How did Visual Jazz get its start?

Visual Jazz began as Taylor-James Ltd. Publishing in 1983, with the first edition of “Sightreading Jazz”. “The Art of Improvisation” was introduced in book format in 1996 and then in CD-ROM in 2001. Since then, Bob Taylor has created many CD-ROM and book titles for Visual Jazz, including the popular CD-ROM Suite collections.

Why “Visual” Jazz?

Seeing musical shapes clearly in your mind is key to hearing them and playing them expressively. Musical vision drives innovation in practice and performance. Developing musical shapes opens the door to “story-telling” in improvisation, where ideas blossom and grow – all made possible by the structured approach of Visual Jazz.

What are the Visual Jazz advantages?

Affordable, brilliant content. You get not “tens” of play-alongs, but hundreds. You get clearly written text with helpful hyperlinks, examples, and exercises, all designed to help you learn and grow in your jazz performance and teaching skills. And you get it all at a fraction of what you'd expect to pay – because Visual Jazz passes the savings along to you.

Who does the visuals for Visual Jazz?

Much of the artwork, including some outrageously fine jazz caricatures and the current web site design, is the handiwork of John Taylor (brother of Bob, drummer in the jazz group BRIJJ). View John Taylor’s jazz caricatures at:

The Visual Approach to Improvisation

You might as well know this now – the Visual approach to improvisation is different from most others on the market today. Why? Because it takes a different path – one that’s based on vision, not rote learning.

The Traditional Approach – Learning Backwards

Most improvisation methods use a traditional approach that’s not very effective. In some ways, it’s actually a backwards learning approach. If that seems hard to believe, consider that there are hundreds of books of licks, patterns and chord progressions on the market – and yet most beginning improvisers still struggle with them, progressing too slowly.

Here are some of the specific problems with the traditional rote approaches:

* You learn licks and patterns from books as the basis for improvising. I tried this approach when I was young, and countless improvisers are still trying it – and it just doesn’t work that well. It leads to fragmented, predictable, non-creative solos.

* You imitate your favorite artists without understanding why their solos are effective. This is like learning a foreign language by memorizing words from a phrase book – the context and larger meaning are often lost.

* You focus on difficult chord progressions too soon. This is like learning to drive a car by getting on the freeway and merging in and out of traffic. The chords move by quickly, and you either get in a lot of collisions, or you learn a few "safe routes" through the progression – which creates its own trap.

* You transcribe solos too soon. A few gifted musicians can transcribe solos right away, but for most of us transcribing is a very complex process – it requires strong pitch and rhythm recognition and notation skills to bring it all together. It’s good, but not a good place to start.

The Visual Approach – Learning Sequentially

To break out of a rote approach, you need a tangible and effective replacement for it. That’s the strength of the visual approach – it’s simple, powerful, and most of all it helps you truly create. And that’s the point of improvising.

Here are some of the advantages of the visual approach:

* You focus on the basic elements of improvisation first, such as melody, rhythm, expression and development. These elements form a solid foundation for creativity.

* You stay in a single key or key center longer as you learn to create beautiful improvisation melodies. Then when you start changing the chord progressions, your melodies will stay strong – they won’t be jerked around by the chords.

* You can see how the great artists successfully use the basic elements of improvisation. Your motivation is to understand, imitate, and adapt their creative ideas, not just their exact pitches. And when you transcribe solos, you’ll be looking for the why’s, not just the what’s.

* Above all, your improvisation is guided by musical vision. The musical shapes you see will pull you along, giving you sustained motivation and creativity.

Three Keys to Visual Improvisation

So, how do you actually start seeing what to play instead of imitating other music? It’s no magic trick, but here are three keys to visual improvisation:

* SHAPE (See, Hear, and Play Expressively) * Flexible Scales * Virtual Practice

These keys unlock the doors to visual improvising, a practice that holds astonishing creativity yet is simple enough that just about anyone can learn it.

* So what can I do with SHAPE?
... You can see musical ideas and shapes in your mind, hear what you see, and expressively play what you hear.
* What can I do with flexible scales?
... You can bridge the gap between scales and improvisation, and develop your ear in ways you never thought possible.
*And what can I do with Virtual Practice?
... You can practice improvisation without your instrument – and you can learn chord progressions with no accompaniments.