How Jazz Works: Creating Solo Phrases

[00:00] in this video i'm going to tell you

[00:01] about my biggest struggle learning how

[00:03] to play jazz and that's creating solo

[00:05] lines

[00:14] learning how to create interesting solo

[00:15] lines was so intimidating for me i would

[00:18] listen to recordings of my favorite

[00:19] artists and the lines they played were

[00:21] just so hip but when i listen back to my

[00:23] own solos they're so boring i thought

[00:26] that the reason i sounded boring was

[00:27] because i just didn't know enough jazz

[00:29] theory i thought i needed to spend more

[00:31] time studying and so i read every book

[00:33] that i could find i studied

[00:34] transcriptions i filled my brain full of

[00:36] chords voicings scales modes extensions

[00:39] alterations everything else now that was

[00:41] time well spent it absolutely made me a

[00:43] better musician but

[00:45] it didn't really have an immediate

[00:46] impact on my soloing while i was

[00:48] listening to my favorite recordings you

[00:50] know like oscar peterson i had this

[00:52] terrible misconception about what he was

[00:54] thinking about while he was soloing but

[00:56] i thought one of the reasons that his

[00:58] solos were so much more interesting than

[00:59] mine was because he had more music

[01:01] theories stuffed in his head and where

[01:03] he had more experience recalling that

[01:05] music theory and composing a solo with

[01:06] it on the fly now as i've gotten to be a

[01:09] better player i've realized that this

[01:10] isn't entirely true

[01:12] what's actually happening is that

[01:14] oscar's putting himself in kind of a

[01:15] flow state while he's performing i don't

[01:18] think oscar's thinking much about music

[01:19] theory at all actually he's already done

[01:21] that and i don't think he's worried too

[01:23] much about his technique either he spent

[01:25] a ton of time in the wood jet

[01:27] but i think he's at a point where he can

[01:28] just take a breath

[01:29] let it out and just play the solo that

[01:32] comes to him in his head

[01:33] this guy ben patterson has a great album

[01:36] in the style of oscar peterson

[01:38] watch him play does he look tense does

[01:40] it look like he's computing his solo in

[01:42] his head

[01:43] no way he's totally chill the music is

[01:46] just flowing out of him

[01:48] one of my fellow youtube jazz creators

[01:50] amy nolte she taught me that i should

[01:51] sing my solos

[01:56] [Music]

[01:58] when i started doing that i realized

[02:00] that i cannot think about theory and

[02:01] sing at the same time it's just

[02:03] impossible for me and to think that i

[02:05] thought i could do all that and play the

[02:06] piano too i mean come on there's just no

[02:08] way

[02:09] so i realized that while you need to

[02:11] know jazz theory in order to solo well

[02:14] you don't use jazz theory while you solo

[02:16] this epiphany changed everything for me

[02:19] and i realized it was the reason that i

[02:20] wasn't soloing well even though i could

[02:23] use music theory to describe basically

[02:25] any solo you put in front of me i could

[02:27] not spontaneously create a solo that

[02:29] sounded anything like it

[02:30] i'm not the brightest guy in the room

[02:32] and so when i had this epiphany it took

[02:33] me a little while to figure out what i

[02:35] needed to change

[02:36] i want to show you what i did to get

[02:37] over it that way someone smart like you

[02:39] can get over this much faster than i did

[02:42] so here's the heart of the problem if

[02:44] you want to play a hip solo you have to

[02:46] consider rhythm

[02:47] notes articulation phrasing and more and

[02:50] you have to have solid ear training to

[02:52] get what's in your head out and into

[02:53] your hands and you got to do that

[02:55] fluently over a set of changes while

[02:57] you're trying to keep up with two other

[02:58] people in your trio this is all kind of

[03:00] like driving a car if you go back to

[03:02] when you were 15 years old and you were

[03:03] learning how to drive for the first time

[03:05] you might remember you spent time

[03:06] learning how to accelerate how to brake

[03:08] smoothly you were learning how to corner

[03:10] gently but after a while all this became

[03:12] automatic

[03:13] you could really just focus on your

[03:15] destination or the song you're listening

[03:16] to on the radio you did all the thinking

[03:18] and practicing up front it was not part

[03:20] of you and you didn't really have to be

[03:21] conscious of all the individual

[03:23] mechanics to drive this is the same way

[03:25] we need to spend time practicing we are

[03:27] going to intensely focus on the

[03:28] mechanics of our practice and then we're

[03:30] going to let them go when we perform so

[03:32] we're going to go through this by

[03:33] constructing musical sentences and let's

[03:35] just do a few of them together

[03:38] so a musical sentence could be a

[03:39] question

[03:41] [Music]

[03:43] or it could be a statement

[03:48] we just want to be careful we don't want

[03:49] run on sentences

[03:57] [Music]

[04:00] we want clear beginnings and clear

[04:02] endings

[04:04] [Music]

[04:08] we need to practice making these

[04:09] rhythmic sentences starting from

[04:11] anywhere in the measure if we wanted to

[04:12] start on the end of one

[04:14] and two and three and four and one

[04:17] or maybe we want to start on b3

[04:20] one

[04:21] three and four and one and

[04:24] or maybe on the end of two

[04:26] one and three and four and one two three

[04:30] four and

[04:32] so in the same way we want to be

[04:33] intentional about where our lines end so

[04:35] if we want to end our line on the end of

[04:36] one

[04:37] one and two three and four and one and

[04:42] or maybe we want to end it on three

[04:45] one and two and three and four and one

[04:47] and two and three

[04:49] you should go through a bunch of

[04:50] variations of this where you pick a

[04:51] specific starting point and you pick a

[04:53] specific ending point in the next

[04:54] measure and you connect the two

[04:56] you can do this using simple eighth note

[04:57] lines like we just did one and two and

[04:59] three and four and one

[05:02] you could do this using syncopated

[05:04] quarter notes

[05:05] and and and and one

[05:08] you could put eighth note triplets in

[05:09] there

[05:10] and triple it three four and

[05:13] if you really want to impart a swing

[05:14] field then you need to make sure your

[05:16] lines end off the beat i spent a ton of

[05:18] time transcribing other solos and this

[05:20] is one of the things you notice right

[05:21] away is that the great musicians they

[05:23] end off the beat way more than they do

[05:25] on the beat

[05:26] i started with rhythm with a reason

[05:28] because rhythm is just way more

[05:29] important than notes you would be

[05:30] surprised how many wrong notes you can

[05:32] get away with if you play them

[05:33] confidently and with cool rhythm

[05:36] but let's talk about the notes i'm

[05:38] getting ready to throw a bunch of

[05:39] melodic concepts at you that you can use

[05:41] to solo i'm going to do this super fast

[05:43] not because these are easy or

[05:44] unimportant actually quite the contrary

[05:47] i just want to give you plenty of things

[05:48] that you can take to practice if you

[05:50] want me to go deeper on any of these

[05:51] concepts let me know down in the

[05:52] comments most of the video ideas for

[05:54] this channel come directly from that

[05:56] little community we have going in the

[05:57] comments and i would really love it if

[05:59] you would chime in all right let's get

[06:00] down to it everything i'm about to show

[06:02] you is going to be in the key of c but

[06:04] you know this by now you've got to

[06:05] practice these things in every key

[06:07] you've got to do all major and all minor

[06:08] keys sorry i'm not letting you off the

[06:10] hook this time in order to internalize

[06:12] these so well that you can play them

[06:14] when you're not thinking about them

[06:15] you've got to learn how to do it in all

[06:16] 12 keys

[06:17] first thing we're going to do is play

[06:19] linear scales you can go up

[06:22] you can come down

[06:24] you can start on different notes

[06:26] you can make a short line

[06:28] you can make a long line

[06:31] when you do this i want you to focus on

[06:33] aiming your line to end on a chord tone

[06:36] you might be aiming on the one of the

[06:37] five but really the third the seventh

[06:39] and the ninth are the most interesting

[06:41] places to land

[06:44] okay the next one is chromatic motion so

[06:46] we can go up chromatically

[06:48] we can come down grammatically chromatic

[06:50] motion is especially useful when you're

[06:51] aiming for a specific note so if we're

[06:53] aiming for the third of c you can

[06:55] approach it with a chromatic motion from

[06:56] the bottom

[06:58] or you can aim at it from the

[07:00] top so the next thing we're going to do

[07:02] is play our scale in thirds we can do it

[07:04] up

[07:07] or we can do it down

[07:12] then we do the same thing with triads up

[07:14] and down

[07:27] and then we're gonna do it again with

[07:28] seventh chords

[07:44] once you've got those arpeggio things

[07:46] down you're going to lead into them with

[07:47] a chromatic leading tone like this

[07:56] just use a half step below the arpeggio

[07:59] and if we're going to come down we're

[08:00] going to do the same thing we're going

[08:01] to start with the leading tone below the

[08:03] top note and then come down

[08:13] and do the same thing with with triads

[08:18] and with seventh chords

[08:19] [Music]

[08:25] the next thing we're going to do is what

[08:26] barry harris calls pivoting and that's

[08:28] where we take one of these seventh chord

[08:29] arpeggios but we're going to change the

[08:31] octave halfway through so we might take

[08:33] the seventh chord with the leading tone

[08:35] but then drop the last few notes to the

[08:36] octave below

[08:41] this is useful for all musicians but

[08:43] it's especially useful for horn players

[08:45] who are trying to stay within their

[08:46] playable range the next thing we're

[08:48] going to do are enclosures and that just

[08:50] means we're going to pick a note we want

[08:51] to land on and we're going to lead into

[08:52] it with the note above from the scale

[08:55] and a note below by a half step so if

[08:57] we're aiming for c

[09:00] and then go up the

[09:01] [Music]

[09:06] scale the next thing we're going to do

[09:08] is combine scales with these enclosures

[09:10] so we're going to play a linear line up

[09:12] and we're going to aim for a specific

[09:13] note but instead of playing that note

[09:15] right away we're going to surround it

[09:16] with that enclosure

[09:21] make sure you do this up and down

[09:26] so now just like we did with scales

[09:27] we're going to do this with arpeggios

[09:28] we're going to do an arpeggio up and

[09:30] we're going to end on an enclosure

[09:34] and do it down

[09:38] the last of these melodic concepts i

[09:40] want to show you is just bringing in

[09:41] colorful notes and so that just means

[09:43] we're going to add extensions and

[09:44] alterations to our chord and we're going

[09:45] to include those in our lines or our

[09:47] arpeggios so for playing c major we

[09:50] might want to play the seventh chord

[09:51] that starts on the three on the e

[09:53] because that arpeggio will include d

[09:55] which is the ninth of the chord that's

[09:56] one of our colorful notes

[09:58] [Music]

[09:59] 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