knf jazz cat

I need help building a library of licks in my head. Can somebody give me some advice as to what I should do to memorize more ideas and expand my repetoire.

jazzalive

The obvious answer is to listen to the greats, and not so greats, and transpose and memorize.

Also, I'd recommend the following two books... Bebop Bible by Les Wise, 1982 and published by Robert E. Hutchinson and 1001 Jazz Licks A Complete Jazz Vocabulary for the Improvising Musician by Jack Shneidman, 2000 Cherry Lane Music Company.

Good luck.

TangneyK

Get Jamey Aebersold's "ii-V7-I" book. He's got a bunch of bop licks in there that are really tasty.

Also, transcriptions are a tremendous resource. You can use ones others have done (a great site for that is www.jazztrumpetsolos.com ), or create some of your own--but start out simple!!! Chet Baker and (earlier) Miles Davis are perfect.

And, as always: LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN!!! We are kind of like computers in the fact that if good information comes in, usually good information comes out, and vice versa. If all you listen to is Christina Aguwhatever-her-name-is, it will come out in your playing. I try and listen to as much jazz as possible, even playing it at a low volume when I am sleeping (the hope being I may learn something subconsciously). Of course I love listening to other types of music, but I'm SERIOUS about PLAYING jazz.

I hope this helps...

--Kevin

knf jazz cat

Thanks for the suggestions. I already do transcribe and I spend much of my time listening only to jazz. The "jazz vocabulary" books seem like a good bet to help me out. Thanks