Kneebody came to town recently, and I had the wonderful opportunity to take a lesson with tenor saxophonist, bassoonist, pianist and composer Ben Wendel. In addition to playing with big names like Gerald Clayton, Jason Mraz, Taylor Eigsti, and Snoop Dogg, Wendel has often accompanied pianist Tigran Hamasyan and drummer, Ari Hoenig, two of the most [read more…]
Scales are the “raw material” of melody, whether improvised or composed. It’s not likely that you’ll study jazz improvisation to any serious degree without spending a lot of time learning, exploring and creating melodies with scalar material (as well as understanding how these scales relate to harmony). In modern jazz improvisation, many different scale colors [read more…]
When teaching, I’m often struck by how many students can play all their major scales but have little actual understanding of the keys that they play in and how their related key signatures are constructed. Having an understanding of key signatures will greatly improve your reading and general music literacy, which will set you loose [read more…]
Professional classical musicians seem to be able to memorize impossibly complicated solo works, orchestral excerpts, and other pieces in a short amount of time and with remarkable recall and precision. Similarly, professional jazz musicians know hundreds of tunes and seem to be able to play back almost anything they hear – in any key [read more…]
One of the most basic and important truths of improvising is that no matter what note you play, you’re never more than a half-step away from the “right” note. Besides being a comforting thing to know, this truth might actually help you get out of a musical jam, and could also help you expand your [read more…]
Technical Exercises in all Keys All players should organize their practice, but that structure should also leave a lot of room for variety and creativity. For most of my students, I recommend they practice in one key every week with a combination of scales and arpeggios, plus some kind of technical exercise that resembles the [read more…]