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JAZZ IS FREAKING HARD!!!!

#62
aaronious said:
Jazz is hard. I'm one month into my jazz studies. Jazz is hard.

Rock, Blues, R&B, all that made me think I was a fast learner. Jazz is hard. I'm a turtle when it comes to learning Jazz. Learning to walk a bass line PROPERLY is hard. It sounds easy, but Jazz is hard.

I can read a chart now, that's good, but Jazz is hard. So, I have trouble following it in time.

I'm getting better day by day, I just got done with an intense hour long practice session, but Jazz is hard, I wanted to smash my bass. I didn't, I just kept going. And I'll continue, but Jazz is hard and I needed to rant about it, because Jazz is hard.
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If jazz was easy, you would hear it on radio pop stations and, there would be more jazz jams then there are blues jams, in your area.
 
#64
bassliner50 said:
Jazz is well worth the work, study, and experience it takes to get there. Traditional straight ahead is all I do these days. Most songs written decades before I was born. Don't have to worry about aging out. minimal amplification, blah blah blah. I am surrounded by wonderful schooled musicians and can turn on a dime if someone raises an eyebrow. Stay with it. Listen to the greats. Hang and play with other jazz musicians often as you can. Digest that Real Book. Have fun. Get satisfaction.
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Are you using your electric bass for the straight ahead stuff?
 
#65
aaronious said:
Jazz is hard. I'm one month into my jazz studies. Jazz is hard.

Rock, Blues, R&B, all that made me think I was a fast learner. Jazz is hard. I'm a turtle when it comes to learning Jazz. Learning to walk a bass line PROPERLY is hard. It sounds easy, but Jazz is hard.

I can read a chart now, that's good, but Jazz is hard. So, I have trouble following it in time.

I'm getting better day by day, I just got done with an intense hour long practice session, but Jazz is hard, I wanted to smash my bass. I didn't, I just kept going. And I'll continue, but Jazz is hard and I needed to rant about it, because Jazz is hard.
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Which is why I focus my sight reading on jazz. As far as learning to improvise like a really competent jazz man, I don't think I have enough time left.
 
#69

aaronious said:
Jazz is hard. I'm one month into my jazz studies. Jazz is hard.

Rock, Blues, R&B, all that made me think I was a fast learner. Jazz is hard. I'm a turtle when it comes to learning Jazz. Learning to walk a bass line PROPERLY is hard. It sounds easy, but Jazz is hard.

I can read a chart now, that's good, but Jazz is hard. So, I have trouble following it in time.

I'm getting better day by day, I just got done with an intense hour long practice session, but Jazz is hard, I wanted to smash my bass. I didn't, I just kept going. And I'll continue, but Jazz is hard and I needed to rant about it, because Jazz is hard.
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Stick with it!
 
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#71
Robert Strickland said:
Are you using your electric bass for the straight ahead stuff?
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You betcha. Fender P with Fender original '62 pickups, RW strings 50-105. finger style only. Really sounds great. Even old schoolers expecting a DB to walk in are pleasantly surprised when they hear it. I'm comfortable with all the traditional jazz conventions and expectations and play accordingly. 'Swonderful.
 
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#74
Maybe it needs to be pointed out that 95% of the public has only a vague idea of what jazz really is. Many expect jazz fusion or smooth jazz, or watered down hybrid or impossibly technical and inaccessibility as the norm and know little or nothing of its history or evolution. Also for straight ahead stuff, familiarity of the American songbook, jazz standards and select show tunes form a starting point. In this regard the NPR or PBS folks or those that come from musical families may have the edge. This fact has an influence on the venues or lack thereof where jazz is featured.
 
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#75
When I started jazz someone told me "learn the modes" which I did to realize later that, while it nice to know, it is usually useless to play walking basses.

Then I learned that it is (I just make it easy so jazz snobs please shut up for once):
=> Root, fifth, third or seventh on downbeats and passing tones in between. I use three different passing tone approaches, half-step from below or scale note from above (I guess the modes are useful here), fifth of the upcoming note or chromatic approach. I just tried to summerized what it took me 25 years to assimilate. So yes it is hard.
 
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#77
bassliner50 said:
You betcha. Fender P with Fender original '62 pickups, RW strings 50-105. finger style only. Really sounds great. Even old schoolers expecting a DB to walk in are pleasantly surprised when they hear it. I'm comfortable with all the traditional jazz conventions and expectations and play accordingly. 'Swonderful.
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Very cool. Check my gear list in my signature. (Only difference - I use EB Cobalt Flats on my P)
 
#78
bassliner50 said:
Maybe it needs to be pointed out that 95% of the public has only a vague idea of what jazz really is.
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That's because "Jazz" is almost impossible to define. It usesd to be a lot easier, with elements of of a swing feel and at least a remote basis in the blues. But so much that is accepted in the genre now has no element of either of those. In my humble opinion, the word has largely lost its meaning. There is improvisational music. Hard to get more specific than that with labels.
 

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