A student interested in learning how to improvise should hear a few great jazz players, either live or on recordings, and then start practicing and learning. This means reading and playing many jazz "heads" or melodies, and if possible, playing many transcribed solos of jazz greats. A student need not hear a great player many times before the realization occurs that it is advisable to reduce the amount of time spent listening and begin woodshedding.

In the early days of the big bands, the term woodshedding was introduced by jazz musicians to indicate long practice sessions in a private place where the musician could practice alone and undisturbed, as in a woodshed hide-away where in childhood he might have sneaked a secretive corncob pipe. Frank Tirro, in his Jazz, A History, states: "Woodshedding refers to practicing or rehearsing in private, in order to gain technical mastery of one's instrument before going into a jam session."

To many players, woodshedding also means practicing as a group, practicing a new song in private, or practicing to get a part "down". Many great jazz players have taken a period of time off from public performance and recording to practice alone and rethink improvisational techniques and create new material. Woodshedding is a self-imposed exile that any creative musician must endure to reach his or her true potential.

As all successful jazz musicians know, practicing alone is an important component in the acquisition of music reading ability, technical facility, tone production, range and endurance, sightreading ability and theoretical knowledge, which all lead to improvisational skills.