Jazz Exercises and Examples

I have created a package of jazz improvisation exercises, that is meant to get you started on the road to natural improvisation. I'll try to explain what I mean by 'natural'.

Obviously, there are loads of books and lesson materials available. A lot of those materials provide a lot of useful information about theory, harmony, chords etc etc. The package I have created is not meant to replace that, but takes a different approach. It does not focus too much on gaining theoretical knowledge to find the right notes, but rather on converting notes into music! That means, for instance, that:

- 'correct' notes do not automatically sound as music

- a solo is not necessarily made interesting by complexity

In other words, knowing all the theory and playing all the scales does not mean that you are able to play music! My approach is based on the premise that knowledge is only as useful as your ability to use it in a musical and natural way. This means that acquiring the knowledge and learning to be creative with that knowledge should go hand in hand: you start with basic knowledge, let's say, a scale to use for soloing, and learn to use the scale in creative, musical ways. Then you expand your knowledge, and learn to use that in a creative, musical way. If you already have the knowledge, great, now learn to use it.

Being creative and musical is hard to define, but I think it at least includes being able to literally 'play' with not only notes, but with timing and rhythm, dynamics, tone, phrasing and form. Now, your preferred style may emphasize certain elements, and that's fine, but even so, only all elements together can make real music.

That's why the exercises in the package are set up so as to stimulate you to use these elements, right from the beginning, from the moment you start playing a scale. In stead of bombarding you with tons of scales and modes etc, which can easily make you forget what it's all about, which is making music, it starts with easy exercises, and builds up to more complicated ones, each time giving you tips, and backing tracks to learn and become familiar with the concept the exercise is about. Also, each backing track is provided in several tempos, so you can start slow, and gradually work your way up to the intended tempo.

The solo examples also come in several levels, from basic to quite advanced.

The package contains a guide, audio files, midi files, regular notation and TABS and a special piece of software: it is a fretboard midi visualizer plugin that allows you to see the notes on the fretboard in real time. To use it you need a VSTi host program, most audio/midi sequencing software supports VSTi nowadays. There is also a program called Reaper which you can download for free, which supports this plugin.

VSTi stands for VST Instrument, where VST means Virtual Studio Technology. It's something that Steinberg (Cubase) introduced and is now a standard plugin format for these types of programs. The plugin (unfortunately) only works on Windows, not on a Mac.

What it is not: it is not a course in music theory, jazz chords and harmony or anything like that; there are already hundreds of those (and I recommend you get one). It is also not a beginner's level guitar course. I assume you can play, but want to learn to improvise.

To buy- and see demos of the Jazz Exercises package you can go here. A 'Smooth Jazz Re-Fill' available also, with smooth backing tracks and solos.