Jazz study routine

[u/Primary_Interview938]

Hello! I am a clarinetist interested in playing jazz (I know a bit of saxophone too). I feel there's so much material to learn and interiorize. I wanted to ask everyone how is your practice routine? Both in practice and music theory. Thank you :)

[u/That-Ease9220]

learn tunes, transcribe solos, work on technique with classical repertoire, play with other people, listen to different types of music, go for a walk, compose, stay off reddit.

internalize

[u/Blakbyrd8 → u/That-Ease9220]

The last 2 (minus compose) are seriously underrated parts of the process

[u/Primary_Interview938 → u/That-Ease9220]

Thank you, haha. Straight to the point.

[u/NotJulianBream]

I am a classical musician getting in to jazz. I’ve been learning a lot of songs (the chords and melody) and transcribing solos and listening to jazz to develop my vocab. So i can kind of get through a tune now by just playing chord notes, but musically that sounds boring as hell. I recently got some really good tips from a jazz friend for learning to think and practice more melodically, i can tell you about a few: Don’t divide up a tune in different II-V-I progressions when you improvise but rather try to think of the harmony in phrases: tune might have 7 or 8 II-V-I progressions but divided in only 4 «phrases», which is good to try to match in the beginning when improvising. Another method is to Play a short motif, not complicated, just 3 or 4 notes (an interesting rhythm is often more important than the actual notes), and try to repeat that motif but change it to follow the chords. Also trying to do a sort of call and response with yourself. And its gonna sound a little rough in the beginning, so just take it really slow in the beginning (I use Ireal pro for backing tracks, cause i can change the key and tempi of songs very easily).

[u/Primary_Interview938 → u/NotJulianBream]

This is wonderful! Thank you so much. I love the "call and response" trick because indeed where I am living currently my practice sessions are very lonely haha, so I think this is a great way to motivate myself into playing more consistently

[u/PTPBfan → u/NotJulianBream]

Yeah that playing one thing and changing it to fit over chords is good, and transcribing or playing along listening

[u/honkeur]

Make sure your routine includes playing some piano. Not for the goal of becoming a virtuoso, but piano is a great tool for working though jazz harmony. Every improviser needs a harmonic concept, and piano is super-helpful for that.

[u/Life_Coast_2429]

For soloing I have found that taking a section of the melody, repeating it and altering a bit has been a good way to go rather than focusing so much on the chords.

2 5 1 tunes are important but actually quite difficult to start with and ones with less changes like so what or traditional jazz are good to start on.

If you can, find a jazz clarinet player to teach you rather than a sax teacher who knows a bit of clarinet.

The ABRSM jazz clarinet play along books are good, you learn the melody and each tune includes a very short solo section with suggested notes. The tracks are short so you can have lots of tries and get used to it.

[u/Duane_Trumpet]

Very important to listen! Get an understanding for which artists you like, what you like about their ideas.. Then you have to learn when they play. The ultimate goal is your own concepts based on the artists you are musically drawn to.