Joe, there are BiaB Real Book files with melodies in the public domain as well as some pay source. Here is a recent discussion.

For some people, jazz improvisation is easy and intuitive. I'm not one of those people. I'd recommend learning as much jazz theory as you can, understanding the essential jazz cliches, and listening to improvisations that you like and figuring out why you like them and how they get that effect. Then you can start to build an improv vocabulary. But it all goes back to YOUR ears though, and not repeating a string of cliche licks. It is a journey, but can be an enjoyable and rewarding one...

Good luck!


DC Ron
BiaB Audiophile
Presonus Studio One
ASUS I9-12900K DAW, 32 GB RAM
Presonus Faderport 16
Too many guitars (is that a thing?)