[0:00] in this video i'm going to tell you
[0:01] about my biggest struggle learning how
[0:03] to play jazz and that's creating solo
[0:05] lines
[0:14] learning how to create interesting solo
[0:15] lines was so intimidating for me i would
[0:18] listen to recordings of my favorite
[0:19] artists and the lines they played were
[0:21] just so hip but when i listen back to my
[0:23] own solos they're so boring i thought
[0:26] that the reason i sounded boring was
[0:27] because i just didn't know enough jazz
[0:29] theory i thought i needed to spend more
[0:31] time studying and so i read every book
[0:33] that i could find i studied
[0:34] transcriptions i filled my brain full of
[0:36] chords voicings scales modes extensions
[0:39] alterations everything else now that was
[0:41] time well spent it absolutely made me a
[0:43] better musician but
[0:45] it didn't really have an immediate
[0:46] impact on my soloing while i was
[0:48] listening to my favorite recordings you
[0:50] know like oscar peterson i had this
[0:52] terrible misconception about what he was
[0:54] thinking about while he was soloing but
[0:56] i thought one of the reasons that his
[0:58] solos were so much more interesting than
[0:59] mine was because he had more music
[1:01] theories stuffed in his head and where
[1:03] he had more experience recalling that
[1:05] music theory and composing a solo with
[1:06] it on the fly now as i've gotten to be a
[1:09] better player i've realized that this
[1:10] isn't entirely true
[1:12] what's actually happening is that
[1:14] oscar's putting himself in kind of a
[1:15] flow state while he's performing i don't
[1:18] think oscar's thinking much about music
[1:19] theory at all actually he's already done
[1:21] that and i don't think he's worried too
[1:23] much about his technique either he spent
[1:25] a ton of time in the wood jet
[1:27] but i think he's at a point where he can
[1:28] just take a breath
[1:29] let it out and just play the solo that
[1:32] comes to him in his head
[1:33] this guy ben patterson has a great album
[1:36] in the style of oscar peterson
[1:38] watch him play does he look tense does
[1:40] it look like he's computing his solo in
[1:42] his head
[1:43] no way he's totally chill the music is
[1:46] just flowing out of him
[1:48] one of my fellow youtube jazz creators
[1:50] amy nolte she taught me that i should
[1:51] sing my solos
[1:56] [Music]
[1:58] when i started doing that i realized
[2:00] that i cannot think about theory and
[2:01] sing at the same time it's just
[2:03] impossible for me and to think that i
[2:05] thought i could do all that and play the
[2:06] piano too i mean come on there's just no
[2:08] way
[2:09] so i realized that while you need to
[2:11] know jazz theory in order to solo well
[2:14] you don't use jazz theory while you solo
[2:16] this epiphany changed everything for me
[2:19] and i realized it was the reason that i
[2:20] wasn't soloing well even though i could
[2:23] use music theory to describe basically
[2:25] any solo you put in front of me i could
[2:27] not spontaneously create a solo that
[2:29] sounded anything like it
[2:30] i'm not the brightest guy in the room
[2:32] and so when i had this epiphany it took
[2:33] me a little while to figure out what i
[2:35] needed to change
[2:36] i want to show you what i did to get
[2:37] over it that way someone smart like you
[2:39] can get over this much faster than i did
[2:42] so here's the heart of the problem if
[2:44] you want to play a hip solo you have to
[2:46] consider rhythm
[2:47] notes articulation phrasing and more and
[2:50] you have to have solid ear training to
[2:52] get what's in your head out and into
[2:53] your hands and you got to do that
[2:55] fluently over a set of changes while
[2:57] you're trying to keep up with two other
[2:58] people in your trio this is all kind of
[3:00] like driving a car if you go back to
[3:02] when you were 15 years old and you were
[3:03] learning how to drive for the first time
[3:05] you might remember you spent time
[3:06] learning how to accelerate how to brake
[3:08] smoothly you were learning how to corner
[3:10] gently but after a while all this became
[3:12] automatic
[3:13] you could really just focus on your
[3:15] destination or the song you're listening
[3:16] to on the radio you did all the thinking
[3:18] and practicing up front it was not part
[3:20] of you and you didn't really have to be
[3:21] conscious of all the individual
[3:23] mechanics to drive this is the same way
[3:25] we need to spend time practicing we are
[3:27] going to intensely focus on the
[3:28] mechanics of our practice and then we're
[3:30] going to let them go when we perform so
[3:32] we're going to go through this by
[3:33] constructing musical sentences and let's
[3:35] just do a few of them together
[3:38] so a musical sentence could be a
[3:39] question
[3:41] [Music]
[3:43] or it could be a statement
[3:48] we just want to be careful we don't want
[3:49] run on sentences
[3:57] [Music]
[4:00] we want clear beginnings and clear
[4:02] endings
[4:04] [Music]
[4:08] we need to practice making these
[4:09] rhythmic sentences starting from
[4:11] anywhere in the measure if we wanted to
[4:12] start on the end of one
[4:14] and two and three and four and one
[4:17] or maybe we want to start on b3
[4:20] one
[4:21] three and four and one and
[4:24] or maybe on the end of two
[4:26] one and three and four and one two three
[4:30] four and
[4:32] so in the same way we want to be
[4:33] intentional about where our lines end so
[4:35] if we want to end our line on the end of
[4:36] one
[4:37] one and two three and four and one and
[4:42] or maybe we want to end it on three
[4:45] one and two and three and four and one
[4:47] and two and three
[4:49] you should go through a bunch of
[4:50] variations of this where you pick a
[4:51] specific starting point and you pick a
[4:53] specific ending point in the next
[4:54] measure and you connect the two
[4:56] you can do this using simple eighth note
[4:57] lines like we just did one and two and
[4:59] three and four and one
[5:02] you could do this using syncopated
[5:04] quarter notes
[5:05] and and and and one
[5:08] you could put eighth note triplets in
[5:09] there
[5:10] and triple it three four and
[5:13] if you really want to impart a swing
[5:14] field then you need to make sure your
[5:16] lines end off the beat i spent a ton of
[5:18] time transcribing other solos and this
[5:20] is one of the things you notice right
[5:21] away is that the great musicians they
[5:23] end off the beat way more than they do
[5:25] on the beat
[5:26] i started with rhythm with a reason
[5:28] because rhythm is just way more
[5:29] important than notes you would be
[5:30] surprised how many wrong notes you can
[5:32] get away with if you play them
[5:33] confidently and with cool rhythm
[5:36] but let's talk about the notes i'm
[5:38] getting ready to throw a bunch of
[5:39] melodic concepts at you that you can use
[5:41] to solo i'm going to do this super fast
[5:43] not because these are easy or
[5:44] unimportant actually quite the contrary
[5:47] i just want to give you plenty of things
[5:48] that you can take to practice if you
[5:50] want me to go deeper on any of these
[5:51] concepts let me know down in the
[5:52] comments most of the video ideas for
[5:54] this channel come directly from that
[5:56] little community we have going in the
[5:57] comments and i would really love it if
[5:59] you would chime in all right let's get
[6:00] down to it everything i'm about to show
[6:02] you is going to be in the key of c but
[6:04] you know this by now you've got to
[6:05] practice these things in every key
[6:07] you've got to do all major and all minor
[6:08] keys sorry i'm not letting you off the
[6:10] hook this time in order to internalize
[6:12] these so well that you can play them
[6:14] when you're not thinking about them
[6:15] you've got to learn how to do it in all
[6:16] 12 keys
[6:17] first thing we're going to do is play
[6:19] linear scales you can go up
[6:22] you can come down
[6:24] you can start on different notes
[6:26] you can make a short line
[6:28] you can make a long line
[6:31] when you do this i want you to focus on
[6:33] aiming your line to end on a chord tone
[6:36] you might be aiming on the one of the
[6:37] five but really the third the seventh
[6:39] and the ninth are the most interesting
[6:41] places to land
[6:44] okay the next one is chromatic motion so
[6:46] we can go up chromatically
[6:48] we can come down grammatically chromatic
[6:50] motion is especially useful when you're
[6:51] aiming for a specific note so if we're
[6:53] aiming for the third of c you can
[6:55] approach it with a chromatic motion from
[6:56] the bottom
[6:58] or you can aim at it from the
[7:00] top so the next thing we're going to do
[7:02] is play our scale in thirds we can do it
[7:04] up
[7:07] or we can do it down
[7:12] then we do the same thing with triads up
[7:14] and down
[7:27] and then we're gonna do it again with
[7:28] seventh chords
[7:44] once you've got those arpeggio things
[7:46] down you're going to lead into them with
[7:47] a chromatic leading tone like this
[7:56] just use a half step below the arpeggio
[7:59] and if we're going to come down we're
[8:00] going to do the same thing we're going
[8:01] to start with the leading tone below the
[8:03] top note and then come down
[8:13] and do the same thing with with triads
[8:18] and with seventh chords
[8:19] [Music]
[8:25] the next thing we're going to do is what
[8:26] barry harris calls pivoting and that's
[8:28] where we take one of these seventh chord
[8:29] arpeggios but we're going to change the
[8:31] octave halfway through so we might take
[8:33] the seventh chord with the leading tone
[8:35] but then drop the last few notes to the
[8:36] octave below
[8:41] this is useful for all musicians but
[8:43] it's especially useful for horn players
[8:45] who are trying to stay within their
[8:46] playable range the next thing we're
[8:48] going to do are enclosures and that just
[8:50] means we're going to pick a note we want
[8:51] to land on and we're going to lead into
[8:52] it with the note above from the scale
[8:55] and a note below by a half step so if
[8:57] we're aiming for c
[9:00] and then go up the
[9:01] [Music]
[9:06] scale the next thing we're going to do
[9:08] is combine scales with these enclosures
[9:10] so we're going to play a linear line up
[9:12] and we're going to aim for a specific
[9:13] note but instead of playing that note
[9:15] right away we're going to surround it
[9:16] with that enclosure
[9:21] make sure you do this up and down
[9:26] so now just like we did with scales
[9:27] we're going to do this with arpeggios
[9:28] we're going to do an arpeggio up and
[9:30] we're going to end on an enclosure
[9:34] and do it down
[9:38] the last of these melodic concepts i
[9:40] want to show you is just bringing in
[9:41] colorful notes and so that just means
[9:43] we're going to add extensions and
[9:44] alterations to our chord and we're going
[9:45] to include those in our lines or our
[9:47] arpeggios so for playing c major we
[9:50] might want to play the seventh chord
[9:51] that starts on the three on the e
[9:53] because that arpeggio will include d
[9:55] which is the ninth of the chord that's
[9:56] one of our colorful notes
[9:58] [Music]
[9:59] over playing a dominant seventh chord we
[10:01] might want to give it an altered sound
[10:02] by bringing in a sharp 9 and a flat 13.
[10:05] [Music]
[10:12] now that is a lot to practice and when
[10:14] you think about major and minor and all
[10:16] 12 different keys boy it's a lot and
[10:19] you're going to discover when you do
[10:20] this that that's not even the hard part
[10:23] that hard part happens when you use
[10:24] these concepts to make musical ideas
[10:27] so here's what i mean let's invent a
[10:29] rhythmic sentence
[10:33] and we got to call our shot and pick the
[10:35] note we want to end our sentence on so
[10:36] i'm going to pick the third of c
[10:38] but here's the hard part how are you
[10:40] going to choose the notes to fill out
[10:41] the rhythm in a way that gets you to
[10:43] land on that third at exactly the right
[10:45] time
[10:46] [Music]
[10:49] so this is your breakthrough moment and
[10:51] this is hard once you get here and you
[10:52] end up in the pit of despair unable to
[10:54] do this confidently but you decide to
[10:56] plow through and keep moving anyway once
[10:59] you get to that point your brain has
[11:01] learned how to think about solos in a
[11:03] different way you are just going to
[11:04] think arpeggio up and close your landing
[11:06] on the third of the next chord pick your
[11:08] target and trust your training to figure
[11:09] out how to get you there this stuff is
[11:11] so much fun don't get yourself in a
[11:13] hurry i know we all want to sound like
[11:14] oscar peterson right now but this this
[11:17] is the fun part this is where you become
[11:19] a professional soloist this is where you
[11:21] discover your own sound have fun this is
[11:23] the journey please don't feel like you
[11:25] have to wait until you can do all these
[11:27] exercises before you try to put them in
[11:28] a solo this stuff is a lifetime of work
[11:31] so you've got to take these ideas as you
[11:33] practice them and put them into tunes
[11:34] right away there's a whole world for you
[11:36] to explore here how do you move from one
[11:38] chord to the next chord smoothly can you
[11:40] make a single line that covers two or
[11:41] more chords can you invent some kind of
[11:44] a line and then use variations of that
[11:45] line to make an entire solo out of it
[11:47] and spend time practicing by listening
[11:50] sing along with recorded solos what are
[11:52] these techniques are they using where do
[11:53] they start and they end their phrases
[11:55] how do they articulate their phrases are
[11:57] there musical sentences statements or
[11:58] are they questions are you excited yet
[12:01] i know i am in fact i'm gonna get back
[12:04] to practicing these myself and while i
[12:05] do that you're gonna check out this next
[12:07] video on spicy dominant chords that
[12:08] every pianist needs to know and i will
[12:10] see you next week bye