While I was there, I was suddenly surrounded with more jazz music than ever before. At first, I had no desire to associate myself in any way with that kind of music. I remember hearing John Scofield play for the first time a couple of years before I went to Berklee. I thought he was just awful....I thought he sounded like he was playing out of tune, and that his technique wasn’t very good cuz’ he didn’t tap or use a whammy bar....lol. What I discovered was, these “jazz players” had an intimate relationship with melody and harmony that I just didn’t have.
As I listened more and learned more, I decided to study as much as I could with jazz instructors. I read books, learned standards, did tons of listening, played in small jazz combo ensembles, and basically tried to be a sponge with all my teachers and take in as much of their knowledge as I could. I would never be short on questions to ask my teachers, and they never belittled me or withheld their knowledge. They were all very unselfish people and were always happy to share their knowledge with their students. This has certainly influenced me as a teacher.
My goal at the time was not to learn to become a bebop player per se, but rather add on to what I was already doing as a rock improviser. Sooner or later you grow tired with playing the same licks over and over again, and I thought this would be the best way to progress.
My goal with this section is not to talk about mechanics of improvisation. There’s literally a sea of resources out there via private instructors, schools, books, play along CDs and videos that cover a lot of the mechanics of improvising. My goal here is simply to offer some words of encouragement to students who are going through the same frustrations that I did (and still do) as a player.
