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I want to get over my improvising problems.?


I am 17 years old and have been playing the trumpet for 9 years. I find myself to be very good at it. I can read mostly anything and I have a good ear. However, I am having trouble with improvising. I wish to be a professional musician so I have to be able to improvise. I just don't think I can do it. No matter what I play, it sounds wrong. It seems that everybody else knows how to improvise and nobody will tell me how to. I know exactly how to read the chord changes, I just can't play over them and I am feeling very guilty that I can't do this.

Unfortunately it isn't something you can just turn on. Practicing and playing it over and over again will get you the skills to improvise. It just takes time and energy. Experiment. It may sound wrong, but it just takes the time to try different things and see what happens. Transcribing solos helps because it can give you ideas of what worked previously too.

dont read the music play out of your heart and you will do fine

Improvising is not simply a god given talent. Who do you listen to that you like on trumpet?, what kinda style? who is your favorite improviser
Well, if you can answer those questions then you are halfway there.
I'm saying that in order for it to be a recognizable style or artist, they are using their musical vocabulary, which is in part made up of cliches. Things that are something like they or someone else has done before, and they do a variation on it, thus improvising. Or they quote a phrase or idea they have heard and liked it, take it, turn it around, slow it down, play a part of it, or whatever.
And you must be willing to try anything. Screw up totally, and have plenty of do overs. And imitate other peoples solos.
Lastly find a musician, of any kind that can solo and improvise and hang out. Wash their car, do their laundry, or whatever, and hang out and let them challenge you. You will IMPROVISE!

i have the same problem on sax

Listen to a lot of jazz and blues... Dizzy once said if we lose the blues in jazz, we've lost jazz... Transcribe solos. Practice. Jam with your buddies. Listen to a lot of Jazz. Transcribe more solos. Practice. Create your own licks that you can play whenever you hit a specific change. Listen to a lot of jazz. Listen to some good funk music to get a nice rhythmic sense in your solos. Practice. Transcribe some more. Jam with your buddies. Go to an open mic night.

Trust your ear. Trust your heart. Play what sounds good to you! What's so nice about jazz improvisation that even though you need to improvise in a language and a dialect that makes sense to jazz musicians, you still get to say what you want.

Here's some tips that worked for me.

1) The Charlie Parker Omnibook. Buy it, play it. It's transcribed solos by Charlie Parker. It will enable you to think melodically in the style. Another is Patterns For Jazz by I believe David Brown.

2) Transcribe solos by Miles, Art Farmer, Dizzy, etc. Learn them note for note, not so you can copy them, but so agan you can learn to think in the style.

3) Have you studied the Jamey Aebersold materials yet? Or anything similar? That's huge. Definitely look into that.

4) Start with tunes with simple harmonies. Take the A Train, Blue Bossa, Satin Doll, etc. Also modal things like Impressions. Take your time and learn the harmonies till you can't forget them.

5) Expect that you will never arrive at a point where you have "gotten" it. There is always more.

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