You said some things that I knew but never really heard, until now. Pick up your axe and practice, prove to yourself you've got the basics down tight and that will carry you exceedingly far. Play with musicians that are better than you. Key phrase, greatness rubs off. For me that would be you, Nick.
Thanks. Great video and I love your 10min podcasts as well. I have just started looking at the key centre approach to soloing. I was finding arpeggios over individual chords a little hard to grasp, my brain and fingers just can’t move that fast, ( I’m a late learner) and was getting a bit disheartened. key centres seem to be a bit more manageable and as soon as I tied it out I could see this is the right thing for me based on where I am in my jazz journey. it’s a great way of understanding harmonic analysis as well. So my goal for 2024 is to develop my key centre playing as far as I can. Baby steps, but in the right direction.
Thanks, Nick, for being a consistent and quality presence in the on-line saxophoning community. I listened to your thoughts and being a person who is given over to thinking and reasoning (by default) I tried to take your message on-board. This year, I spent time learning more jazz theory and used it to help me better my abilities at harmonic analysis. I also spent time learning (immersing myself in) more standards (and a few other songs I like), working on sound quality (this occured naturally with a bit of focused attention) and developing my ears. These have been my major preocupations. I deliberately ignored most of the other "exotic lures" and focused on being a better quality saxophonist rather than one with a lot of gimmicks with poor execution. However, I do struggle with learning and developing vocabulary, though. I find that despite the songs and solos I learnt, I don't seem to be getting vocabulary into my any improvisation. I think I need to slow down further and break down and digest all that I have learnt rather than consuming more. So, my question to you is this: After learning solos (by ear/written/transcribing) ... what straegies do you use to get all that valuable stuff into your improvisations? I don't want to waste/lose any of it. Happy new year. I hope you prosper beyond your current ambitions. You deserve it! 😊
Great question! I think you should have a little faith that with continued study of solos and vocabulary, the material will naturally work it's way into your playing. It's thinking that it's a one-to-one equation of working on a lick, then expecting it to come out in your playing that night that usually stops people. Unfortunately, this stuff takes a lot of time to start happening naturally! Just keep building your vocabulary and knowledge of players and, if you are in this for the long run, it will definitely start to come out! I hope that helps....
Most of my fundamental materials can be found at 10minutejazzlesson.com I'm also thinking of putting out a course this year all about the foundational elements of becoming a great jazz musician :)
Man I didn't know you also listened to Hormozi! Do you think you can take it to the extreme with fundamentals where you only do foundational stuff and never explore new concepts because by the time you've finished the basics you aren't as focused due to fatigue
Ya that's definitely possible. I think though, if you can find a way to work fundamentals into everything you do, you will be in better shape with the advanced stuff. Meaning, if you want to work on some fast tune with a ton of changes, start the day by playing through triads super slowly with a tuner and metronome. It can only help the advanced stuff...Know what I mean?
Good question. Basics like a deep knowledge of fundamental scales that form jazz harmony, modes, diatonic vertical structures....the building blocks that give you the confidence and muscle memory to connect what you hear with the instrument....hope that makes sense!
