Are You Trying To Learn Jazz Improvisation in Reverse??
You learn scales. You faithfully practice triads and arpeggios in every key. You memorize chord progressions & learn tunes. And then you improvise… Sound familiar? This is the standard approach…
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Jazz Harmony: Why You’re Overlooking This Crucial Skill
When I started learning how to improvise, the one thing I really wanted to figure out was how to create improvised lines like my musical heroes… Listening to players like…
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3 Secrets to Soloing with the Pentatonic Scale: A Lesson with McCoy Tyner
No pianist has influenced the modern approach to jazz piano more than McCoy Tyner. From players like Chick Corea and Mulgrew Miller to non-pianists like Woody Shaw and Michael Brecker,…
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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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Herbie Hancock Plays You’re My Everything
As a listener, it’s thrilling to hear world-class musicians improvise flawless solos over crazy tempos & impossible progressions. But one of my favorite things, is listening to my musical heroes…
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How to Play in 3/4 Time: Hank Mobley on Someday My Prince Will Come
Of all the time signatures that we encounter in jazz or any other music, the most common by far is 4/4, meaning it has 4 beats per measure and a…
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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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The Transcription Step Most Jazz Players Skip
There’s a common saying that any great improvisation boils down to one thing: “playing what you hear”. And over the years, I’ve found this to be true… The more you can…
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How To Master The ii-V-I Progression: 25 Essential Lines You Need To Know
There are certain things that you need to do if you want to improve your musical skills…Setting aside time each day to practice. Listening to important recordings. Seeking out teachers to…
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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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Bill Evans: 4 Tools for Creating Harmonic Motion
For any improviser learning jazz standards, one of the greatest challenges isn’t just learning the chords to a tune – it’s making music with them when you take a solo.…
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10 Hidden Gems from Charlie Parker on the Blues
When it comes to the blues, few voices sing as clearly, or as creatively, as Charlie Parker’s. While Bird is often celebrated for his iconic solos and well-known standards, there’s…
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How Bye Bye Blackbird Really Works (Form, Variations, and Solo Concepts)
Of all the standards in the jazz repertoire, there are certain tunes that seem to play themselves. Songs where you can simply outline a few chord tones, follow the changes,…
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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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10 Levels of Playing the Bridge to Rhythm Changes
From the moment George Gershwin’s composition I Got Rhythm entered the jazz repertoire, it quickly became one of the most played, and most important, song forms in this music… And…
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Tom Harrell Plays There Will Never Be Another You
One of the best ways to learn a standard and find answers when you’re completely stuck is simple: check out the masters playing the same tunes you’re working on. Not…
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9 Incredible Jazz Piano Solos You Should Know
The piano is a cornerstone of this music, lending some of the finest composers, soloists, and forward thinking improvisers throughout history. And as a serious musician, you should be studying…
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The Relative Minor Formula in Every Standard
One of the keys to developing a more musical approach to navigating chord progressions is not only learning the definitions of chords – but understanding how they relate to each…
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Mastering IV to I Movement: 8 Secrets from Sonny Clark
When you’re starting out, it can seem like the secret to improvising boils down to what you play on each chord. It’s all about the notes, the scale options, and…
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Bird Blues: A Player’s Guide
Charlie Parker’s iconic take on the Blues form, commonly referred to as the “Bird Blues,” is a staple of the modern jazz repertoire and a rite of passage for every…
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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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The Transcription Step Most Jazz Players Skip
There’s a common saying that any great improvisation boils down to one thing: “playing what you hear”. And over the years, I’ve found this to be true… The more you can…
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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 Night in Tunisia: Navigating the Interlude & Solo Break
The interlude and solo break of A Night in Tunisia is a scary moment. The build up. The intensity. All eyes are on you. The band drops out, and somehow…
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5 Next-Level Jazz Contrafacts You Should Know
Taking something old and making it new is an integral part this music. And when it comes to the standard repertoire, this idea pops up in the form of contrafacts:…
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Inside Mulgrew Miller’s Solo: You Stepped Out of a Dream
A great solo can teach us many things (on many levels) about the way we improvise – from simply finding the “right notes” that fit a progression, to the finer…
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11 Modern Jazz Compositions That’ll Transform Your Playing
Beyond standards and bebop melodies lie what what we might call modern jazz tunes – the compositions of musical innovators who pushed the music in a new direction. And navigating…
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10 Tritone Substitution Tactics from Kenny Dorham
Tritone Substitution is one of those terms you often hear tossed around in music theory classes. A definition to memorize, but not something that actually makes it into your playing……
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8 Rhythmic Ideas That’ll Spark Your Creativity
One of the hardest parts of improvising is the expectation that you need to be creative all the time. The pressure to continually come up with new and interesting ideas…
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10 Surprising Secrets to Jazz Phrasing I Learned From John Coltrane
John Coltrane is probably best known for Countdown and Giant Steps, or his earth-shattering intensity on A Love Supreme. But often overlooked is the depth and beauty of his phrasing…
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How to Decode Greatness – The Process to Solve Any Jazz Improvisation Problem
Every single musician to ever embark on learning to improvise jazz runs into countless musical problems. That’s just the way it is. One problem after another, figuring out different ways…
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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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The Powerful Rhythmic Principles of Charlie Parker
With his unique improvisational style and innovative approach, Charlie Parker not only revolutionized how to play alto saxophone, but how to play jazz as a whole. He had a concept…
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The Art of Jazz Phrasing: Six Secrets from Chet Baker
Beyond scales, music theory, and all those memorized licks lies something that gets to the core of what improvisation is all about – the art of crafting musical ideas. It’s…
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5 Skills You Won’t Learn in School, Skill Three: The Secret to Great Time
Ever feel like something is missing from your solos? You spend hours learning tunes and transcribing solos from your favorite recordings, you’ve memorized the chord progressions and diligently practiced the…
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Joe Henderson Plays Recorda Me
Recorda Me is one of Joe Henderson’s most famous compositions. Recorded on his epic album Page One from 1963, he actually composed the popular jazz standard when he was only…
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The Forgotten Side of Jazz Phrasing: A Lesson With Miles Davis
Phrasing is one of those things that everyone talks about, but most cannot clearly define. Like the concept of “swing,” it’s something you can feel and hear, but as soon…
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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 Beginner’s Guide to Jazz Articulation: Coltrane Techniques Demystified
It’s the subtleties of jazz articulation that make melodies come alive. But, being so subtle, articulation is one of those concepts that’s difficult to grasp, or for that matter, even…
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How to Play in 3/4 Time: Hank Mobley on Someday My Prince Will Come
Of all the time signatures that we encounter in jazz or any other music, the most common by far is 4/4, meaning it has 4 beats per measure and a…
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3 Simple Steps Toward Playing What You Hear
You’ve heard it time and time again…PLAY WHAT YOU HEAR!! But when it comes to improvising jazz, how do you actually go about playing what you’re hearing? And how do…
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Happy New Year! 8 Musical Resolutions That Will Change Your Playing
A new year is the perfect time to look back at what you’ve accomplished in the practice room and to look forward to what you still wish to achieve as…
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How to Think Like a Pro Jazz Musician: Michael Brecker and The Power of Simplicity
It sounds so complex. So difficult. So advanced. Great jazz musicians sound as though they’re implementing highly complex and difficult concepts that mere mortals could never hope to access, but…
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Visualization One Key At A Time
They say that time is money, but in jazz improvisation, it’s even more than that! Time is what’s passing by while you’re desperately trying to recall the next chord change…
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What To Practice: A Free Presentation on The 3 Essential Pieces of Practicing Jazz Improvisation
Nearly every day we get asked, “What should I practice?” And, this is not an easy question to answer. In fact, it’s pretty complicated. So, in an attempt to help…
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Overcoming Mental Limitations in Music
I can’t. We’ve all said these fateful words at one point or another. Fill in the blank for your own situation. “I can’t (____)”…draw, run long distances, wake up early,…
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Ingraining Jazz Language Through Visualization
We talk a lot about ingraining language. It’s vital to have an array of ideas at your fingertips for any given harmonic situation. And these ideas should be so ingrained…
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How to Avoid the 4 Harmful Mindsets that are Sabotaging Your Practice Routine…
If you’re serious about reaching your musical potential or stepping up your jazz improvisation game then the majority of your time as a musician should be spent in one place:…
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Your Jazz Improvisation Audit: 36 Questions That Will Show You What You REALLY Know
It’s time to get down to business…The business of finding out if you’re on track to achieve your musical goals and develop into the musician you want to become. While…
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How to Practice in Your Head – Brain Training 101 For Jazz Musicians
After hours spent in the practice room are you still having trouble remembering the chord changes to a standard you endlessly practiced, or the details of a jazz line you…
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The Jazz Musician’s Most Important Tool: How To Strengthen Your Musical Memory
What is a jazz musician’s most important tool? Is it their ear? Their technique? The concepts at their disposal? All of these are extremely important, but without this one specific…
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Use the Power of Visualization to Improve Faster than Ever. We’ll show you how in our New eBook…
Picture this. You’re backstage before a big performance waiting for your turn to step into the spotlight. A few steps away from the curtain you can hear the murmur of the…
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Jazz Harmony: Why You’re Overlooking This Crucial Skill
When I started learning how to improvise, the one thing I really wanted to figure out was how to create improvised lines like my musical heroes… Listening to players like…
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15 Jazz Improvisation Projects You Can Do at Home
As musicians, we often dream big and set lofty goals for where we want our playing to go. And the one place where we go to turn these dreams into…
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How to Learn a New Jazz Tune Every Day
Learning tunes goes hand in hand with being a jazz musician. But if you’ve ever tried to learn a tune by ear or attempted to memorize a list of jazz…
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The Art of Playing One Chord: A Lesson with Miles & Trane
There are a lot of skills you need in jazz improvisation…Developing great ears, a knowledge of tunes, instrumental technique, and a mastery of jazz language… But there’s one question that…
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How to Practice in Your Head – Brain Training 101 For Jazz Musicians
After hours spent in the practice room are you still having trouble remembering the chord changes to a standard you endlessly practiced, or the details of a jazz line you…
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Jazz Chords – The Definitive Guide to Mastery
Jazz chords are at the very heart of why jazz sounds the way it does and as a player, these sounds are essential to have in your ear on a…
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How to Build Your Jazz Vocabulary Fast
When you’re first starting out on your journey learning how to play jazz, you’ll typically come across two different camps of how to go about things… One camp believes that…
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3 Transitions in the Blues You Gotta Nail: Charlie Parker Bosses the Blues
Blues is the backbone of so much in jazz. The melancholic feeling. The soul. The call-and-response phrasing, walking groove, and clearly defined melodic statements…blues is ingrained in jazz at its…
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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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7 Crucial Lessons from History’s Greatest Improvisers
I’m guessing you’ve heard of Miles Davis. That you know Louis Armstrong and have listened to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. But have you ever stopped and wondered why you…
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Breaking Down the Jazz Repertoire – It Could Happen To You
You’ve got a list of tunes that you’re excited to learn. Song titles scribbled on a piece of paper, lead sheets saved on your phone, and videos of your favorite…
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3 Reasons Why You Should Sing Everyday
Have you ever wondered why great pianists, guitarists, bassists, and drummers often sing along as they improvise? Ever noticed how many of the best horn players also happen to be…
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How to Decode Greatness – The Process to Solve Any Jazz Improvisation Problem
Every single musician to ever embark on learning to improvise jazz runs into countless musical problems. That’s just the way it is. One problem after another, figuring out different ways…
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Why Melody is the Secret to Playing Better Jazz Solos
Ask any musician or teacher what you should practice to develop exceptional jazz improvisation skills, and you usually hear words like “Scales” and “Modes” or “Guide-tone lines.” Sometimes even “Transcribing”……
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Master All The Things You Are Part II: The Bridge
All the Things You Are is one of the first tunes musicians learn when it comes to jazz improvisation. But unlike many players think, it’s not exactly an “easy tune”…
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The Art of Jazz Phrasing: Six Secrets from Chet Baker
Beyond scales, music theory, and all those memorized licks lies something that gets to the core of what improvisation is all about – the art of crafting musical ideas. It’s…
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Jazz Trumpet Players You Should Know
Developing as an improviser means knowing the history of the important players and recordings that came before you – and a crucial part of this musical history centers around jazz…
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Tune Up – 3 Legendary Solos
Tune Up is one of those classic up-tempo jazz standards that every player should work on. Composed by Eddie Vinson, It became super well known when legendary trumpeter player Miles…
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10 Brilliant Jazz Solos And What You Can Learn From Them
There is a secret that all great musicians have in common. You won’t hear it on their recordings or even in their live performances. And some may even deny it…
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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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Modal Jazz 101 – Tricks, Tips, & Approaches From Miles Davis
Always searching for a new sound to explore and share with the world, jazz musicians are constantly trying to evolve and push the music forward, reaching for something different and…
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Learn Doxy From Miles Davis: How Charts Mislead You
Doxy is one of those classic Sonny Rollins tunes that gradually made its way into the jazz standard repertoire. Originally recorded in 1954 and released on the album Miles Davis…
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Tune Up – 3 Legendary Solos
Tune Up is one of those classic up-tempo jazz standards that every player should work on. Composed by Eddie Vinson, It became super well known when legendary trumpeter player Miles…
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The Forgotten Side of Jazz Phrasing: A Lesson With Miles Davis
Phrasing is one of those things that everyone talks about, but most cannot clearly define. Like the concept of “swing,” it’s something you can feel and hear, but as soon…
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How to Decode Greatness – The Process to Solve Any Jazz Improvisation Problem
Every single musician to ever embark on learning to improvise jazz runs into countless musical problems. That’s just the way it is. One problem after another, figuring out different ways…
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15 Jazz Improvisation Projects You Can Do at Home
As musicians, we often dream big and set lofty goals for where we want our playing to go. And the one place where we go to turn these dreams into…
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Well You Needn’t – How to Dominate This Jam Session Tune
If you’ve ever been to a jam session before, you’ve probably encountered the famous Thelonious Monk tune Well You Needn’t. Over the years, it’s become one of the most popular…
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How to Create a Thematic Jazz Solo
Have you ever felt like you’re missing a piece of the puzzle when it comes to improvisation? As if you’re following all the rules, yet still not playing the music…
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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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The Art of Playing One Chord: A Lesson with Miles & Trane
There are a lot of skills you need in jazz improvisation…Developing great ears, a knowledge of tunes, instrumental technique, and a mastery of jazz language… But there’s one question that…
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Jazz Trumpet Players You Should Know
Developing as an improviser means knowing the history of the important players and recordings that came before you – and a crucial part of this musical history centers around jazz…
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Miles Davis Chromatic Tactics: 3 Key Phrases To Know
When you think of intricate and flowing chromatic lines, you probably think of Miles Davis. In particular, those amazing musical phrases he often played with his second great quintet in…
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The Ultimate Guide to Bebop Tunes: 30 Essential Songs
Bebop, or the innovative musical revolution of the 1940’s led by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, is one of the pillars of learning to improvise as a modern musician. …and…
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5 mistakes you’re making with major chords you have to fix now
Major chords are the easiest type of chord, right? We learn our major scales on Day #1 and from then on, soloing over a major chord is a piece of…
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5 Steps to Becoming A Lyrical Master With Altered Dominants: A Lesson With Stan Getz
Alterations are at the heart of jazz. In no other genre of music can you freely alter chords in a such a fluid and flexible manner. As chords whiz by,…
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How to Play Jazz Standards Your Way
You’re on stage. In the practice room. Or rehearsing with your friends. It’s time to run through yet another jazz standard. But here’s the thing, this time you’re not going…
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The Girl From Ipanema: Learning from the Masters
The Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim is well known to improvisers with dozens of tunes frequently played and recorded in the jazz repertoire. However, one song in particular stands out……
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How to Play Cherokee like a Pro: 24 Melodic Tricks for Insanely Fast Tempos
Have you ever wondered how the best players can play incredibly fast, regardless of the key, the chords, or the tune? I’m not just talking about running memorized licks and technical…
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Paul Desmond’s Secrets to Take The A Train
Take The A Train is one of the most classic jazz standards you’ll ever come across. Composed by Billy Strayhorn, the tune quickly became the featured tune of The Duke…
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Unlock Rhythm Changes & Blues With These 6 Melodies
As musicians, we often treat the songs of the jazz repertoire in the same predictable way. We learn the chords, memorize the notes of the melody, and then we skip…
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9 Jazz Standards That’ll Boost Your Melodic Skills
You know the routine…You pick out a new tune, read through the melody, and start to work on a solo. You’ve got a few ideas, throw in a couple of…
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How Master Improvisers Actually Think About Tunes
As a musician, you often find yourself listening to the best improvisers you can. Searching for inspiration, guidance, and answers to the challenges you’re facing. Especially when it comes to…
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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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Why Melody is the Secret to Playing Better Jazz Solos
Ask any musician or teacher what you should practice to develop exceptional jazz improvisation skills, and you usually hear words like “Scales” and “Modes” or “Guide-tone lines.” Sometimes even “Transcribing”……
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5 Kenny Garrett Concepts on Night and Day
Learning a jazz standard or solo transcription can be a tricky process for any musician. But what many players forget is that you don’t have to tackle the entire piece…
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Master The Minor Blues: A Deep Dive into John Coltrane’s Mr. P.C.
The Blues is an essential form to master for every jazz musician, but just like most things in jazz, there are dozens of variations to explore. One of the most…
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10 Charlie Parker Blues Heads Everyone Should Know
We all know about Charlie Parker the revolutionary soloist, but we often overlook Charlie Parker “the composer.” Bird wrote a number of songs over popular song forms that quickly became…
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM![The Clifford Brown Workbook: 11 Exercises on Joy Spring [PDF]](https://www.jazzadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Clifford-Brown-Workbook-768x484.jpg)
The Clifford Brown Workbook: 11 Exercises on Joy Spring [PDF]
Clifford Brown is one of those rare musicians that always seems to play the perfect solo. Every phrase is expertly crafted, every note is musical, and each idea is delivered…
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4 Sonny Rollins Tools to Tackle The V7 of V7 Chord Progression
I can still remember the day I discovered how amazing the ii V7 chord progression could be. After struggling for years, It was as if a locked door finally opened…
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Inside Mulgrew Miller’s Solo: You Stepped Out of a Dream
A great solo can teach us many things (on many levels) about the way we improvise – from simply finding the “right notes” that fit a progression, to the finer…
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Herbie Hancock Plays You’re My Everything
As a listener, it’s thrilling to hear world-class musicians improvise flawless solos over crazy tempos & impossible progressions. But one of my favorite things, is listening to my musical heroes…
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
The Art of Jazz Phrasing: Six Secrets from Chet Baker
Beyond scales, music theory, and all those memorized licks lies something that gets to the core of what improvisation is all about – the art of crafting musical ideas. It’s…
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The Two Minor Tactic: More Tools for Rhythm Changes
After building your fundamentals on Rhythm Changes, you’ll open up a ton of new ways to think about these chords, but the truth is you never stop acquiring tools for…
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Everything You Don’t Know About Minor Harmony in Jazz
Minor harmony is everywhere in jazz. Whether you’re playing a tune in a minor key or a jazz standard that shifts to the relative minor for a section, you need…
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The Sonny Stitt Playbook – His 2 Exercises to Master Minor
What if you had Sonny Stitt’s practice journal in your hands right now? All his genius lines and exercises written out. Everything, literally everything, complete with diagrams and descriptions of…
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The Relative Minor Formula in Every Standard
One of the keys to developing a more musical approach to navigating chord progressions is not only learning the definitions of chords – but understanding how they relate to each…
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Chord Function: Music Theory Fundamentals You Need To Know
Chord function is a confusing topic that is intricately tied to other just as confusing topics like voice leading, harmonic tension and resolution, intervallic content, chord voicings, chord families and…
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Mastering Essential Chord Progressions: Major to Parallel Minor
When it comes to learning tunes, expanding your repertoire, and improving the way you improvise over jazz standards, most players are taking the wrong approach… You see, the secret to…
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8 Easy Ways to Play Minor Chords Like Clifford Brown
Minor chords are found in every style of music, especially in the jazz repertoire. From popular jazz standards and the minor blues, to the ii-V-I progression and the minor vamps…
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Jazz Chords – The Definitive Guide to Mastery
Jazz chords are at the very heart of why jazz sounds the way it does and as a player, these sounds are essential to have in your ear on a…
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6 Roy Hargrove Minor Exercises on What Is This Thing Called Love
When you start to transcribe and discover what your musical heroes are doing, you begin to open up a whole new understanding about how to improvise and approach chord changes.…
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12 Dexter Gordon Lines on Blue Bossa You’d Never Think Of
Blue Bossa is often referred to as a beginner jazz tune, but as you quickly find out as you start your journey into jazz, even these so-called “beginner” tunes are…
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Master The Minor Blues: A Deep Dive into John Coltrane’s Mr. P.C.
The Blues is an essential form to master for every jazz musician, but just like most things in jazz, there are dozens of variations to explore. One of the most…
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How to Beat the “I Don’t Know What to Play” Syndrome in Your Solos
You’re staring at a chord progression on a lead sheet. Thinking through the first few bars of a jazz standard. You’re getting ready to start your solo and carefully choosing…
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Reality Check: Motivating Yourself to Better Musicianship
It’s been a few weeks since the new year when we posted articles on setting goals and making musical resolutions. Did you make some resolutions this year? If so, how…
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Putting on the Pressure: How to Motivate Yourself in the Practice Room
Remember those times in school, where you were assigned a huge project and given a deadline to finish it by? You know, the ones where the teacher threw an enormous…
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8 Rhythmic Ideas That’ll Spark Your Creativity
One of the hardest parts of improvising is the expectation that you need to be creative all the time. The pressure to continually come up with new and interesting ideas…
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Connecting to the Music…Wherever You Are
Music is meant to be heard live. There is no substitute for the visceral experience of sitting in an audience and soaking up a great live performance. Not only hearing…
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The “Idea” vs. the “Technique” in the Mind of the Artist
Imagine that you’re strolling through an art museum on a lazy afternoon. Leisurely, you walk past magnificent paintings, weave between rows of sculpture, and meander through various galleries, each showcasing…
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3 Gems Harold Mabern Told Me
If you don’t know who Harold Mabern is, it’s time you did. The legendary pianist has played with everyone and is on the records of Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, and…
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10 Jazz Improvisation Tips to Remember
There are countless tips for jazz improvisation that you’ll want to remember, but these 10 are essential! 1.) Think quality over quantity Often we are in a hurry to ‘catch…
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10 Things Every Comeback Player Needs to Know
You’re a musician. Or at least you used to be one…You played an instrument in high school, faithfully took private lessons, and performed at dozens of recitals and concerts. Maybe…
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How to Beat the “I Don’t Know What to Play” Syndrome in Your Solos
You’re staring at a chord progression on a lead sheet. Thinking through the first few bars of a jazz standard. You’re getting ready to start your solo and carefully choosing…
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7 Crucial Lessons from History’s Greatest Improvisers
I’m guessing you’ve heard of Miles Davis. That you know Louis Armstrong and have listened to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. But have you ever stopped and wondered why you…
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How Thinking Like a Writer Will Make You a Better Jazz Improviser
Sometimes a change in perspective is all you need. Jazz improvisation is a demanding pursuit, one that combines intellect, feeling and expression. It’s easy to grasp the music theory side…
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10 Exercises to Practice When You’ve Run Out of Ideas
We often get a ton of great questions from our readers about what to practice. These inquiries range from players that are stuck in a daily musical rut to aspiring…
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Mastering Essential Chord Progressions: The I to IV Relationship
When it comes to improving as an improviser, there are only so many tunes you can memorize. Only so many chord symbols and progressions you can force into your brain……
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A Pentatonic Approach to Playing Outside on the Blues
As an improviser, the blues is central to everything that you do…at once a sound, a form, an expressiveness, and a medium through which you can tell your musical story. …
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Master the Jazz Transcription Process: A Step-by-Step Guide to Learning from the Pros
Over the years I’ve attended dozens of masterclasses. Poured through hundreds of interviews with master musicians, and took lessons with the best players I could find. However, after a few…
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8 Easy Ways to Play Minor Chords Like Clifford Brown
Minor chords are found in every style of music, especially in the jazz repertoire. From popular jazz standards and the minor blues, to the ii-V-I progression and the minor vamps…
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15 Jazz Improvisation Projects You Can Do at Home
As musicians, we often dream big and set lofty goals for where we want our playing to go. And the one place where we go to turn these dreams into…
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10 Charlie Parker Blues Heads Everyone Should Know
We all know about Charlie Parker the revolutionary soloist, but we often overlook Charlie Parker “the composer.” Bird wrote a number of songs over popular song forms that quickly became…
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The Ultimate Guide to Bebop Tunes: 30 Essential Songs
Bebop, or the innovative musical revolution of the 1940’s led by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, is one of the pillars of learning to improvise as a modern musician. …and…
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Unlock Rhythm Changes & Blues With These 6 Melodies
As musicians, we often treat the songs of the jazz repertoire in the same predictable way. We learn the chords, memorize the notes of the melody, and then we skip…
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Bird Blues: A Player’s Guide
Charlie Parker’s iconic take on the Blues form, commonly referred to as the “Bird Blues,” is a staple of the modern jazz repertoire and a rite of passage for every…
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10 Hidden Gems from Charlie Parker on the Blues
When it comes to the blues, few voices sing as clearly, or as creatively, as Charlie Parker’s. While Bird is often celebrated for his iconic solos and well-known standards, there’s…
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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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3 Transitions in the Blues You Gotta Nail: Charlie Parker Bosses the Blues
Blues is the backbone of so much in jazz. The melancholic feeling. The soul. The call-and-response phrasing, walking groove, and clearly defined melodic statements…blues is ingrained in jazz at its…
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8 Awesome Blues Solos for Beginners to Transcribe
If you want to learn the language of jazz, then transcribing a blues solo should be at the top of your list! But if you’re just starting to transcribe jazz…
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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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Master The Minor Blues: A Deep Dive into John Coltrane’s Mr. P.C.
The Blues is an essential form to master for every jazz musician, but just like most things in jazz, there are dozens of variations to explore. One of the most…
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