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Learn Jazz Standards Podcast

How Do I Play More Creative Ideas in My Solos?

Learn Jazz Standards Podcast

Brent Vaartstra: Jazz Musician, Author, and Entrepreneur

Music Commentary, Jazz, Jazz Improvisation, Jazz Saxophone, Jazz Theory, Jazz Bass, Jazz Piano, Education, Music, Jazz Guitar, Jazz Solo, Jazz Standards, Jazz Trumpet, How To

4.8536 Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2024

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of the Learn Jazz Standards Podcast, Brent addresses Gary Cavallar's question on shifting focus from playing notes to creating more organic saxophone solos. Brent explores ways to enhance creativity and improvisation. He suggests analyzing habits and incorporating new tools to break repetitive patterns. Learning more jazz language, including licks and solos from musicians, is crucial for expanding musical ideas. Brent emphasizes the importance of composition, either composin...

Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode is sponsored by the Learned Jazz Standards Inner Circle.

0:03.8

If your goal is to level up your jazz playing this year and feel confident improvising over

0:08.5

jazz standards, the inner circle has everything you need and more.

0:13.0

With monthly jazz standards studies, a library of powerful courses, and a vibrant community

0:17.3

of like-minded musicians, you're guaranteed to improve your playing every

0:21.7

single month.

0:23.1

Podcast listeners can get 50% off their first month when you go to LJSinnerCircle.com.

0:29.5

That's LJSinnerCircle.com or find the link in the show notes.

0:34.8

Now, on to today's episode.

0:52.3

Music the show notes. Now, on to today's episode. All right, my friends, what's up? Brent here from Learn Jazz Standards. Welcome to another episode of the Learn Jazz Standards podcast. I'm answering your jazz and music related questions five days a week to help you have more fun playing jazz to shorten the learning curve. And yeah, just to get out there and actually accomplish your musical goals that you have in front of you instead of getting frustrated and overwhelmed. So today we have a great question from Gary Cavalar. Let's give it a

1:16.5

listen. Hello, I'm Gary. How can I change my focus on alto sax solos from playing notes to

1:25.9

creative ideas and letting them flow. Thank you.

1:30.6

So there's two things in this question that I think are here at the heart of it. And the first one is,

1:36.3

you know, how do I go from playing a simple musical structure like a scale or a preset pattern

1:41.8

and turn that into an organic solo or improvisation.

1:46.9

The other side of it is how do I become more creative in my playing, right?

1:52.1

How do I become a creative player who's playing great melodies?

1:56.6

So let me just go through and start listing off as many options as possible to, you know, start

2:02.8

at least getting some brainstorming going here. So the first thing that we can think about doing

2:07.8

is analyzing what our habits are and figuring out where we can add something new or at changes.

2:16.0

So for example, let's just say over a blues, right?

2:19.3

Like you know that you can play the minor pentatonic scale or the blues scale. It's a tool that

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