This article is written by Toru Hoshino, a jazz bassist and instructor based in Japan who teaches online lessons to students worldwide. In this article, he answers a question he gets all the time: is improvising really just about natural talent?
Contents
Is Jazz Improvisation Really About Natural Talent?
Today I want to answer a question I get a lot: “Isn’t improvising really just about having natural talent?”
When you hit a wall with improvising or walking bass, it’s easy to think “I guess I just don’t have the talent for this.” I’ll say it flat out: talent has nothing to do with it. I don’t even use the word “talent” in my lessons.
What actually matters far more is the order you tackle things in.
Say someone with zero foundational knowledge jumps straight into copying a Jaco Pastorius phrase. Even if they manage to copy it, ask them to play over just the chords on their own, and they’re not going to sound anything like Jaco. But that’s not because they lack talent — it’s because they skipped way too many steps.
There’s nothing wrong with picking up the bass because “Jaco is so cool!” — but a lot of his vocabulary is genuinely advanced. Without the foundational knowledge, working on advanced phrases just leaves you thinking, “this sounds cool, but I have no idea why.”
It’s a bit like watching a foreign film without subtitles before you even know “I,” “you,” or “this is.”
But if you go through the right steps in the right order, you can absolutely reach the place most players want to be: reading a chord chart and playing off it, without leaning on tab.
I spent years playing nothing but punk rock myself. By working through things step by step, I’m now able to improvise at jam sessions around town.
It’s not about talent. Set that word aside, and when you feel stuck, ask instead: am I actually working through this in the right order? That’s the more useful question.
Figuring out which step you’re actually missing is hard to see from the inside — but it’s usually obvious to a teacher listening from the outside.
Want Personalized Feedback on Your Playing?
This is exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to fix alone — and where having a teacher makes all the difference.
At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.
Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.