How Jazzadvice Works
Lessons
Lessons explore specific ideas designed to stand on their own, but they become even more powerful when they start connecting.
Courses
Courses organize major topics like language and ear training into a clear progression, helping you build a deep understanding and knowledge, step by step.
PRO
PRO is how members support Jazzadvice and gain access to our most in-depth lessons & courses, helping us continue to create the best work we can.
Ready to start Exploring?
4 Legendary Bye Bye Blackbird Solos (And What to Steal From Each)
Bye Bye Blackbird is a tune that looks simple on paper, yet one that can become surprisingly challenging the moment you begin to solo. And in Part II of our…
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How to Play V7 to I like a Pro: 5 Techniques from the Masters
One thing that gets lost in the day to day mentality of practicing jazz improvisation is this simple fact – you don’t have to solve EVERY musical problem each time…
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Mastering Forward Motion in Jazz Improvisation
When you first start learning to improvise, the focus is often on which notes work over a chord…which scale to play, finding the key, or memorizing chord symbols. But over…
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A Lesson With Chet Baker: But Not For Me
What if there were a jazz musician that didn’t rely on scales, licks, or patterns, but instead sought only to play what they’d sing? What would this musician sound like?…
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How to Use Sequences Like Paul Desmond in 5 Simple Steps
Paul Desmond plays the alto saxophone unlike any other…sweet, melodic, and precise, always leading the listener through a clear story from one musical idea to the next – It’s as…
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The 4 Bar Problem and The Power of Riffs
In jazz, there are some harmonic situations that seem like they should be easy, but they’re just not. For example, have you ever tried to play over a single major…
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4 Things To Practice This Summer That’ll ACTUALLY Improve Your Solos!
Ahh the summer…a time to take a break from the daily grind and a moment to take stock of your progress. A few months to relax, reset, and refocus on…
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All Blues – Miles, Coltrane, & Cannonball Techniques
Have you ever tried to play over a so-called easy tune, only to find that it’s not actually that easy? All Blues, one of the most incredible tracks from the…
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Miles Davis: The Power of the Triad
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the musical masters that we look up to isn’t their ability to create incredibly fast and complex lines or even their vast library of…
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How to Get Unstuck – Conquer Any Jazz Tune In 5 Steps
Every musician knows the feeling…you’ve picked out a tune to learn in the practice room. You’ve figured out the melody and memorized the chord progression. And you’re ready to start…
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5 Powerful Storytelling Tactics for Your Next Jazz Solo
Think of a jazz standard that you often play. One that you’ve been working on in the practice room. Picture the chord progression in your mind and imagine yourself getting…
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Chick Corea: 7 Essential Dominant Chord Techniques
Chick Corea is one of the true giants of this music. A name that’s synonymous with dizzying technique, stunning harmonies, and an unmistakeable creativity that is apparent on every one…
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How To Play Like Michael Brecker For Mortals
Michael Brecker is one of the greatest saxophonists to arise after John Coltrane. Like Trane, he took the instrument places it had never gone before, adding new fingerings, effects, and…
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How to Stop Playing the Same Ideas in Every Solo
Do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that you’re playing the same solo over and over again? As if you’re traveling down a familiar well-worn path in every single tune,…
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Are You Stuck in The Beginner Cycle? Take the Quiz
Do you feel like you’re always trying to catch up? Like everyone else pursuing music started fifty steps ahead of you and the only way you’ll reach them is by…
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6 Surprisingly Modern Solo Techniques from Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong is called many things: a musical pioneer, the father of American music, the first great soloist, and the catalyst for countless creative musicians around the world… But for…
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6 Easy Ways To Improve Melodic Improvisation
You dream of becoming the type of player that can improvise with ease over any tune. A musician with an endless supply of creative ideas to play at a moment’s…
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The Struggle Effect: How to Unlock Your Musical Potential
As an aspiring musician today, you should consider yourself lucky. What I mean is, right now, you have access to more information, more resources, and more answers than any musician…
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While lessons generally explore individual ideas, our expansive courses provide a structured way to go deeper, organizing major concepts into a connected approach that develops understanding over time.
Jazz Theory Unlocked
Jazz Theory Unlocked
A clear approach to understanding harmony and how tunes actually work — focused on the “why” behind jazz theory, and how everything connects into one clear framework.
The Ear Training Method
The Ear Training Method
A structured ear training system designed to help you hear chord movement, learn tunes by ear, and connect sound directly to theory.
Melodic Power
Melodic Power
A super detailed exploration of jazz language, helping you move beyond scales and understand how strong melodies are really built.
Visualization for Jazz Improvisation
Visualization for Jazz Improvisation
A practical way to organize chords and progressions mentally, making it easier to memorize tunes and think clearly through chord changes.
Reprogramming the Musical Mind
Reprogramming the Musical Mind
A focused course on the performance aspect of playing, addressing confidence, creativity, and the mindset needed to perform and practice with ease.
Who is Jazzadvice?
We’re Forrest & Eric. We’ve spent years learning directly from some of the greatest jazz musicians of our time — including Mulgrew Miller, Rich Perry, and Harold Mabern — and many others who shaped how this music is actually played and passed down.
Jazzadvice exists to take the insights that are usually shared informally at the professional level and make them clear, practical, and usable — without watering them down or stripping away their depth.
Forrest Wernick
Saxophone
Forrest has spent years studying and performing across the country, learning directly from master musicians, with close study under Rich Perry and Harold Mabern.
Eric O’Donnell
Trumpet
Eric has spent years studying and performing throughout the East Coast, training with master musicians including Bill Mobley, Mulgrew Miller, and Jack Schantz.
PRO Membership
Joining PRO is how members support everything we create and gain access to our most in-depth lessons and courses — where ideas have the space to connect, build, and compound over time.
Inside PRO, everything follows the same approach you see throughout Jazzadvice: going deep, focusing on how and why things work, and building an understanding that actually holds up when you play.
What PRO Unlocks
- Unlimited access to the full Jazzadvice lesson library — deep dives into harmony, improvisation, ear training, rhythm, and more, designed to be revisited as your playing evolves.
- In-depth jazz courses built as complete learning paths — structured programs that organize major topics into a connected progression and continue to reveal new insights over time.
- Everything new we create, included automatically — new lessons, courses, and tools added as Jazzadvice continues to grow and expand.
What PRO Supports
PRO members are the reason Jazzadvice continues to grow. Your support allows us to push further, creating better resources designed to help you reach the next level in your playing.
We’re deeply grateful to every member who supports the site. It’s what keeps us motivated, inspired, and excited about where Jazzadvice is headed.
Start Where You Are
Wherever you are in your playing, Jazzadvice is built to help you move forward
Lessons
Explore the Lesson Library
Browse individual lessons that focus on specific ideas you can apply right away — and return to as your understanding grows.
Courses
Go Deeper with Courses
Work through structured courses that organize major topics into a clear progression, helping you build long-term understanding step by step.
PRO
Unlock Everything
PRO supports everything we create and gives you access to our most in-depth lessons, complete courses, and everything new we release.
Download Our New 70-Page Jazz Book (Free)
And join over 100,000 jazz musicians receiving Jazzadvice each week
The Making of a Jazz Musician is a 70-page book about the realizations that reshape how jazz musicians actually learn to hear and play the music.
The ideas in this book grew out of years of lessons with great musicians of the tradition, thousands of hours studying recordings, wrong turns in the practice room, and deep conversations that slowly reshaped how we understood the music.
Each chapter explores a moment when something we thought we understood about jazz turned out to be incomplete and how seeing it differently changed everything.
Download the book free and join over 100,000 jazz musicians receiving Jazzadvice each week. We share new lessons, ideas we’re working through, and thoughtful resources designed to help you keep improving.
We’re glad you’re here.
Forrest & Eric
Jazzadvice