Is Learning Jazz Making You Feel Like Your Brain Is About to Explode?

I've had many students over the years who complained of being overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of learning to play jazz. There is so much to learn and it can be difficult to know where to start. There's instrumental technique, theory, the fundamentals, improvising, ear training, composing, playing with a band, intonation, arranging, reading, execution, musicality, a myriad different styles, learning tunes, and on and on. You can't possibly work on all of these areas at once. Trying to wrap your head around all of this can literally make you feel like your brain is about to explode.

Trying to comprehend every step of a huge process, like learning to play jazz is futile. This approach will only serve to stress you out, keep you unfocused and halt your musical development. A much better approach is to limit your studies to a few areas at a time. If you're relatively new to jazz you may start with instrumental technique and the fundamentals. If you're a seasoned pro, you may focus on improvisation or composition. It all depends on your present abilities and priorities.

But even these smaller categories can be overwhelming. Suppose you want to get your fundamentals together. If you are thinking about learning all the major & minor scales, arpeggios, the modes, altered scales, mastering intervals, scale patterns etc, at the same time think again. This unfocused approach will slow you down, no matter how important you may think learning the fundamentals is (And it is).

I once tried to write down every aspect of music I wanted to explore. I made a giant mind-map and had to stop, not because I ran out of ideas to practice and study, but because I ran out of space on the paper! The more you learn about jazz the more aware you will become of just how vast it is and how many possible avenues there are to explore. When I stepped back and looked at this mind map, I almost fell over. It was like 30 years worth of practice and study.

This was a great exercise. It certainly helped me develop my long term vision for my music, but there's no way I could possibly set achieving this ‘thing' as a goal. It was huge. I had to take from it the most important couple of ideas and go with them. If I tried to wrap my head around all of that my brain most certainly would have exploded!

(Mind-maps are a powerful tool to brainstorm and organize your efforts in a very visual way. I won't explain how they work here for lack of space, but Google ‘mind map' and you will find tons of information about them.)

Here are a few examples of potentially overwhelming, unbelievable goals:

1. Memorizing every tune in the real book.
2. Transcribing every Charlie Parker solo ever recorded
3. Learning every major scale, minor scale, bebop scale, arpeggio, inversion and mode in all 12 keys.
4. Memorizing every Bach invention
5. Mastering every permutation of a pentatonic scale in all 12 keys. (If my math is correct that's 1,140 permutations)
6. Learning every tune from the second classic Miles Davis Quintet catalog

Now, your goals are going to vary depending on your present abilities and what goals you've already achieved. If you've already memorized Real Book Volume 1, it's not that big of stretch to see yourself memorizing Volume 2. But if you only know 1 tune by memory you will probably not be able to see yourself achieving this goal. If you don't truly believe you can achieve a particular goal you won't achieve it.

"What ever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve" - Napoleon Hill

So start with a goal you believe in. Make it your goal to learn one tune. Then, learning a second won't seem so tough. Once you know two tunes it will be reasonable to believe you can learn five. And so on.

Now don't misunderstand me. Big goals and vision are important. So, while in the back of your mind you know you want to become a great jazz musician, master the fundamentals and so forth, keep your immediate goals challenging but doable. As you achieve your smaller goals you can set bigger and loftier ones. Each time you achieve a goal you will build your confidence and accomplish more and more. And then one day you'll reflect and think ‘wow, I really have accomplished a lot.

Chris Punis is an active jazz musician in the northeast. He is founding member of the critically acclaimed group Gypsy Schaeffer and a member of renowned saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase's group The Explorer's Club. Chris is also an accomplished jazz educator and author of "The Monster Jazz Formula". For more information about his teaching methods and to receive your free lessons, "21 Great Ways To Become a Monster Jazz Musician", visit www.learnjazzfaster.com