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What one thing took your playing to the next level?

#21
Alexis Duntov said:
I've been playing for about 15 years, started late, am now 42. I play in a professional band for hire (weddings, karaoke, corporate etc.) and another more artistic project. I'm happy with my playing and get a fair amount of compliments on it, but I'm still not able to improvise as freely as I'd like or look at the fretboard and know what the notes are going to sound like before I play them. I can do it slow but it gets squirrelly as things speed up. That said, my fretboard fluency has increased dramatically over the last year from practicing arpeggios in the II-V-I format. I'm also an intermediate player on upright and that has helped with the geography as well. I'd love to hear from some of you what if any one or combination of things took your playing to the next level (please don't say "practice"). Was it learning a particular tune in multiple keys, practicing double stops, singing what you play etc.? Thanks.
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I still am not happy with my improv 100%, but I will say having a go to formula works for alot of guys, a trumpet player I worked with told me he had only 10 licks, all stolen from his favorite heads, one was the 1st turnaround in "donna lee", I ran with this for awhile, some jazz snobs might it might not notice, but just as long as the phrasing is slick and it works without resolving too much, it can be cool, my favorite stock licks are simply pentatonics in 4ths, with racking technique and left hand barring, you can bust out some jaco like licks at lightning speed
 
#25
Getting a 6 string is what boosted my technique and my entire knowledge of music in general. Getting a 6er made me want to learn music theory, which made me want to learn pretty chords. Then, I learned the 3 finger picking technique, which made me want to strengthen my pinkie.
 
#26
Dougie1316 said:
Learning the modes of the major scale, damn.
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i second this, I was watching a video by juan alderete, and then found one by john alderete when he was w/ racer x and he gave some really good exercises on modes on youtube....it's a great watch and I am going to start doing it every day. I have gotten older and satisfied w/ my playing but now see a lot of cats on youtube who have
taken it to the next level and I am kind of disappointed w/ myself for not working at it more diligently all this time.
 
#31
Rockin Mike said:
I'm still working on my 3 finger technique. The ring finger just doesn't seem as naturally agile as the other two. It's getting better, but it still feels like running with two legs and a crutch.
Practice, practice, practice ...
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it took me 2 months for me to be fluent with it, and an extra month for me to be able to use it without effort. It'll become second nature soon enough for you, and will be wayyyy easier to gallop and pull off 16th triplets. For me, there are only 3 parts of the technique you'll need to get down; being able to continually play in 4/4 with 3 fingers, being able to continually play in 6/6 with 3 fingers, and your picking hand being able to communicate with your fretting hand. 3 fingers in 4/4 is the more complicated one to get down, but in due time it will get easier.

I can go into more detail if you'd like,
 
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#33
Transcription, I spent my third year in college transcribing solos from artists like John Patitucci, Jimmy Haslip, guys like that. The process of actually picking off and writing out the parts is a great exercise in ear training and reading, it really helped me connect the dots between what I was hearing, what I was seeing and what I was playing.

Also, like previous posts, surrounding yourself with players who challenge you was one of the things which helped me improve fast, kind of a sink or swim thing. Having good gear helps for sure, Jamey Aebersold books and CD's are awesome (Volume 30B is a good place to start), playing with a metronome, there's a lot of things, but for me the most improvement was while I was doing lots of transcription.
 
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#35
gsquare said:
Transcription, I spent my third year in college transcribing solos from artists like John Patitucci, Jimmy Haslip, guys like that. The process of actually picking off and writing out the parts is a great exercise in ear training and reading, it really helped me connect the dots between what I was hearing, what I was seeing and what I was playing.

Also, like previous posts, surrounding yourself with players who challenge you was one of the things which helped me improve fast, kind of a sink or swim thing. Having good gear helps for sure, Jamey Aebersold books and CD's are awesome (Volume 30B is a good place to start), playing with a metronome, there's a lot of things, but for me the most improvement was while I was doing lots of transcription.
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Writing out the transcriptions or just doing it by ear and being able to play note for note? I had a few lessons with one upright teacher who had me write out a Paul Chambers passage. Was helpful but I do so little reading these days. I had a lesson with another more well known upright player and he had me learn to improvise a 12 bar jazz blues in every key. As basic as that sounds, that kicked things up a notch.
 
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#36
Alexis Duntov said:
Writing out the transcriptions or just doing it by ear and being able to play note for note? I had a few lessons with one upright teacher who had me write out a Paul Chambers passage. Was helpful but I do so little reading these days. I had a lesson with another more well known upright player and he had me learn to improvise a 12 bar jazz blues in every key. As basic as that sounds, that kicked things up a notch.
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Doing it by ear and being able to play it is great, actually I do that more now just because if I want to get something down fast, it's easier to get out of "chart head" mode. But when I was really trying to advance my playing, the act of writing it out really helped me internalize the notes, it's kind of like backwards sight reading I guess. Even if you don't do a lot of reading on your gigs, it can really be a great way to cover some ground toward become a better improvisor. Of course, I haven't played professionally in years, but back in the '90s there were a lot of smooth jazz and jazz related gigs so that type of practicing really helped me out. Seems like the scene is a little different now, it might not be as useful as it once was.
 
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#37
My most recent "explosive progress" was when I started using metronome to practice our band's songs. Simply set it to the required tempo, and play the whole bass line for the song. I had not considered doing this before because I had been thinking too highly of my skills, being originally a trained piano player. Then I became less vain and got down to the basics.

This allowed me to keep the rhythm more steadily, to hear my mistakes more easily and I alsl built up my endurance by playing our whole set this way.
 
#39
gsquare said:
Doing it by ear and being able to play it is great, actually I do that more now just because if I want to get something down fast, it's easier to get out of "chart head" mode. But when I was really trying to advance my playing, the act of writing it out really helped me internalize the notes, it's kind of like backwards sight reading I guess. Even if you don't do a lot of reading on your gigs, it can really be a great way to cover some ground toward become a better improvisor. Of course, I haven't played professionally in years, but back in the '90s there were a lot of smooth jazz and jazz related gigs so that type of practicing really helped me out. Seems like the scene is a little different now, it might not be as useful as it once was.
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fearceol said:
Why not....? ;) Seriously, you say..." I can do it slow but it gets squirrelly as things speed up..."

You can do it slowly, so the only way that I know of to get to the stage where you can do it almost without thinking is to keep at it..i.e.... practice.

No matter what methods anyone here suggests, it is going to have to be practiced.

Sorry !!! I know this is not what you wanted to hear.
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It's all good, was just hoping for specifics instead of "practice" but you are correct, it does all come down to practice. The question is what you practice. It took me a while to realize I was not making the most of my practicing and was wasting time on things I could already do.
 

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