100 Ideas to improve your Jazz

1. Transcribe your first solo

2. Learn one tune straight from the record
3. Practice at least 30 minutes daily
4. Learn a tune in all keys
5. Read a biography of a famous jazz musician
6. Learn basic piano voicings
7. Write your first tune
8. Learn a ii V line in all keys
9. Learn a simple blues head in all keys
10. Visualize every night before you go to bed\z
11. Master all your intervals
12. Learn to play in 3
13. Play well over “Cherokee“
14. Learn to stay focused while you practice
15. Transcribe a solo of someone who doesn’t play your instrument
16. Commit to 15 minutes of daily ear training
17. Practice at least an hour daily
18. Find a new favorite musician on your instrument
19. Do something athletic everyday
20. Read Thinking in Jazz by Paul Berliner
21. Replace the stupid videos you watch on youtube with classic jazz recordings
22. Learn a chorus of a transcribed solo in all keys
23. Seek out new music everyday
24. Learn a bebop head like “Confirmation” in all keys
25. Play duo with a drummer
26. Listen to classical music
27. Work out simple melodies like ‘Happy Birthday” on your horn by ear
28. Master the key of F# major
29. Learn how to hear and sing bass lines
30. Transcribe a solo over Rhythm Changes
31. Work on your articulation
32. Visualize a tune you’re working on every night before you go to bed
33. Write a tune over a blues
34. Learn your first ballad
35. Delve into the music of Monk
36. Play with people below your level
37. Understand the progression in “Giant Steps“
38. Learn how to play over half-diminished chords
39. Hear and sing the third of a major chord
40. Practice with a metronome on beats 2 and 4
41. Sing a blues solo instead of playing it
42. Learn basic guitar voicings
43. Transcribe a solo over a Blues
44. Work on your tone
45. Listen to and study a twelve tone composition
46. Know what the #11 sounds like on a major chord
47. Learn “All The Things You Are” to the point where you’d feel comfortable
recording it
48. Learn how to draw and see how that changes your outlook on jazz improv
49. Listen to the latest pop hits
50. Practice the Bach Cello Suites
51. Learn a iii Vi ii V turnaround line in all keys
52. Be regimented with your time
53. Play with just a bass player
54. Learn to hear the rhythm section in your head, even when they’re not playing
55. Pick something to sightread and work on it
56. Learn to play in 5
57. Transcribe a Charlie Parker solo
58. Find a new favorite musician not on your instrument
59. Learn another language and see how that changes your outlook on jazz improv
60. Master the Key of Db major
61. Listen deeply to Brahms’s symphonies
62. Throw your real book in the trash
63. Take chances musically and non-musically
64. Get your first gig
65. Reharmonize a standard
66. Share a musical concept with a fellow musician
67. Do something not musical everyday
68. Inspire a child to start playing an instrument
69. Understand how to use melodic minor
70. Re-listen to classic recordings you haven’t listened to in a while
71. Learn basic jazz drumming
72. Practice at least 2 hours daily
73. Go see live jazz
74. Look up your favorite musician on youtube
75. Do something artistic that’s not music
76. Use the latest pop hits for ear training exercises
77. Visualize a chord progression you’re working on every night before you go to
bed
78. Learn to find flow through music
79. Take a lesson with your favorite living musician
80. Delve into the music of Wayne Shorter
81. Record a practice session and kindly critique it
82. Get a drum practice pad and practice drum rudiments
83. Play with non-jazz musicians
84. Learn how to use Finale or Sibelius
85. Be flexible with your time
86. Inspire a child to listen to jazz
87. Learn an entire transcribed solo in all keys
88. Play with people above your level
89. Be able to identify all of Beethoven’s symphonies
90. Go see your favorite jazz musician perform
91. Learn to play in 7
92. Visualize a scale you’re working on every night before you go to bed
93. Watch Glenn Gould videos on youtube
94. Practice 4 hours a day
95. Listen to the Beatles
96. Go to a yoga class
97. Watch Herbie Hancock’s “Possibilities” video (free on Netflix Instant-play)
98. Listen to Bill Evans on “Piano Jazz”
99. Practice what you suck at
100. Ask Jazzadvice a question you’ve always been curious about