Choose a purpose for the group
When putting a practice group together it is important to decide upon a purpose or focus for the band. What does everyone hope to get out of it? What areas of music will you focus on? The clearer the group is on this the more productive your practice sessions will be, much more productive in fact. So decide ahead of time. You could focus on any element of music really, but here are a few ideas for you.

• Learn jazz standards
• Learn bebop tunes
• Study the music of one musician
• Study the music of one period of jazz
• Explore one aspect of musicianship like dynamics, phrase length, thematic development, etc
• Write original tunes
• Learn familiar tunes in all twelve keys

This focus might shift after a period of time say after a month with one topic, or it might be the whole focus for the entirety of the project for instance you might decide to learn the Bebop repertoire and spend two years learning tunes and arrangements by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Lennie Tristano, Bud Powel et al. Having this kind of focus will have a profound impact on your practice band.

Set parameters
Setting parameters for a piece of music will make the piece more cohesive and logical. This is helpful at all levels and with all styles but it is particularly useful with free playing. For instance, you may decide to play free with only the following stipulation: each member of the band must leave a big chunk of space (5 or more seconds of rest) in between every phrase. This will help the band to see the impact of leaving space and will create some really cool textures. Or you could decide to play with a wide range of dynamics or at only one dynamic level like PP (really quiet). You could all place limits on your instruments: So maybe the bass player can only play on the D string with his bow, the drummer can only play on his cymbals, the guitarist can only play rhythmically on muted strings and the saxophonist can only use her left hand. Placing limits like this on your playing, while frustrating at first, can really force your creativity to wake up and make you think about making music in a different way.

Or if you are playing a tune your parameters could be as follows:

• Play the entire piece with a two feel
• Each soloist can only use chord tones to solo
• You have to switch time feels every chorus with one person assigned to cue and communicate the change
• Play the entire tune with one big dynamic shape- each solo build upon the last and climaxes right before the out head (melody).
• OR perhaps a scenario like this: the saxophonist plays bass lines, the guitarist solos, the bass player plays rhythmic single note comping ideas and the drummer improvises counter ‘melodies’ to the guitarist

The possibilities are endless. The great thing is that once you do a few of these ‘predetermined’ scenarios you’ll start to see more options at your other sessions. These parameters and scenarios will start to happen naturally. Then you’re truly improvising and making music on the fly, instead of just playing notes and rhythms.

Talk through the arrangement ahead of time
Rather than just getting together and blowing on some tunes (Which is fun and is an important part of the learning process) put your creative minds together and come up with an arrangement. It doesn’t have to be great and it doesn’t have to be on par with Duke Ellington. Keep it simple at first.

Here are some examples of ways to start tunes, end tunes and ideas for the body of the tune as well.

• The band plays the changes from the last 4 or 8 bars as an intro
• One instrument plays the first A section out front rubato then sets up the time and cues in the band
• The drummer takes 8 bars out front
• Play the A sections swing feel and the bridge a Latin feel
• Play the A sections Latin and the bridge swing
• Experiment and mix up different time feels on different sections of the tunes—swing, double time, Latin, rock, half-time, calypso, Bossa Nova, Afro-Cuban, two feel, metric modulation (go to 6/4 or ¾). The possibilities are endless
• Bring the dynamic way down on the bridge
• Have the comping instrument drop out for the first chorus of every solo
• Write rhythmic kicks that the band (except the soloist) plays during the first chorus of every solo
• Tag the turnaround and fade out
• End on beat one of the top
• Learn classic jazz endings and apply them to the tune
• Tag the turnaround and switch the groove
• End on the melody and have the saxophonist play a credenza

That’s just a small sampling of what is possible. Use your imagination and start with what you know now. As you do more and more of this you will get better and better at it and you will come up with hipper ways to arrange a tune on the fly. Eventually these things will start to happened spontaneously, and that’s the whole idea.

The more focused your rehearsal the more productive they will be and the better your band will sound. Play like this for awhile and soon the band will develop a group sound. Be sure to get together with like minded musicians who are interested in learning and challenging themselves. Soon your band will be killin’ it on the bandstand too.

Chris Punis is an active jazz musician in the northeast. He is founding member of the critically acclaimed group Gypsy Schaeffer and a member of renowned saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase’s group The Explorer’s Club. Chris is also an accomplished jazz educator and author of “The Monster Jazz Formula”. For more information about his teaching methods and to receive your free lessons, “21 Great Ways To Become a Monster Jazz Musician”, visit www.learnjazzfaster.com