Last week, my grandfather passed away at the age of ninety-two. An orphan, my grandfather traveled from Puerto Rico to the United States when he was only fourteen years old. Once in the United States, he joined other immigrants in government work projects that had him enduring the harsh winters of Montana and Idaho. A few years later, he enlisted in the armed services and fought honorably in World War II, where he was wounded in battle. Although his injury caused him to walk with a limp, he still managed to spend the next thirty-seven years delivering mail for the US Postal Service in Manhattan. And after that, when most people would have happily retired, he got a job as a courier on Wall Street, where he worked until he was eighty years old. In fact, he probably would have held that job even longer but his family begged his employer to force him into retirement!

I grew up in Florida, and since my grandfather lived in Bronx, NY, I only saw him a few times during my childhood. And sadly, it wasn't until the past ten years or so that I really began to learn about his life. I can honestly say, though, that with each visit I'd return home more humbled by his accomplishments. While it's sad to see him go, he certainly led a long full life, and I couldn't be more proud to have him as my grandfather.

WOODLAWN CEMETERY

I spent the night before my grandfather's funeral at his apartment in Bronx, NY (photo of his apartment building is shown below). My aunt and my grandfather's wife of sixty-two years were also there (my father was the product of my grandfather's brief first marriage). While discussing the funeral arrangements, my aunt asked if I knew anything about Woodlawn Cemetery, the location of my grandfather's burial. I didn't know anything about the cemetery at that point so my aunt said, "Oh, you'll really like it. There are a lot of famous jazz musicians buried there."

Before I continue, let me set the stage. My aunt is a truly wonderful person who has dedicated her life to her family and to her church, where she serves as a minister. I think the world of her, but I also know that she and the rest of my family don't exactly have a lot of expertise when it comes jazz. So, I simply nodded and gave little thought to her description of Woodlawn Cemetery as a major jazz destination. That is, until she said, "Miles Davis is buried just down the hill from your grandfather's plot." I couldn't believe it. Miles Davis, the person most responsible for my love of jazz, is buried in the same cemetery as my grandfather?!

I immediately went online and learned that Woodlawn Cemetery is the burial site of many of New York's famous entertainers, politicians, and business people. For example, Woodlawn is the final resting site for Fierello La Guardia, Rowland Macy, Franklin Woolworth, James Cash Penney, Augustus Juilliard, Herman Melville, Joseph Pulitzer, Celia Cruz, and Irving Berlin. And in the list of jazz musicians we have Miles Davis, Max Roach, Joseph "King" Oliver, Jean Baptiste "Illinois" Jacquet, Charles "Cootie" Williams, W.C. Handy, Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Jackson, Jackie McLean, and Duke Ellington... just to name a few!

THE FUNERAL AND BURIAL SITE

My grandfather had requested a simple military funeral, which took place in a small chapel at Woodlawn Cemetery. The ceremony ended with the playing of "Taps" (by an actual trumpeter, not a recording) and the folding of an American flag. This was the first funeral I've ever attended, and while I'm sure they are all emotional, the presentation of the flag to my grandfather's wife, and the brief but powerful dedication spoken by the serviceman, was perhaps the most moving event I've ever experienced.

After the ceremony, we drove from the chapel to the burial site, which was located about a mile away. As we twisted through the narrow cemetery roads, I looked around hoping to see Miles Davis' tombstone or that of any of the other legendary jazz musicians. We passed by La Guardia's tombstone and the large Juilliard mausoleum, but I didn't see any jazz musicians. Oh well. Obviously I wasn't here to sight see. I was here for my grandfather, and I figured I'd just have to wait until my next visit to see some of the jazz musicians.

When we finally reached my grandfather's burial site, I stepped out of the car and stood with the rest of the family as we waited for everyone to arrive. I looked at the casket, perched above the freshly dug grave, and then slowly turned my head to towards the neighboring tombstones. And that's when I saw a thick slab of black granite with light gray letters that read "MAX ROACH." Max Roach, one of the most important and influential jazz drummers of all time, a man who has played and recorded with virtually every legendary jazz musician including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and EVERYONE ELSE, was buried directly to the right of my grandfather's casket.

After the final prayers were read, I looked around a bit more and noticed what had to be the back of Miles Davis' tombstone, which I recognized from a photo I saw online the previous night. I walked down to the large tombstone and was pleasantly surprised to pass the grave of legendary jazz saxophonist, Illinois Jacquet, on my way down. The following photo shows Miles Davis on the left, Illinois Jacquet on the right, and my grandfather's burial site just up the street.

After taking a picture of Miles Davis' tombstone, I looked around again and saw two crosses inscribed with the word "ELLINGTON" about twenty feet away. Sure enough, I had stumbled upon the burial site of one of the greatest American musicians and composers of all time... Duke Ellington.

REMEMBERING MY GRANDFATHER

I know it's pure coincidence that my grandfather is buried next to so many of my jazz heroes, but I can't help but feel like it's somehow his final gift to me. Each time I visit his grave site, I'll also be visiting the grave sites of so many others who have impacted my life, making me the person I am today. It's something I'll always treasure.

I thought I'd end with a funny story that my aunt told me about my grandfather. I should first mention that while my grandfather was a kind and generous man, he also had a unique ability to find fault in just about any situation. He's the kind of guy who would complain that the music is too loud at his own party. Anyway, this character trait revealed itself in its full glory a few years ago, when my Aunt first told him about the cemetery plots that she had purchased at Woodlawn. She thought her father would be pleased to hear about his distinguished final resting place, but naturally he felt differently. Without further ado, here's their exchange (note that at the time of this story, my aunt thought Tito Puente was buried at Woodlawn, but he's actually buried someplace else):

My aunt, speaking to my grandfather: "Dad, this is a very famous cemetery that you'll be buried in. Macy, Woolworth, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, and Miles Davis are all buried there!"

My grandfather: "So what. Macy's is too expensive, Woolworth's is cheap, Tito Puente was a womanizer, Celia Cruz was too loud, and I hate jazz."

Sorry to tell you grandfather, but if you thought Celia Cruz was too loud, just wait until you hear Max Roach...

Ear training has been a regular part of my practice routine since the beginning of 2004, when I created the first version of my free online ear training tool. Back then, I couldn't play anything accurately by ear. Every attempt to play by ear felt like trial and error as I went from one bad note to another, hoping to eventually land on the right pitch.

Over the years, my ear training tool has helped me to gradually improve my skills, literally one note at a time. I began playing two notes (intervals) by ear. Once I was fairly accurate with two notes, I added a third note, and so on. Eventually, I reached a point where I could play random melodies that were six and seven notes long. I couldn't play these longer melodies accurately 100% of the time, but I was able to play them accurately most of the time.

Having become decent at six- and seven-note random melodies, I began focusing on even longer sequences that were based on jazz licks and simple songs. I also practiced with faster tempos, thus minimizing the amount of time I could spend thinking about each note. I even added random chord progressions to my online ear training tool, so I could work on all of these ear skills while navigating through chord changes. Basically, I was gradually modifying my ear training studies to come as close as possible to the conditions I'd face in a real improvised jazz solo.

Now that I'm able to play longer melodies and navigate through basic chord changes by ear, I've begun a new phase of ear training. Unlike my previous efforts, this new phase didn't require me to add any new features to my ear training tools. In fact, this new phase doesn't even use my ear training tools. And while this new phase might be new to me, it isn't new at all. It's actually the same form of ear training that pretty much every great musician has used to develop his or her ears since the dawn of recorded music. In this new phase of ear training, I'm finally listening to actual jazz recordings as I try to play back what I hear entirely by ear.

In all honesty, the notion of playing along to recordings isn't truly new to practice routine. I've tried many times over the years to mimic what I hear in jazz recordings. But, until recently, my ability to play by ear wasn't strong enough for me to get very far. At best, I'd pick out a few notes before becoming frustrated and giving up. Now, however, I'm actually able to play entire heads and sections of (slow) solos!

MY ATTEMPT AT EAR TRAINING WITH A JAZZ RECORDING

iwasdoingallright - audio clip Here's a recording of me playing along with "Moonlight Becomes You" from the album "Curtis Fuller with Red Garland." That's Sonny Red Kyner on saxophone.

This recording begins with me listening to the saxophone and playing back what I hear by ear. About half way through the clip, I start to improvise along with the saxophone, as I play over the unfamiliar chords. I don't normally jump so quickly from emulation to improvising when practicing ear training with recordings, but I did so in this clip for demonstration purposes.

This clip captures my first time ever listening to and trying to play along with this Red Garland recording. It probably would have been a good idea to listen to it a couple of times before trying to play along, but I wanted to record the results of hearing something for the first time while trying to play by ear. This gives me a benchmark from which to compare myself in the years to come. It's admittedly not the best recording I've shared (it might be the worst!), but I think you'll agree that I'm at least somewhat successful at playing back the melody by ear and blending in with the chord progression. And I did it all by ear.

BENEFITS OF EAR TRAINING WITH RECORDINGS

• Learn rhythm and phrasing from the masters - My ear training tool already has over 100 jazz licks that I can use for call and response exercises, but let's face it: they sound stiff and lifeless compared to an actual jazz musician. Ear training with recordings allows you to emulate the pitches, rhythm, and phrasing of your favorite jazz musicians. It's like real-time jazz transcription!
• You can practice ear training and improvisation simultaneously - Your ear training doesn't have to be limited to repeating what you hear in the recording. You can also mix in improvisation. For example, you might start with a chorus or two of playing back what you hear in the recording. After that, you could play counter melodies that complement, rather than copy, what you hear in the recordings. And after that, you could go off on your own, improvising over the chords as you challenge your ears to play over the unfamiliar chord changes.
• You can learn new tunes while you train your ear - When I was in college, anytime I wanted to learn a new tune, I'd open the Real Book and commit the tune to memory. Often, I'd memorize new tunes without even hearing the original recording; or any recording, for that matter. And look where that got me - not very far! It would have been much better if I had learned those new tunes directly from the recordings. In doing so, I would have challenged my ear to play what I heard and I would have learned how the tunes were intended to be played.
• You'll never run out of material - A challenge of ear training is keeping things fresh so you're playing by ear rather than playing by memorization. That's the key advantage that software ear trainers have over ear training CDs. The ear training CDs will always play the same exercises over and over and eventually you'll start to learn the sequences by memory. With a good collection of jazz recordings, you'll never run out of new source material to challenge your ears. You could use a free service like Pandora as your source for jazz recordings, or you could use a subscription-based service like Rhapsody. I've been a happy Rhapsody customer for many years and highly recommend it.

ADDITIONAL READING

• Ear training with recordings, part 2 - A sequel to this article, part 2 contains additional ear training exercises
• Learning to improvise: ear training - Learn more about the importance of ear training for jazz improvisation
• Shredding (and playing) by ear - Guitar players strengthen their ears while learning "Stairway..."

This page contains my jazz improvisation recordings from 2010. As you'll hear below, these jazz recordings feature such highlights as cracked notes, poor note choice, unsteady rhythm, and meandering phrases! And that's why recording myself is so important. It's the best way to evaluate my playing and to chart my progress over time. I don't expect that I'll ever become a great jazz trumpet player, but I am anxious to hear how much better I can get with practice. As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions.

All of my jazz improvisation recordings: 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2022

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

iwasdoingallright - audio clip Aebersold #94, Chi Chi

After six years of sharing my jazz improvisation clips, I thought it was about time that I post a Charlie Parker tune. Until this past week, I never even tried to play "Chi Chi." I guess that's one of the (many!) downsides of being dependent upon the Real Book back when I was in college. If a tune wasn't in Real Book Vol 1, I didn't try to play it. It's too bad "Chi Chi" didn't make the cut for Vol 1, though, because it's a great tune with fun changes. But I think we can all agree it's not nearly as important to the jazz continuum as "Good Evening Mr & Mrs America and All the Ships at Sea," which you will find in Real Book Vol 1. If I had a dollar for every time somebody calls that at a jam session...

Anyway, I've been practicing "Chi Chi" for 10 minutes or so every day during the past week. I started out trying to play a bunch of notes, but as time went on, I found myself leaving more and more space for the chords. You'll hear some of that space in the first chorus of my recording.

JULY 19, 2010

iwasdoingallright - audio clip Aebersold #106, Zambia

Tonight I tried to record some tracks for an upcoming ear training article, but I wasn't playing very well. Instead of putting my trumpet away for the evening, I thought it might be fun to record another attempt at Lee Morgan's "Zambia." My first attempt at this track was back in 2004 (iwasdoingallright - audio clip here's that 2004 recording). I've played this tune a few times over the years, but I've never really worked on it... which I guess is kind of obvious based on my lack of improvement! I'd probably be discouraged by the lack of progress, but that 2004 recording was one of my favorites at the time so perhaps I'm comparing one of my best nights from 2004 to a so-so night in 2010. If that's the case, then I guess I'm doing all right.

I do think it's interesting, though, that both solos start out strong and then fizzle when I get half-way through. If I ever do decide to practice this tune, I know where to focus.

MAY 1, 2010

iwasdoingallright - audio clip Aebersold #8, Airegin

Airegin is another one of those tunes that I've always had trouble with. It's a little too fast for me and the changes always throw me off. Having avoided the tune for years, I thought it was finally time to overcome my Airegin aversion. So, a couple of weeks ago I started working on it every day, much like I did last year with Cherokee and like I did below with Moment's Notice. And what do you know... I actually improved! I'm not saying this track is great (I totally missed the high notes toward the end), but I think it's pretty good when you consider that I couldn't even make it through an entire solo a couple of weeks ago.

iwasdoingallright - audio clip Airegin. This time with more trumpet!

Since I haven't posted many recordings this year, I'm including a bonus clip. It's actually more of a blooper. During today's first jazz improvisation recording attempt, the cord to the backing track accidentally came unplugged. I could still hear the backing track, but it wasn't making its way into the my computer for recording. You can faintly hear the backing track that got picked up by my trumpet microphone, but for the most part all you'll hear is me. Consider it my tribute to Mr. David Lee Roth.

FEBRUARY 28, 2010

iwasdoingallright - audio clip Aebersold #38, Moment's Notice

Much like last year, most of my February has been spent working on some new projects at work. Since I haven't had much time to practice the trumpet, I've focused my jazz improvisation studies on just a couple of tunes. One of the tunes, "Moment's Notice," has been a favorite of mine for many years, but I never could manage to play a decent solo. Either the fast tempo or the challenging chord changes would get the best of me and I'd resign myself to the fact that I'm just not good enough. It doesn't help that I've heard Lee Morgan's blistering solo on the "Blue Trane" album so many times that I can't help but compare my playing to his. And let's just say, I haven't sounded very good by comparison.

This recording from tonight isn't anything special, but it's a lot better than my attempts from a year or two ago. I especially like the part around 20 seconds in (right after the second A section starts). I mess up the rhythm a little but then recover such that the mistake almost sounds intentional. A year ago, that mistake would have derailed my entire solo.

If you're familiar with Lee Morgan's solo, hopefully you'll recognize the lick I borrowed (it's near the end of my first chorus).

About six months ago, I released my first iPhone application, a free ear training application called Play By Ear. Like my free online ear trainer, Play By Ear allows you to listen to intervals, chords, and random melodies as you attempt to play them back by ear. And while it lacks several of the features of my online ear trainer, Play By Ear does have one significant difference: it uses pitch detection to tell whether or not you played the correct note back on your instrument.

As I was creating Play By Ear, I thought pitch detection was a compelling feature that truly set the ear trainer apart from other AppStore ear training tools. But frankly, I wasn't sure anyone would care. After all, there were already a few iPhone ear trainers and none of them seemed to have a lot of reviews. Some didn't even have any.

In this blog entry, I'll share the AppStore totals for my iPhone application, I'll answer some frequently asked questions, and I'll also give you a preview of what's coming next.

THE APPSTORE TOTALS

Since it was released six months ago, Play By Ear has been installed a total of 5,041 times. In addition to that, the various updates have also been installed a total of 3,669 times.

Let's take a closer look at those numbers. The application is free, but had I charged for the application, I would have made 5,041 x SomePrice x 70%. The 70% is how much Apple pays developers. Apple keeps the rest. So, using real numbers, if I had charged $1.99, I would have made $7,022.13 over the past six months. Not bad, I guess, but it's pretty safe to assume that I wouldn't have sold 5,041 units if people actually had to pay for the application. You could use common sense to arrive at that conclusion, or you could just look at the 3,669 total updates statistic. At least 1,372 of the original users deleted the application and/or decided it wasn't worth updating. With such an obvious lack of interest, they probably wouldn't have paid for the application in the first place. Never mind the fact that the update total spans three versions. In actuality, there might be as few as 1,200 people who have continued to use the application.

Another interesting statistic is the overall rating for the application. Currently, there have been 63 ratings across all three versions of Play By Ear. The average rating is three stars, which I guess isn't too bad considering how common it is for people to use an application and instantly decide "this sucks!" Or maybe that's just common to me because I work with so many hypercritical tech people. To them, everything sucks unless A) they made it, or B) it's World Of Warcraft. Anyway, I think that probably explains why I have so many one-star reviews.

While I can live with all those one-star reviews, I do wish I knew more about those negative reviews. For example, the application is apparently crashing for some people. With each consecutive version, I've tried to improve the stability (it crashed a lot at first). I've never even seen it crash on my new iPhone 4.0. But apparently it's crashing for at least one person based on their AppStore review. Lots of iPhone apps crash, including Apple's own Mail application, so I don't expect my application to be flawless. But if there are problems, I'd like to reproduce and fix them. The only way that will happen is if people contact me and let me know exactly when and how things go wrong. To date, only one person has ever written me an email to say the application is crashing. That was soon after the initial release, and I'm pleased to say that I did fix that specific problem.

If you've used and enjoyed Play By Ear, please take a moment to rate and/or review the application. Positive ratings are greatly appreciated ;-)

PROMOTION, OR LACK THEREOF

I had intended to do at least some external promotion for my iPhone ear training application, but somehow I never found the time. To date, the only promotion I have done for the application is the original announcement and the redesign of this site, which now features all of my ear training applications more prominently on the right-hand side. I was, however, fortunate to have Dave Douglas mention my iPhone ear training application in his blog. I didn't even tell him about it, so it's especially cool that he found it and thought it was blog-worthy on his own. But even with Dave Douglas' help, I know my iPhone application's distribution numbers have suffered due to my lack of external promotion. Perhaps had I actually done any such promotion, I could have doubled or tripled the installation and update numbers.

WHY DIDN'T I CHARGE FOR THE IPHONE APPLICATION?

When I first released Play By Ear, a surprising number of people asked me why I didn't charge any money for the application. As I've written previously, I believe that the importance of ear training is often ignored or marginalized in music education. My free ear training tools are an attempt to expose more people to ear training in a way that makes it easy for them to get started. So that's the main reason I released my iPhone application free of charge. Just to get it out there.

There's another reason for not charging, though, which isn't quite so altruistic. Having no real knowledge about the market for iPhone ear training applications, I wanted to use my first application to get some benchmarks. By offering it for free, I can see exactly how many people are even remotely interested in an iPhone ear training application. That gives me a basis from which to decide how much time I want to spend on new features and new iPhone ear training applications.

WHAT FEATURES ARE COMING NEXT?

As of now, I probably won't add too many new features to Play By Ear. One feature that I will definitely add, though, is microphone calibration. Once completed, the microphone calibration feature will allow you to customize how sensitively the application should listen when determining your pitch. By accurately matching that value to your playing conditions (e.g. room noise, instrument volume, distance from microphone, etc) the pitch detection should be noticeably more accurate.

WILL I BUILD ANOTHER IPHONE APPLICATION?

Yes. Time permitting, I will definitely build another iPhone application and once again it will focus on ear training. This time around, though, it will probably be geared toward sight singing. Rather than playing the notes for you to mimic on your instrument, the sight singing application will show you notes on the staff and you'll have to sing them back at the correct pitch. I'll probably charge for this application, but it won't be a lot of money. More than anything, I'm just curious to see how many people will actually pay for an iPhone ear training application. That, coupled with my free Play By Ear statistics, should give me a good representation of the overall iPhone ear training application market. However small it happens to be!

WILL I BUILD AN ANDROID EAR TRAINING APPLICATION?

Several people have requested an Android version of my ear training application. It would probably be easier for me to build an Android application since I can use familiar tools like Eclipse and Java. The only hitch is that I don't actually own an Android phone! I might buy one just for development purposes, but I think I'll wait to see how my next fee-based iPhone application does first. It's bad enough that I already have to test my existing iPhone ear trainer on 4 devices all the time (iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS w/ iOS4, iPhone 4G, iPad). I don't want to introduce another device until I know that a decent number of people will actually use it.

Over the past few months I've been working on an ear training application for the iPhone. I finally finished the application last week and I'm pleased to report that it's now available for download from the iTunes App Store!

My iPhone ear training application is called "Play By Ear" and like my other ear training applications, it's free! If you've got an iPhone I hope you'll give it a try and let me know what you think. This is my first iPhone application and I think it's pretty cool. Hopefully you'll agree.

MORE INFORMATION

You'll find a list of the basic features and some tips at my iPhone ear training application's homepage. It's similar to my Java ear training applet, but there are some significant differences. For starters, the iPhone ear training application is a much simpler application. It doesn't have the rhythm section feature, nor does it have stuff like the jazz licks and song-based melodies. The iPhone ear trainer does have one nice feature, though, that my Java ear trainer doesn't: pitch recognition.

Unlike my Java ear trainer, my iPhone ear training application uses pitch detection to listen to the notes you play. It then displays the correct notes as you play them, coloring them red or green depending upon your accuracy. I spent a lot of time tuning the pitch recognition to work with a variety of instruments (trumpet, piano, voice, guitar) and I'm sure I could spend even more time, but in my experience it works pretty well for pitches within an octave or two of a piano's middle C. I tested on both an iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, but I don't really know if it works on an iPod Touch since it requires a headset to use the microphone. At least that's what I've read.

That's all for now. I just wanted to get out a quick message about my new iPhone ear trainer so you can start using it. Please let me know how it goes!

ADDITIONAL READING

• Read Play By Ear - six months later for the status of the iPhone application six months after its original release.

Last weekend, Christian McBride was in town for a concert with his new band, "Inside Straight." If you don't already know, Christian McBride is one of the most in-demand jazz bassists on the scene today. Since beginning his career in 1990, Christian McBride has performed and recorded with a stellar list of jazz musicians, including Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Ray Brown, Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, and Wynton Marsalis.

On the day of the concert, Christian McBride also gave a master class at Georgia State University. Due to a likely cover-up by the attention-starved saxophone faculty, I didn't even hear about the master class until a couple of hours before it started (special thanks to Laura for texting me!). But once I did find out, I dropped what I was doing and sped on over. There was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to see and hear one of the greatest jazz musicians of my generation, especially when it affords me the ability to then write a blog article where I once again poke fun at my buddy in the GSU saxophone faculty.

Like my favorite master classes, Christian McBride's master class included both a discussion and playing session. During the playing session, several bass players got to sit in with a jazz combo while Christian listened and critiqued their playing. For the most part, the young bassists played really well and Christian spent about as much time offering suggestions as he did giving praise. You might think that's how it goes in all master classes, but I'm always amazed at how eager some "masters" are to criticize and cut down aspiring musicians. Christian was really cool, though, and I'm sure his words of encouragement will inspire the young players through many of their practice sessions.

SAVE THE FIREWORKS FOR JULY 4TH

During the past twenty years, Christian McBride has recorded hundreds of albums as a sideman, so he knows a thing or two about what it takes to succeed as a working jazz bass player. He summed it up nicely when he said "Nobody hires you for the fireworks." Instead, it's the fundamentals of bass playing that get you the job. Skills like keeping time, having a good sound, and staying in the pocket are much more important than showy tricks and gimmicks. But unfortunately, aspiring musicians spend way too much time chasing the showy stuff and too little time on the basics.

To illustrate his point, Christian McBride mentioned Victor Wooten's double thumb slap. If you Google "bass double thumb slap" you'll find tons of YouTube clips and articles devoted to the subject. In their quest to play like Victor Wooten, bass players are spending countless hours learning this advanced technique instead of focusing on the strong fundamentals that made Victor Wooten such a great musician in the first place. To paraphrase Christian McBride, you have to learn A-M before learning N-Z. And all these bass players are skipping right over to Z! That's like a karate student learning how to punch before learning balance. Big mistake.

GOING INSIDE

The part about mastering A-M before learning N-Z, reminded of my musical misstep with "outside" playing. At the end of my first year of college music school, I bought a CD by the head of the jazz department, Ed Sarath. It was a quintet recording that featured an unfamiliar (to me) saxophonist named Dave Liebman. As soon as I heard Liebman's playing, I was mesmerized. It was the most flawlessly executed display of reckless abandon that I had ever heard. Even though I knew I couldn't play any of Liebman's licks on the trumpet, that recording instilled in my mind the notion that playing "outside" (against the harmonies and rhythms) was the apex of jazz improvisation.

A few months after I got that Liebman album, I bought a book of pentatonic jazz licks. Yes, the Ramon Ricker book. I played through them all, and memorized a few of the more "outside" licks to incorporate in my jazz solos. At the time, I was playing weekly gigs with a jazz combo in some of the finest empty coffee houses in Chicago. Each night I'd run through my "outside" licks and for a few measures of each tune I sounded fantastic. Even my band mates, who heard the licks over and over again, seemed impressed whenever I played them. But as soon as the licks came to an end, I sounded terrible because I lacked the fundamental skills I needed to improvise well on my own. I was all fluff, without any substance. Eventually, this lack of substance led me to quit playing the trumpet for seven years.

When I started playing the trumpet again I made a conscious effort to focus on the fundamentals of jazz improvisation. I no longer worry about sounding modern or "outside" because with strong fundamentals I'll be able sound however I want at any given time. Since I couldn't play anything accurately by ear back when I was in college, I now spend a lot of time working on ear training with my ear training tools. And to improve my sense of rhythm and time, I started practicing with a metronome (I never even used one in college). I've also spent more time listening to earlier jazz as I try to learn the fundamentals directly from the pioneers of jazz. More than anything, that's taught me that if there is an "apex of jazz improvisation" it's less likely to be "outside" playing and more likely to be something that Louis Armstrong played.

HISTORY OF JAZZ PODCAST, BY GORDON VERNICK

And speaking of the pioneers of jazz... Georgia State University professor, Gordon Vernick, has an excellent and free podcast that I've been meaning to mention for some time now. Gordon Vernick's "History of Jazz" podcast currently includes 76 episodes covering everything from ragtime to Weather Report. I've been listening to it for nearly a year and I always enjoy his depth of knowledge and his respect for the music. If you dig the podcast, be sure to subscribe since he's still adding more segments. In fact, just this week he added two episodes on Lee Morgan!

Update September, 2013: Gordon Vernick's podcast has moved to a new location within iTunes. It's now called "Jazz Insights with Dr. Gordon Vernick" and you can find it here in iTunes.

All of my anniversary articles: 2 years - 3 years - 4 years - 5 years - 6 years - 7 years - 9 years - 10 years - 11 years - 12 years - 13 years - 15 years

As the year comes to a close, it time for another anniversary article. The following article marks the end of seven years since I started playing the trumpet again.

MY PRACTICE ROUTINE

For the past few years, I've been working on the same basic exercises every day when I practice. I'll start with a ten-minute warm-up, followed by twenty minutes of slurs, interval, and articulation exercises. About a month ago, I was re-reading my 2009 Atlanta Trumpet Festival article and decided it was time for a change. Following Kevin Eisensmith's advice, I'm now incorporating the practice of new literature in my daily routine. Every other day, I'll focus on a few etudes or characteristic studies (e.g. Arban's, Jacome, jazz transcriptions, etc). On the in between days I'm still doing my old set of exercises. Hopefully the new material will bring new challenges and improve my rate of progress. It's probably too early to tell how this will impact my playing, but I do know that some of the characteristic studies that were giving me problems a month ago have already become easy to play.

JAZZ LESSONS

This year I took my first jazz lessons since I was a jazz studies major in college. Two of the lessons were with jazz trumpeter, Joe Gransden, and two were with jazz saxophonist and educator, Mace Hibbard. I recognize that I have a lot to learn from other musicians, but I also know that I don't have enough free time to take regular lessons. Actually, I have enough time for the lesson itself, I just don't have enough time to thoroughly practice the lesson material. For example, it's been about 6 months since my first lesson with Mace Hibbard and I still haven't worked through bass lines in all 12 keys. I mention this every year, but the scarcity of time remains the biggest challenge in my comeback journey.

EAR TRAINING

I'm always amazed at the progress I'm making with ear training. It's especially fun when I hear a tune or part of a jazz solo and I can just pick up my horn and play it perfectly. I can't always play the notes accurately by ear, but each year it's getting easier and easier. Thanks to the jazz lick mode of my free online ear training tool, I'm now able to hear and play more complex melodies that contain altered tones. If you're an aspiring jazz musician who needs help with ear training, be sure to give the jazz lick mode a try. Just look under the "Each box is a..." dropdown of the Melodies tab.

RANGE AND ENDURANCE

At the 2009 Atlanta Trumpet Festival, all of the clinicians mentioned that they practice playing high as a regular part of their daily practice routines. To date, I haven't done much practicing in the upper register aside from some slurring exercises, so I decided to add scales to my daily practice routine. After a ten-minute warm-up, while my chops are nice and fresh, I play ascending two-octave scales until I'm unable to comfortably reach the high notes. Sometimes I can't go any higher than a two-octave D major scale, but at least twice a week my chops reward me with a nice two-octave E or F major scale. I've even had a couple of days where I can play a three-octave G scale. Frankly, the high G is a barely audible squeak, but it counts!

I've made a little progress with endurance, but my chops still tire out after ten or fifteen minutes of jazz improvisation. That's because I focus entirely on playing the notes at the expense of chop preservation. In other words, if I hear a G at the top of the staff in my head, I'm going to play that G even if it means I have to use excessive mouthpiece pressure. I know, I know. Bad, Rick.

EMBOUCHURE CHANGE

At the advice of Alex Yates, I made some changes to my embouchure a couple of months ago. This single embouchure has replaced the various roll-in states that I used to play on as a result of trying the Balanced Embouchure method several years ago. While I prefer the simplicity of using a single embouchure, it hasn't exactly revolutionized my playing or anything. In fact, I think I play a little worse now than before. Then again, I'm so used to playing poorly that I might have forgotten exactly how bad I was! Anyway, I've been working to strengthen the corners of my embouchure (I even bought a PETE), so maybe the new embouchure will improve as time goes on.

YET ANOTHER MOUTHPIECE UPDATE

As a final treat for the holidays, I now present you with another fascinating mouthpiece update! As you may recall, I bought a new GR 65M trumpet mouthpiece in October. I used the GR mouthpiece exclusively for 6 weeks and I'm sorry to say that I liked it less and less as time went on. The GR mouthpiece made it a little easier to play notes in the upper register, but in an odd twist of fate, I found myself struggling to play notes below the staff. My beloved low register, which had always welcomed me with open arms, was turning on me!

I might have stuck with the GR mouthpiece for a little longer, but I couldn't ignore the way it thinned out my sound. I hadn't noticed the thin tone when originally playing the mouthpiece because I had tried it in a room with vaulted ceilings and dazzling acoustics. In my small practice room, however, the thin sound was instantly apparent and undeniably unpleasant.

After six weeks on the GR 65M mouthpiece, I was so annoyed by the thin sound that I decided to do a sound trial with the GR and some of my other mouthpieces. I selected a few of my old mouthpieces, including the Yamaha 14B4 that I was playing prior to switching to the GR mouthpiece. I asked my wife to listen as I played some jazz lines on each mouthpiece. I started with the Yamaha 14B4 and then played the GR mouthpiece. Within 5 notes my wife told me to stop playing. In her ever so delicate manner, she said it sounded terrible, except she used more colorful language. I repeated the test a few more times, varying the order of mouthpieces, and every time my wife cringed at the thin sound of the GR mouthpiece, while she consistently preferred the warm tone of the Yamaha 14B4. And there you have it. Since it's such a hit with the ladies, I'm back on the Yamaha 14B4.

This experience has definitely taught me that I can't evaluate a mouthpiece in a single playing session. Like all trumpeters, my chops respond differently each day. Some days I can play high with greater ease, some days I have more endurance, and some days I can barely play anything well at all. I can't really tell how a mouthpiece will perform long term unless I can try it on a variety of these chop conditions over a period of several days. And I definitely need to try the mouthpiece in my practice room. Now if only I can find a mouthpiece with the sound of the Yamaha and the efficiency of the GR. The search continues.