Improvisation and ear training

Clark Terry

Jazz legend Clark Terrys’s tips for learning to improvise:

1. Imitate - listen, learn by ear, trascribe, absorb touch and time of a player
2. Assimilate - completely internalise concepts
3. Innovate - create fresh and personal approach

Interestingly the article quotes Dalí:

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.~Salvador Dalì

However the only Catalan version of this quote I manage to find is:

Les persones que desitgen imitar-ho tot no acaben produint res de res.

Which means the complete opposite…

Clark Terry’s 3 Steps to Learning Improvisation • Jazzadvice

I was doing all right

A series on the blog from an aspiring jazz trumpetist about learning to improvise and other topics

• Learning to improvise - introduction
• Ear training with recordings
• Ear training with recordings, part 2
• Online Ear Training with Intervals, Melodies, Jazz Chord Progressions