[Dixielandjazz] A Possible Way to get better as a musician

[Steve Schwartz]

Here is something which might prove to be useful for some players out there.

It has been said that writing down your goals can help you achieve them.

When you write out songs and even improvisational phrases or harmonies to melodies, this can help in some ways.

What I mean is this:

Take a jazz tune which is in common usage and write out the melody and chords on a lead sheet, making sure that you use the correct changes.

Write it out as it is commonly played nowadays, noting that there may be differences between
the original sheet music and the way it is done as a jazz tune. (Moonglow is a perfect example of this). Some phrases are changed slightly using anticipation or retardation of notes in phrases and you can write this out which nails it down in your head.

I use Printmusic from Finale which is the poor man's version of Finale but has many of its great features.

It has the capability of swing playback (not perfect) and you can hear the tune as you have written it out.

You will be able to hear the correct version of the melody and note any mistakes or make corrections as you go along.

This can be used for transcriptions and you can improve your reading as well as confidence by doing this.

Dick Hyman's 2 books have great changes if you need to be sure of chords; of course you can use
other sources but usually the original sheet music
doesn't work that well as many tunes have changed with usage.

You can also write out improvisational passages after you play them (if you can remember them) or listen to cds and transcribe solos or background passages.

This is a way to get better and you can do it by yourself.

You can prepare for playing and have more stuff in your arsenal by learning ahead of time.

I don't have a kid but am planning to go fishing anyway....

Steve Schwartz