How to Develop a Jazz Solo (First Steps) - a podcast by Brent Vaartstra: Jazz Musician, Author, and Entrepreneur

Welcome to episode 256 where today I walk you through some different steps for beginning to develop a great jazz solo. A common mistake I hear is beginning a jazz solos with lots of notes and a myriad of ideas, rather than using call and response and a thematic building ideas. I show you actionable steps you can take to start bringing your solos to life.



Listen to episode 256Okay, what was wrong with that solo?



There is something horribly wrong with that solo and what was wrong with it was, right as soon as it was my turn to solo, I came out of the gate just playing as many notes as possible, just trying to fill up as much space as possible. And guess what, it probably sounded boring. It probably didn't spell the chord changes as well as I could have. It just didn't sound that musical. It was just a lot of notes regardless of whether they are the right notes or not. 



So, the big question is, how do we develop really awesome jazz solos?Well, that's exactly what we're going to do today. We're not going to do what I just did. We are going to make really awesome jazz solos that sound great. 



In this episode:1. Start with simple rhythms using only one note per chord



2. Slowly add more rhythmic complexity and additional notes to your idea3. Create rhythmic and melodic phrases and practice"carbon copying"them over different chords as an exercise



4. Use direction of your lines to help manipulate your motific ideas 5. Manipulate your rhythms to create more spaceImportant Links



1. Learn Jazz Live 2021 Virtual Summit2. LJS Inner Circle Membership

Further episodes of Learn Jazz Standards Podcast

Further podcasts by Brent Vaartstra: Jazz Musician, Author, and Entrepreneur

Website of Brent Vaartstra: Jazz Musician, Author, and Entrepreneur