Fastest Way to Improve Your Jazz Solos 

John, this is exactly how I would suggest using licks and applying them!

Absolutely Armando!

Yes Paul! Couldn't have said it better.

I couldn't have said it any better!

@@Learnjazzstandards I'm a language teacher and a language learner and an improviser teacher and learner too. I resisted transcribing for about 20 years of my playing life and could not get my head around improvising. When I started to trust my ears, it suddenly started to work. We learn languages in the same way. Listen transcribe imitate. Once we have some command of the language we start to use it to create our own ideas. Same for music. Historically speaking the best improvisers learnt by transcribing, they didn't have hordes of scale/chord books to learn from, just some discs and a record player and to slow down a track they'd use a finger on the vinyl.

Thanks for sharing! You're completely right. This is why I say it's the fastest way. It may be hard work at first and seem slow, but the progress comes fast on the other side

​@@TheCompleteGuitarist What do you think about the benefits of learning from others directly? I think when a fellow musician shows you a lick or some concept, it will stick like 10 times more efficiently than taking it from the record. There is an article from Hal Galper about the importance of master/apprentice relationship, I guess that's how all greats became what they became. Taking tips from the big guys, not only through records but also in real life. I guess that's a part of why human teacher will/should never be replaced by machines. Increased neural activation when interacting with other human beings, all that stuff...

@@ExecutionSommaire A good teacher should show the path, the student has to walk it. Teachers cannot put language (aka musical ideas) into a students head, students acquire them through exposure to good(?) models. Teachers don't teach, students acquire (learn). Watch a baby acquiring a language and you will see a baby transcribing and reproducing, in truth all language (including music) is (should be) learnt like this. Consider this, when you speak, where does the language come from, do your ideas simply appear in your head/mouth, how does this work? because a good musician will produce music in the same way. The music will magically appear. There is no time to think about scale, harmony relationship when time is passing. While we might actually evaluate an idea before speaking, we don't construct sentences one word at a time. We program our mind with exposure to patterns, language or music then they appear. No amount of monitoring makes this process better. In the book the Inner Game of Music, the author talks about the voice that guides us that ultimately stops us acting intuitively or reacting in time.

Yes! Writing can be helpful for visualization and analyzing but it's not as beneficial for actually learning and internalizing the language

Thanks for sharing!

Hey Alfred, sure! Here’s a video that suggests some: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mc9MhzheSVc.html

It can feel like that sometimes! You start heading and playing jazz language at such a high level that when you go back to what you regularly improvise it can be deflating. But rest assured that stuff is sneaking into your playing and your ears!

@@Learnjazzstandards Yup! patience is key...

Great ones!

Glad to have you as a subscriber!

Of course, I'm pretty sure he means transcribing.

Hey there! You can transcribe if you would like (write it down), but I more mean learning it by ear. Check out my LIST process I mention in the video!

@@Learnjazzstandards oh I confused the two terms ;p

Ha! Thanks Jerrod. We’ll see how long it lasts

Not Astoria Park, but not far off...

Pat Pogo Allround Guitarist oh no Not the lick

Hey, it's true! Internalization is key

@@Learnjazzstandards But when you learn licks in isolation its hard to fit them into your solo without it sounding awkward. Some licks are only good because they were previously developed by soloist

Hey Bob agreed! That’s why internalizing licks from solos you learned is good way to go. You understand the context of that lick. That being said, I never suggest copy and pasting licks into your solos.

Learn Jazz Standards The question is if the outcome is more effective with practicing licks without thinking about any progression, to just let it the lick sink in in the system, or to play the lick over some sort of etude or chord for example?