For many students, it is the end of the school year that means it is time to start thinking about a plan of study during the summer. What should a student practice over the summer? Here are my recommendations:
See Live Music
Go to jam sessions
Go see concerts
Learn New Repertoire
Learn tunes that you didn’t finish during the semester
Find new tunes to play
Transcribe
Learn solos from recordings and be able to play them
Listen
Expand your knowledge of recordings—both past and present
Find new players that inspire you
Find more players who play your instrument and that you can emulate
LEARNING LICKS IN 12 KEYS
Why learn licks in 12 keys?
It helps players learn:
phrasing
jazz language
to refine articulation
to hear harmony in the lines
to refine instrumental technique
One important thing to know is that the goal is not to “regurgitate” licks in our jazz solos but rather to develop a foundation of vocabulary that can be used to make our own original phrases. We do in fact want to copy sounds and phrases from master musicians and this all information that we collect leads us to our own individual sound.
How to learn a lick in 12 keys:
Find a short phrase to learn
Learn it in one key
Map out the lick
Learn it in a second key
Alternate playing it in the first two keys
Add a third key
Alternate playing the lick in the first three keys
Begin learning the lick in additional keys
Here is an example of a lick that I would give many of my beginning jazz students:
Put on a metronome on 2 & 4 and play the lick. When you play what is written above, it needs to be with the correct articulation and phrasing, which would more precisely be notated as this:
How do we remember this line?
1. Be intuitive: Listen to the line, be able to sing the line, and hear yourself playing the line.
2. Analyze the line:
This particular line could be expressed thinking as it starts in D minor as 2-3-#7-1-2-3-4-5-b7-6-4 but of course the 6-4 at the end is really 3-1 in the new chord change. Regardless, the numbering of notes is VERY effective.
Another way to analyze the line is by intervals, which are half steps (1/2), whole steps (W), major 3rds (M3), and minor 3rds (m3): 1/2-M3-1/2-W-1/2-W-W-m3-1/2-M3.
Often I might remember a line best thinking about a mix of scales and intervals so I would encourage you to do the same.
What are some other licks to learn in 12 keys?
Charlie Parker’s Cool Blues:
Charlie Parker’s Ornithology:
A lick that I hear in a lot of Sonny Stitt solos:
Build your own vocabulary and find your own sound by finding and learning your own phrases that you can learn in 12 keys!