Jazz, Blues practice

Gendreauj

Want to find the most efficient methods to ĺearn Jazz, Blues and R&B. Trying to optimize my practice times.
What books would you recommend ?
Currently I have the following Jazz books;
How to practice Jazz by Jerry Coker, Jazz Handbook by Jamey Aebersold Jazz, The Ultimate Jazz Handbook "C" Edition, Jazz Anyone, and Essential Elements for Jazz Ensemble.
Also have many other method books; Arbans , Traditions of Excellence, Technical studies for cornet, Rubank Elementary Method cornet, Roy Poper's commentaries on Brasswind methods of James Stamp.

Richard III

In my world, that means whenever you are doing anything like driving, chores, working out or any activity where listening is possible, immerse yourself in the target music. The next time you pick up the horn, that music will come out. Happens to me all the time.

SSmith1226

I’m a neophyte at this, probably not much more advanced than you, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt. What I have personally found to be extremely helpful in the “self taught” aspect of my journey, besides listening to accomplished musicians, studying theory, ect.,is playing along with iReal Pro as my rhythm section. There are over a thousand “standards” programmed into it, and you’d can create your own accompaniment (chord changes) in any key, tempo, and rhythm that you want. I have found that very helpful, especially in working out solos on Big Band Charts. I suspect that there are other “Band In A Box” apps that are similar.
I have also found a music transcription program to be very helpful in writing down, developing, annd editing my ideas.
Good luck with your journey!

Dr GO

You mentioned efficient. Not sure if this is efficient but it damn well works. I studied jazz improvisation with Claudio Roditi for my last 18 months I lived in New York City. He focused the entire lesson experience on me transcribing other jazz artists solos. He had me learn them in all the keys. His theory was in transcribing a variety of soloists, in so doing, you would eventually find your own voice. It was intensive training but rewarding. Here is a recording of one of my solos with the quintet I perform with on a song written by our bassist:

Dr GO

A nice book I have used most recently that introduces fresh concepts in phrasing is The Art of Jazz. I have the link to this book below:

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Jazz-Trumpet-John-McNeil/dp/0962846767

Kehaulani 0

The thing to remember that is paramount, is that Jazz/Blues is an aural art. You need to hear and internalize it, not read it.

Yes, reading books can be helpful. But until you get the feel in your ears, everything is just peripheral.

Listen to some Blues and Jazz music and sing along with it until a listener cannot tell that there are two performers. You have to, without an instrument, internalise the feel. When you do this, as a by-product, you pick up idiomatic articulations, phrasing and all the other elements of music. Then -

Learn the six-note Blues Scale and start playing simple blues with these notes. You'll discover that a basic Blues has only three chords and the Blues scale fits over it very easily. The Jamey Aebersold Play-Along, Nothin' But Blues, (Vol. 2) is one good starting point.

After you/ve doing all that, begin playing along with recordings. You can also start transcribing useful licks to practice. Miles' solo on So What from Kind of Blue is a good starting point for transcribing. While it's not a Delta Blues, it's simple enough to use to learn transcribing techniques.

Richard III

@Kehaulani-0 said in Jazz, Blues practice:

Learn the six-note Blues Scale and start playing simple blues with these notes. You'll discover that a basic Blues has only three chords and the Blues scale fits over it very easily.

I started with blues in C, F, G, Bb, Eb and Ab. Amazing that it covered most of what I ever came across in real music. My band has a common warm up exercise. Our piano player picks a key and starts playing. It's up to the players to figure out the key, figure out the progression and play appropriately. I think audiences think we are actually starting our gig at that point. It makes me wonder if we could just do that for two hours and have a pretty nice performance.