Really get it together as it’s supposed to go, but also explore with it; take it down the road, take it for a walk around the block, climb to the top of a building and come back down with it, and then come back and play it exactly as it’s supposed to be as well.
There is no end point. The more you learn, the more that you find out there is to learn.
~Ingrid Jensen, from the interview
Ingrid Jensen on Practice (mp3: 57:05)
Ingrid Jensen is an excellent jazz trumpet player, and I’m so stoked that she’s willing to share her ideas about music practice. Ingrid lives in New York and gives concerts and clinics internationally. Jensen can be heard with the Grammy winning Maria Schneider Orchestra, the IJQ with Geoffrey Keezer, Project O, Nordic Connect, Darcie James Argue’s Secret Society and other NYC projects. She’s received stellar reviews and has a strong reputation among both critics and peers. In 2003 she was nominated for a Jazz Journalist Association Award in New York for the second time, alongside trumpeter Dave Douglas. Ingrid is seen yearly in the top five of the Downbeat Critic polls in the “talent deserving wider recognition” category
When I talk with artists like Ingrid, it’s all I can do to stay focused on practice, because artists of her caliber are usually doing many interesting things. One of the coolest things I learned about that we didn’t have time to discuss is the way Ingrid gets her music out there. And it’s not just her music, but the process, too. At her ArtistShare site you can access all kinds of material that let you glimpse part of her creative process. If you’re interested in playing music for a living (or just interested in how musicians do their thing) you should check it out.
It sounds like one of her upcoming projects is to put up some videos on practice, so keep an eye out for that. Maybe she’ll come back and talk to us about it when the material is released….
- Ingrid’s Artist Share site (This is a great way to get some insight into the creative process. Check it!)
- Laurie Frink (info, online lessons)
- Carmine Caruso
- Freddie Hubard (info, vids, music samples)
- Kenny Dorham (info, vids, music)
- Lester Young (info, vids, music)
- Louis Armstrong (info, vids, music)
- Chuck Mangione (info, vids, music)
- Dizzy Gillespie (info, vids, music)
- Oscar Peterson (info, vids, music)
- Duke Ellington (info, vids, music)
- Port Townsend, WA: Centrum Jazz Camp– (all levels and ages, so go to it! entrance placement info for trumpet here)
- Phil Woods (info, vids, music)
- Tom Harrel (info, vids, music)
- Hal Galper (info, vids, music)
- Bobby Shew (info, vids, music)
- Elvin Jones (info, vids, music)
- Drone producers: electric tanpura (aka: tambura)
- Håkan Hardenberger (video masterclass, other vids)
- Adam Rapa: (vid, music). Adam teaches lessons over Skype. Go sign up!
- Secret Society (Darcy James Argue)
- Maria Schneider (info, vids, music)
- John McLaughlin (info, vids, music)
• Psycho-cybernetics – Maxwell Maltz (and the New Psycho-cybernetics) • The Power of Now- Eckhart Tolle • Effortless Mastery- Kenny Werner (my review of it is here) • Way of the Peaceful Warrior- Dan Millman ****** • Freeplay- Stephen Nachmanovich (my review of it is here) • The Inner Game of Tennis- Tim Galloway • The Inner Game of Music- Green and Galloway (my review) • If you want to Write- Brenda Euland • The Art of Happiness- The Dalai Lama • Focusing- Eugene T. Gendlin • Be Kind to Yourself- Gary Null • The Wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh • The Artists Way –Julia Cameron *** Highly recommended. • Vocal Wisdom- Giovanno Battista Lamperti • Think on These Things –Krishnamurti • Zen in the Art of Archery • Sugar Blues (you will never eat white sugar again!) • Fast Food Nation • Fasting- Paul Bragg • Feel the fear and do it anyways. • A Tooth from the Tigers Mouth- Tom Bisio • Non-Violent Communication- Dr.Michael Rosenburg MD • The Speeches of Martin Luther King Jazz Books (click to preview or buy) • Bird • Miles- The Autobiography • Music is my Mistress- Duke Ellington • Castles made of Sound- Gil Evans • Footprints (Wayne Shorter) – Michelle Mercer • Morning Glory- The Story of Mary Lou Williams Method books • John McNeil- The Art of Jazz trumpet and How to Play Jazz • Hal Crook-How to Improvise • Forward Motion –Hal Galper • Flexus – Laurie Frink and John McNeil
Here’s a video of Ingrid playing and talking. Enjoy. Have fun and good luck with your practice!
Want to learn more about the best ways to practice? Get an e-mail with a discount code when The Practice of Practice is published (June, 2014). To learn more about the book, check out a sample from The Practice of Practice.
The Practice of Practice 
Mr. Harnum,
Thank you so much for your gifts to the community. You have given away a lot of really good work in your books and blogs. And it seems that you are on the verge of something great with your research.
Your interviews have given awesome answers because of excellent questions and interview process.
You are definitely walking the tightrope between the rules (nomothetic: this is how to do it) and the individual (ideographic: this is the way it works for me) Psychological research has shown differences between what the psychologists believe works (their theoretical rules) and what patients have reported that helped them. As a therapist I have found that both are very important and when treatment works it is like the dissonance of these voices resolves into awesome harmonies. Your interviews seem like duets with the two voices searching for an ineffable theme. Dude, I’m sure that you are going to find a way to say it! Listen very carefully to those resonances between what the two of you are saying, the overtones that emerge only when both are singing.
George Leonard said that enlightenment is a gift of grace; it is always accidental, therefore we practice to become more accident prone. I hope you’ll have an excellent accident !
Thanks for the wonderful comment, Clyde. I like the nomothetic/ideographic lens you’ve applied to this data. I might just steal that idea and put it in the dissertation. It’s a good way to think about these issues. The interviews do feel like duets, but improvised, with the master (the people I interview) improvising fluidly, and me frequently referring to my notes so I keep focus. Good stuff is coming from the analysis of the data. Thanks for the encouragement!
A little late to the party but just listened to this. Loved it, very insightful.