Jazz Improvisation - Introduction to Improvisation with Gary Burton by Berklee College of Music

[Music] besides being one of my heroes Gary has always been one of my most important mentors particularly in the area of what do you do when you improvise he's unbelievable at his ability to describe and illuminate what it takes to play a really good solo and how to function within this language how does Gary do it uh how does he do it it flows out of him you know when he picks the when he picks the mallets up and he begins to play there it is that's the lesson hi I'm Gary Burton and I'm here at the Blue Note in New York I'm going to be playing here later today with my longtime friend chakara but I thought I'd take a few minutes now to tell you about my online improvisation course I've been teaching improv for a lot of years and to me it's one of the most fascinating kinds of music and I always enjoy talking about it and uh demonstrating it and that's how my course really operates I demonstrate a lot of things starting with some of the basic grammar of improvisation uh chord scales and how Harmony moves and so on and if you're a student in the course you learn right along with the material in the course as I demonstrate things you will be also playing these things and by the end of the course you'll have learned an awful lot about improvisation I think this course is be a great experience for anybody who wants to bring their improv skills up to a new level there's nobody I've ever seen who is as thorough and capable of describing the kind of things that seem mysterious that are actually just question of linguistics within improvisation than Gary that's how I've learned from Gary myself is by playing with him by observing what he does by seeing what works well and by by hearing the beauty that comes out of his Vibes and it inspiring me night after night I think all of the uh students of this course have a great opportunity to experience that his whole course is really the opportunity of a lifetime for young musicians this is a chance to learn from one of the greatest living improvisers kind of what to do [Music]