9 Jazz Lessons I Wish I Knew Sooner

This is a list of things I wish I knew when I started learning jazz. I have spent a few decades on this so far and I could have saved a lot of time and frustration, had I known the stuff I’m about to share with you.

So I hope this helps.

1) Learn to Play the Melody and Chord Progression Before Soloing.

This is the easiest part, and yet so many developing jazz musicians don’t do it. Learn the melody and practice it and then learn the chord changes. All of them.

But you might say, but I forget the chord changes. Well of course you do, that means you didn’t learn them properly.

If you’re a saxophone player, make sure you can arpeggiate your way through the chords without any backing track before you allow yourself to put that thing on an eternal loop.

2) Licks Are Good.

There is this myth out there that you shouldn’t learn any licks or lines that have already been played by someone else. Please forget that concept if you want to learn to improvise.

Jazz is an established language. And you cannot reinvent it from scratch anymore than you could reinvent English or French. Learn the existing language if you want to communicate in it.

Only those who achieve an extraordinary mastery get to influence how that language evolves over time.

3) Stop playing so many notes.

You don’t have to play so many notes all the time. When I was in college we listened to Coltrane and Michael Brecker and Kenny Garrett, and everybody we loved to listen to played a lot of notes (sometimes).

They also played really melodically and left space and sometimes they played very few notes. Playing tons of notes is hard and we can fall into the trap of devoting all our practice time into learning how to do this.

And if that’s what you want to do, that’s fine, but it’s okay to play fewer notes, and you should devote a healthy portion of your practice time to learning how to play melodically and leaving space.

4) Rhythm is More Important Than Note Choices.

I remember being so caught up in which notes to play over which chords that I didn’t give a ton of thought to the rhythms. And in reality, rhythm needs to come first on the list of priorities.

No notes sound good if they are out of time, but wrong notes can sound awesome if they are played with solid rhythm.

5) Learn From Recordings, Not the Real Book.

I look at those Real Books as a hinderance rather than a helpful tool. Anyone who is capable of reading a tune out of there and improvising with the chord changes in front of them is just as capable of learning that tune (melody and chords) from a recording using their ears.

The difference is that the person who uses their ear, will be learning the language and building repertoire, and the person who uses the Real Book will just be reading.

Don’t waste your time. This music requires us to use our ears. And the earlier you start that the better.

6) Copy What YOU Like.

In my college days, I was heavily influenced by my fellow students and what they were listening to and wanted to play. Don’t let that peer pressure determine how and what you play.

Yeah, you should learn the standard repertoire, but if you gravitate towards the way Louis Armstrong plays and want to sound more like that, do it. Just because everyone else is trying to play like Chris Potter doesn’t mean you have to as well.

7) Don’t Try to Impress Anyone Else.

If you can play something YOU love to hear, you will sound good. Aim to play things you love to hear.

When we get up on stage and it’s our turn to play, a big trap we all fall into is trying to impress others who are there. Maybe it’s the other band members, maybe other musicians in the room, maybe it’s just the people sitting in the audience.

Stop trying to impress anyone. Just try to play stuff that sounds good to you. It might be more melodic, have fewer patterns and notes in it. It might be simple and “unimpressive”. If it pleases you when you hear it, it will likely please your audience and everyone’s a winner.

8) The Process is More Important Than the Results.

This is one of those things that you can only truly understand after you’ve spend a significant amount of time in any process whether that is music or whatever. Still, if you’re starting out, trust the old folks who tell you this.

What it means is that ideally you want to focus your energy on doing the work, the practicing, the listening, the performing. Evaluate yourself on how consistently you show up, rather than the day to day results.

So ask yourself: Did I practice today? Did I learn something new? Did I challenge myself? Those are things we can control.

Don’t ask: Did I sound good today? Did I attain the level I am aiming for today? How long will it take before I’m good?

9) Don’t Be in A Rush.

The time goes by fast. You can get a lot better in 10 years if you are consistent.

I was always in a rush to improve. I always felt I wasn’t good enough and that I better get as many hours of practice in as fast as possible to catch up to where I “should” be.

Don’t be in a rush. There is no way to rush your way to being a good player. Putting that pressure on myself actually slowed my progress because of the anxiety that goes along with it.

Once I stopped judging myself harshly and comparing myself to others, I began progressing much faster and enjoyed the process so much more.

I’ve been at this for 30 years now. I wish I could go back and tell my 18 year old self starting out, “You have the rest of your life to work on this project.”

If you are consistent and practice a bit everyday, you will progress more than you ever thought possible. Take your time and enjoy the process. Whatever level you are at currently is exactly where you are supposed to be.

BetterSax Studio

Now if you’re still here, you’re clearly interested in gettin better at playing the saxophone, and improvising jazz. No matter where you are in the world, you can study with me on a regular basis in the BetterSax Studio. It’s a program where each month I give members a new tune to work on and learn, melody and chords and a bunch of exercises and etudes to practice.

Then our members can record themselves playing and share that to our private group and I leave personalized video feedback. Everyone in the group benefits from this process, and the results we have seen over the years are just fantastic. I put a link to the BetterSax Studio here if you want more info and to see if there is any space available.

BetterSax Level Up Weekend

On the 11th and 12th of May, 2024 I’m coming to Manchester, England for the BetterSax Level-Up Weekend where I’ll be hosting a clinic and teaching these concepts plus a lot more in depth.

As of the time of this video, we still have some spots available so if you are in the area and would like to work with me personally for an amazing weekend of saxophone fun, you can sign up here.

The BetterSax Level Up Weekend is made possible by AB Workshops and the Saxophone Orchestra of Manchester who are organizing the whole event. And we have sponsorship from some of the best brands in the saxophone world including: JodyJazz and Selmer Paris who need no introduction, JJ Babbitt the makers of the legendary Otto Link and Meyer mouthpieces, our friends at Marca who make the finest cane reeds from the south of France,  Odisei Music who make the incredible TravelSax 2, StudioBricks who make amazing sound isolating practice booths for your home, Groovy Rascal who is providing some of the arrangements we will be playing on the weekend, Sax.co.uk who are the UK dealer for all BetterSax products, and TomPlay who have one of the best music apps for learning songs and practicing them on all instruments.

I have made videos about products from just about all of these companies, so be sure to check those out on the BetterSax Blog.

Hope to see you in Manchester, or in the BetterSax Studio!