- my first audio clip post. I'm playing with an Aebersold recording of Black Nile (by Wayne Shorter). As mentioned in other posts, I'm going to be putting up a variety of audio clips so I can listen to my progress over time. I hope my clips motivate you to occasionally record yourself as you practice (if you don't already).

Recording yourself is probably the best (and only) way to truly evaluate your playing. I know that I've listened to plenty of recordings where I thought I had played a good jazz solo, but upon review I notice flaws: uneven tempos, sloppy articulation, poor intonation, etc. All stuff that can be worked on, but somehow the recording is the only place where it really stands out.

As you listen to this clip, you may hear things that sound good and things that could be improved. Don't be shy… please share your comments.

EXCUSES, EXCUSES

When you listen to my clips you may be thinking: is he playing the kazoo? In all honesty, my tone is A LOT better than it sounds in these recordings. Unfortunately, this is about as good as I've been able to sound with my $30 microphone…

ONE MORE THING

I'm trying to keep the file size down to a minimum by limiting the recording length. As I listen to this clip, I feel it's hard to get a feel for the changes at first. You may need to listen a couple of times for things to sink in.

SYSTEM NOTES

I modified the way bullets look for archived & featured jazz blog entries that contain audio. Take a look at the left side of your screen to see what I'm talking about.