What I’m Thinking About When I Improvise

Welcome to episode 292 where today we listen to a recording of me improvising over a popular jazz standard and try to understand what I'm thinking as I improvise.

Improvisation can be a mysterious thing, and it can feel difficult to connect the dots between the scales, licks, and patterns you are practicing to actually improvising great solos. This episode will give some insight into how pro and advanced jazz musicians think.

Now the art of improvising and playing great jazz solos tends to be a mysterious thing for those on the outside looking in. Like what are the advanced and pro-level jazz musicians thinking about when they improvise? How are they able to spontaneously create things? Are they thinking about scales? Are they thinking about chord tones? Are they thinking about licks that they've learned? Are they thinking about a particular emotion when they are playing? What is creating this ability to create spontaneously and great improvisations?

Well, in today's episode, I'm going to actually uncover that in myself to see if we can get inside of what I'm actually thinking when I'm improvising so that hopefully, you can take that information and that knowledge and apply it to your solos so that you do create great improvisations.

In this episode:
1. Improvisation is connecting the subconscious to the conscious
2. Great improvisers have often played what they are improvising before
3. It's important to practice things we want to play so that we develop our own "isms" that feel natural to us

Important Links:
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Free Guide to learn standards by ear: Learn Jazz Standards the Smart Way

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