How to learn jazz improvisation for beginners

Hello, I am Mari Hatano, a beginner-friendly online "jazz improvisation" instructor. Please call me Mari! In this article, I will summarize my thoughts on teaching improvisation performance. This is a page I will write to share my thoughts with local teachers and students as I attend a jazz workshop at Stanford University in July 2023, and I will translate it into English (by AI).

I am exploring the best way for beginners to learn jazz improvisation. And I would like to compile it into a paper.

What learning to jazz improvise performance means to me

What is improvisation performance for me here? I will write about the following. Because if you don't know what you will achieve, you don't know what you will learn and practice.

Improvisation performance is self-expression

For me, improvisation is a tool for self-expression. It is a way of saying, "Here is what I am thinking! is just one of the tools to express myself in something other than words.

So, I think the practice of improvisation is to find out "what I want to express".

Many people who are actually trying to improvise, no matter how many years they go to lessons, they can't do it and are frustrated. It is certain that a lot of experience is necessary to learn jazz improvisation.

However, I think it is necessary to put down an efficient and specific process instead of expressing the process as "listen carefully" and "not enough practice".

What is necessary to "find what you want to express"

Improvisation performance is a tool for self-expression. But that does not mean that you can just say, "Yes, you can play whatever you want without any preparation! You can play whatever you want! without any preparation, you will not know what to say in the first place . (Especially for Japanese.) Also, no matter how freely you are told, if you don't feel that you are beautiful, you have not expressed yourself. There is a law of beauty. By knowing these laws, you can find the beauty you want to express.

Therefore, learning and practice are necessary.

However, I believe that if you learn in the wrong way, your original "self-expression" will not come true, and you will end up focusing on "playing jazz itself.

Common ways of learning jazz improvisation and its harmful effects

Here is a summary of what I believe to be the downside of general jazz instruction.

1.Instructors teach (students practice as they are told by the instructor)

2. Longer lesson time per lesson (more to learn at one time)

3.Trying to learn alone

The following is a detailed explanation

1.instructor-led (practice as instructed by the instructor)

First of all, I have the impression that many people think that they will be able to learn if they learn from the instructor. In reality, you need time to "explore by yourself. Of course, you should ask the instructor to teach you how to practice, but what does that lead to in terms of improvisation? I believe that it is necessary to make the connection between the two by oneself.

Another problem is that the instructor should not teach everything with the best of intentions. Rather than teaching, it is more like "explaining. To put it bluntly, there are many things that cannot be understood even if they are explained. Even if it is explained, if there is no experience, it will not help the person. However, instructors tend to explain things in words in order to make people understand what they have done.

On the other hand, there are instructors who say, "Just imitate and feel!" Some instructors say, "Just imitate and feel! I think this is the way it should be. However, it takes a long time to be able to actually feel it. It also requires a good grounding in musicality and experience. It is doubtful that everyone will be able to improvise in this way.

There are also some instructors who just make the students transcribe and play along, and do not teach improvisation until the students can play chord tones and scales correctly. Clearly, this can only be called negligence on the part of the instructor. Yes, all of these things are necessary, but it is not enough to be able to play them perfectly.

2. Longer lesson time per lesson (more to learn at one time)

Most jazz lessons in Japan are given once or twice a month for 60 minutes at a music store or teacher's home (or studio, etc.).

One of the problems here is that a lot of information is given in one lesson time. The learner wants to learn as much as possible, and the teacher is also kind and gives it. ( It may also be affected by how much the amount is set at a time.)

But in reality, it is necessary to carefully understand and practice each task. With this method, there are many things that beginners can't understand because of the tension that they have to practice in front of the instructor.

Furthermore in that case, you may not be able to remember the content well even if you listen to the recording. Because on the spot, you may think you can understand.

In this case, the key to progress is how much the student is able to practice on his/her own.
However, in my experience, there are some students who do not show much progress even though they practice on their own. Many of them learned jazz as adults.

In this pattern, I expect that the students are likely to practice incorrectly or practice the same way even if they are doing it correctly, but they do not improve because they keep practicing the same way even after the practice stage.

This would not happen if the instructor could check on the students every time they practice. In short, having a system that allows for follow-up other than the once (or twice) a month lesson will help many students improve.

3.trying to learn alone

As mentioned in #1, time to explore on your own is an important part of learning jazz improvisation. However, if you continue to learn alone, your progress will slow down. This is because "jazz improvisation is a form of self-expression, and it is important to communicate it to others.
By being always conscious of communicating to others, you will know where you are at the moment.
The only way to confirm whether or not you are communicating what you want to say is to have someone listen to you.

Therefore, it is necessary to perform in front of an audience.
It is even better if the performance is not "when it is completed," but rather if the students listen to each other and recognize each other even when they are in the middle of their performance.

Importance of a Learning Environment

From the above, it is clear that learning jazz improvisation is greatly influenced by the environment.

・To meet an instructor who not only teaches practice methods and techniques, but also gives students "awareness" of their own practice.

・There is a system where the tasks are subdivided to a minimum, introduced in your best relaxed environment, and evaluated for daily practice.

・To have a group of friends who listen to each other and recognize each other's progress in practice.

When such an environment is in place, the speed of improvisation improvement is likely to increase.

What is the optimal learning environment?

I have tried many things to create the best environment for learning jazz improvisation.

One of the most important is the use of an online system.

Using an online system allows students to learn in their own space, at their own time, without having to visit a music store or the instructor's house, and it creates an environment where students receive feedback for every practice session. In addition, they can have their performances heard by their peers around the world, which is a great environment.

I decided to set up an online-only learning system (I don't offer real lessons for ensembles). (For ensembles, we offer real lessons.)

1.Self-study using video materials
2.Group correction sessions where you can study with your peers
3.Study and practice sessions to supplement the material

1.Self-study using video materials

You can take lessons anytime, anywhere, using your smartphone or tablet.
Each video is a "one assignment per video," so it is clear what assignment you need to work on now, so you can step up to the next level.
The content of each assignment is not designed to help you learn something, but rather to help you face how you feel. Therefore, you will gradually become accustomed to "thinking for yourself. Also, by repeating it, you can experience how improvisation is carried out while thinking.

Besides
・The length of each video is 5 to 20 minutes.
・Simple content
・The process of phrase-making itself
・Theoretical explanations are kept to a minimum and detailed explanations are provided in a separate volume.
・Theoretical explanations are kept to a minimum and detailed explanations are provided in a separate volume.
・The goal of the book is to help students understand how to improvise on the five standard chord progressions.

2.group correction sessions where you can learn with your peers

The video materials provide an environment in which you can spend time with yourself and share your learning with your fellow students as well as the instructor. This is the Group Correction Session.
Students do their assignments for the video materials and post them on the FB group.
Three times a month, the instructor corrects the assignments via live streaming.
Students can not only listen to their own corrections, but also listen to the performances and corrections of others. Although their progress is varied, since they are using the same material, they are able to empathize with each other and discover what they don't have each time. This movement of feelings itself stimulates the desire to learn.

3.study and practice sessions to supplement the teaching materials

Teaching materials are basically
(1) The process of creating phrases
(2)Rhythm and nuance
(3) How to practice a piece of music
(4)Theoretical explanations
The content is not perfect, although it touches on the following two points.
Therefore, we hold study sessions (classroom lectures) and practice sessions (practical sessions) to supplement its contents. This is content that will aid understanding of the contents of the material and can be applied to sessions and other practices.

Conclusion

In this article, I have written about how I think I learn how to improvise.
I am using the online-only method, but I think that if you add face-to-face lessons to this method, you will be able to improve at an even faster pace.
I am planning to write a paper on this subject based on my experience and data from the lessons.

Thank you for reading to the end.

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