Whether you are learning jazz, a teacher giving lessons, or a band director running a rehearsal, you don’t need to master everything all at once. Focused teaching and learning that target specific problem areas or goals tend to be the most efficient way to make faster progress.
Good teaching and learning acknowledges the whole but makes real progress by focusing on parts for long enough to have a meaningful effect.
Students
There are certainly a lot of things to cover when you are learning to play jazz. There are fundamentals like scales, arpeggios, and technique. There is repertoire, including jazz standards to learn as well as practicing how to play and interpret them. There can seem to be so much theory that it is easy to become overwhelmed. There are techniques, skills, procedures, general knowledge, and much more. There is a lot, but you don’t need to learn all of it all at once. Avoid spreading yourself too thinly. At any one time, why not pick just a couple of aspects of jazz playing to target in your practising and really make focused progress in those things?
For example, your tone and intonation might not be perfect yet, and those things are very important to control. To make real progress in those areas, make a concerted effort to do work on long tones in practice (if a wind instrument), listen critically to your sound in comparison to professional players, and so on. Don’t focus on that to the exclusion of everything else but also don’t get sidetracked by some sexy YouTube lesson where a random “Jazz Bro” says you MUST master the triadic-chromatic approach RIGHT NOW!!
Also, if you have a teacher, please stop arguing with them every lesson about what you are doing because Lens Jarsson or Ndam Aeely said this or that. Don’t stop practicing scales because some clickbait video said they will stop you ever playing jazz, having children, or finding happiness. Those last two things might be true, but to get better at jazz, follow through a focused program and allow your skills and knowledge to build in a structured, efficient way over time.
Teachers & band directors
Sometimes as teachers we just need to set some things aside for a while. Your students don’t need to master everything all at once. For example, if you are teaching beginner improvisation, just focus on that. It is almost certain that your students will be out of tune, have a juvenile tone, and a very loose relationship with time. Those are important issues, but if your lesson is about a harmonic or melodic topic, just focus on that. Acknowledge in passing that the other things need work too, but don’t dilute your lesson by getting off-topic. In another lesson, you might focus on time, or tone. You don’t need to do everything all at once. A big part of teaching is curating the order and sequencing of knowledge in a logical and effective way, using your expertise to help students navigate the effectively infinite topics they could look at.
For band directors too, we should often focus on one, two, or a few things in each rehearsal of a chart. For example, you might focus on rhythm, articulation, and dynamics in the ensemble chorus after the solos in a big band arrangement. Run the whole chart, but spend your rehearsal time focusing on your objective for that rehearsal. Sure, the intro might be sloppy, the rhythm section might be lacklustre during the solos, and there might be wrong notes in the coda. Make a note of those things for future work and then work on what you had planned. Don’t get sidetracked by every issue you notice.
Also, don’t be pressured by the know-it-all student who tries to get one up on you by compulsively pointing out this or that minor issue. “That IS a problem and I’m glad you noticed it too. We’ll get to that later, but in today’s rehearsal we’re focusing on…”
Choose your battles
Jazz is big, and there’s a lot to cover whether you’re learning it, teaching others, or teaching yourself. You do need to do everything eventually, but you don’t need to do everything all at once. Good teaching and learning acknowledges the whole but makes real progress by focusing on parts for long enough to have a meaningful effect.
