Tips & Insights For New Students
In this short interview Jon shares his tips and insight for students who are new to jazz, blues, and funk music.
Jon discusses the importance of listening and transcription and how this is an essential aspect of our development as musicians.
First Identify The Sounds That We Like
It’s important for us to identify the sounds that we like and then imitate them and play along with the recordings. Start simple with something that is within your grasp and then slowly expand your field of curiosity.
Transcription & Ear Training Exercises
If you are new to ear training and transcription, check out the following exercises in our community area:
https://www.pianogroove.com/community/c/improvisation-exercises/30
There are exercises for all levels and abilities.
Lesson Downloads
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New Orleans Blues Workbook File Type: pdf
Related Lessons
When we are learning to improvise, we must take lots of little ideas from our favourite recordings and then transpose around all 12 keys.
The basis of learning music and especially improvised music is to be able to recognise different intervals, melodies and harmonies.
Transcription is one of the most time effective ways to learn jazz and you should incorporate transcription into your daily practice routine.
Practice Tips
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Find something on a recording (a lick, a line, a fill, an intro, an outro, whatever it may be) that is just beyond your grasp, ie you don’t currently have the technique and dexterity to play it.
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Firstly analyse it and figure out exactly what is going on from a theoretical standpoint.
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Then play along with the record and the goal is to be able to imitate the exact phrasing, articulation, and other nuances.
Couldn’t agree more !! Unfortunately on a different level… 🙂
Hi Felix,
Transcription is very difficult to begin with but stick with it.
The key is to do a little each day and gradually our listening skills improve to the point where we can pick up a melody or chord sequence almost instantly.
I find with bigger transcription tasks that it is very important to sleep on it, and then revisit it. You will be surprised when trying to emulate something from a recording, that after sleeping on it and coming back to it, your fingers will be more accustomed to the shapes, and your ears to the sounds. Just chip away at the task each day.
Transcription really is the most time effective way to improve at improvisation and general musicianship. It’s something that we should all do as a part of our daily practice routines.
Cheers,
Hayden
Do you have a course on the “grace-note” fingering for this style of music?
Not sure how to approach chords with grace notes.
Hi Gregory – great question.
I can give you a little advice from a jazz perspective… Grace notes always sound fantastic when the melody note is a primary chord tone (3, 5, and 7) and also the 9th works well. My biggest recommendation would be to take any lead sheet, and practice grace-noting into the melody notes to get an appreciation for what works.
To get more insight on this from a New Orleans Blues perspective, I would recommend posting this as a question for Jon’s upcoming live seminar on the 16th March.
See the question box here on the right hand side: https://www.pianogroove.com/live-seminars/blues-funk-seminar-with-jon-cleary/
I send all of the pre-submitted questions over to Jon before the seminar and he will give you some specific advice, guidance, and practice tips.
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi! Frenchmen street blues course by Jon Cleary isn´t available? I remember I took a sample about this song, maybe, one year ago.
Hi Johan,
Yes Jon did a lesson on Frenchman Street Blues here: https://www.pianogroove.com/blues-piano-lessons/frenchman-street-blues/
You might also like to watch modules 4 and 5 in this course: https://www.pianogroove.com/blues-piano-lessons/jon-cleary-blues-masterclass/ – which are also focused on the 8 bar blues in F.
Let me know if I can help further and enjoy the lessons!
Talk soon,
Hayden