The First 30 Days: Jazz
The first month of the Jazz Year, one week at a time.
Before week 1
Why the first month is the major scales
For jazz students there's no prerequisite, because I would like to encourage everyone, but if they don't have an instrument, they've never played and they're young, I'll tell them they're too young. Otherwise I'll take them on as instrumentalists, and I'll have them work with great focus on their major scales, explaining the larger goals that will bring them to the point of being able to have freedom of movement within the context of the group of notes that they need to focus on when they're on stage, which is often a major or a minor scale or a pentatonic scale.
The foundational technique has got to be the most important part of it, because jazz ultimately is about freedom of movement, and the example I would give is always: let's take any major scale and I'll play something, because I've got a lot of technique, I can do what I want, pretty much. Let's see if you can respond with any kind of maturity to what I'm saying. And yes, there are … articulation, phrasing issues, a lot of issues … related to that, but it's primarily, you know, if I just play a broken scale, for example, they can't follow me, or just fluently moving up and down the scale, straight up and [down], they can't follow me, so that has gotta be the major hurdle …
Then beyond that, when you get on stage, yes, there is structure that you have to learn: 12-bar blues, rhythm changes. You have to learn … the jazz standards that everyone plays. That means you have to learn the melodies extremely well and learn the [chord] changes … but then it becomes a question of: OK, you know the changes, you know the melody, can you move around your horn? So we're back to the same thing.
So the development of a program for beginners and advance[d], it's just the pursuit of … those primary goals, and in the first instance, it's just being able to play your [scales] one [octave] up and down, and then the full range of [the instrument], straight up and [down], and then just developing technique: broken scales, thirds, [fourths], fifths, [pentatonics], chromatics. It's all the stuff that's in … The Whole Horn, but alongside that you need to learn … [the tunes] that are always going to be called on stage, and [the] musical structures that are always going to be repeated, like the blues and like rhythm changes.
… Without that basic core ability to move with great wizardry around the instrument in the context of those 12 major [scales], and … all the [tributaries] that come from that, then all the extemporaneous knowledge is not gonna matter a lot, because if you can't get on stage and play what you feel, it doesn't matter what other [skill sets] you bring to that magical moment.
… If you want to play, play. So you gotta get yourself to [a] place where you are strong enough to participate …
A student who has never played
To be completed.
Week 1 · Days 1–7
F and B♭ major, one octave
The goal
… First one is just being able to play your major scale straight up and down, very fluidly …
Every day
That's why I recommend taking each major scale and playing it up and down, articulating every note, with no pressure, so you don't blow your lip … Play along with the app, or play with the metronome, or tap your foot, and do that for two hours in each scale. It's 24 hours of work that will probably take, you know, 'cause you need to stop and start, a couple weeks, maybe a couple months …
How long each day
To be completed.
Ready for week 2 when
To be completed.
Practice link
The first time a student opens a link, the app asks what they play; the week is waiting underneath.
Week 2 · Days 8–14
E♭ and A♭ major, one octave
The same work, in the next two keys.
How long each day
To be completed.
Ready for week 3 when
To be completed.
Practice link
Week 3 · Days 15–21
D♭ and F♯ major, one octave · the blues bass line
… You probably start early on working on being able to play from memory, and repeat often, … the blues [bass line] that I'm prescribing, or something similar …
How long each day
To be completed.
Ready for week 4 when
To be completed.
Practice links
Week 4 · Days 22–30
B and E major, one octave
… To suggest that the goal is to have freedom of movement within only a partial range of the instrument is not in fact the definition of freedom of movement …
In the free app, the major scales stop at two octaves; the full range is in the Full Studio.
How long each day
To be completed.
Days 29 and 30
To be completed.
Practice link
After day 30
To be completed.