to teach you what you want to know. Similarly, if you want to learn to read lead sheets, there’s no point studying with a guy who can’t read music but blows up a storm on the bandstand.

Now a good teacher may make you study earlier styles before they start to introduce more modern sounds and that’s perfectly fine. However, it’s important to ensure that they do have the ability to teach you what you want to learn – or at least are honest about what they can teach you. If in doubt, refer to the rule above and get them to play for you.

Ask around

Recommendation is a good way to find a teacher so if you know somebody having lessons, it’s a good way to find out what a teacher’s methods are and what they are able to teach.

It’s also worth asking players you hear for lessons if you particularly admire their playing. Not many musicians make a living purely from performing and most players will teach. Don’t be afraid to approach them after a gig, chances are they’ll be glad of the opportunity to earn some money! However, it may be wise to simply give them your number or take their card and save the in-depth discussion of your development for another time as players don’t necessarily want to have huge discussions when they’ve just walked off stage.

Take different lessons with different people

There is no law that says you have to stay with one teacher forever. In fact, you can often broaden your experience by studying with different people with different knowledge.

There’s also nothing wrong with arranging one-off or short-term lessons with some players even if you’re already taking long-term lessons with a teacher. For example, you may be an intermediate player who is happy with their current lessons but you hear someone playing one night who thrills you with their unusual harmonic approach. There is nothing wrong with asking that player for a couple of lessons specifically in re-harmonisation whilst continuing with your normal lessons.

You’re not married and it’s not cheating!

Different strokes for different folks

So you’ve been studying with a teacher for a while and have been working on soloing using chord tones and passing notes and it’s slowly coming together. You take some lessons with another local player you admire and they tell you that approach is old hat - you should really be thinking scales if you want to get anywhere. Who do you believe? The answer is, whoever you like, or neither, or both!

There are many different approaches to playing jazz and there is often value in all of them. Chances are, you’ll end up trying different approaches as you develop until you find the combination that best suits you. Teachers will naturally lean-towards the approaches that helped them but that doesn’t mean they’re the ones that will necessarily be right for you.

If you do uncover different approaches from different teachers, go with your instinct for what will suit you best. After all, you can change approach if what you’re doing isn’t working for you (and probably will!)

Do as you’re told!

It always amuses me that people will pay good money for a teacher to tell them the best way to do something then don’t do it! If you have followed the advice above, found a teacher who you know can play and has the ability to teach you what you want to learn, then you may as well do as they tell you.

It’s surprising how many people will attend a lesson, make all the right noises and then go away and not do any of the work they’re been set by the teacher. This is a waste of everybody’s time and your money. If you’re not going to do the work, don’t take the lessons!

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Whilst I firmly believe that a good teacher is worth their weight in gold, I am aware that in some areas it can be very difficult to find any jazz teachers. If this applies to you, don’t panic; the next post will talk about some of the ways you can teach yourself and I’ll be taking a look at some of the resources available to today’s developing jazzer.

Good luck in your search.

For those of you not from the UK, you may not be overly familiar with the name of Jim Mullen – but trust me, you’re missing out.

Jim is one of the finest jazz guitarists of his generation – and probably one of the most exciting and consistently entertaining live improvisers I’ve heard. He started out playing bass as a child in his native Glasgow, before making the switch to guitar in his teens. He is self-taught and has developed a high-energy, full-throttle, individual approach to improvisation that gives him a unique and instantly recognisable sound.

On his 2000 album Jim Mullen Burns, Jim looked to his Scottish roots and chose to reinterpret the songs of Robert Burns from a jazz perspective. To help him do this he secured the services of some of his favourite collaborators – pianist Gareth Williams, bassist Mick Hutton and drummer Gary Husband.

The result is a fascinating blend of the old and the new, with the folky and highly singable melodies of Robert Burns arranged with respect but sculpted beautifully into modern jazz vehicles for the hard-swinging approach of this quartet.

From the start of the opening track ‘Count the Lawin’’ the cards are laid on the table. Jim Mullen is fully of fiery blues ferocity and this is perfectly offset by Gareth Williams’ rhythmically innovative and harmonically colourful approach to each tune. In keeping with the source material, Mick Hutton’s bass playing is delightfully understated yet solid as a rock and Gary Husband propels the music ever forward with a lightness of touch that leaves plenty of space for the soloists to go wherever they choose.

Most of the tunes are straight-ahead swing but never become repetitive or dull with the delightful waltz ‘Banks and Braes’ and the achingly beautiful ballad ‘The Lea Rig’ providing contrast to the 4/4 pyrotechnics that characterise much of this record.

Burns is a thoroughly enjoyable and original album and the juxtaposition of the modern jazz approach and age-old folk melodies works beautifully. This kind of combination so often falls flat on its face but here it results in joyous and uplifting music that will have you tapping your foot from the very first bar. Highly recommended.