Unlike the other scientific article about music, this article is rather interesting…. In new findings, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders say they have located the region of the brain — the medial prefrontal cortex — that lights up when musicians [Continue]

yampol writes “As long as we’re talking about doubling on oboe, let’s talk about jazz oboe. The first player that comes to mind is the amazing multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator, band-leader Yusef Lateef. His Eastern Sounds and Three Faces albums made a very strong impression on me. Check out the track “I’m [Continue]

spf40 writes “Ive been playing alto sax for about 5 years (I’m 16) and have played in a small jazz band outside of school . I am looking to begin learning improv and would like to find a book or a resource that would be great for a beginner in jazz.” Best place to start [Continue]

olsonco writes “I learned to play saxophone in high school and have decided to take it up again as an adult approaching my late thirties. I have discovered that learning to improvise is a far different process than that used to teach high-school band students how to play. After relearning my major and melodic minor [Continue]

jazz-addicted writes “Hey, I’m 13 years old and I’ve been playing the alto for two years. I really like playing the alto and I really like jazz. Are scales so important?? My teacher wants me to learn them all but I just want to play songs, because playing scales is… boring. Could any of you [Continue]

The Art Of Improvisation by Bob Taylor is $23 well spent. It contains over 400 pages well thought out, insightful, and well explained improvisation concepts all accessible via PDF on the CD-ROM. The PDFs include hyperlinks to musical examples, so you can hear things right away, and not have to cue up a track on [Continue]

elopi writes “Hi. I’ve found a course on Jazz Improvvisation (“The Art of Improvvisation”) written by Bob Taylor. The course can be reached here http://www.jamwest.org/artofimprov.htm The course (divided in 5+ volumes!!!) is free downloadable and in my humble opinion is very, very good. Thanks to Bob Taylor for kindly [Continue]

zibalatz writes “How often do you practice (if at all) and what do you work on? Do you consciously spend time working on sound, technical exercise, improvisation, composition, ear-training, etc? I have been tossing up some ideas for working a practice schedule around work- getting some input as to what people are actually doing might [Continue]

bluesupanddown writes “Has anyone found an efficient way to practice/ingrain/incorporate patterns?” Indeed. A lot of the patterns I’ve done on this site can be used with Aebersold playalongs. Or, if you have band in a box, you can make your own backgrounds. Either way, you have to get them under your fingers, and in your [Continue]

bluesupanddown writes “The whole approach to learning jazz in America seems to be under a shroud of mystery. Every answer I get seems to be a riddle instead of an answer, so, I am going to start posting my questions. Right now I am stuck on bebop. The only people that I know to listen [Continue]

BIABfsg writes Jerry Bergonzi Solos Setting Standards by Miles Osland, Publisher: Dorn Publications, Inc. Jerry wrote down his thoughts regarding transcriptions book that “Even to an accomplished musician the transcription is lifeless unless he hears the artist articulate it and listens to his time feel….” I assume that [Continue]

BIABfsg writes “Essential Jazz Lines in the style of John Coltrane by Corey Christiansen & Kim Bock (Book (P.55) + Audio (29 tracks)), Price: $17.95 Bb Instruments Edition is reviewed. MB99872BCD This is one of the must-not-have books published by Mel Bay. Since I had spent some bucks for those books published by Mel Bay, [Continue]

adrian writes “I recently saw Pharoah Sanders play and was completely blown away by the power and intensity and sheer energy of his performance. For me, he is the only player carrying forward the spirit of Coltrane. Its almost like hearing Coltrane when you hear Pharoah play live. I’ve been searching the web for info [Continue]

BIABfsg writes: “I think everybody here has studied Bob Mintzer’s 14 Jazz & Funk Etudes or 14 Blues & Funk Etudes. Great books! (I have not yet gotten Bob Minzter’s 15 Easy Jazz, Blues & Funk. though) Anyhow, last year, Warner Bros. Publications published a great book by Miles Osland regarding Bob Mintzer’s [Continue]

I have had Triad Pairs For Jazz – Practice and Application for the Jazz Improvisor by Gary Campbell for a while. It is a well thought out book that will lead the budding or experienced improvisor down new roads. However, for $21.95, you would be better off getting Walt Wieskopf’s Intervalic Improvisation – The Modern [Continue]