I often use my loop pedal. I practice over one chord for a while, until everything becomes pretty clear, then the next chord, then I loop both chords and try to connect what I have learned. It's very "caveman", but I find that it works for me.
I've always just soloed by scales and "feel" and it worked for me for a while, but learning this stuff has really helped me out as I was getting bored with my own playing! And it certainly doesn't make you lose any feel by having more knowledge of theory, just gives you more options on how to express that feel.
@@wss33 I feel your pain, believe me. But I would say that a lot of people struggle with internalising the rhythm and constant flow of time. Once the band/track gets going, it’s hard to be thinking about theory. Internalising the timing and flow is so important.
Jens, you're AMAZING! You've managed to condense YEARS of studies and head scratching into concrete, bite-sized tips that can put me back on track. I highly appreciate how practical this info is. Many thanks! :D
@@JensLarsen should it not be 1 b3 5 b7 which is DFAC, but his image of the Dm7 arpeggio would have you play the f sharp instead of F, am I missing something here???????????? aslo I see another mistake he has a D in the CMAJ7 arpeggio, which to my klnowledge is 1 3 5 7 or C E G B ????????? Can someone fill me in here, i am by no means an expert, so I would love to hear sone feed back?????
I really like how you put this important idea in a simple comprehensible way. Prethink the target note (3) and build a line that arrived to it! Great, thank you!
Sometimes on you-tube we are lucky enough, while stumbling through the endless well meant mass of vids, to stumble upon just what you need at that moment. For me, this video filled that moment this evening and for that.... I thank you. Please keep up the good work..
This is perhaps the best "soloing over chord changes" video and approach I have ever seen. After spending 10 minutes after watching it I was starting to create lines that surprised myself. Thank you Jens!
Thank you so much. This was a great lesson. I don't even play guitar but your advice has been invaluable for me when improvising on saxophone. I now understand how to properly join up shorter phrases into something more coherent.
The Most Important Scale Exercise In Jazz ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2Ze22BNftAA.html A jazz solo will usually follow the chord progression that it is played over, the most important way that you do that is by using arpeggios over the chords. You are probably already practice arpeggios, but chances you can do it in a better way than what you are doing now, and that is what I want to talk about in this video. Content: 0:00 Intro - What to play or What to Play Towards 0:38 A Logical and easier way to Play Chord Changes. 1:04 The Basic Progression Dm7-G7-Cmaj7 1:30 The Key and the Scale 1:49 The Arpeggios 2:06 What Happens in the chord and how to get that into your solo lines 2:37 A Very Important Skill for music and especially Jazz 3:05 Example - How It Sounds 3:34 How to solo like that 4:02 Examples of lines moving through the progression 4:30 How To Practice to play like this 5:05 Rubato Solo Practice 5:50 From Rubato to slower tempos 6:04 Choosing Target Notes 6:52 You Want to Practice hearing the change 7:05 Examples from Take The A-Train 8:05 Like The Video? Check out my Patreon Page
Hey Jens, thanks for taking this concept (target notes) and making it so approachable for a beginner like myself. You bridged the gap between concept and application and made it simple enough for me to do it right away. Of course, now I need to practice it a lot so I can do it when I want to! But I’m already starting to play something more like jazz and less like music theory.
At 4:45, everyone should do this; write out each note in each chord and look at what lines appear. In 456 (chord progression), you can do a descending bass line that follows the ascending chords. Or in something like CGDD (chords), you could do GGF#F# (notes) over them and it sounds weird, but fits. (Clearly I'm no jazz player, just some amateur). Write those chord notes out, and play around with them. A blackboard/whiteboard helps, but paper will do.
Hello Jens, your vidéo reminds me something: i was playing bass in a kind of workshop djembes and at a moment, i asked the "director" which had more than 40 years of expérience in percussions and classical dance: " How do you think the rythms you play ? Do you fragment them in your mind"...He stayed silent for a moment, watched the roof of the room in a dreamy way then just said naturally : " No, i do not think through fragmentation, for me each rythm is a song in itself and one song relatés to another through stories ". This precise day, i started to really try to understand what hé said...now i try to think that way...this is ,Jens, what you show in this vidéo...chords are linked together and they create a story we translate in our own way when listening to their "musical words" suggesting for us improvising... Thanks Jens
I don't know why it's taken me this long to find your channel but I'm so glad I did. I really appreciate your thorough lessons and masterful tips and explanations. Ive not seen more complete content elsewhere on RU-vid thus far. Thanks, and blessings from the rolling hills of Tennessee.
More mind expansion from you, Jens! I have encountered and sort of "studied" (with the help of good YT teachers) the analog of target notes in pop/rock, e.g., going to the 3rd of the next chord. This I recall with some Mark Knopfler (who seems to be a genius at this) and a Marc Ribot solo in a Tom Waits tune. But it blows my mind that a good jazz musician can work this out in real time and even improvise lines with deep understanding of what the chords are doing. Insights like this make it clear that jazz is such a high art form. And it feeds back to some pop/rock (at least some of the great composers - Knopfler, Steely Dan, etc.) and helps me understand why they sound so great. Thank you!
When I found chords are not in a certain key, I usually play a long ringing note which works with all those chords, I know this may ruin the whole piece, but It works when tempo is around 120-140. And when it comes to a series of chords which have more than two notes in common, I start to play more than two notes (usually starting on pentatonics and after that, a whole scale). I'm not a jazz musician at all, but first, I watch all of your videos, because I got more familiar with jazz since I subscribed to your channel and second, It's fun to play jazz. On both piano and guitar. Thanks for your great video!
Finding notes that works for the song is never a bad solution, but also not where you want to end it though :) Glad to hear you get something out of the videos!
man that was so great, im really grateful for the day you started thinking of doing youtube video lessons to share your knowledge:) the most important gift among thousands you give to the world, is that you make us think! and thats invaluable sir!. thank you thank you thank you:)
Jens Larsen Not at all. I use RU-vid channels without any problems except your channel. But the modulations and speed of your speech are absolutely unacceptable for me. Probably due to personal characteristics - yours and mine (I’m a teacher of literature and language) and if I conducted my lessons the same style, I would not have been able to attract the attention of my students. So I don’t want to miss important things you’re talking about. That’s why the best way for me read PDF if there’s the possibility.
@@1loStu Interesting, My videos, and the channel have never been as successful as they are now. This video especially being an example of high-performing content for me. But, of course, I am aware that no content will fit everybody.
Thank you Jens, great video and lesson as always. The amount of work you put into creating these videos is not lost on me. I’m such a noob when it comes to Jazz but you are opening my eyes. Sheesh I’m still working on my basic Jazz chord shapes 🤦♂️ . This cowboys rhythm players tryin to go straight from country chords to learning Jazz. 🤠
Hey Shawnee There are twenty inversions of the C7 C E G Bb on five different string sets on the guitar (4 per string set) which you can alter for different chords and are moveable Holler back at me I can walk you thru them
Noah LaVigne Music It’s easier to explain writing out the chord shapes which I can”t quite do here The easiest way to illustrate it is Take a four part C7 CEGBb 1234 string set Form that chord at the first fifth eighth and tenth frets There you have four inversions of the C7 It goes on to other string sets too Move a note in those chords to form other chords etc
This makes a lot of sense - thank you! It seems like I got tripped up, because I was always focused only on where I was at the moment. Now I see the whole point of going from, say, G7 alt to C. An Eb as a #5 can function to go to your 3rd of C.
Thank you Jens, now i know where i need to work on more often! I think it will be a good idea to start playing standards with only arpeggio’s starting on the root with the arpeggio and once i get used to that then move on and starting on other chord tones. Sometimes i do that but not on any chord.
This is good stuff. I need to get mentality faster at knowing target notes instantly fit chord charges. I'll just have to keep plucking and getting my brain faster through practice. Thank you!
A little bit of planning before attempting the improv goes a long way. My students ask me if I can do this kind of thing without any planning or knowing the chord progression. The answer from me is "yes, I can improvise in KEY. Also no, because I will be disrespecting the chord progression and the real potential in the song without any planning/study"
This video really helped me understand improvising. I’ve watched countless videos on what to do. And I have a good understanding of it all but this cleared it all up very nicely!
Jena,I love your tone and the musical aesthetic your lines convey;and in the context of a lesson this refreshingly rare-I always say being in tune matters,as does your tone and expression even while running a scale fragment or anything.Steve Morse mentioned this back in the 80's-don't subject yourself to hearing ugly sounds while working!
I'm a drummer, learning guitar and jazz and your channel has put all the theory I have sporadically learned into context, thank you so much, you are an empowering entity
Jens! I really appreciate you taking the time to teach this type of lessons, I’ve just seen it today and you explained so well that i made it this very day ! This makes me wonder, perhaps some of the times when i tried to improvise just thinking of playing over one scale and came up with cool stuff , I nailed it in one of the chord notes xdd Keep it uuup
Jens, I have been studying the modes and came to basically the same comclusion..and that is learning the modes is not the holy grail of music. One tends to bieve a song is in a mode..some are but most are using multiple modes..and there are mord than just the church modes that come into.play. So in the end learning what you outline or similar approaches is a better investment in time. Modes are still good to know of course..but there is a lot of misconceptions about them. Great job..thanks
It is useful to practice the modes as you said so that they are at your fingertips if you have a certain sound in mind at that moment in your solo. What I can’t agree with are the players who say that use of modes will make you a better improviser. If my solos on ATTYA are clumsy and uninspired in Aeolian, they will be the same in Dorian. Modes are not a magic bullet. They are simply a tool in your arsenal like the use of double stops, dynamics, legato, etc.
Just watched vid about the limitations of modes. Seems like this lesson is exactly what modes are not. Love your focus on target notes across chords and overal sense of a piece. Thank you! This is what I've been looking for.
Oh no! Now not only do I have to put my fingers in the right place, I have to THINK!!! You're a demon in disguise, Jens! :) Oh, and "This effect requires GPU acceleration." That explains my mistakes.
The Dm7 Arpeggio at 1:59 displayed is the same as the G7 I think. Is that an error @Jens Larsen? This was a great video. I enjoyed it very much. Was just thrown off a little only at that part.
Hi Jens I've been following you on Instagram and I just subscribe here. I started playing guitar with folk songs and ended up playing rock when I joined the band. Watching you on Instagram had made my ears loving jazz notes and decided to start playing jazz music, hope I can get the right progressions .. thanks
@@JensLarsen I thought I knew everything. Till I stumbled upon your channel, got so much more to learn. I found the sound that I've been hearing all along and that's JAZZ. I got lost in jazz especially voice leading and inversions. Need to practice more. Anyway, thank you for your amazing contents.
Love the examples. For me, it's taken time and practice to get from the general concept of target notes to understand that it takes much practice to get it under your fingers. That said, I'm not one for memorizing licks, so I hope that by practicing lots of these "routes" to target notes, it will make it more likely I can do this automatically on relatively simple 5 1's or 2 5 1's.
This is great advice. Learning to solo on one chord at a time sounds very stilted and square and I am guilty of this. I'll try mapping out 3 target notes on a II V I, I guess if playing over this second or third time you could map out a diiferet set of target notes to create variation...
As my target notes are F, B and E in the key of C I found it worthwhile to play around with these first. This to localise them on the fretboard and also to get a sense of the melody. I used a mixture of the C major and C lydian scales to spice it up... You could add the D minor pentatonic over the Dm7 too. All of this before 09:00 in the morning (sic) - luckily I work from home😁
Great video! But be careful fellow guitar students. The tab of the Dm7 arpeggio @ 1:57 doesn't match what he played. I think Jens accidentally used the G7 tab graphic. ;) @Jens Larsen
As always, really precise and useful lesson Jens! Target notes amd thinking ahead, really does require GPU acceleration :D my brain still hurts when I try to do these things, and come up with decent melodies...
I am not a jazz player, but I’m interested in learning. This is very good knowledge. But it’s also the problem with jazz - if you don’t play changes directed by the bar changes, you get more tension. I mean, don’t follow the changes play a melody or riff. Maybe that is what’s meant by modal?
Some technical questions around the 4:20 mark: Why us the D# note over the G7 chord? -Also, why choose the target note for CMaj7 the note E?- (After watching more of your video I guess you answered my 2nd question: E is the 3rd of CMaj so that's why you chose that as a target note)
