gridjam

Wow and yes all! Thanks for throwing all of your ideas around while I'm scrambling for either a spare moment or a strong signal. Not to rub it in, but I'm on a mini-vacation in Mexico (after touring my brains out for the past two week). Had my first 8 hour sleep, ok 9...that I've had in ages. THE ROAD!
My bottom line answer to this question is to get out and play. The books, the Cds, the analyzing, the play a longs...all great learning tools but if you are not developing communication skills from the get go, you will be like a child with a Thesaurus for a brain but with no ability to connect the dots that are needed to formulate sentences and stories. FIND someone to play with and get playing and communicating as soon as possible. If you are in band at school, say yes! I will solo. Even if you have no clue what to do. Get the recording of the song you are soloing on and do all of the listening, analyzing and playing along that you can. Handle transcription books with care, use them to check your ears after you have learned the solos by ear. If there is a mistake in your hearing, it may be because you have not trained your ears enough. Eg- if you heard an interval as a fifth but it is a fourth- there's your shedding material for the week...the interval of the fourth in every possible combination you can eek out in every register of your horn. A great starting point for feel and phrasing is to lift Miles solos on Kind Of Blue and play the tunes on the record with others.
more to come...
IJ