L'attirail

If you’d like to learn jazz improvisation, or learn to improvise in general, you’ve come to the right place!

Jazz improvisation is often viewed as the hardest part of learning jazz. The masters have left behind many tips and exercises though. Unfortunately people often hear these tips but never act upon them. So please take action on these tips to “learn jazz”.

When you have a song you’d like to improvise on, follow these preparatory exercises.

1. Listen listen listen! Buy CDs and vinyl records and listen to the jazz masters. Get as many versions of the song as you can.

2. Find sheet music (chord changes are the important thing). Try memorizing the changes, and just go through them in your head.

3. Figure out what the chord is for each chord change. Finding the chord and scale of each change will help you learn to improvise.

4.

Once you know the chord, run up the chord 1-3-5-7 in eight notes over the change.

5. Then do 1-3-5-9. These steps may seem silly, but it will help you learn jazz, learn jazz improvisation, and learn to improvise.

6. Try both step 4 and 5 backwards. Go 7-5-3-1 and 9-5-3-1.

7. Then invert the chord as many ways as you like. Go 3-5-7-1, 5-7-1-3, 7-1-3-5, 3-1-5-7, etc. etc. Do every possible combination.

That’s a lot of work right there. And these are just preparatory exercises. And of those exercises, these are just chords! We still have scales AND scale tones to worry about.  Read more...

First, it is important to know what an acoustic guitar chord. When you play three or more notes line while they are “suitable” for an agreement.

An agreement of power is usually used in hard rock songs and generally uses two ropes together. These usually can be combined to equal incredible, despite the note that sounds using only two strings.

How to learn these chords?

First, it is important to know how you can learn these agreements. There are many different things you can do a quest for self-help books to help you when you are trying to learn the chords! You can also find a guide online site that will teach you different amounts of individual agreements!

Once you’ve found the teaching method that suits you, you will be able to learn the chords in no time. It’s a great choice for anyone out there who is learning the guitar.

Self-Help Books Guitar

You are probably looking for books of guitar itself that ultimately will help greatly if you use them. One of the great books that can be found, go to your local Barnes and Nobles or even consult with Amazon.

This book is known as the Encyclopedia of guitar strings that can be purchased very cheaply. You can see and hear the chords as you play with the book.

Another great thing about this is that the software can be combined with learning on-line or a guitar lesson of self-help tutorials that can increase your ability to learn the guitar!  Read more...

As I’m sure you know learning tunes and lots of ‘em is one of the most important things a player can do, in fact you really have to do it. And the faster you learn them the better. But I mean REALLY learn them.

‘Learning’ a tune means totally absorbing it into your ear and into your memory, the melody, the changes, the form and rhythm, to the point where you don’t have to think about it while you’re playing.

The first thing to do, of course, is to choose a tune. Just make sure you choose a tune that’s not too ridiculously advanced for your present skills. You want to choose a tune that you can actually wrap your ears around.

You would then start by listening to a recording of the tune to get the basic sound of it in your ears. Get a copy of the tune, the lead-sheet and look it over. You’re looking to get an overview of the tune. You’re looking for things like form (is it AABA, ABAC, a blues, etc), what key is it in, and what’s the time signature.

Next, slice it up into pieces, break it down into small bite size chunks.

Simplicity is king when it comes to practicing jazz. So start with something like the first phrase, just the pitches, no rhythms. If simplicity is king then repetition is queen. Repeat the phrase over and over 4 or more times while reading it. Then repeat it 4 or more times from memory by ear. Pay attention to the melodic shape, the relationship of the pitches to each other and any other details that your ear slowly uncovers through repetition.  Read more...

As I’m sure you know learning tunes and lots of ‘em is one of the most important things a player can do, in fact you really have to do it. And the faster you learn them the better. But I mean REALLY learn them.

‘Learning’ a tune means totally absorbing it into your ear and into your memory, the melody, the changes, the form and rhythm, to the point where you don’t have to think about it while you’re playing.

The first thing to do, of course, is to choose a tune. Just make sure you choose a tune that’s not too ridiculously advanced for your present skills. You want to choose a tune that you can actually wrap your ears around.

You would then start by listening to a recording of the tune to get the basic sound of it in your ears. Get a copy of the tune, the lead-sheet and look it over. You’re looking to get an overview of the tune. You’re looking for things like form (is it AABA, ABAC, a blues, etc), what key is it in, and what’s the time signature.

Next, slice it up into pieces, break it down into small bite size chunks.

Simplicity is king when it comes to practicing jazz. So start with something like the first phrase, just the pitches, no rhythms. If simplicity is king then repetition is queen. Repeat the phrase over and over 4 or more times while reading it. Then repeat it 4 or more times from memory by ear. Pay attention to the melodic shape, the relationship of the pitches to each other and any other details that your ear slowly uncovers through repetition.  Read more...

If you are a music lover and you want to learn to play an instrument than just singing along with your favorite tunes, you can actually select a few easy instruments to learn. Somehow, naming ‘easy’ instruments to learn is not really definite. It usually depends on you, but if you are a beginner in learning to play musical instruments, you can start with some easy instruments to learn or start with popular and versatile instruments that allow you to play any style of music you want.

The flute

Aside from being small and easy-to-carry, the flute is also easy to learn and an inexpensive instrument too. You can teach yourself to play the flute, or you can also find a good flute teacher to help you. Although you don’t get to sing along with the music, the flute is a good instrument to play if you just want to play, relax, and listen to music.

The piano

For some, learning the piano may be easy and for some, it can be difficult, but the piano is one popular instrument to learn because of its versatility. It is also one of the musical instruments that have a great sound and indeed a good instrument to sing along with and compose music. If you really have the patience and the commitment to learn, the piano is considered one of the easy instruments to learn.  Read more...