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Jazz Trumpet Duets
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Attention Jazz Trumpeters
New Release!
Jazz Trumpet Duets is ready to ship!
I'm proud to announce the release of my latest book, "Jazz Trumpet Duets." This is the trumpet edition of "Jazz Saxophone Duets."
The duets sound great on trumpet, and top Chicago trumpeter Mark Olen does a fantastic job performing the duets on the play-along CD. Same great rhythm section as the sax version. |
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| Click on the CD to hear the trumpet version of "Columbus Drive." |
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$6.95 Per Pad.
(50 Sheets)
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Finally, the perfect paper for your transcription projects, with only 8 staves per page, and lots of room for ledger-lines and chord symbols. Printed on high quality 70# paper stock which was run on an old-fashioned printing press, so you can erase and the staff lines will still be there!
Sold in pads of 50 pages with cardboard backing, glued at the top only, so it's easy to tear off one sheet at a time. (Staff is only on one side of paper).
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Welcome to the January 2007 Newsletter. This article is available only to mailing list subscribers. Note that there are no links to this article from any other page on the site. Thank you for your subscription to my e-mail list. I hope the you enjoy the article.
Best Wishes,
Greg Fishman
A FRESH APRROACH TO PRACTICING
By Greg Fishman
Students often ask me how to develop a good practice routine. A good practice routine is essential in order to take your playing to the next level. When I think about the way I used to practice as a young player, all I can say is: “If I only knew then what I know now about the art of practicing!”
Throughout high school and college, I put in many hours per week of practice time, often eight hours a day. Much of it was productive, but often I was just spinning my wheels by practicing things that I could already play well. I wasn't always challenging myself. Today, I can accomplish more in one hour than I used to in four hours. This is because I've learned what to practice, as well as how to practice.
It took me many years to understand the ways in which I internalize musical concepts. It was a very slow and tedious process of trial and error, but I finally learned the techniques that got the best results. To this day, I still use those same techniques to keep my own playing level up, yet now use only a fraction of the practice time I once needed.
That being said, there's no denying the fact that at some point in your early years as a student, to really get on intimate terms with your instrument of choice, you're going to need at least a three or four-year period of many hours of practice per day.
In this article, I'll outline the techniques that have worked well for me over the years. You'll find that practicing can be one of the most rewarding aspects of playing.
TIME-ORIENTED PRACTICE
Some people tell me that they're putting in an hour of practice a day, but they're not improving and they're frustrated. Practicing your instrument shouldn't be like punching a time clock at work. If you force yourself to sit there with your instrument in your hands and practice while looking at the clock every few minutes to see if you've “put in your time,” you will not improve. As a matter of fact, you'll start to dread picking up your instrument, because you'll start to view practicing as a chore rather than an adventure.
Sometimes I'll encounter students who tell me that they're putting in an hour of practice per day, yet they're not making much progress. In these cases, I'll ask these students to show me exactly how they practice during that hour a day they're spending at home. Inevitably, they'll play through their scales, playing the easy ones quickly, then they'll struggle through the harder ones with bad time and many mistakes, and then they'll go on to a piece of music, which they play from the beginning to the end, full of mistakes, in a mechanical manner, with no feeling or interpretation. Then, they'll play the song a few more times. After that, they usually lose their focus and start playing random licks. This is what I call “Time-oriented” practicing. The student doesn't actually work on improving anything. He's just playing what he can already play. Of course, any time spent on your instrument isn't totally wasted. You will improve, but I think that this type of approach is the least efficient use of practice time.
RESULT-ORIENTED PRACTICING
Result-oriented practicing improves your productivity in the practice room. Your focus is now shifted from clock-watching to paying close attention to your progress on each musical goal. When practicing in this manner, it could take you four seconds, four minutes, four hours, four days, etc. You work on the musical goal until you start to hear improved results, and then you move on to the next item on your practice agenda.
Result-oriented practice focuses all of your energy on one musical goal at a time. This is a very efficient way to practice. For example, when working on scales, it might seem logical to think, “There are twelve major scales, and I'm going to work on them for one hour, dedicating five minutes to each scale.” In reality, you might need forty minutes worth of work in the key of Ab, Db and Gb and only twenty minutes or less on the remaining scales. A great solution for this is what I call the “Five Time Rule.”
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING
Pure result-oriented practice is a great tool, but too much of a good thing can be bad. For example, when I first started to use the result-oriented approach, I found that I was determined to play things so perfectly that I'd often spend my first two hours of practice on just one scale. By the end of a practice session, I would only have spent time on one or two items.
TIME ON YOUR SIDE
After working with the result-oriented system for about a year, I started to fall into a comfortable routine that worked really well. I decided to put a loose time restraint on my practice items. I'd set a timer to ring in thirty minutes and then practice as intensely as I could until I heard the timer ringing. I'd then make a decision to move on to the next item on my list, or take another thirty minutes on the same item. This turned out to be a perfect balance between time-oriented and result-oriented practice. My use of time became extremely productive, and I found that I wasn't wasting any practice time. Also, the thirty-minute interval idea kept things moving along nicely. Be sure that you don't look at the clock as you practice; just work as intensely as possible and then move on to your next practice item.
THE FIVE TIME RULE
The “Five Time Rule” is one of the main components of result-oriented practicing. To use this device, you must be able to play the scale, lick, song, etc. five consecutive times with zero mistakes. This is essential for bringing consistency into your playing.
Let's say that you're working on a lick. Once you've played the lick one time through with no mistakes, you've proven that you have the ability to do so. Many people can do this when they're by themselves in a practice room, with no performance pressure. How many of us can remember telling our music teachers that “it really sounded better at home.” The reason for this is because when you add the stress of playing in front of other people, you're more likely to loose your concentration, get nervous and make a mistake. Using the five-time rule will give you the psychological edge necessary to keep external distractions or internal stress from causing mistakes in your playing.
The five-time rule is sort of a mental game you play against yourself. The reason you're going to play things five times in a row is to improve your consistency. The five-time rule raises your level of concentration, giving you improved control over your instrument. This approach will build the mental discipline necessary to concentrate on the development of your improvised solo, and on the interaction with your fellow musicians.
Consistency is one of the most difficult things to achieve. To play something accurately one time isn't that difficult because you don't have that much emotion invested. With each subsequent playing of the phrase or scale, you have a little bit more energy invested, and a little bit more to “lose” emotionally. You start thinking, “I've got four in a row, I really don't want to mess up now,” and that's just when you miss a note. It's your conscious mind playing tricks on you. You need to work through this so that your concentration cannot be broken. This is invaluable training, and the sense of accomplishment you'll feel once you've mastered this technique is really satisfying. You'll feel proud, and this will help make your playing more confident and consistent.
This is one of the main differences between a professional musician and an amateur. The professional musician can achieve consistently accurate results day in and day out, whereas the amateur player has to be “lucky” or having a “good day” to play well. If you want to sound like a professional player, you need to practice in such a way that will build your confidence, and the Five Time Rule does just that.
Another great thing about the “Five Time Rule” is that it can be employed on different levels. For example, let's say that you're going to play the twelve major scales in the circle of fourths:
(C scale 5x's, F scale 5x's, Bb scale5x's, Eb scale 5x's, Ab scale 5x's, Db scale 5x's,
Gb scale 5x's, B scale 5x's, E scale 5x's, A scale 5x's, D scale 5x's, G scale 5x's).
You should be able to play the example above with no mistakes. Once you've accomplished this task, you should play each scale accurately one time through the circle of fourths, but try to play the scales in the entire circle of fourths five times through with no mistakes:
(C scale 1x, F scale 1x, Bb scale 1x, Eb scale 1x, Ab scale 1x, Db scale 1x, Gb scale 1x,
B scale 1x, E scale 1x, A scale 1x, D scale 1x, G scale 1x) x 5 (five times around the circle with no mistakes).
Remember, any mistake, even the slightest hesitation on a note, a bad articulation, rushing, dragging the time, bad intonation, etc., means that you're back to a count of “zero” and you have to start all over again.
I need to warn you here, that you might start to get frustrated if you have to keep going back to a count of zero. If this keeps happening, you need to use a metronome and slow the tempo down to the point where you can achieve the five-time rule consistently. Then increase the metronome speed just one click at a time until you can play the lick, scale or phrase five consecutive times, with no mistakes at the original tempo.
BE A REFEREE
When you make a mistake, you have to learn to be unemotional. I've witnessed students getting so mad at themselves for making a mistake that they're literally shaking. Try to imagine that you're a referee at a football game, and it's the 4th down. The team with the ball decides to punt, and you watch the ball to see if it goes between the goal posts for the field goal. If the ball goes through the posts, the referee puts his arms straight up to indicate that the kick was good, or he'll cross his arms in front of him if the ball didn't go through the posts. There's no emotion involved on the part of the referee. You should try to be that unbiased when judging your performances while applying the five time rule.
USING THE FIVE TIME RULE WITH AN ETUDE OR SONG
Let's say that you're practicing an etude or song, and you want to use the five-time rule. First, you'll need to be able to play each phrase five times through with no mistakes. Next, you should play each eight-bar section of the etude with the five-time rule. Finally, you should be able to play the entire etude five times in a row, with no mistakes.
WORKING THE ODDS
Many people practice in such a manner as to set themselves up for failure. For example, a student will play a passage wrong five times and finally get it right on the sixth time. Now he thinks, “I've finally got it.” Then, thinking that he's “got it,” he moves on to the next phrase in the piece. What the student has done here is to train himself to play the phrase wrong five times out of six. The goal of the five-time rule is to reverse these odds and play the phrase right at least five times out of six. These are the kind of odds you want. Using the five-time rule will insure that the odds are always in your favor.
THE VISUAL APPROACH
The strategies described above will definitely improve your playing, but I know that some people are not inspired by such a mathematical approach. Below is more of a visual approach to the same problem. Feel free to mix and match elements from both approaches.
WEEDS IN YOUR GARDEN
Sometimes I use what I call my “Garden” analogy. When a student plays something that has flaws in it, each of those flaws represents a weed in a garden. The “weed” might be a problem with the time, a wrong note, a sloppy articulation, bad tone, incorrect fingerings, or any other element that inhibits the natural flow of the music.
What the student needs to do to fix this problem is to go to the scale, chord or phrase of music in question, and correct each problem. In order to do this, he might need to slow down the tempo and then slowly work back up to the desired speed. Trying to ignore these problems by playing fast and sloppily through them is the equivalent of taking a lawn mower and running over the dandelions on your lawn. The weeds will come back quickly, and they'll continue to spread until they take over your lawn.
THE WHITE SUIT
As long as we're in the “garden,” let's say you want to plant some flower seeds, but all you have to wear is a brand new white suit. You want flowers to bloom, but you don't want to get that suit dirty. What you need to do is to forget about the suit and get it dirty! If you want the satisfaction of planting your own flowers in your garden, you're going to get dirty. This is where it's helpful to remember back to when you were very young. Young children love to go out and play, and they think nothing of getting dirt on their clothes. Unlike children, adults are afraid to look foolish. I believe that this is one of the reasons that adult students progress more slowly than younger students. The adult reasons that he should sound good simply because he's an adult. Of course, he has more academic skills than a young child, but often, that can inhibit rather than help. It takes a child-like curiosity, a sense of wonderment, and love of the music to help discover the musician hidden within.
INSECURITY
I think that there's a major psychological element to practicing. Many players are so insecure about their own playing that they're not willing to sound “bad” because of embarrassment. Rather than reveal their musical weaknesses to themselves and address those weaknesses one by one, they'd rather put on a fake “show” in order to stroke their own ego and convince themselves that they're at a higher level than they really are.
INHIBITIONS
Some players are so inhibited that they're doing the musical equivalent of mumbling to themselves when they play. I once had a student come to me who was literally afraid to play a nice, loud note with plenty of air when practicing at home, because he was always worried about disturbing his neighbors. I asked him if they'd ever complained, and he said they hadn't, but he was worried. I told him to simply tell his neighbors that he's practicing the saxophone during certain hours of the day, and if it's too loud to just knock on the door and he'll stop. This set his mind at ease, and he came back the following week with a huge sound. He finally got over his fear of putting some air into the horn.
If you're a self-conscious player, that will come across to the listener. Try to get past your fears by doing some role-playing. Try imitating one of your favorite jazz artists and use some of his musical attitude in your own playing. Even if you're not playing a note-for-note transcription of the artist, you can try to cop his “vibe” and use it in your own playing.
DON'T BE A PRACTICE ROOM PLAYER
I feel that once certain players reach the college level, they can fall into the musical trap of becoming “practice room players.” If it's in a school setting, they think they're performing for everyone else who's practicing. If it's at home, maybe they're trying to impress their parents, siblings or friends.
If you're really practicing, you're struggling with some element of the material, and it's a challenge for you. If you can breeze right through it, you're not really challenging yourself.; you're just trying to flatter yourself by playing what you can already play. Take that lick that you always play, and put it into the remaining eleven keys at the same speed as the original key of the lick, and you'll be giving yourself a worthy challenge.
Don't get me wrong here; reviewing what you can already play is fine, and everyone needs a practice routine of scales and chords which should be repeated daily, but you need to really be honest with yourself as to whether you're challenging yourself or just flattering yourself.
DON'T BE A BIG TALKER
I've met a lot of big talkers over the years. Some people are great at talking as if they're God's gift to their chosen instrument. I recall laughing with a friend of mine in college about a kid who was a pretty awful trumpet player, who spent most of his time hanging out in the hallway and telling people, “Some guys say I sound just like Miles, but I think I sound more like Freddie!” He talked such a big game, that by the time he finally showed up at a jam session and revealed himself to be a mediocre player, he lost all credibility. If he'd been humble, people would have been helpful to him, but because of his huge ego, people shunned him. Don't let this happen to you. It's best to let your horn do all the talking for you.
DON'T BE TOO TOUGH ON YOURSELF
The other side of this issue is that players are sometimes so tough on themselves that they don't allow themselves to ever feel good about their playing.This is also not a good approach for efficient and productive practice sessions, because you can get caught in a negative spiral about your own playing. People like this often go around saying “I can't play at all,” or “I suck.” This is just as bad as being too cocky about your playing. This kind of attitude will slow down your progress.
HE'S GREAT, ON PAPER
I've learned over the years that no matter how advanced a student tells me they are over the telephone, I need to hear them in person to really assess their playing level. Some people know lots of music theory, but they might not be able to apply that theory to their playing in a musical way. Other players might know almost no theory, but have a good ear. To be the best musician you can be, you should have both a good ear and a solid theoretical understanding of the music.
THE PIANO
If you play any instrument other than the piano (or guitar), you need to spend time studying piano voicings and basic piano technique. You don't need to be a virtuoso on the piano, but you should have enough of an understanding of the piano that you can play the chords to any song on which you plan to improvise.
The reason for this is that the piano is the ultimate instrument for harmonic context. As a horn player, you need to internalize the sound of the chords you're improvising on. A pianist has the luxury of playing the chords of the song with his left hand while playing a solo line with his right hand. The horn player is playing what is the equivalent of the pianist's right-hand lines. The horn player needs to be able to clearly hear the chords as well as the bass movement in his head. If you really know a tune, you shouldn't need the piano player to “feed” you the chords. For me, the enjoyment of playing with a pianist is to communicate with each other and trade ideas back and forth while we're improvising. I'm not “leaning” on him to help me find my way through a song's progression.
A real test to see if you know a song is to improvise a chorus with no accompaniment, and clearly demonstrate the song's chord progression. It's not sufficient to simply memorize the letter-name spellings of the chords. You must internalize the sounds of the chords, and the best way to do that is to learn piano voicings.
Try to spend at least an hour or two a week at the piano. It will help you improve your ear, and these improvements will start to show in your playing on your chosen instrument.
EAR-TRAINING
Ear-training is one of the essential elements of training for any jazz musician. I've found that the fastest way to train my ear is to transcribe solos from recordings. The process of figuring out the notes, rhythms and inflections of the best practitioners on your chosen instrument, and then imitating those players, is the fastest way to train the ear.
Some people prefer to write out transcriptions while others like to simply memorize a solo without notating it. I've done both, and have found different benefits from each method. You should try both ways and determine which works best for you. I personally prefer to write the solo out and then memorize it. Having it written out allows me to do a detailed analysis of the devices used in the solo, such as use of theme and variation, sequence, licks, chord substitutions, etc.
Traditional ear-training techniques, such as singing intervals, sight-singing, and identifying chord types by ear is also of value, but transcribing is still the fastest and most effective way to quickly improve your ear.
TRANSFORMING YOUR QUESTIONS INTO POWERFUL STATEMENTS
The mind is an amazing thing. It will subconsciously try to come up with solutions for your problems. As soon as you get an impulse of what to practice, you should immediately do it. For example, if you hear a great solo and you wish you could figure it out, get your instrument and start trying to figuring it out. Even if it's beyond your level, make an attempt to transcribe it, and you'll get closer to your musical goal. If you can't play it, try to sing along with the solo. The point here is that you should make any attempt you can to get closer to the music that excites and inspires you.
Students often have the answers to their problems built in to their own questions. For example, a student might ask me, "Do you think it would help me to better understand a tune if I memorized the lyrics in addition to the melody?" Or, "Do you think it would help if I played through the chord progression and just played the thirds or sevenths of the chords?" Here's how to transform those questions into powerful statements which, in turn, will become plans of action: Replace the "Do you think it would help me to" part of the question with "It would definitely help me to," and then end the sentence with an explanation point instead of a question mark. For example:
Original question:
"Do you think it would help me to understand and memorize a tune if I memorized the lyrics in addition to the melody?"
New statement:
"It would definitely help me to understand and memorize a tune if I memorized the lyrics in addition to the melody!"
You don't need anyone's permission to improve your playing level. If you have a feeling about what you need to do to improve, start doing it immediately.
THE BLAME GAME
I believe that most teachers do their very best to help their students. Don't get into the blame game and blame your teacher for all the things that you could have been if they'd only told you exactly how to practice and what to practice.
It's an easy out for students to simply say that they're not good because their teacher didn't tell them to do something. A good teacher will help to guide you and inspire you, but ultimately, we must all take responsibility for our own playing level. If you really feel that you simply don't connect with your teacher, you should find a new teacher instead of blaming your current one for your problems.
If a student tells me that they didn't practice something that they knew would have helped them because I didn't tell them to practice it, my response is this: If something I told you to practice leads you to a realization of something else that would also help your playing, it is your responsibility as a good student to follow up on those leads on your own.
One of my old teachers, Joe Daley, was a master at this. I'd work on a pattern for a few weeks, and then one day I'd play the same pattern for the thousandth time and I'd suddenly notice something new about it. For example, maybe I started to hear the pattern in a different harmonic context, or in a different meter. That new realization would often lead me to the next thing I needed to practice. I believe that Joe would purposely not tell me some of these things because he wanted me to find them for myself. He didn't want to rob me of the joy of discovery, and for that, I'm really thankful.
YOUR HEART MUST BE IN IT
Over the years I've had some instances where I've taught two different students who used to study with the same teacher. One student played well for his grade level and the other did not, yet they both had the same training. It simply turned out that one student was motivated and loved to play, while the other student didn't really have his heart in it. If your heart's not in it, it doesn't matter how great your teacher is...without a true love and passion for the music, you won't improve beyond a certain point.
A BALANCED PRACTICE SESSION
I recommend that you have specific goals in mind for each practice session. It will take you some time to experiment and see what style of practice works best for you. While I sometimes will spend an entire practice session on one specific topic, I generally like to cover a wide range of items in each session. The items for your practice session may vary, depending on your area of focus for the day, week, month or year.
A balanced practice session should include time spent on: long tones, articulation, dynamics, scales, chords, intervals, etudes, repertoire, transcriptions, and licks in 12 keys. To download a free practice planner, please visit my website at: www.gregfishmanjazzstudios.com and click on “practice tips” at the top of the home page.
CONCLUSIONS
Practicing is one of the most rewarding aspects of playing music. In my youth, I never fully appreciated what a luxury it was to have an almost unlimited amount of practice time available to me. Now that I'm a working musician, I look forward to any chance I get to further improve my playing through practicing. No matter what your age or playing level, the practice concepts outlined above will help you make the most of your practice time.
This article is © 2007 by Greg Fishman. All rights reserved.
Saxophonist Greg Fishman holds a Masters Degree in Jazz Pedagogy from Northwestern University, and is a teacher of jazz saxophone, flute and improvisation. His writing credits include three Stan Getz transcription books, published by Hal Leonard. His latest book, Jazz Saxophone Duets has received endorsements from James Moody, Plas Johnson, and Tim Price. He has played with a variety of jazz ensembles, among them, The Woody Herman Band, Louie Bellson, and Lou Levy. Greg currently performs and records with guitarist/singer Paulinho Garcia, his partner in TWO FOR BRAZIL, and with pianist Judy Roberts. Greg is available for clinics, masterclasses and seminars in the U.S. and internationally, as well as private instruction in jazz improvisation. Contact Greg at (847)334-3634 or visit www.gregfishmanjazzstudios.com.
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