There are THREE things that make my students successful musicians:
HAVING NATURAL TALENT — All of our School of Music students passed through an audition process, so the talent is there. Some people learn more quickly than others, but all of our students have talent.
HAVING TECHNIQUE — A musician has to have technique to be successful. Technique in jazz includes things like being able to play a lot of different scales (drummers you get off easy), being able to articulate phrases correctly, having a good tone (drummers aren’t exempt!), and other obvious things like being able to play fast and with clarity. The 21st century jazz player is expected to play his/her butt off!
The third thing is often overlooked by students:DESIRE/CURIOSITY — How hard does a student work for private lessons, ensembles, and courses, BUT ALSO how much extra thought and effort does the student invest in learning?
When students have DESIRE and CURIOSITY, they are even more successful. Here are some things that students can do to fuel their desire and curiosity to further augment their educational experience:
LISTEN to albums
This is SO obvious, but not enough students do it. Listen actively to full albums from start to finish. Be able to sing the melodies and solos to the tunes. Listen back and only listen to the piano or guitar. Listen back and only listen to the bass, then listen back to only the drums. Listen for fun. Listen alone. Listen with friends. Enjoy!Write questions for lessons
Many students just go through the motions and just do what the instructor asks. What about using the teacher for a resource? Go into the lesson and ask a question about something—how to play a groove, how to construct a bass line, how to play over a chord change…anything.Go to jam sessions
Go and when you do go, listen to the other players. Learn from other peoples’ experiences. If you do not feel comfortable sitting in, listen and take notes about what tunes are played and go home and learn them.Read jazz magazines
Not enough of my students read DownBeat, JazzTimes, JazzEd, Jazziz, etc.Be familiar with living jazz musicians
Don’t only listen to music from 50-70 years ago.Have at least FIVE favorite jazz artists that play your instrument and listen to them regularly.
Here are my five that I have listened to most recently (yes lots of bari sax):Joe Henderson
Gary Smulyan
Ronnie Cuber
Hank Mobley
Pepper Adams
Play piano
Learn tunes for fun
Watch videos of current and past artists on YouTube — without fast forwarding through sections!
Talk to other students about what you are experiencing. Have a community of like-minded individuals
Have informal jam sessions with other students.
Practice with other students. Notice this is different than having jam sessions. Practice sessions might mean reading down Baroque duets to work on reading skills, playing scales with someone with a metronome, or taking turns comping piano for soloing on chord changes.
Don’t just go through the motions! Engage with the material!