Discover Double Bass

View Original

What are you thinking when improvising & how do you memorise standards?

There's a lot going on when you improvise. You need to learn the chord progression, remember your scales, play your best lines and don't forget about the melody! What about memorising them, does that help and how do you do it? Should you be thinking about the numbers system, or each chord as it comes? There are so many options, so Olivier Babaz shares with us his personal approach.

If you want to learn more from Olivier, check out his course - The Creative Improvisor - which is out now!

Let us know what you think about when improvising in the comments!

Interview questions:

00:00 - When improvising bass lines and solos, what are you thinking?
02:11 - Are you thinking about the numbers system or individual chords?
04:27 - Tips on memorising jazz standards.
07:32 - Performance of the jazz standard Oleo by Olivier Babaz and Sam Dunn.


Want to learn more from Olivier? Take a look at his courses 'Jazz Bowing' and ‘The Creative Improvisor’.

Behind the scenes

Photos © Discover Double Bass