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hubnub · 11-18-2007, 10:27 AM

I'm with the others..... Aebersolds all the way, but don't overwhelm yourself. Vol 2,3,and 24 are good places to start. After that, get into Dan Haerles "the Jazz Language" and Mark Levine's "Jazz Theory Book" They are also available at jazzbooks.com.

A couple of ways to work one beginning improvising is to work on "tonal centers" also. Being able to hear major, minor, augmented, diminished sounds is important. Aebersold Vol 24 is major and minor and it goes through all keys based on major and minor tonalities (you'll see when you get the book) In parts of the book you'll play extensively over one chord.

Another good way to do this is to take your good 'ol Clarke Tech studies book and take #2 and #3 and fit those studies to correspond with a given tonality. For example, take #2 and play it as written on the page in the major keys (#32-- c-d-e-c--d-e-f-d--etc), then change them all to minor (c-d-eb-c-- d-eb-f-d--etc), and then to augmented, and then to diminished. Same for #3. It'll help get the sound in your head if you're not familiar with them and you're still sheddin trumpet. Pat Harbison has a book that shows you all this, and not to give a negative poke at Pat b/c he's a killer player, but you get more advantage out of shedding them from memory then you will from reading them out of a book. My trumpet teacher in college showed me how to do them buy rote process.... then at the end of the semester..... showed me the book ;-0

The last way I'll suggest is to listen like it's your job! Find players you dig. Check the thread on "the most lyrical jazzer" for some names. You can also hit up Ingrid Jensens forum in the artist section for answers to your questions.

Good luck. Keep us posted on our progress.

Sorry, one more thing. Think of improvisation as spontaneous compostition. Try to do the arrpeggios and scales like Yazz said but try to do them by not reading them.... try to do them by ear. It'll help your "rote" process. Not that you're at this point yet, but get acustom to doing things by ear so when you are on the band stand blowing tunes, you're not reading music, you're making music.

11-18-2007, 10:27 AM	#6 (permalink)
hubnub Pianissimo User Join Date: May 2007 Location: Cleveland, OH Posts: 222	Re: how to start improvising? I'm with the others..... Aebersolds all the way, but don't overwhelm yourself. Vol 2,3,and 24 are good places to start. After that, get into Dan Haerles "the Jazz Language" and Mark Levine's "Jazz Theory Book" They are also available at jazzbooks.com. A couple of ways to work one beginning improvising is to work on "tonal centers" also. Being able to hear major, minor, augmented, diminished sounds is important. Aebersold Vol 24 is major and minor and it goes through all keys based on major and minor tonalities (you'll see when you get the book) In parts of the book you'll play extensively over one chord. Another good way to do this is to take your good 'ol Clarke Tech studies book and take #2 and #3 and fit those studies to correspond with a given tonality. For example, take #2 and play it as written on the page in the major keys (#32-- c-d-e-c--d-e-f-d--etc), then change them all to minor (c-d-eb-c-- d-eb-f-d--etc), and then to augmented, and then to diminished. Same for #3. It'll help get the sound in your head if you're not familiar with them and you're still sheddin trumpet. Pat Harbison has a book that shows you all this, and not to give a negative poke at Pat b/c he's a killer player, but you get more advantage out of shedding them from memory then you will from reading them out of a book. My trumpet teacher in college showed me how to do them buy rote process.... then at the end of the semester..... showed me the book ;-0 The last way I'll suggest is to listen like it's your job! Find players you dig. Check the thread on "the most lyrical jazzer" for some names. You can also hit up Ingrid Jensens forum in the artist section for answers to your questions. Good luck. Keep us posted on our progress. Sorry, one more thing. Think of improvisation as spontaneous compostition. Try to do the arrpeggios and scales like Yazz said but try to do them by not reading them.... try to do them by ear. It'll help your "rote" process. Not that you're at this point yet, but get acustom to doing things by ear so when you are on the band stand blowing tunes, you're not reading music, you're making music. __________________ Mark Russo ZeuS ZTR 1000 Monette STC-1 Prana B4-S6, B4FL, B4L-S1 www.myspace.com/markrussojazz Last edited by hubnub; 11-18-2007 at 10:33 AM. Reason: forgot