Pathway 1
"I've had a long lay-off"
"It's all new to me!"
Aimed at those who have not been playing long. Maybe you have recently taken up an instrument and are still getting to grips with it. Maybe you are just getting back into playing after a long lay-off. This pathway will help you get back in to playing your instrument and take your first steps in improvising.
Knowing your instrument's transposition
If you are not familiar with this concept it can be a bit confusing to start with. Don't worry, you don't need to know all of the transpositions for all of the instruments, but you do need to know your instrument's transposition (if it has one).
Some wind instruments transpose. This means that the note they play from the written notation is not the note that comes out of the end of the instrument. For example, when a trumpet plays a written C what comes out is Bb, which is why it is referred to as a Bb transposing instrument, or being in Bb pitch. To compensate for this the trumpet music is written a tone above from the note that is heard.
This means that different instruments in the ensemble play in different keys at the same time. You don't have to worry about that because it's the composer or arranger's job to sort it all out, but that is why the music for all my workshops is provided in different keys and you need to know which one is right for you.
​For the purposes of most jazz ensembles, we use four different transpositions for the sheet music... Concert Pitch (not transposed), Bb Pitch, Eb Pitch, Bass Clef (not considered as transposed because it has the same note name as Concert Pitch, but is actually transposed an octave lower, so it is written in bass clef)
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This can all be confusing at first. To help you, I've made a handy chart to show you all 12 keys in all four transpositions (Concert Pitch, Bb Pitch, Eb Pitch, Bass Clef) for the most common instruments. Just click the button to download my handy chart and find out your instrument's transposition for any key.
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Scale 1
Start by making sure you are familiar with the concert pitch F major scale (or the relevant transposition if you play a transposing instrument. ie: G major scale for trumpet) by working through that video lesson in my "Master Major Scales" course. The major scale is the same as the major key signature and that is the benchmark against which we compare all other scales, modes and chords. Every alteration made to a scale or chord (eg: flattened 3rd or sharpened 11th) is always referred to in relation to the major scale/key signature, so it's important to be completely fluent in the major scales/key signatures and concert pitch F major is a common key for improvising in jazz, so its a great place to start.
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Scale 2
Now you need to really learn the concert pitch F minor pentatonic scale (1, b3, 4, 5, b7) which is the scale you are going to use for a lot of your improvising. If you haven't already, download my FREE Guide to Minor Pentatonics and learn the F minor pentatonic scale (or the relevant transposition if you play a transposing instrument. ie: D minor pentatonic for alto sax)
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Get my Beginner Jazz Soloing method book
Next, I recommend getting the book most suitable for your instrument and working through the rest of the chapters, which shows you how you can use the same 5 notes to improvise in different styles and over different chord progressions. There are four simple original compositions at the back of the book to work on and practice soloing over, with accompanying play-along tracks.
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Now you are ready to take on some jazz standards
By now you should be confident at improvising with the F Minor Pentatonic scale over a blues and major ii-V-I sequences, which means you are ready to take on some jazz standard repertoire and feel comfortable in my "level = simple" jazz workshops. Start with a couple of blues like "Centerpiece" and "Bags' Groove" and something funky like "Cold Duck Time" and "The Sticks". Each workshop includes a 1hr video lesson, full band parts, all of the class downloads, custom-made play-along tracks and links to the original recordings.
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