“Autumn Leaves” by Jose Valentino (Flute & Keyboards)

To beginner jazz musicians: I get a lot of questions on my DM about how to develop a solo. Hence, I made this video in an attempt to apply the information below so you can observe the musical ideas from the perspective of a bassist, drummer, keyboardist, and horn player. Sorry I just used a mini-keyboard with small keys... If you only focus on practicing the “right notes” to the chords, you’re just scratching the surface on what needs to be understood when playing jazz idioms. Context, rhythmic vocabulary, deep understanding of the roles of other instruments, bouncing ideas of of one another, acknowledging the tradition, maintaining melody, motivic development, evoking the human voice, pacing a solo, use of space, placement of the subdivision, varying music components, not overplaying your technical capacity, etc. All these things must be present to sound genuine and inviting. Here is a short video of one approach to improvising over the chord changes to “Autumn Leaves.” I also played keyboard bass, drums, and rhodes to provide context of what each musician is doing. Dig deeper into the music. Possibilities are infinite. #digdeep #jazz #improv #keyboard #jazzflute