Learn to Play Jazz By Using the Power of Recording

As an aspiring monster jazz musician, you've spent countless hours in the shed, working on various topics over the years. How do you measure your progress? How do you know when you've mastered your current topic and are ready to move on to the next? These can be tough questions. A new musical concept or instrumental technique requires all of your attention as you're practicing it. It's hard to step back and hear yourself at the same time. You can't work on something new and evaluate yourself simultaneously—at least not effectively.
That's where modern technology comes in. Today it's easier than ever to record yourself and then listen back critically. Whether you use a digital recorder, a mini-disc, or an old-fashioned tape recorder, it doesn't really matter. Recording yourself allows you to focus all of your attention on your practicing. Later, you can listen to the recording and figure out what's working, and what's not. So all of your focus and energy gets directed properly—towards practice when you're practicing, and towards critique when you're listening. It's one of the most effective and efficient ways to become a monster jazz musician. A combination of practice and evaluation based on your recordings is probably twice as powerful as just practice alone.
You'll be amazed at what you hear. Sure, you can figure out how you're progressing with your current practice plan, but you'll also notice details about your playing that you've never heard before. Maybe your swing feel isn't as strong as you thought it was. Maybe you have a tendency to lose focus near the end of your solos. Or maybe your tone is actually closer to your ideal than you realized, and now you want to experiment with it a bit. So don't just record yourself practicing a specific topic; record yourself improvising and just playing tunes as well. You'll discover all kinds of things about your musicianship. You'll also start to become an expert on your own playing, which is one of the key steps on the path to monsterdom. "Know thyself," as the ancient philosophers said.
Another great benefit of recording yourself is that it gives you a clear way to compare your playing with that of the masters. Say you're a pianist really digging deep into Monk, and trying to figure out what makes his music so great. Record yourself playing the head to "Straight No Chaser," listen to it a few times, and then compare it with one of Monk's recordings of the same tune. Maybe you're playing the same notes in the same rhythm, but there is probably a world of difference between the two recordings. Why is that? What does Monk do that you don't? What doesn't he do that you do? This kind of study is also one of the most powerful ways to improve your playing. If you want to be a master, you have to learn from the masters, and a direct comparison like this is one of the best ways to learn.
Like anything else, the more you listen back to your recordings and critique your playing, the better you'll become at this skill. You'll hear more and more details in your music, and you'll become a keen judge about what's solid and what needs more work. You'll also notice that you're becoming a better critical listener even as you're playing. Your ears just become sharper, even if most of your attention is focused somewhere else. Then your practicing becomes even more effective, because you can hear yourself on a deeper level and make the appropriate adjustments.
Action Step: Record yourself playing a specific exercise you're currently working on, or a melody you know pretty well, or an improvised passage. Just a few minutes should be enough. If you record more than that, then you might be less motivated to take the time to listen back afterwards—which defeats the whole purpose. It's also a pain to be fast-forwarding and rewinding through long recordings just to find the important parts. How do you sound? Are the topics you're working on showing up in your playing? Are you making progress toward your goals? Are you surprised by anything? Does your recording suggest you should change your practice plan in any way, perhaps to focus on other, more important topics? Are there aspects of your playing that are better than you thought?
Make this a regular part of your practice routine. Record your gigs as well, and see if your playing changes noticeably in a performance situation. The time you invest in listening to yourself critically will pay back huge dividends.

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