What I Got WRONG About Jazz 

I love how very instructed people are always careful not to generalize.

Aimee, for me this is one of the very best videos you've ever done. True to yourself.

I play jazz piano, and teach jazz, which I've been doing for the last 30 years. Learning to play jazz is akin to learning a new language - you have to study and practice many things - grammar, vocabulary, sentence structures, tenses, correct pronounciation, genders, etc. The same is true of learning to play jazz. *Here are the 20 main factors which have to be learned and internalized in order to become a fluent jazz pianist:* 1) HARMONY/FUNCTIONAL HARMONY - a massive subject all on its' own, and this can become very complex. 2) MODULATION from one key to another wihin a particular song or piece, including how this is achieved (II-V-I progressions, cycle of 4ths/5ths, etc). 3) THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SCALES - one Major, four Minor, Wholetone, Chromatic, the 7 Modes of each Major and Minor scale, the Diminished Scale and the Jazz Altered Scale, the American Blues Scale, the Bebop Major Scale. 4) ARPEGGIOS BASED ON VARIOUS SCALES/MODES - typical 'be-bop' angular arpeggios especially. 5) THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HARMONY AND MELODY/SCALES 6) THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HARMONY AND BASS LINES - including diatonically rising and falling bass lines, use of inverted chords, chromatically rising and falling bass lines, bass lines following the cycle of 4ths/5ths, etc. 7) THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MELODY AND BASS LINES 8) RHYTHM AND RHYTHMIC STYLES - Swing, Salsa, Rock, Shuffle, playing in different Time Signatures, playing rubato, using 'punchy' rhythmic phrases when soloing, etc. 9) CHORD VOICINGS (rootless chords) - especially for the left hand. Which scales can be used over which chord changes or individual chords, especialy whilst using rootless chord voicings in the left hand. 10) BASS LINES - including walking bass for swing, bass lines for various Latin rhythms, etc. 11) SOLOING - The use of arpeggios and scalar approaches, how to combined these, use of rhythmic devices, phrasing/length of phrases, building a solo. In this I use 'copycat' phrases and 'question and answer' (call and response) phrases to help students to get a good rhythmic and melodic 'feel' for jazz, espeically be-bop. 12) CHORD 'EXTENIONS' - where a left hand voicing is used with harmonies in the right hand based on the various scales (such as the Jazz Altered Scale, lydian, dorian and mixolydian modes, diminished scale, etc. 13) DEXTERITY, FINGERING, ETC. 14) When to use LEGATO PEDDLING, and when NOT to use the sustain pedal. 15) PLAYING WITH A BASS PLAYER (just piano and bass) 16) ACCOMPANIMENT OF SINGERS (just piano and voice) 17) ACCOMPANIMENT OF FRONT-LINE INSTRUMENTS, both with piano + one instrument (sax, or flute, etc.) 18) PLAYING IN TRIOS/QUARTETS etc. - including 'comping' using rootless chord voicings and using rootless (left hand) voicings with chord extensions (in the right hand). 19) HOW TO RE-HARMONIZE A MELODY. Like harmony itself, this is a huge subject demanding a great deal of time to become fluent. 20) READING FROM TOP LINE MELODY AND CHORD SYMBOLS (as per the 'Real Book,' 'Fake Book' etc. Learning to play Jazz is a huge task, but with immensely rewarding results.

When pianist Ran Blake taught improvising at the New England Conservatory, he told students that they had to be able to sing a line before they could play it. I doubt he carried that to the sixteenth note level, but he did want students to know what they were doing, and not just finger-noodle through scales.

The one thing I’d like to point out is that you have incredibly high music aptitude. Many of us do not. For some … just having “one or two” two voicings for each basic jazz chord is decades of work. Very little of what I play is actually singable by me. Melodies can take decades to learn… there are song which I have been playing almost every day for 40 years and cannot play .. have never played…… we are all different in our learning…. Many times people with high aptitudes do not quite grasp that. Love your channel!

Yes, part of what is killing jazz is the idea that solos have to have many notes and show how technically proficient they are. The average listener just does not understand or like listening to this. Making music is not about how many notes you can play, it is about expressing ideas, and how you are personally feeling. Melodic knowledge is the most important, how to make a melody. So many jazz schools do not teach this. To keep a listener listening and understanding your Improvised Solos they have to have melodic ideas, have contrasts, have tension and release, have humor, have emotion! Keith Jarrett as an example!

As a house bassist at Rusty’s Jazz Cafe for many years in Toledo, a variety of incredibly talented musicians would come and sit in and play alongside Eddie Abrahms, the pianist that was the core member for the club. Sometimes cats would come in and try to cut Eddie, in a typical Bb blues, playing the most advanced lines, the altered scales, arpeggios et al you’re referring to here, occasionally tossing notes directly behind Eddie’s ears, as if to say, “what you got man?”, “can you play that?”, etc. Headcutting being a thing, these guys would overplay glad to be sitting in taking too many Many choruses, 12, more 23 perhaps, end with flourish as if to say, now whaddaya got to say after all that?! We would bring that whole swinging Bb blues down dynamically, and Eddie would start his solo with one single Bb note, right in the middle, and play that single note starting to repeat the same note with a rhythm and build from there into the next chorus, adding an octave above, starting to groove a pulse, adding an octave below, pushing the momentum, double octaves in both hands, shifting the range of the B flats up and down now as well cruising forward, bringing the volume up, chorus leading to the next, the rhythm becoming frenetic and powerful, literally an exclamation of this is how to make this music truly exhilarating and his hands would become a blur thrashing out an incredible wall of B Flats and we’re swinging hard as hell now, driving a freight trains worth of flying down the tracks and we would come to that inevitable top of this mountain of energy, and as we’d come to the top of that next 12bar, BANG! Eddie would play every incredible fast line he ever knew in the world, and the audience was on their feet, clapping shouting smiling overcome with the power of this Jazz-Blues Beautiful Moment! Man, he’d cut those cats with ONE Note!!

Lyrical improvisation is definitely a great approach but I find that there’s a bit more to it. I used to focus mostly on change-running or creating melodic lines out of scales and modes that fit the harmony and I got good at it. But I had a feeling that this may have been competent jazz but not particularly good jazz because I wasn't really saying anything worthwhile. Then one day something dawned on me. I went to my piano and started improvising on All the Things You Are, only I placed more focus on rhythms than on pitches. My solos immediately came to life. It’s amazing how interesting and appealing even a simple, one-pitch phrase can sound when played with a tasty, irresistible rhythm. It instantly changed my whole approach. Then I realized that there is a value in change-running but it should be used as connecting tissue to the rhythmic-lyrical creations. And at that point I really saw the importance of space in that it gives the listener a chance to process what you’re expressing and it creates suspense, which is huge and really brings a solo to life. So I recommend being lyrical but with rhythmic creativity as the main emphasis. And leave plenty of space. Just try it.

Hands down the best video I’ve seen here on youtube….maybe ever. As someone that went to music school too and didn’t always get what everyone else was doing, I always followed my own path. And yet now I understand what I didn’t as a teen. Listening is sooo important….for vernacular, but also running the “exercises” helps develop the ear by exposing new sounds that may be outside what makes sense for a young ear. This was amazing. Thank you!

...playing with the ear, from the heart...versus...playing with the hand, from the head...ongoing self-improvement path...such wisdom and truth...encouragement to remain true to yourself rather than trying to impress...thank you...

Welcome to the club. My mentor Joe Solomon was taught by Lennie Tristano. The main thing he taught and is now passed along to me is each student is required to learn and sing solos first. Embed it in your ear and only then try to play it on your instrument. Ive learned to sing every Charlie Parker solo, or Lester Young....and embed that in your ear as a daily practice. Hearing and playing happens almost instantaneously.

Thank you for talking about this. Music in it’s very nature is difficult to explain and you do it beautifully. 2 comment. 1 Keith “the singer” Jarrett. He seems to do what you explained. 2. I’m a very poor guitarist who literally falls asleep playing things over and over and over. Because I’m trying to play tempos I physically & mentally can’t do. It turned playing from joy to hatred. So, I learned at 66 that playing at whatever speed is really ok. Sure, theres a reason to play fast, but playing slower is okay by my lights. Thank you for saying this and letting me know others question themselves, mostly just overburdening ourselves to meet other standards. Well done.

People gravitate to their strength. You have a great ear and the way you can scat and play notes is incredible. It’s your strength. If you started by practicing scales and scales and arpeggios after arpeggios you might not be as good as you are. Lots of people sound like scales. You have a lyrical style that is really unique. Your best advice for me has been to listen, listen really closely to tunes.

The best music lesson I ever had was being told "if you can sing it, you can play it". But you really take it to the next level!

Girl, what you're doing is totally amazing

Gosh darn it I just love you and what/how you share and teach and inspire so openly.

As a musician over the years, I've learned that the more you think, the more difficult it is To play music from your soul. To truly improvise you have to let your soul speak and not your brain. If you try to play and you're looking at the keys you should stop right there. I have found that closing my eyes and playing is an entirely different experience than looking at the keys and playing. My piano is near a window so I can see a beautiful view out the window. Even if I play looking at the beautiful view it's still doesn't give me the same feeling as closing my eyes and playing. Closing your eyes and playing allows you to tap into your soul voice that connects to the ether of the universe which is a cosmic connection. When a musician hits a really good note and he or she is feeling good what do they do? Close their eyes. When you pray what do you do? Close your eyes. There is the connection to the ether of source consciousness, emotion, heart and soul. This is where organic improvisation truly comes from. Keith Jarrett is a master of this technique.

This was a great talk! I think it goes in both directions - someone who has predominantly focused on hearing/playing/singing from internal melody benefits from focusing on more theory and technique. Someone who focuses primarily on theory and technique really needs to practice hearing internally first and expressing on the instrument and voice as secondary!

dear Aimee. I just want to let you know, that the chords you play in this video had so much impact on me, that I now learn this scale in all keys, discovering so many chords with a new harmonic richness to me - It was a gift! Thank you for your work!

I love how you talk about music. So cool to hear about your process.

This video and the insights revealed are as , if not more, important than any technique or theory video, although those are super important too. Thank you for sharing this!

Aimee, thanks so much for sharing this very personal tale of your journey. I can relate. I began playing piano by ear at age 4, and got "fired" by my first piano teacher because he was a strict "teach 'em to sight read music FIRST" guy and I was still learning to read ENGLISH, let alone another language. That didn't dampen my love of music one bit, and I found my way. And yes, eventually learned to sight read from a more enlightened teacher. I've been playing (and performing) the rest of my life, but mostly in blues bands. Having facility with the blues scales is No Way sufficient if you want to graduate to jazz proficiency, and I have been dragging my feet to really woodshed and put in the work of getting proficient with all the scales and modes. Hearing that a *month* of hard work got you such a long way gives me hope, and may push me over the hump of committing to that work. Wish me luck - I'm pretty sure it will take multiple months for me, but that's OK.

Hey Aimee-Love your schtick! A thought: You discuss how you can’t always play as fast as your colleagues. And I’m thinking: So what? I think of jazz as “talking” music”-and nobody wants to hear somebody bloviate!! I’m a retired guitarist from the small-group-swing and NOLA jazz idioms. I have found that it is easier to swing at medium tempos. The greats-Parker, Dolphy-et al-can kick up the tempo, but that takes practice as you point out. I go with Ellington: “It don’t mean a thing….” Or: If it don’t groove, you don’t move. Notes in a line need to breathe! There’s a great line from the iconic NOLA trumpeter Bunk Johnson: “Never play nothin’ too fast to walk to.” The foundational jazz beat comes from early brass bands and their march time. I’ll take a steady heartbeat over atrial fibulation any day of the week! Amen to listening to yourself! P.S. A guitar teacher of mine could rip off fast solos and sing them at the same time-like George Benson. I asked how he did it. He said, “It’s a little trick I picked up in the Orient.”

Singing your solos is a great starting point. Once you master that you can take it further. One of the ideas I apply to soloing is to construct longer phrases over several bars. It is good to know what you can play over a particular chord, but a tune will have a string of chords over which a melody can be constructed using a scale common to the string. Another approach I use is to not over think what I am about to play. Perhaps what Aimee says she heard other students do was to allow what was in their minds to go directly to the instrument. This demonstrates a fluency not unlike when speaking a new language, where one doesn't need to translate their thought before speaking in the new language. I have been able to apply these approaches to my soloing, mostly on bass, which is my primary instrument, but onto other instruments as well. And scatting the solo along with your instrument is very cool!

As someone who started with technique and learned my own kind of point and sing later on, you are spot on with this.

Possibly one of the most important video I've watched in my jazz short journey (and I've seen many). Sometimes it's important to get your head up and to have a bit more general view of what you are trying to do and where you want to go. Thanks for that thought provoking tale of your early journey.

Very well said! My teachers used to say “you can’t hear a wrong note” and now I say that to my students. It’s hard to play only what you hear though! Also what you say makes me think of how much contemporary classical music is so often unlikeable for me and so many people… it’s not coming from what the composers HEAR, it’s coming from what they think!

Your voice is magical. Subscription added

Dear Aimee, I’m 70 with thousands of gigs behind me: swing , R&B, Honky Tonk, some Bop, et al. I’m self taught with only my ear and Lester, Getz, Hank, Ray, T-Bone and so on to teach me. My take: left-brain analyitics is essesnial up to a point, but right-brain singing is the goal. Singing what I played was to key to being able to play what I sing. I can hear the left brain Post-Berkley crew a mile away. Not interesting to me; in fact, it’s a turn off. My ultimate solo is Lester on Jumpin’ At The Woodside: Total right brian: all phrasing, side steps, sweeps, blues/daitonic crossover without a thought to why it works. It works because he sang it. Getz, Bird and Django were the same. They had a bag in home key - all 12 notes in all their permutations as they saw it. Bird repeated himself all the time. His bag was vast, and uniquely his - but it was a bag, nonetheless. With it, he, snd all the pre-educated greats, created the canon. To me, jazz education in the classroom, as distinct from the bandstand, is a dangerous place. Too much right left and a paucity of right. I loved your take Aimee. Congratulations on your journey, your humility and your vision. More please! 🎹🌹🕶🎩👏👏👏

Great insight, thank you!

Thanks for sharing your experience Aimee, I really appreciate it! I came at learning my instrument (guitar) from the opposite direction, memorizing the patterns and then (sometimes mindlessly) running through the shapes I knew while the chords were changing. I often got frustrated and always wished I could play more creatively/melodically like some of my friends. It's only the last few years that I've worked on my ear training and trying to vocalize more (although, I still really struggle with "singing"). I can definitely see the benefit of both types of learning.

Fascinating. Thank you. In a small way, I am opposite to you experience wise. On a far lower level. I have played and learned by ear for 50yrs on guitar mostly in singer/songwriter acoustic, but with an eclectic taste in genre. Recently I took up the violin and joined an ensemble learning some simple classical tunes. Omg! Much as I love and appreciate it, it has sucked the life out of spontaneity and free form musical thinking and playing. It is like wearing a straight jacket. Over the years I have heard countless stories from classicists who struggle to swing, jam and improvise. Now I know why first hand. It is an entirely different discipline. In each case, one has to unlearn and re-evaluate the approach. Magical and frustrating! ;))

As ever, you are able to put over complex ideas in a very accessible and authentic way. I'm a guitar player, but I get a lot out of your shows. My biggest influence is Pat Martino, who was asked if he thought in terms of scales when he was improvising - he replied 'jazz doesn't work like that; it's too fast BUT it's prepared for.' I think this is right, and I think that the chord/scale approach to jazz education has done a lot of harm. It is really a rule based approach and is maybe of some use in practising, in much the way you describe, but really, a scale section per chord in Cherokee going at full tilt? I don't think so. The chord/scale approach is a bit like trying to carry out a conversation a letter or a word at a time. It soon becomes obvious you are not speaking in your native tongue. Improvisation is no different from speaking; we know where what we want to say is going (like in your Chick Corea example), but we don't map out every word along the way. That would be like walking in the woods and having to look at a map with each step. When I sing or play guitar, I don't exactly think about what I'm doing, but I've prepared for it, so I know the direction and spirit of the song. Finally, listening to Oscar Peterson, he is obviously singing lines, but it really is lines, not notes, so far as I can tell - he's singing general directions - it's almost like he's telling himself 'yup, that's how it's supposed to go.' Anyway, if you're out there, thanks for more food for thought, and sorry if I rambled.

What an amazing story! Thank you so much for sharing it with us! Your statement totally resonates with me! Now... It's time to get back to the practice and play these crazy-sounding scales until they sound normal.

So honest, from the heart, to hear about your experience.

Positive comment! please don't stop doing what you're doing and showing to us

It's interesting to hear your testimony, as a guitarist we don't see notes most of the time, most of them just geometric patterns and this makes it easier for us to play in all tones, but if you ask the names of the notes most won't know right away. But the sound of the intervals, at least in my case, I have a good memory of. I tend to relate certain songs to some type of interval, for example, Tom Jobim's One note samba, it's a great song to memorize like fifth intervals, for example...

Thanks for this. Fabulous! Going to watch again now, to catch onto the #5, #9, altered scale practice you mentioned.

Really useful to get your perspective on this. Appreciate the balanced outlook.

I think it's marvelous, developing an ability to take a melody from in your mind and not only sing it (I think many people can do that), and then translate that straight to your instrument. To then teach yourself to do much the same with complex harmonies is next level. It's like some ultimate ear training exercise that would simultaneously take a student into so many other areas of musical development. What a thing to challenge young students!

I am always inspired by your content. When I was in High School and college jazz bands playing sax I was always amazed by my mom's ability to transcribe a song with "perfect pitch", (even though she was always a sight reader on piano) something I thought was a gift beyond me. Later in life I taught myself to play some jazz piano and have become a fairly proficient player of jazz ballads, and find myself able to predict note pitch, so maby perfect pitch can be learned to some degree.

WOW.... I truly am speechless you are so deep plus brillant thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing this, Aimee. It was so helpful to hear.

Makes a lot of sense. I’m not a jazz player (but I love jazz) but guitarist, rock, blues. But I also went through a part where I learned “bursts of notes” or riffs as one thing, and then also go melodic back and forth, between the two types of playing.

Amazing Aimee!

WOW!!! Your story was AMAZING!! Thanks for sharing. ❤❤❤ btw I LOVE the way you scat your notes. Beautiful!

I love hearing your thoughts, you contribution is genuinely so lovely to hear and really resonates with my current journey with using my ear

Thanks Aimee! Great stuff.

You have managed to articulate hugely creative complex thought processes very clearly. It's magical to be touched by your words and feel inside that I really get it. Thank you x

Deepest thanks for your honest and heartfelt sharing and for the mastery of two instruments throughout your life, your voice and the piano. Best wishes! 🙏🏻✨✨✨

Thank You for this inspiring post! It's just as much fun to watch You speak about Your work as it is valuable to pick the lessons in it that You provide. Let's see what I can make out of that for myself...

Really interesting! Thank you so much for sharing.

Thank you so much, Ms. Nolte! That helped me to sort out and better understand many years of my own musical experience, and also to be able to find more access into your current level of development and demonstration! You bring a humble, good vibe! 😊

Super important message for any instrument. Thank you!

Thank you, Aimee! 🎶🤗😎

"Like" as usual. Thank you so much for sharing your ideas! God bless you for the magical kick! :)

Thanks God I don't have such problems in my life :-)) All I do is playing for myself, and have fun with it. I don't need to prove it to anyone else... But a true musician must be something different of course... And you are a great musician dear Madame Nolte... And, more importantly, also a very great person... In fact one of the greatests I've ever seen in youtube... Thanks for sharing your life-like experiences, useful knowledge, and beautiful sense of humor with us just for "free"... Never could I ever been closer to "giant" like you, madame Nolte, if you were not sacrificing for us in youtube...

Thank you for those insights and bearing your soul somewhat. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the thoughts of “I’m not cut out like the musicians i look up to” and figured I should aspire to their levels. I do push harder because of it, and it’s “comforting” to hear you - someone i also look up to - have similar feelings.

Your videos are always interesting & educational Aimee! Love your approach and exceptional ability! 👏👏👌😁🎷

Thanks for this post. Great encouragement!

This is such a great Video... so mind opening for me as a musician... resonates big time with where I'm at in my musical journey... thankyou so much for this

Brilliant and insightful. Subbed. Thank you.

This is a really good analysis of how it works. Great insight to share.

When I began playing piano, I was also singing in my church's youth choir. I studied piano because we had one...I really wanted to play clarinet like Pete Fountain or Benny Goodman, or Artie Shaw. So piano taught me the basics of theory and technique, but when I reached puberty, my voice changed, so I went from singing soprano parts of the hymns and anthems, to alto parts, to tenor parts, to bass parts...in just about one year! Talk about ear training!. By this time I was also learning guitar. So I got deep into chords, and scale patterns. I began 'cross-training' between guitar and piano, and continued developing my ear by learning Beatles songs etc. from the records, because the few songs that were published as sheet music were always in Eb or Ab, not in G or C like the way they were played. Like you, my early jazz influences included Ella, Louis, and other 'scat singers' along with the aforementioned players of the 'licorice stick'. So I, too, sang 'solos' over the chord changes I was learning. It finally dawned on me...after literally thousands of instructional books and lessons with some pretty good teachers, that really learning to play had always been about learning to 'hear'. About that time, I heard Eric Clapton and John McGlaughlin, two of my favorite guitarists, both say that it wasn' t about how many scales you can play as 64th notes at 200 bpm, but whether or not those notes made sense in the music...that only the 'right' note or notes were really needed. And you learn what those notes are by listening. Now that people like you are making videos about all the stuff I already know, I take the greatest pleasure in being able to watch what I'm hearing with greater appreciation. Thanks so much for what you're providing to players who are just coming to terms with this stuff. The main lesson of this video that I'd emphasize is "It can't come out of your head into your fingers until it's gotten into your head through your ears." So don't just practice, listen too.

I love how you fuse the concept of hearing and constructing musical ideas. Thank you for pointing out how both concepts interact. This is a deep level of reflection rarely seen on this platform.

Your sincere candor reaches more voicings than there are frequencies and grooves Ms. Nolte. Good on ya pard.

Im glad I found your channel. As a saxophonist, i connected with everything you are saying. I often sing the lines that I want to play in my mind as it is relative to my horn. This form of mental practice has been helpful, but I too have felt limited. I am going to start trying to find chords on charts and learn the scales associated with them. Thanks for your teaching.

Sweet, honest, earnest, and inspired. Yes, Aimee, your music reflects who you are. Patterns and runs are just narrative, the part of the story that takes you from one scene to the next, and yes, they can take you to an unexpected location (which is awesome!) but when you arrive, the rhetoric (the part of the story that reflects your experiences, your perceptions, and your feeling about what is important) has to come from you if it is to be your original story, spoken in your own voice. You were never wrong about that.

One of the best things I have ever heard about learning jazz. Just signed up for Nebula. Thank you!

I love listening to you and learning from you, especially when you open your heart in the name of Music

So good!!! Thank you!

Thanks Aimee, great video. I’ve been playing Jazz Trumpet for 40 years and to a certain extent have always been able to improvise. Although I’ve learnt a lot of theory, my best solos have and continue to be when I just use my ears and try to feel the groove, listening to the band and reacting to what they are doing. I’ve tried to explain this to fellow musicians but it’s really a personal thing. I think we’re all different and you learn and use whatever works for you.

Building what one can hear... That's the stuff!

You are the best Aimee! Best regards from Argentina

A brilliant video with many clever thoughts. I've made a similar musical journey, but much later in life. After a freelancing in many genres for 50 years, I only started getting serious about jazz a few years ago, and I'm now 66. But it's a wonderful journey! I compose and improvise when I'm half asleep in three voice polyphony. Life is so wonderful, and playing bass is the best thing ever. :-) ♥

Great content! Thank you so much!

Great advice Aimee......!!!

Aimee; good one!! I like your internal sincere thinking.

Thanks for sharing all this very personal information.

deep. profound. your truth. inspiring. there are many variables in the body - senses, mind, heart, finger memory, etc. there is no one way but it's a combination. get good at any area and it helps another area. accomplished musicians learn to work their mind-body-spirit as a whole. magic happens at so many levels and the amazing things is is even the most accomplished people can still be their own frequency - just like your own fingerprints - uniquely you. very helpful going thru your story!

Thank you so much for sharing your discoveries. I was little during the cool jazz age and heard those beautiful melodic ideas floating down the hallway at night when my Dad was listening in the living room. I turned into a multimedia artist, and now I'm learning music theory on a guitar. The structure and disciple of scales, patterns, and modes are so difficult for me, but somehow compelling because what you say is true. They help us know where to go, at least where we might wander to find that next note. Thx for inspiring me to keep learning. and Nebula looks amazing, i'll take a look.

You are such an excellent teacher. Sounds like you took the right approach. Thank you for the inspiration,Maestro Aimee.⭐🌹🔥🌹⭐

I find very inspiring and amusing that you feel sorry for not having started with what I wish I didn't (patterns, scales, ...) I've been a guitarist for 35 years and I'm trying to relearn to just "point and sing". 😂 I totally love how you play, sing, share and teach 🙏 Hopefully I'll get a chance to hear you live one day!

Interesting! This opened some new avenues to think about how I want to practice and learn myself. I've already started singing the notes and saying the notes while practicing scales, but I really liked what you demonstrated. Thanks!

Love your videos here!

Thanks Aimee. I think each of us progress in jazz in different ways, depending on our dedication, influences and coaches. I wouldn't say your initial approach was wrong, but in hindsight, sometimes we can see there could have been a faster way to reach a new skill. So we seek out good teachers and role models. And hopefully don't spend too much time regretting. Having said that, your video is invites your viewers to incorporate chord extension scales and chords into their practice, in a deliberate way, which is always a good thing. Sometimes the benefits of practice routines isn't always immediately evident. Also I like your comments of how you compare yourself to other musicians. As a non-professional, this doesn't happen much with me. I just am grateful to have the time and means to enjoy this wonderful craft and depth of musical appreciation and immersion. Thanks for another insightful video.

5:19 Amy , this “simple “ little line here is so beautiful. I think I could listen to lyrics to your “simple melodies” all day;)

WOW!! Point and sing. Awesomely great thing. Thank you. Great video, so so helpful. Thank you for your gifts.

I’ve always admired your ability to sing what you play…. And play your internal vocal ideas. Love this

I saw this on Nebula, but I just had to go to YT to thank you for all your great content. To paraphrase (quantum) physicist Niels Bohr: Good music is strikingly often the result of thorough preparations. Please do more cool stuff.

Another very helpful video... and provides a 'springboard' for hours of discussion... but I'll try(!) and temper my normal ravings 😁 ... My history revolves around playing 'popular' electronic organ (off'n'on) since the 1960s, adding guitar in the '70s, synths and recording in the '80s and '90s.. and coming back to keyboards after 'revisiting' and expanding on my theoretical knowledge a few years ago. Firstly, I would suggest the what/how you learnt about jazz wasn't "wrong" at the time... but perhaps it has become wrong for YOU... now.. given what you've learnt in the intervening period. I can see how the idea of 'reworking' the singing you've heard into melodies would work... to a point... but this approach would likely provide the motivation to learn (more) theory (and being able to play/apply the knowledge gained), which opens up the 'palette' from which you can draw more ideas for your singing.. and then transfer into your playing... and I'd suggest for many, it might be a 'better' (or at least, more musical) way of learning and playing rather than by starting out with a lot of theory that seems unhelpful when all you want to do is play tunes when you're starting out. Not everyone needs or wants to be a Chick Corea or a Steve Vai; many are more than happy to aspire to being a Randy Newman or BB King, for example... I feel the first.. fundamental.. thing to consider (and is often missed when teaching/learning music) is to understand what your musical goals are (and realize they can change with time). 'At my time of life'(!), my objectives are about playing for myself and my friends, so I can 'afford' to simplify what I need to learn... unlike someone who's been playing for a few years and wants to make a living via their music by being a session player in a dozen styles. Again, when you're learning to be a musician, you really need to understand yourself and why you're learning music in the first place to properly assess the methods you use to learn.. and to what extent.

This is brilliant....carefully thoughtfully worded...this helps. Very generous

Thank you for sharing this. I needes to hear it :)

So neat breaking down the voice/instrument relationship.. I relate every thing to singing also and it’s the easiest to listen to.. but thinking from the instrument instead of the voice allows you to go places the voice can’t go. It’s still “singing” in a way. Awesome

The absolute BEST thing about your music is that it is authentic to you. So thankful I had the chance to meet you that night with Don at the sushi restaurant gig (do you still do it?) You have poured into me and you don't realize it. This video lets me know that even at age 63 I can keep improving my music by being more authentic to myself. I will adore you forever. And did I mention how beautiful you continue to be, and Ella is stunning.

This video is awesome!

Great talk! As a long time jazz improviser this is also something that I've been confused by and struggled with although from a slightly different perspective. I always felt shame that I would often play things that I knew I couldn't sing but nevertheless sounded good to me. But over time I found that those ideas would become what I heard. So, it's fine to approach improvisation from either angle - playing things where you know how they will sound or experimenting with patterns and harmonies to lead your ear to hear new things you wouldn't have thought of.

When you practice these technical things slowly those sounds start to become part of your ideas. Where I struggled as a young player was learning things off records. This created a vocabulary for me but I didn't understand the math. When I became good enough to play in bands, I would always compliment the older more advanced musicians in the band and they loved to tell me how much they know. I got thousands of dollars worth of free lessons by doing this and started to understand the more advanced theory. The rest is quite a discovery as I was playing things by ear. I knew I liked how it sounded great, but didn't know why it worked. Music is a language and I knew lots of kids who spoke a different language at home but couldn't read and write it. That is how music worked for me. Listening is how you understand the sounds of the language and style. Studying the "Math" makes it part of your advanced vocabulary. Playing it slowly and getting the technique under fingers, is just hard work and time in. That is my take on it anyway. Great video as usual Aimee

Thank you for this honest speech. So so helpful for everyone in his or her own musical journey : hey, other people has been there too, l am not alone ! ❤

YES! Finally! This reconciles me with your approach. The key, to me as a learning professional, is when you address the fact that people learn in different ways (ca. 8:46 in the Nebula version). Plus, I prefer the title in the Nebula channel. It might go without saying, the fact that you don’t solo as fast as others isn’t an issue. Nor does it mean that those who play fast also have something wrong with them. We play in different ways. What’s best is that we can play together. If your playflow is different from my playflow, it’s all good. Musicking itself isn’t about competition. So, unlike some of the things in these training/instructional modules on Nebula about “this is the way this should sound to your mother if she came to your show”, it can be a nuanced approach about “to accomplish this, here’s a way to do it which works well for me”. All this to say: thanks for posting this. Might even lead me to spend more time on Nebula, despite important issues with the platform.