Jazz Practice - Why You Need To Keep It Practical

What if the way that you practice makes sure that you don't feel like you are practicing something that you never get to use? Jazz Practice is difficult to get right and there are some mistakes that I see people make again and again.

What if you could work in a way that you could feel that your playing was improving? Maybe it is often better to take a more practical approach and practice in a way that is really focused on fixing a problem in the music that you are playing.

If you start with the music and choose goals to fix problems you encounter while making music you are much more likely to improve and also able to feel yourself improve.

In this video, I am going to talk about how to learn jazz guitar and how to choose the right strategies for some of the problems we encounter. It is easy to get lost in empty exercises and not work on something that is directly related to the mus

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Content:
0:00 Intro
0:12 Solve problems in your playing?
0:38 Strategies and how to Improve specific things in your playing.
1:23 Two Types of Solutions
1:54 The Two Examples in this video: Soloing and Comping.
2:13 #1 Soloing: How to Learn New Vocabulary
2:45 Long-term Goal and solution
3:51 Short-term Approach - Specific and Fixing the problem in the song
4:49 Less information more focus on using it while making music
5:42 #2 Comping: Learning New Voicings
6:18 Long-term for Learning All Voicings and Inversions
7:22 Short-term Approach - Think about what you already play and Add to That!
8:54 Be Practical if you want to improve your playing fast.
10:33 Teachers does this as well!
10:56 Like the video? Check out My Patreon Page!

Edited by Luciano Poli

Snapchat: jenslarsenjazz

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[JensLarsen]

What do you think: Are you often starting huge projects instead of keeping it practical? Ideas, opinions? 😎


Content:
0:00 Intro
0:12 Solve problems in your playing?
0:38 Strategies and how to Improve specific things in your playing.
1:23 Two Types of Solutions
1:54 The Two Examples in this video: Soloing and Comping.
2:13 #1 Soloing: How to Learn New Vocabulary
2:45 Long-term Goal and solution
3:51 Short-term Approach - Specific and Fixing the problem in the song
4:49 Less information more focus on using it while making music
5:42 #2 Comping: Learning New Voicings
6:18 Long-term for Learning All Voicings and Inversions
7:22 Short-term Approach - Think about what you already play and Add to That!
8:54 Be Practical if you want to improve your playing fast.
10:33 Teachers does this as well!
10:56 Like the video? Check out My Patreon Page!

[marianokramer]

Your video on recording yourself, listening, developing an objective analysis and then a practice plan is great! I’ve been working on guitar for most of my life (50+) and just in the last year have gotten into learning how to practice. If I had really learned how to Practise when I started my musical journey I would have saved a lot of time! The Talent Code and The Art of Practice are great books on this subject.

[anthonydemitre]

Agree, when I started playing I learnt all the inversions of drops, triads, chord scale and scales all over the neck but I didn't actually play music for that 2 or 3 years! when I did start playing tunes I didn't sound musical because I hadn't practised them in the context of a tune, I had to go back years later to learn to make them musical, this took a lot of listening and transcribing!

[jumemowery]

Thanks Jens! The more I learn, the more I realize that I have only scratched the surface. Thanks for helping me scratch a little deeper.

[grobertabidbol]

Totaly agree with that ! We guitarists have too much stuff in our brain when we play, and it can stop our creativity and expression !
Thanks for these words of wisdom, Master ...

[Molcrid]

One of your best one Jens! There´s a lot of room to failure when you have to study that much, i always end up with mental fatigue after an hour of Chord/Arpegio practice and i see clearly why.
...my guitar teacher used to say "who much are you practicing? 2 - 3 hours isnt enough" and some of his students practiced even 6 - 8 hours daily...

[philiprowland]

Fantastic lesson Jens.
Playing out a lot having to learn new tunes in a limited time has really forced me to take this approach.
It’s nice to see validation because a part of me at times feels badly for not taking more time to drill in all the possible exercises... but unless I have a context for those exercises, I will tend to forget what I worked on, so it can indeed and often does become a big waste of time. These days I don’t have that luxury. Thanks again!

[Shuzies]

This lesson is loaded with Great teach myself....but for some reason I feel as tho your my You Jens

[willyevans]

Excellent as always Jens. Thank you for taking the time to do all this for us.

[bokbok]

Your last point of playing music cause that is the end goal I totally agree with. So at the moment I go really slowly through a standard playing the arpeggios and trying to join them up musically...adding a passing note or try in a new position. The hours I spent say practising thirds comes in handy as I can then add that in my playing....but all the hours I spent on the thirds did not show me how to use them musically....I had to play the song. If I am totally uncreative I try to use that time to go over scales or thirds..fourths or arpeggio pairs etc. Mixing it up is good but now more time on the song.

[jduncan]

I catch myself doing both. I have a few standards that I always play and integrate new ideas into as I learn; however, I have some long-term goals that I work on each day (such as improving my picking abilities).

[kaff_o]

The thing I like to practice are arpeggios.
2 chord and 2 arpeggios, make a loop on it and practice those. As soon I found another chord that will fit into the piece, I will find the arpeggios or scale that will fit it.
I use mimic alot, while I play I start humming the notes, and it usually goes as I walk.
I've learned not to be afraid of singing or humming the notes.
It helps alot, try it out! :)

[joerimland]

Glad to know that a practical problem solving approach is the most effective way to practice. Now I don't feel I was being lazy when I didn't try to learn all the inversions of a chord. ☺️

[ianmackenzie]

Great content and presentation as usual. Thanks!

[tomcripps]

I was just getting ready to go back to Stella so it's good timing. I've pledged to learn more "jazz standards" this year. At least 10 of the main ones that I need to know including Stella.

[dr.wagner]

I've been trying to play for a while and this video put it together for me. Thank you, for I am now on the right track to tying together all my knowledge on this subject

[rillloudmother]

6:40 This makes me feel a bit better since there are a bunch of drop 2 and drop 3 voicings that i never use and don't know well.

[TiagoLageira]

Thanks so much for shedding light on this stuff!

[vvblues]

Excellent advice. It's the little things learned over a longer period of time that sticks. I've been adding arpeggio ideas I learned from Gypsy Jazz and applying them to blues-rock and blues-fusion. It's very helpful.

[TheMrJBC]

Another great video Jens, Thank you!! Exactly what I did last year practicing jazz guitar, trying to cover all the possibilities of one concept but not being able to apply it( thousand possibilities:)) to a song