Guest post by Bob Hartig of StormHorn.com

It wasn’t until my third year in college music studies that I got serious about practicing my horn. Inspired by the discovery that if spent time on my instrument, my command of it improved, I moved practically overnight from a lackadaisical sax player to a highly motivated one. Suddenly I couldn’t get enough of my saxophone.

The time I invested began to pay off, but obviously I had some ground to cover, and that was particularly true of my improvisational skills. I developed a great technique, but I couldn’t seem to tap into it in a way that sounded anything except…well, technical. I could burn through scales, intervals, and arpeggios with quicksilver finesse, but I didn’t know how to make music with them. Meanwhile, a handful of star players in my college jazz band were soloing as if improvisation had been wired into their genetic codes. How did they do it?

Today, most college jazz programs have curricula that map out a well-conceived approach
for budding jazz musicians. Not so in those days, not except in a handful of well-known music schools such as Berklee and North Texas State. Had I been more savvy, I would have asked some of the better players for advice. But that thought never occurred to me, and even if it had, I was too much in awe of those guys to approach them. So I wound up taking the long road, but bit by bit I began to learn how to translate my technical skills into improvised solos that sounded increasingly fluent and even creative.

So, What Does It Take?

With an art as multifaceted as jazz improvisation, I can’t hope to address everything that goes into answering the above question in a single post. But I can at least spotlight a few things that have made a difference for me. Perhaps they’ll seem just plain commonsense to you, but to me, each one came as a kind of “Aha!” moment when I first recognized its value.

Memorize Transcribed Solos
Learning a few Charlie Parker solos was probably the single most helpful thing I ever did in getting my fingers to feel their way beyond scales to actual music. Get yourself a copy of the Charlie Parker Omnibook and use it like you would a book of etudes. Or tap into the gazillion free transcriptions of solos by great jazz artists that are available online. The jazz page on my Stormhorn.com blog site has a few you can check out.

At this point, I can just hear the voices of a certain segment of more advanced players. “If you really want to learn, you need to transcribe some solos yourself.” I’m not arguing the value of doing your own transcriptions. It’s huge. I’m just offering an easy starting point that can and will help open the ears of formative players and connect them with their fingers. It’s not an either/or thing.

Memorize Favorite Licks in All Twelve Keys
Pick a ii-V7 or ii-V7-I lick and practice it till you can play it fairly well from memory in one key. Then transpose it up or down a half-step, or down a fifth. Keep at it till you can play the lick in all twelve keys. Strive for accuracy, not speed; the speed will come once your fingers know where they’re going.

Acquiring a lick this way will take some time. You’ll get the lick down in one key, move on to another, then another, and then come back to the key you started in and find that you’ve lost some of what you had, and you have to relearn it. Relax—that’s part of the process called “paying your dues.” Stick with it. In time, your fingers will own the lick, and at that point you’ll start shaping and personalizing it.

Practice Dominant Chord Patterns Around the Cycle of Fifths
This tip is similar to the previous one, but it focuses on outlining V7 chords as they progress around what is the strongest, most frequently encountered root movement in music: downward by a perfect fifth. By practicing all twelve dominant seventh chords in this fashion— and their alterations, as you become more advanced—you’ll gain a handle on voice leading and modulation from one key to the next.

Learn Tunes
Fake books are great in a pinch, but the more tunes you know by heart, the freer will be
your playing and the greater will be your mastery of jazz improvisation in general. Learn the melodies and learn the chord progressions. A few blues heads and tunes based on the changes to “I Got Rhythm” are a good place to begin.

Practice with an Aebersold CD or Band-in-a-Box
Of course, the best of all possible scenarios is to be able to practice with a live rhythm section. But realistically, accompaniment tracks such as Jamey Aebersold produces allow you to focus on a single tune, or on musical building blocks such as ii-V7-I’s, for as long as you choose.
True, you don’t get the spontaneous interaction of a live group. But you do get topnotch
accompaniments by world-class rhythm section players that allow you to hear harmonies and grooves. You’ve got to be able to hear how the notes you’re playing work with the chords. For most players, this approach is probably the most practical for developing one’s ears.

Listen Analytically to Great Players
This one is self-explanatory. Jazz is an art that comes by listening, not just intellectual study. Saturate yourself in some of the great jazz improvisers. Absorb their sound, their nuances, the way they craft a melody relative to the chord progressions they’re working with. Listen actively, not passively.

Bob Hartig – StormHorn.com