Need Help With Beginning Jazz

[cdginger]

Ok, So im 14 years old and i've been playing and Gigging on all types of rock for the last 6 years. But now i'm trying to get started into jazz. I know lots of theory, scales, chords, etc. but cant quite figure out how to turn that into jazz. how did you guys start and what are some tips for beggining jazz? Thanks.

[251]

Originally Posted by cdginger

Ok, So im 14 years old and i've been playing and Gigging on all types of rock for the last 6 years. But now i'm trying to get started into jazz. I know lots of theory, scales, chords, etc. but cant quite figure out how to turn that into jazz. how did you guys start and what are some tips for beggining jazz? Thanks.

You start by listening. Find a copy of the Blue Book from Blue Note, or the Smithsonian Jazz Collection or some of the Ken Burns Jazz documentary companion CDs. Find & read more than 1 book by Jerry Coker (Listening to Jazz, Improvising Jazz ...)

When you have found tunes you want to play, find charts & a group of friends who will play with you.

Good hunting. 8-)

[Rudreax]

Are you listening to it at all?

[fdeck]

If at all possible, try to get into your high school jazz band.

[azureblue]

and how well you improvise depends on what you know, how good your chops are, and how well you feel the music. 14 is a good time to start learning, but learn, as 251 says, by listening. Learn a simple bass part to a tune that you have a chart for. Then study it from a theory angle, and ask yourself why it was played this way. Then find ways to change it to make it your own part.

I was lucky when I studied jazz. I already knew chord theory, and could read, but my improv class was taught by a piano player my bass teacher worked with. They played around town a lot, and I'd go listen to them play, then ask them questions the next day, and this gave me great insight into how and why they created their parts, and, another point I cannot stress enough, how the bass player works with the piano player's chord structure and chordal voicings.

Ron Carter, Ray Brown, Slam Stewart, Rufus Reid, are good people to study. Ray has a nice book on walking bass, BTW, and Rufus has a nice bass book, too.

A few tips:
A lot of jazz is made up of familiar chord patterns- ii- V7 - I being the most often used. Good old blues I- IV - V7 another. learn how to walk those patterns in all keys. Learn the different feels, and, and I can't stress this any other way : Learn How To Swing. Learn the different ways of swinging - push, behind the beat, 16th note swing, triplet swing, etc., and the little fills and drops that go along with each style.

When I was learning, my teacher taught me scales and modes but told me never to play them, but to look at chords as a group, find the notes that are, and are not, common to them, and construct a walking pattern from that. I love theory, and the theory of chord voicing and substitutions- it's sort of like a musical chess game of how you get from this to that, and create great music.

Another tip is to always learn to play the melody of the song. Study it, and see how it relates to the chord changes.

When you get into the so called "latin jazz" stuff - Jobim, etc., learn the authentic feel to the tunes. Latin Jazz - the Cuban & Brazilian music can be really interesting to play on bass.

Finally, realize that there are different ways to play different tunes, so don't get locked up in the "real book" as a bible. Ask around and find out what tunes the jazz players in your area are playing. Then go home and learn those tunes. Memorize them. Then go listen to the guys play those tunes and follow the progression in your head, while you listen to what the bass player is doing. Try to memorize any part of what he does, and then go home and try to find it on your bass.

It is better to learn by example and seat of the pants than it is to learn modes and scales. I will probably get flamed for this, but practicality is what it's about. Theory is necessary to know, but don't make the mistake of learning it out of context. Theory is just that, theory, and it is what you use to understand music. Theory is the "why" of music.

And know that you will never stop learning jazz. There will always be something new to learn. I first learned "Autumn Leaves" and quickly got sick of it, no matter what key I played it in. Many years pass, and I thought about AL again, and found something new, a different way of swinging it, and some other ways to walk it, that I had not thought of- ideas that I got from other tunes and tried them on AL.

[cdginger]

Originally Posted by Rudreax

Are you listening to it at all?

yeah id say im pretty well listened like duke ellington, ray brown, jaco, george benson, miles davis, coltrane, weather report, michael brecker, chick corea, all those guys.

[cdginger]

and thank you azureblue, i just put in a new order for some new books, and about to go learn autumn leaves. Thanks.

[All_¥our_Bass]

Originally Posted by cdginger

yeah id say im pretty well listened like duke ellington, ray brown, jaco, george benson, miles davis, coltrane, weather report, michael brecker, chick corea, all those guys.

How about some Ornette Coleman and Allan Holdsworth while you're at it?