In my line of work I came across a number of people who can’t wait and learn a few essential skills, and hit the ground running. These people believe that execution is more important than learning the skills to properly execute the idea.

People like this wants immediate gratification and pass over things that are “childish” or “time consuming”. There were even some musicians I know that even skipped completely over the basic chord patterns and progressions that were all necessary for them to progress and grow as an artist, in the hopes of “becoming the rock star of tomorrow”.

Everything needs time to grow. You can’t really plan the seeds in your garden and expect to harvest apples the next day. This rule of nature applies to almost everything in the world. But that basic law can be readily missed because our society today pushes the idea of everything INSTANT. However, that basic rule can be readily set aside because today, we push the idea of everything INSTANT.

If you join the hype, you can lose 30 pounds in a week, learn the Sun Salutations in three days, and get your Master’s degree in a month. Taking things slowly, what do you think is the quality that you can have? How many moves can you readily memorize in 7 days? Can you do a Head-stand without killing yourself if you rush Yoga?

A lot of musicians refuse to learn to play the bass and form a rock band on the spot. They get all the cool gadgets, starts pounding things up, and realize that they are up against a brick wall.

What I learned from Dave Frank’s workshop last week when he showed us the very entertaining and equally talented Marx Brothers, is this: you have to learn he rules first before you can break them. Although the techniques and the exhibitions that Chico Marx did was definitely beyond any formal piano lesson, I am certain that he knew the basics at the very least. Chico fired the wrong notes intentionally to entertain, but the piece still was great – he hit the “perfect wrong notes”. And there is no way that he can think of that if he did not know which ones were on the scale.

You have to learn the rules before you deviate. As a musician, you should learn the proper scales and chords first before you can improvise.

If you have heard about him he is not just some jazz musician and teacher.. Dave is one of the hottest solo jazz pianists music educators on the jazz scene today, author of Hal Leonard’s best-selling book series Joy of Improv.

The Dave Frank Marx Brothers Master Class is available on Youtube. To view just click that link.

Here is the first of six videos from that class.