Hi Thomas,

I use up and down arrows to increase or decrease brightness, mouse to select a particular region and space to pause playback. In most cases that's enough for me to guess melodies and voicings. The transcriber does not produce guitar tabs, just notes without durations on piano staves which is obviously the low point. Actually, I use this tool as a helper that tells me what's going on at a given moment if I can't distinguish it with my ears. And that's usually just what I need.

Could you send me a link to the record you are having trouble with and I would try to transcribe a few bars from it.

Best,
__aux

Friend: I'm mystified by your success in using the MP3 transcriber. I uploaded "I'll be Around" by Joe and got a few notes on a piano score. I used Foxfire. Have any idea what I might not be doing right?

Many thanks,

Thomas

Hi Mark,

Unfortunately it is impossible to slow down the tempo of existing licks. However you can set any tempo you like for the licks you are typing with "tempo" option. Click 'show source' link for the example below

click to play	show source

Here tempo="60" means 60 quarters per minute. It can be replaced with any integer number you like.

Best,
__aux

Hi All

Would it be possible to slow some of the 2,5,1 licks down to snail pace for someone like me who wants to get it under their fingers to get started!!!

Thanks anyone

Mark

Hi

The meaning of this thread is to bundle the best jazz books. I'll start off:

Recently I've bought a book called "Four Principles To Understand Music" written by Pierre Van Dormael (Belgian Jazz Guitarist).

The book contains a big part of music(jazz)theory.
However this book hasn't been made for beginners, it is a perfect reference for simple questions you doubt about.
Many things are explained like modes, bluescontribution to jazz, substitution, chromatically altered subdominants and more.
Most things are explained with an example.

http://www.pierrevandormael.com/Book.htm...

Hi Søren,

I would suggest more logical approach that doesn't pretend to be the best one, but just worked for me. First pick up a 5-1 lick you like most of all. I like this one because it suits equally good both major and minor 5-1 progressions.

click to play	show source

You've got to learn it well. If that's hard to achieve, forget about that lick, and chose your own. The one, that according to Paul, lives in your heart. It should be short, nice and easy to remember. After this is done, in any tune you play, you should be able to use this lick over 5-1 progression. Play whatever you want until you meet 5-1 for which you have a beautiful lick coming out of your heart. This should free you mind, because you don't have to think about what to play anymore. Feel free and experiment. Whatever happens you've got your lick over 5-1. Don't be afraid to repeat yourself, I for one consider this a feature.

This is the first and one of the most important steps in improvisation. To find yourself and feel confident. After that step is made, I would suggest learning a couple of new licks, possibly for 2-5-1. Say this is for major 2-5-1

click to play	show source

And this one is for minor

click to play	show source

With those licks learned in each key you can improvise almost any tune with 4/4 time signature. (As long as the tune contains 2-5-1 progression which is always the case :) I don't give any advise about improvisation itself, because to my mind this is very personal issue. But I would be very glad if my approach helped you feel more comfortable on gigs.

Best,
__aux

Thank you very much, all of you, for your very kind replies. These answers are really useful, and have inspired me into a whole new level. Even though some of the things I already was aware of.

@ gre107 / Gerry
I have been studying intervals lately, and I’ve also practiced your example, playing tierces of a scale.
I think my next step is to start transcribing licks, which you also mentioned.

@ rlemos / Ron
I would really like to take a look at your approach. Pentatonic scales for every chord, hmm… i like it!

Once again thank you all, for your efforts and replies.
Best regards

Søren

Hello Soren, There are many approaches to learning how to improvise over jazz tunes. All of them are valid and have merit. However, the first step is to learn the melodies to jazz songs. Once you learn the melodies, practice them on your instrument using backing tracks such as Band-in-a-Box by PG Music or the backing tracks CDs sold by Jamey Aebersold. Next, listen to recordings of various musicians playing these songs. Decide what styles you like and what artists you admire. Don't limit yourself to sax. Listen to vocalists, trumpet players, piano players, etc. The point to all of this is that the song comes FIRST! Once you have the song down, then you can start to work on improvisation.

Once again, there are many approaches ranging from highly theoretical to "just feel it". I would like to introduce my approach that is based on using pentatonic scales for any chord, chord progression or song you would ever encounter. This is a "system" and therefore open to much criticism by jazz theorists. However, it will work and will complement any style and level of development. With this system, it is impossible to play a wrong note. You don't have to worry about "avoid" notes. You can concentrate on the song. I have written a book, "Jazz Guitar Soloing Concepts: A Pentatonic Modal Approach to Improvisation". You can read book reviews at:

http://www.amazon.com/Pentatonic-Modal-A...

http://guitarinternational.com/wpmu/2009...


While this book is aimed at guitarists, the principles can be applied to any instrument. Is this approach right for you? I have a lot of FREE resources describing my approach. For more details on my approach, including articles and mp3s, please see:

http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/rle...

Hope this helps. Please feel free to email me at: rlemos@calstatela.edu

Thank you very much.

Ron

Hey Soren,
I would agree with playing with your heart.
A good practice is to play what you hear in your head. Play a song and sing a phrase then replicate it on your instrument. Keep on doing this one or two bars at a time or however long the phrase you is that you think/sing.

You mentioned playing the 1 3 5 7 of the chord which is cool but start practicing approach notes to these appregios. Create studies where you always approach the 1 from a half tone above or below. Then do the same for the 3 5 and 7 of the chord. When doing this "run" the pattern diatonically in a key. For example, start on the one chord using the approach note to the 1st note of the appregio then approach the 1st note of the next chord etc...

After that mix it up by approaching the notes either 1 half step above or below and then also approach the notes by a whole tone above or below. Then approach the chord tone a half step above then a half step below then play the chord tone. Then do two half tones below then two half tones above. Then you can do two half tones above and a single half tone below then the chord tone.

By doing studies like this you start getting these sounds under your fingers and into your head where they become natural to play. If some of these combinations don't sound good just don't play them and concentrate on the ones that work for you.

And lastly, where I think things start to really open up is doing "hybrid" interval studies where you pick to intervals and alternate between them when running through scales.

For example: You pick intervals of 3rds and 6ths.
Using the C major scale you would first play the 1 and then the 3rd (C to E which is a third apart) then you would play the next scale tone which is the 2nd D and the 6th of D which is F. Then move to the 3rd of the scale and play the 3rd of that note and then play the 4th of the scale and play the 6th of that and keep on going until you reach the octave of the root of the scale ( in this case C) and then start playing it descending using the same pattern. The pattern in a nutshell goes like this:
1,3,2,4,3,5,4,6,5,7,6,8,7,9,1 then backwards descending start like 9,7,1,4 ...

These studies should keep you off the streets for a long long time! By doing this you will find some very interesting patterns and sounds that you like. After a while you will just do parts of these studies automatically.

Transcribing is also very important. Find songs and phrases that you really like and would like to add to your vocabulary. You will learn tons from transcribing.

So, I guess that just about covers it!

Remember though the most important thing is to play what you feel and hear. These studies are meant to help you expand your vocabulary and push your dexterity to do things that you never have done.

All the best!

Gerry

Hi Soren. This answer may not find favour with the more musically and theoretically gifted players than myself, but here goes! ....Forget the theory and play with your heart, you know the notes and the modes, you're already a musician. Improvisation to me is using the vocabulary we all have to say what WE have to say in a natural and non-contrived way. I am steeped in musical tradition, but am on a never ending journey of dissent from that tradition..as Miles said " I am cursed with change " or as Schoenberg stated: " I venture to credit myself with having written truly new music which, being based on tradition, is destined to become tradition ". I guess what I'm trying to say is that the journey of improvisation is a personal fight to resist the inevitable reference to the past that we are all doomed to repeat!!! But the fight must go on..resist all convention..strive for originality..that to me is a jazz player. lol. My apologies for such an abstract response, maybe somebody with more sensible advice can help you more! My very best wishes and regards. Paul.