How do you work on making better jazz lines. Is there a method? Check out this video on some of the things you can work on: th-cam.com/video/nCypw3QlmBQ/w-d-xo.html
Jens is one of the only TH-cam jazz Guitar teachers I've found where the lessons aren't just "play this Bird lick, that's how you bebop". I appreciate how much the focus is on applying the ideas to get a grasp of the language, and then using that to build your musical ear and get a feel for how to transmit your own ideas to the instrument, rather than how to paint the chords by number.
I like the fact that Jens focuses on providing simple and systematic tools to learn how to improvise. It breaks down this daunting task into manageable bits. Keep it up!
I'm not even a guitarist but I watch all of your videos religiously. I love the way you teach and the way you play inspires me to keep on practicing. Thanks as always Jens!
I was always afraid to click on your videos. I thought it would be way to complicated but I have to say the way you teach by breaking it up and smoothly explaining things, I have immediately incorporated some of these licks and my playing has immediately improved. Thanks!
Excellent tutorial. MR Jens Larsen is a Master. His explanations are very clear and he gets right to the point. No waste of time. I like his lessons, as they are a starting point for my creativity. 👍👍
Recording and listening to yourself is great advice. It’s amazing how different you think you sound compared to how you actually sound. It’s improved my playing immensely.
These lessons on analyzing and building lines are very helpful. It's one thing to learn the arpeggios and scales and quite another to make lines that sound like jazz. Thanks!
Thanks again, Jens. I’ve been using the Barry Harris “diminished 6th” scale chords (diminished chords on passing tones) and now you’ve given me another Barry Harris tool for melodic lines. I wish I’d had a teacher like you decades ago - thanks for making so much theory practical (even for us keyboarders).
The most beautiful thing about Barry's method is the limitless ways to create your own phrases. His chromatic scale is only one tiny aspect. He actually didn't even come up with his "chromatic" scale until1996 (I think). He was 67. Amazing!
@@JensLarsen I'm working my way through Nows The Time 2 in the Parker Omnibus. In the lick over the first C7 of the solo, there's an approaching 6 -> b7 chromatic run, then he jumps to b9 and descends to the root by way of the b3. I'm wondering if this can be analysed in the context of the Barry Harris chromatic scale idea? Or would that more properly involve the natural 9 rather than the b3 as the intermediate note? Actually the second half of the bar definitely fits this idea: a decent from the b7 to the 6 via the 1st above the b7.
@@CliffieVanR You could look at it like that. But Parker often uses similar melodies to get the b9 and #9 across on dominant chords, I don't really see it as a chromatic approach because the b9 and #9 do not really work as passing notes but are as much the main character of the phrase.
Becoming patron the first weeks was worth every cent - thank you very much for again a super helpful video about finding an own musical language! Still far away from this - watching and practising spots of your many advices give me support to enjoy my musical path to... lets see what will be there ;-).
Jens, love your vids, very informative to understand how these things are created. May I just make one request with your editing, your showing the notation but only for a second or two then jump back to see you taking, we could absorb this easier if we don't have to pause so much and go back a few seconds to look again. Suggest leaving the lick on screen while your talking so we don't have the disconnect. Ty for listening.
I've heard so much about Barry Harris in the last few years. Not sure if everyone has always been into him and I just have started to become aware of the buzz, or? Anyway this scale pattern you showed is the first thing I've learned from his concepts and it is great. You taught it so simply and made it effortless to learn. I'll have to see if you've taught some other things from him. Appreciate it
In the Arpreggios and Leading Notes section, you mentioned you're playing the Fmaj7 arpeggio over the G7. I thought that was cool, but when I look at it with my novice eyes I guess I would have recognized that as scale notes that make up the maj7 arpreggio recognizing they come from the same scale as C but would not have made the connection that any IV maj7 arpeggio over the V7 contains the b7, 9, 11, 13 of the V7. Seems a really cool and easy to remember way to find those 9, 11, 13 notes. Is that a conscious thing that you recommend more novice players to think about (ie other more easily remembered arpeggios fit over different chords)? I know you covered that in your video about the altered scale which I found a much easier way to get into the altered scale.
Great Lesson! Thank you 😊 For the rhythm in bebop improvisation, is it always 16th notes or is it common to use triplets and swung 8th notes too? Also some videos on this mention that on the strong beats we ought to have the arpeggio notes, and passing scale notes / chromatics on the other beats. I take it that this is an oversimplification. Whats your take on that?
@@JensLarsen My pleasure. What I really like about your videos is that you do more then just show a lick or two and teach a bunch of theory. You get people to think for themselves and teach them how to think in order to play what they are feeling.
Dear Jens, thank for all the content you share. I have a problem, and I'm wondering if I'm alone in this. I think jazz education is a confusing topic in general, and even though your videos are as clear and as concise as they come, I feel completely overwhelmed by the amount of different approaches you teach. How can a student come up with a consistent, actionable practice regime if there's something new on the plate every day almost? I struggled with this for a long time and can't seem to find any solution. Any thoughts?
I felt the same way at first, so I bought one of Jens' books just to get that kind of educational structure. A few months later, and I understand and am able to process his video lessons much better. Also, I find I must limit myself and be patient. I cant learn everything at once. So I go back to his videos that relate to what im working on at any given time. Anyhow, Jens' book is excellent - check it it out.
There is a lot of information, that is true, and I can't try to make it a method. The way TH-cam (or the internet in general) works then each piece of content has to be pretty much 100% independent to be succesful. That is why I make the videos like this. I am working on a learning path, but the medium to achieve that is an online course, only in a place like that, where people pay to check it out, can you get people to check out longer rows of lessons and build on previous material. That said: I do have videos on how to make practice plans as well, and I would anyway suggest doing stuff like that based on what YOU need, not what somebody posts on YT. Does that help?
@@JensLarsen Hi Jens! For example, at 3:42 you cover a G7 lick that lasts for two measures. What if G7 only lasts for half a measure? How could you still create a convincing line?
@@yinanzhou662 That is not a lick, it is an exercise in adding halfsteps from Barry Harris. You can take out half a bar from that and use it, in fact all of them would work
Hi Jens, great video. I’m a piano player but your channel is great for me too. A question about the Barry Harris trick. How does it work for an ascending scale? Say from b to c, is it more idiomatic to go bdc or bac?
Thanks Colin! That scale exercise or approach is not set in stone, you can add any note between B and C, so I would leave it up to the context what to do. If you practice the scale exercise then the D sounds better to me, but that is taste :)
I think you are right. Purely inverting the pattern would suggest bac but bdc captures more interesting jumps. I like how this exercise takes a chromatic scale and associates it with a diatonic key, by emphasising the difference in half and whole steps. I also had some fun playing a version of this trick applied to the diminished scale.
@@colincotter6 Actually I think a lot of what makes this interesting is that the melody skips around in a logical way. I have a section in this video talking about using different directions for chromatic enclosures. You might find that interesting: th-cam.com/video/D1jc5uZ0Ee4/w-d-xo.html
Hi, Jens! When I think bebop when I am improvising, I tend to be conscious on what notes to hit (chord tones on the strong beats and chromatic notes on the off beat), so I end up repeating lines or get choked up and not to be spontaneous if you know what I mean. Any tips or advices for this? Thanks!
Amazing🔥🔥🔥thanks a lot sir By the way, Jesus is the son of God. Ieve in his death and Resurrection then repent from sin for the Bible is true and Jesus is truly alive ❤️ be prosperous
How do you work on making better jazz lines. Is there a method?
Check out this video on some of the things you can work on: th-cam.com/video/nCypw3QlmBQ/w-d-xo.html
Thanks Jen's, you are a Godsend in this time. Your teaching is great and very appreciated.
Glad the videos are useful 👍
Jens is one of the only TH-cam jazz Guitar teachers I've found where the lessons aren't just "play this Bird lick, that's how you bebop". I appreciate how much the focus is on applying the ideas to get a grasp of the language, and then using that to build your musical ear and get a feel for how to transmit your own ideas to the instrument, rather than how to paint the chords by number.
I like the fact that Jens focuses on providing simple and systematic tools to learn how to improvise. It breaks down this daunting task into manageable bits. Keep it up!
Thank you, Oscar 🙂
I'm not even a guitarist but I watch all of your videos religiously. I love the way you teach and the way you play inspires me to keep on practicing. Thanks as always Jens!
Thank you Peter! Glad to hear that you can use them :)
same here, i play bass and Jens taught walking bass better than any bass instructor here on youtube
love you Jens!
I was always afraid to click on your videos. I thought it would be way to complicated but I have to say the way you teach by breaking it up and smoothly explaining things, I have immediately incorporated some of these licks and my playing has immediately improved. Thanks!
Thank you Tim 67 I am glad you found it useful! 👍
Excellent tutorial. MR Jens Larsen is a Master. His explanations are very clear and he gets right to the point. No waste of time. I like his lessons, as they are a starting point for my creativity. 👍👍
Maybe the best lesson about bebop licks i've ever had! thanks a lot!!
Recording and listening to yourself is great advice. It’s amazing how different you think you sound compared to how you actually sound. It’s improved my playing immensely.
Exactly my experience, and actually both sounding better with some things and worse with others when I listen back :)
You're the best jazz guitar teacher I've found on YT. Thanks for your work.
Glad you like the videos!
These lessons on analyzing and building lines are very helpful. It's one thing to learn the arpeggios and scales and quite another to make lines that sound like jazz. Thanks!
Thanks again, Jens. I’ve been using the Barry Harris “diminished 6th” scale chords (diminished chords on passing tones) and now you’ve given me another Barry Harris tool for melodic lines. I wish I’d had a teacher like you decades ago - thanks for making so much theory practical (even for us keyboarders).
Hey, you know it's going to be good when it's Bebop! Always an awesome lesson man!
Thanks RC! :)
How I learn from your videos!
Thank you master!
Glad you find them useful 🙂 👍
Wonderful stuff as always Jens.
Thank you! :)
The most beautiful thing about Barry's method is the limitless ways to create your own phrases. His chromatic scale is only one tiny aspect. He actually didn't even come up with his "chromatic" scale until1996 (I think). He was 67. Amazing!
Yes, that is amazing about his teaching and how he composes lines :)
@@JensLarsen I'm working my way through Nows The Time 2 in the Parker Omnibus. In the lick over the first C7 of the solo, there's an approaching 6 -> b7 chromatic run, then he jumps to b9 and descends to the root by way of the b3. I'm wondering if this can be analysed in the context of the Barry Harris chromatic scale idea? Or would that more properly involve the natural 9 rather than the b3 as the intermediate note? Actually the second half of the bar definitely fits this idea: a decent from the b7 to the 6 via the 1st above the b7.
@@CliffieVanR You could look at it like that. But Parker often uses similar melodies to get the b9 and #9 across on dominant chords, I don't really see it as a chromatic approach because the b9 and #9 do not really work as passing notes but are as much the main character of the phrase.
Another beautiful lesson! Jan you are really the definitive jazz guitar teacher on the net! Thanks for all!
I'm loving your Bebop videos.. Discovered your chanel a couple weeks ago and Im hooked man! Good stuff
Glad you like them! Welcome aboard :)
What a great video Jens! Thx!
Glad you like it 🙂
Very useful tips Jens!!! Thanks!
Glad you like it 🙂
Thanks again Jens. Another beautiful, challenging lesson from the master!
Glad you enjoyed it!
4:06 Love this moment, and love much more your work. Thanks you Jens!
Thank you! I thought it was funny that it was actually caught on camera, and you can tell I am really annoyed that I get interrupted.. :D
Great lesson Jens! Thanks for the review and the more in depth application of the Barry Harris technique with chromaticism usage.
Glad it was helpful!
This is a really good breakdown of some methods of how to mold and shape arps into something better. Thanks Jens.
Becoming patron the first weeks was worth every cent - thank you very much for again a super helpful video about finding an own musical language! Still far away from this - watching and practising spots of your many advices give me support to enjoy my musical path to... lets see what will be there ;-).
Jens , my favorite you tube guitar instructor.
Thank you 🙂
@@JensLarsen No , thank YOU !!! :)
238 thousand im proud of you.
Thank you! 🙂
Very useful. Thanks a million.
Thanks as always good stuff👏
Glad you enjoyed it
I can’t wait till I’m good enough to keep up with this stuff. It’s very cool
I love jazz❤❤❤❤
That is not so strange :)
Nice. Gonna have to watch this more that once!
Beautiful lessons.very complemento at your book
Thank you very much, Ignazio! :)
This guy is a truly excellent teacher. His stuff is so useful.
Jens, love your vids, very informative to understand how these things are created. May I just make one request with your editing, your showing the notation but only for a second or two then jump back to see you taking, we could absorb this easier if we don't have to pause so much and go back a few seconds to look again. Suggest leaving the lick on screen while your talking so we don't have the disconnect. Ty for listening.
Yes, I am looking at a way to do that. Keeping the sheet music up makes people leave the video, so like this more people enjoy it.
Smoothest Ad slide ever
I've heard so much about Barry Harris in the last few years. Not sure if everyone has always been into him and I just have started to become aware of the buzz, or? Anyway this scale pattern you showed is the first thing I've learned from his concepts and it is great. You taught it so simply and made it effortless to learn. I'll have to see if you've taught some other things from him. Appreciate it
In the Arpreggios and Leading Notes section, you mentioned you're playing the Fmaj7 arpeggio over the G7. I thought that was cool, but when I look at it with my novice eyes I guess I would have recognized that as scale notes that make up the maj7 arpreggio recognizing they come from the same scale as C but would not have made the connection that any IV maj7 arpeggio over the V7 contains the b7, 9, 11, 13 of the V7. Seems a really cool and easy to remember way to find those 9, 11, 13 notes. Is that a conscious thing that you recommend more novice players to think about (ie other more easily remembered arpeggios fit over different chords)? I know you covered that in your video about the altered scale which I found a much easier way to get into the altered scale.
Thank YOU so much.
You're very welcome!
Great Lesson! Thank you 😊
For the rhythm in bebop improvisation, is it always 16th notes or is it common to use triplets and swung 8th notes too?
Also some videos on this mention that on the strong beats we ought to have the arpeggio notes, and passing scale notes / chromatics on the other beats. I take it that this is an oversimplification. Whats your take on that?
Nice 👌🏻
Thank you! Cheers!
I was thinking add chromatics b6 or 7 but..... great lesson as always!
Luckily there is more to bebop than a system :)
Bravo!!!
Thanks Jack!
@@JensLarsen My pleasure. What I really like about your videos is that you do more then just show a lick or two and teach a bunch of theory. You get people to think for themselves and teach them how to think in order to play what they are feeling.
Dear Jens, thank for all the content you share.
I have a problem, and I'm wondering if I'm alone in this. I think jazz education is a confusing topic in general, and even though your videos are as clear and as concise as they come, I feel completely overwhelmed by the amount of different approaches you teach. How can a student come up with a consistent, actionable practice regime if there's something new on the plate every day almost? I struggled with this for a long time and can't seem to find any solution. Any thoughts?
personally I process 1 Jens Larsen video for about a week or two. I keep going back to that 10 minute video until I fully understand it
I felt the same way at first, so I bought one of Jens' books just to get that kind of educational structure. A few months later, and I understand and am able to process his video lessons much better. Also, I find I must limit myself and be patient. I cant learn everything at once. So I go back to his videos that relate to what im working on at any given time. Anyhow, Jens' book is excellent - check it it out.
Thanks Ben!
There is a lot of information, that is true, and I can't try to make it a method. The way TH-cam (or the internet in general) works then each piece of content has to be pretty much 100% independent to be succesful. That is why I make the videos like this.
I am working on a learning path, but the medium to achieve that is an online course, only in a place like that, where people pay to check it out, can you get people to check out longer rows of lessons and build on previous material.
That said: I do have videos on how to make practice plans as well, and I would anyway suggest doing stuff like that based on what YOU need, not what somebody posts on YT.
Does that help?
@@JensLarsen of course it does, thanks a lot for taking the time to answer! Cheers
Nice
Thanks
Hey Jens! I was just wondering how you could apply what you talked about here when the chords go by quicker, like every half a measure. Thanks!
This is quite an old video, can you be a bit more specific? Maybe give me a time stamp?
@@JensLarsen Hi Jens! For example, at 3:42 you cover a G7 lick that lasts for two measures. What if G7 only lasts for half a measure? How could you still create a convincing line?
@@yinanzhou662 That is not a lick, it is an exercise in adding halfsteps from Barry Harris.
You can take out half a bar from that and use it, in fact all of them would work
@@JensLarsen Ok, thanks Jen! You mean any half bar of the lick could work over half a bar of G7?
@@yinanzhou662 yes, essentially 🙂
Hi Jens, great video. I’m a piano player but your channel is great for me too. A question about the Barry Harris trick. How does it work for an ascending scale? Say from b to c, is it more idiomatic to go bdc or bac?
Thanks Colin! That scale exercise or approach is not set in stone, you can add any note between B and C, so I would leave it up to the context what to do. If you practice the scale exercise then the D sounds better to me, but that is taste :)
I think you are right. Purely inverting the pattern would suggest bac but bdc captures more interesting jumps.
I like how this exercise takes a chromatic scale and associates it with a diatonic key, by emphasising the difference in half and whole steps.
I also had some fun playing a version of this trick applied to the diminished scale.
@@colincotter6 Actually I think a lot of what makes this interesting is that the melody skips around in a logical way. I have a section in this video talking about using different directions for chromatic enclosures. You might find that interesting: th-cam.com/video/D1jc5uZ0Ee4/w-d-xo.html
Jens Larsen Yes, thanks, that was also a very useful video.
@@colincotter6 Great, I was afraid it was coming across on the spammy side, but it was pretty on topic :)
Well I do pride myself on being a shameless thief. Thanks for filling up my weekend.
Haha, Me too! Go for it!
Could you possibly analyse jacos solo on donna lee, I know you have stopped doing them, but I think it would be very popular and get a lot of views.
nice
Hi, Jens! When I think bebop when I am improvising, I tend to be conscious on what notes to hit (chord tones on the strong beats and chromatic notes on the off beat), so I end up repeating lines or get choked up and not to be spontaneous if you know what I mean. Any tips or advices for this? Thanks!
You need to practice it so that you don't have to think when you play. I think that would go for any style?
my mind is clear as mud today.....o well
Just stick with it 🙂
What guitar is that, Jens? It's beautiful.
Thank you! It's my Ibanez AS2630 :)
@@JensLarsen I would love a hollow body like that. Many thanks for the videos
@@RoGub1991 It is actually a semi-hollow. They are not really crazy expensive :)
BE
BOP
Jazz lovers..❤
The most shocking takeaway of the video: Does Jens still have a landline???!!! *gasp*
Thank you Mr. Larsen. Make sure it wasn't cooking oil...lol
Haha! It was ok, Thanks Hargis! :)
@4:06 I thought that was Barry Harris calling
But what about the oil??
Amazing🔥🔥🔥thanks a lot sir
By the way, Jesus is the son of God. Ieve in his death and Resurrection then repent from sin for the Bible is true and Jesus is truly alive ❤️ be prosperous