How To Effectively Learn Jazz Language 

I have been looking for someone to explain why these jazz exercises work for so long. I am a second semester at Berklee and just recently started learning jazz improv. Once you went over the free play step and how to make it your own it finally opened my ears. Thank you.

Excellent lesson. You are quite right in the fact that we often neglect the last two steps to internalise the language. Thanks for sharing this!

When I studied with Lee Konitz he had me transcribe Coltrane’s first chorus on “Someday my Prince will come” I also learned to sing the solo before I played it on my horn.

I’ve been playing for a long time and never had a formal jazz teacher (not boasting, it’s a detriment). Dude, this is the lesson I’ve needed. I always struggled to understand why I could never get the stuff I studied solidly in my language. Much appreciated brother 🙏

I love that the title is not clickbait and the video has serious content, presented clearly and straight to the point. Subscribed, I'm sure you're going to be huge.

super straightforward lesson. I've heard all this stuff before from various tutorials and sax teachers, but you organized it all for me into a framework that makes sense. can't wait to start applying this

thank you for sharing this! when i transcribe i usually just play the damn thing over and over again once i learn it lol. this is helpful to anchor into some subsequent steps and really get the most out of it!

The lesson I never knew I needed. Thank you Jayden for this great content. Thanks RU-vid recommendations.

This is a great video! I always had trouble internalizing vocabulary and this is a great way to start. I'll be sure to start incorporating this in my practice!

I feel like over the years I've seen so many practice guide videos that I took nothing from, and this might be the first one that clicked in my mind. Something about how it was focused on acquiring sounds separate from shapes (guitar player here) really made sense. Thanks a ton!

Thank you! This is very helpful and inspiring!

Great lesson! I liked that you picked that chunk out of the solo, because that was the piece that appealed to me also.

you earned that sub, thank you so much. I am a tenor player looking to learn how to play jazz and improve and this helped me find somewhere to start

best video i have seen on improv. thank you so much mate

Jayden,, thanks SO much for the lesson! Very well explained. After years of not playing, this time around I've decided to incorporate the rigors of transcribing and ear training. Your explanations on the application process really registered with me. Great advise. Thanks again :)

Great video dude, very helpful. I've subscribed!

Excellent lesson. Thanks

Thank you for sharing this awesome video! James Moody always stressed working on triads. He also loved to talk about "Coltrane concepts." I was blessed to see him annually in Chicago for 21 years. Thanks again, Jayden!!!👏🏾✌🏾

great video man!

Really cool way to exercise, and crystal clear way to teach it. Thank you for sharing it man.

Man that was awesome!!

Good job. Not long-winded like some. Right to the point. Thank you.

thanks! keep it up. would love to see a video where you apply this process to a tune you don't know yet and document the process from start to finish.

Excellent lesson on transcription. Thank you so much for making this video

this sounds SOO GOOD!!!!

Thanks. Great step by step approach to taking an element of jazz improv language, pushing it around on your freestyle way then moving forward into application of the lick or phrase in a tune. Never did all the steps together like that.

Love your videos Jayden

this lesson was great! thank you! :))

So much good information in 10 minutes 🔥🔥🔥

This was actually a very good conversation to start, Jayden! Thank you very much for sharing this perspective and inspiring us with is exercise.

Awesome!

Very helpful Jayden. This has been a big problem for me for years. Thanks.

Nice and warm tone! ☺ Good stuff!

Very well done. You simplified something that seems difficult. Cheers

Thanks for sharing, mate. It was so clear that I think I actually understood xD

Oh wow love it brother thank u 🎉

Absolutely correct 🎼🎶

Amazing lesson 👍👍

Awesome lesson man

Well done!!

I really liked the 2 notes shape freeplay! :)

Great Video!

brilliant

Blessed stuff

Yoooooo this is some good shit! Certainly changes how I think of learning the language of jazz :)

Good stuff

It's helpful!

If you want to learn jazz first you have to learn to play Blues. Simple 3 chord Southern Blues. That's the foundation . Then you can study Cannonball Adderly and Roland Kirk. Jazz all came from the Blues.

I think the lick you talked about is quote from KoKo

This is a great lesson. I struggle with the last two steps when the lick extends over two or more changes (e.g. licks over 2-5-1, turnaround etc..), because although there might be a few instances of that sequence in a tune, you're not applying it to all chords and when practicing, by the time you change tune you've forgotten it already. I find single chord licks are more manageable and easy to apply and memorise, then how can you work on longer sequences ?

Nice vid.. I just believe transcribing by ear rather than learning from someone else's written transcription matters a lot. And I say the most effective way to do it is to memorize the solo by ear before even touching the instrument, to the point you can hear and sing every single note... besides is super fun. Just after I'm comfortable with that is when I go to my instrument after the notes, but at this point you already know the solo so well that it becomes a lot easier to find everything.. after you learned the solo in the instrument through this kind of process, if you decide to write it down it just becomes so much easier as well.. you can just sit down, relax, 'play' it in your mind and write it down effortlessly.

@Jayden great wrk kind sir

Thanks for the Lesson! One question though, what is it you're doing when your moving your jaw back and forth? I've seen multiple saxophonist do it in live footage and I've been wondering what it is people are doing.

Didn't know Cillian Murphy played the saxophone so well! Seriously though, great playing and very helpful video!

good!

I think it is a great lesson . My teacher would make me play a tune with him in 12 keys and would not tell me when he changes key. For me trying to hear the rests is hard me 8th note rests or 16th note rests

Just wondering, if Trane Trane is playing A-Bb-F-D. F# -G-Eb-C. then there is no repeated pattern in HIS playing? Similar but not the same like in the pattern you are developing.

The last two steps are critical, and you described it so well. Incidentally, that Coltrane phrase remind you of Thomas the tank engine theme a little bit?

What that line you did at the beginning of this video… I’m a jazz newbie and tryna learn some things.. I ask because it reminds me of blues for Alice by Charlie Parker

nice

Thinking in patterns only works for me in modal context. When it comes to bebop i have to think really hard about chord tones and don't have the freedom to play straight patterns naturally (unless i switch back and forth)

Hey Jayden hru bro?By the way you forgot about one step man😊one of the most important "Listening" to tunes

I noticed that the examples that appear in the transcription are in C, while the ireal track is in Bflat right?

I've heard this method before from Fusion Giant Scott Henderson

I love how the thumbnail is the mario kart lick

do i need perfect or relative pitch to transcribe

Step zero-sing the solo get in so in your mind you can sing without the recording, try to develop a connection between your mind and your instrument

nice keep it up Its Noah YOO

Whats the play along program called?

wich saxophone do you use?

🎉 thank you for sharing 🎉 hope you are well God loves you deeply shalom 🤗🐼♥️✝️💐 Philippians 4:8

liked

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0:50 haha nvm

I am a taiwanese who has just passed the qualification of jazz music department.Strictly speaking, I have only studied jazz for a few months, lol. Thank you for the video that made me understand jazz better before I entered school.😋👍

上手い。🙄

OVER AnALIZing! Good/Great JoB though 👏

I don't disagree with the steps, but I disagree with the order. Free play should be the first. I have been learning songs by ear, and just playing over them at first is much more engaging. When I tried to transcribe before, I always focused on getting the exact notes first. It's much easier to get a hang of the context of the piece than the exact notes at first. But I am a beginner, so that might be less of an issue later on. And it's actually fun, so I actually want to do it. It does not feel like practice at all.

Correct me, if I am wrong, please, but looking at your video, you seem to get your Step 2 wrong, the analysis. You are deriving from Trane a lick that consists of a chromatic approach followed by a diatonic triad in root position, which then you move down or up stepwise. You are playing F MA, E-, D- etc. triads with a chromatic approach. It sounds nice. Meanwhile, Trane starts out with chromatically approaching the root of a diatonic triad, I MA, in his key of C, in first inversion followed by chromatically approaching the fifth of the ii- triad, D-, which he then plays in root position followed in the first example by an augemented V7 chord. So Trane is actually playing a cadence of IMA7 ii-7, v7 here rather than a series of chromatically approached diatonic triads. He superimposes that cadence at that spot in his solo, while you do not superimpose any cadence when you take your lick for a spin on Mack the Knife, but rather treat each chord as a modal area, in which you play diatonic patterns of the chord scale with a chromatic approach.

the thumbnail😭

Yo learn shit by ear. Don't learn from someone else's transcription. There is only so much written music can give you. Hearing it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay deeeeeeper. In my opinion!

I still don't have any idea how to read the type of chart at the end.

👍👏💕🌠