How to be a great jazz musician ...

[christianm77]

What I hear more of now is..... why do I have to take a Jazz class, I only want to shred!

Sounds like a nightmare. Do you teach a music college jazz class yourself? Not sure if you said.

I never went through music college so I'm glad to say I was never made to study anything. In some ways this may have affected my development - but on the other hand I was so boneheadedly stubborn, I would probably have ignored the sensible advice of my tutors anyway.

I'm very glad I never had to study bebop, as do my colleagues and friends who did go to jazz college, because I think I would have ended up hating it and resisting it. As it is, I came to it on my own terms.

[cosmic gumbo]

Being a great jazz musician and being a successful jazz musician are two totally different things. I'm friends with quite a few great jazz musicians. Being a successful jazz musician is only a little bit harder than an actor going to Hollywood and becoming a movie star.