My jazz professor, the late great Melton Mustafa, once gave me this routine and it changed my life: Ear training Technique Drills Language (and transcription) Repertoire (and sightreading) ....all with a metronome on the 2 and 4.

To anyone who has never transcribed a solo, it is not only really useful, but it is also fun. I find that once you get into it transcribing is ten times more fun than playing scales or patterns, because you're actually playing something that a jazz great played note for note.

My usual jazz practice for me: Warming up Tecnique Sight Reading Transcription Ear Training Learn Standars Learn about music theory Watch your videos :)

Mmm i do practice a lot of hours by day because im still young (17) so i do this Warm up whit some chords. Arpeggios (Dom7 min7 maj7 m7b5 maj minor diminished) Guide tones Chords melody (drop 2 drop 3) Scales and patterns Bebop and blues ideas Cromasitism And a jazz standard a week to put all the others things in

Something I noticed today while attempting to improvise over Very Early is that I slowed it way down, and tried to come up with a little bit of language over a couple bars. Then I stopped the metronome, and tried to come up with phrases for the next couple bars. Rinse and repeat through the form. Starting at 55bpm I worked my way up to 100bpm, mostly able to find my way through the changes. Was really helpful for me, so maybe it’ll help someone else!

It's simple. Not complicated at all. 1. Choose the tune your going to learn. 2. Isolate yourself. 3. Listen to the tune. 4. Choose the first chunk of the tune to learn. 4. Listen to the chunk repetitively and attempt to pick out the notes by rote (ear) using your instrument of course. 5. Once you got that chunk go-to the next chunk and repeat the same process until you got the whole tune. Yes you will struggle with this at first but you'll get the hang of it. This is what the greats did at the time when all this tech wasn't available. All they had was records. This will improve your ear, groove and improv.

Fantastic video, as a player who has been struggling learning jazz playing for awhile now. Thank you for these encouraging words of wisdom.

this is everything ive needed for the longest time ever... this is what every player needs. a good practice plan.. this is so huge man

I'm still trying to figure out a study plan that contemplates all the small important things and the serenity to face a jazz standard without hearing myself and thinking: "oh, boy, that's bad"! So, for now, my plan has been studying my technique, my bass, my scales, learning licks or whole chunks of walking bass lines and trying to get out of my own way. Along with another channels, yours is one that helps me to reflect on the more fundamental aspects of the practice room, sort of speak... Thank you for the tips

I refer to the 3 T‘s like technique, transcribe and transpose-so it’s pretty close to what you are talking about... I think your emphasis on improvising is soo good it’s probably the most important thing one can do

Great man, Thanx so much

As a teenage jazz trumpet player and composer here is my 1 and a half hour practice thing :) 3min Long tones All 12 major arpeggios at 104 BPM All 12 Minor appeggios at 104 BPM All major scales 152 BPM All harmonic Minor scales 144 BPM Improvise on standards I've been learning for about 15 min. Practice licks in all 12 Learn/ refine head to a standard Listen to music theory master classes online (Often Jacob Collier🤣) Then turn it into an idea. (After i've got alot of similar ideas, ill put it into 1 composition) Then watch Learn Jazz Standards

Great stuff. Thank you.

Thank you! Blessings from mexico.

well organized good conception

Yes, number one is instrument technique! If you don’t sound good on your instrument nobody cares what you have to say. As a saxophone player, I focus on my sound first.

Great video! Thank you

I think trying to connect the melody to the chords as soon as possible helps me remember both the melody and the chords better. And it starts the process of coming up with a chord melody arrangement that comes out of my own understanding of chords, not from a book or someone else.

What I believe to be the ultimate jazz practice, that I strive(Although fail) to stick to: 1-Transcription 2-Analysis 3-Playing! Trying to apply it to a set context. 4-Finally: Composition and arranging. Time to deconstruct and reconstruct the previous steps to provide additional contexts from which to understand stuff. Although I find it difficult to stick to for long periods of time, it's usually what best works for me when I'm up for the investment.

For me one thing that is really important is to practice in All tonalities...(whatever you do) go through all tonalities...every single day that helped me a lot

Thanks for this

I'm playing for a bit over a year now.. I got a little book with technical excercises and I do that to warm up and improv my finger skills. For learning sight reading and f. E. swing feeling I got "jazz piano pieces" by abrsm.. Where there is an 8 bar solo section in every piece.at the moment im also learning the major and minor 2 5 1 (the extensions without root) . Then Im working in the real book trying to transfer my skillz. I'm getting better in playing by ear with the right hand, but it's still very hard for me to figure out chords by ear with the left hand. Some days everything flows perfectly and then there are days when I just feel stuck and feel like I don't improve at all.. One thing the instrument is teaching me for sure is patience.. I have to get a clearer structure in my training and this plan seems to be really good! Thanks

Hey Brent, My current "ultimate jazz practice plan" is to learn how to use altered chords for voice leading on piano and guitar. And my plan for sax is to work on my sound, getting that big fat lead alto sound to carry the saxes. I've played lead in high school and am playing piano/second alto right now in our Crossroads Community Jazz Ensemble. Graduated 2017 and working my way up to be a freelance jazz musician and instrument repair tech. Love your videos and your podcasts man, keep up the good work!

I completely agree with what you said, but I think guitarists like myself (and pianists) have to put other things in the practice plan as well. Comping and chord melody come to mind. Also (for me) reviewing old tunes. That would be part of my ultimate practice plan. And applying the language and/or comping not only to the "tune of the week" but also any old tunes you may have worked on (I'm always concerned that by the time I learn tune 15 I'll have forgotten tune 1).

So I went to a jazz jam session yesterday for the first time in my life. I must admit I hardly know any jazz standard. So that may have been the first piece of homework: know your tunes. I am fine though improvising, I just sing it with my saxophone and do what I expect, so I fully play on intuition. But when the chord progression gets more complex I don't get away with that strategy. Then what I hear jazz musicians do is play scales and arpeggio's. I find arpeggio's boring and maybe also the reason why I don't listen to jazz a lot because it sounds too technical and I like a solo to mean something to the audience and have this personal fingerprint to deliver. But still what I expect you to say is: learn your arpeggio's by heart. Now I'm listening further to what you have to say...

I think it can be tough (at least for me) to stop one thing and start another. Not necessarily a bad thing if you're making progress on a tune, but something to consider if you're trying to make a little progress on a lot of things each day.

Hey man thanks for the video! Its great! I didnt get the review part? What excactly we do in this part as u suggest?

Yow, Thanks for all the info you put out ! it's really a great help. Wondering if you got any advice on how to transcribing the right way, what you learn from it and how you apply it to tunes... Regards!

When I get a 7 days time interval free I'll try this ULTIMATE PLAN. Thanks!

I only come from always practicing pieces, any idea technique specifics with regards to the piano?

This is such a great video! All your videos have been a help! I have been applying it to my mandolin playing which I’m getting back into after years of playing off and on. I played as a drummer freelancing for many years but had a real desire to learn these standards on my fave stringed instrument. I haven’t been listening to many mandolin players lately but mainly horn players and guitar players. This routine you have ironically is exactly what I’ve designed for myself! I do some technique: scale, arpeggios, etc for about 5 minutes and then work on a tune and then work in soloing and then picking solos out by ear so I can get that vocabulary in my playing. I was wanting to know - how do you know when it’s time to learn another tune? For instance, I learned the heads of a few tunes when I was getting back into it, I learned the melody by ear, but I still need to look a changes sheet for chords. I’m working on my ears and being able to hear specifically what kind of chords are being played when I listen. I’ve been working on Autumn Leaves for about a week now and can play the arpeggios and now I’m working on the diatonic scale notes in between the outline of the chords. How long should a beginner to improvising and tune learning spend on a song before moving to another one? I’m only saying this because I don’t want to just “half learn” a bunch of songs, but I also want to build repertoire. Sorry for the lengthy question - but thank you for all you do!

It's true - technique , repertoire and Jazz Language - every other topic can be put in a list with each of these as the main titles .

I know you like to keep everyone included in your lessons but as a guitarist I’d love to see a guitar specific course.

Technique, Concepts, Jazz Language, and Tune Studies!

I do a lot of push ups to learn jazz

Can't agree enough that learning solos by ear is the way. If you can hear it mentally you can use it as language in your solos. It's like Jamey Aebersold's concept of ear players versus finger players. My thought is that tasty players tend to be ear players, so that's what we should swim towards.

This sounds great! I'm going to work on applying this to my daily practice. Usually my sessions are just me hacking out solo piano arrangements/"improvisation". I put "improvisation" in quotes because unfortunately it's not improvisation really, it's slow composing a solo over the changes that'll I'll use again and again for the particular tune I'm working on. Step 3 is one I never do, and definitely need to. So, yeah, thanks - I'll give this a shot!

When talking about Jazz language , where should I find solos ,any recommendations?

For the step “Learn the Chords” of a standard are you referring to studying the functional harmony of the chords or just learning the chord tones of the chords? Or both?

Thank you! This sounds like a great approach. Except.... :) I've been working on technique and reportoire for some time, but it's only recently somebody advised me to learn solos to learn the 'language'. I tried it a couple of nights ago and, even working from a transcription rather than using my (very poorly developed) ear, I found that after 90 minutes of work I'd barely learnt the first 8 bars of a Charlie Parker piece. Maybe it's my old age, but I'm think 4 bars might be a more realistic goal for me.

If learning melody takes weeks do you advise repeating session 1?

how would you deal with the issue of knowing what you want to play in your mind, but whatever that phrase was just doesn't come out the same from your instrument? im in high school and ive been playing jazz for a couple of years and I know what my solos want to sound like. I don't know if it's that I'm not confident enough, but the music in my head is never the same as from my instrument. if that made sense, what would you do to help and improve solos?

What’s your advice on trying to figure out the chords to a standard by ear? I use irealpro to help me with that, but I want to start moving away from that.

practice vi ii V I , arpeggios, ii V I licks, progressions, and practice jazz standards

Navigate our instruments? Sounds like a pickup line: "Hey, baby, let me navigate your instrument." Just kidding! These videos are very helpful.

I really have no idea. I use ireal pro to figure out the chords, learn the melody, get stuck, give up, then fiddle for an hour hahaha.

Unfortunately I have only 1 day per week...this presents quite a challenge for me because it means I don't remember the stuff I rehears...ahem I meant 'improvised' during the session. Which means I am left with the task of actually improvising at the jam because I don't remember shit. Strangely enough it all comes together though (with a couple off notes here and there) over a period of time jam by jam but never the exact same thing twice. In other words...(heh heh) I practice improvising by flying by the seat of my pants no seat belts no anesthesia.

Chords, 2 5 1 progressions

Triades work

Just play a backing track and play notes that sound cool with it, no stress mannnn

Maybe if Coltrane knew these he wouldn't be bad lol

did anyone count how many times he said "jazz" in the video?

Jazz Chromatic Harp

work on the things ya wanna do...