Thanks Rich – I really appreciate your feedback and kind words.

The exercises that I outline might seem simple but they create a very strong foundation and framework around which we can build logical improvised melodies and even entire solos.

I’m aiming to record my first ‘medium-up tempo’ jazz standard course this week, and these will be housed in a new section of the website.

Improvisation is difficult to teach as it’s not as ‘visual’ as chord voicings and chord progressions etc… A lot of the ingredients of jazz improvisation are almost subconscious which is achieved through lots of repetition (of the drills/exercises in this seminar for example) and also by having a deep familiarity with the chord progressions and harmony of the song/jazz standards in question (which is also best gained from a LOT of repetition).

As mentioned one of the most important aspects – for my development at least – has been regular listening and transcribing from the solos and players that I admire and want to sound like. In my opinion this is the best way to learn swing feel and other ‘invisible nuances’ of jazz performance. Of course listening and transcription isn’t an ‘instant reward’ process, it’s a very slow and gradual process, but one that yields great results in the medium/long term.

Anyhow, I’m very confident that my new up-tempo improv courses will help students to dive into improvisation in a structured and focused way.

More to follow on this the next week.

Cheers,
Hayden