Whenever you hear someone tearing up the keys, you can count on the fact that they spent hours, days, weeks, and months, doing exactly what Aimee is pulling back the curtain and demonstrating in this video.

Bird himself went through this same process when, as a teenager, he disappeared for a long gig in 1937 in the Ozarks, where among other things, he lovingly mastered Lester Young solos phrase by phrase the same way Aimee is demonstrating in this video.

You don’t have to be a musician to appreciate this.

Also, you don’t have to stay on the other side of the velvet rope as a fan. There’s no law against going through music you love with this level of attention even if it’s just to appreciate it more and you have no intention of playing it.

This is how music is learned. No special secret.