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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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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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 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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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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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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How to Train Your Ears Like a Jazz Musician
Jazz ear training – What makes it different from general ear training? That’s a great question and when a reader recently asked this, it definitely made me think. They both…
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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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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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Demystifying Dominant 7 Chord Alterations: A Visual Guide
Many chords are pretty easy to understand. But dominant seventh chords with an assortment of alterations…they’re a whole different animal! What’s with all this b9, #9, b13, #11, b5 stuff!…
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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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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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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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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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Use the Power of Imitation to Unlock Jazz Improvisation
As players today, we have a ton of resources to draw from in the practice room. But when it comes to the more musical areas of improvisation, something is missing.…
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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The Jazz Trumpet Solos Collection: 16 Transcriptions (PDF)
In the jazz lineage, there are certain solos on every instrument that stick out and withstand the test of time. Landmark moments of improvisation that serve as a guiding light…
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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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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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Why This Simple Jazz Transcription Hack Will Change Your Playing
It’s just past one in the morning. I’m standing on the sidewalk in lower Manhattan as garbage trucks rumble by and panhandlers hustle for loose change. I’ve just stepped outside…
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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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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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What Most Players Are Missing When They Transcribe Solos…
The typical jazz transcription process usually goes something like this…you start with a solo, you listen to the recording a few times, maybe even slowing it down a bit, then…
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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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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 Sonny Rollins II V Workbook: 8 Exercises from Pent-Up House [PDF]
Sonny Rollins is one of those rare musical masters that seems to have it all figured out when it comes to improvisation. And if you’re a musician that’s been searching…
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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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Charlie Parker’s Brilliant Licks and Tricks on I Remember You
With its unique opening chord changes, the jazz standard I Remember You poses quite the challenge to most jazz improvisers, which is surprising because the chords themselves don’t seem that…
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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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Mastering Chords in Jazz: The Flat VII7 Chord
Learning jazz chords can be a frustrating obstacle on your path to becoming a better improviser. But what a lot of players forget is that the process isn’t just about…
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Master Maiden Voyage – Bobby Hutcherson’s Perfect Solo
Maiden Voyage is a classic jazz standard that all improvisers will encounter at some point in their musical journey. With only four chords, beginners tend to gravitate toward this Herbie…
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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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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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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 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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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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Hot House – How to Unravel Complex Bebop Heads
Bebop “heads,” what jazz players sometimes call the melody of a tune, tend to be some of the trickiest and most technically demanding strings of notes you’re likely to encounter.…
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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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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 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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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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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 Jazz Practice Plan for Getting Good Fast
Have you ever thought about why you’re practicing every single day for hours and what you’re actually trying to achieve with all your hard work? To play better over a…
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Music Theory Basics: The Circle of Fifths
Music theory is packed with quite a few dense explanations of esoteric concepts that plague the performer, and while music theory can be incredibly helpful to performing musicians, it has…
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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 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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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: 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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10 Diminished Patterns That Will Transform Your Next Jazz Solo…
What comes to mind when you hear the word diminished? A chord? A scale? Wait, is it whole-steps and half-steps…or the other way around? If you’re like most players, the…
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5 Secrets for Mastering the Altered Scale
The dominant chord is one of the most versatile chords in the jazz repertoire, and it’s your best bet for adding harmonic tension and melodic interest to your lines. The…
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Mulgrew Miller’s Secrets to All the Things You Are
All The Things You Are is a timeless jazz standard…Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Ella Fitzgerald, Sinatra…these are just some of the legends that recorded it. But with its traveling tonal…
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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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Why This Simple Jazz Transcription Hack Will Change Your Playing
It’s just past one in the morning. I’m standing on the sidewalk in lower Manhattan as garbage trucks rumble by and panhandlers hustle for loose change. I’ve just stepped outside…
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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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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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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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Master All The Things You Are Part III: The Walkdown
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” or…
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Master All the Things You Are – Part I: The A Section
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 Teaching and Being Taught
Acrobatics is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. The physical prowess needed to do even the most basic maneuvers is on par with that of the Incredible…
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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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 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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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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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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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 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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The Sonny Rollins II V Workbook: 8 Exercises from Pent-Up House [PDF]
Sonny Rollins is one of those rare musical masters that seems to have it all figured out when it comes to improvisation. And if you’re a musician that’s been searching…
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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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Mulgrew Miller’s Secrets to All the Things You Are
All The Things You Are is a timeless jazz standard…Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Ella Fitzgerald, Sinatra…these are just some of the legends that recorded it. But with its traveling tonal…
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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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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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Coltrane Concepts to Dominate Half Diminished Chords
Half Diminished chords are one of the trickiest chord qualities for developing jazz musicians. Also known as Minor7b5 chords, their structure, sound, and very nature are tough to grasp for…
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Charlie Parker’s Brilliant Licks and Tricks on I Remember You
With its unique opening chord changes, the jazz standard I Remember You poses quite the challenge to most jazz improvisers, which is surprising because the chords themselves don’t seem that…
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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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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…
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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…
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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…
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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…
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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…
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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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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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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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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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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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12 Dexter Gordon Lines on Blue Bossa You’d Never Think Of
The jazz standard 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…
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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Why Your Big Goals Are Hijacking Your Musical Progress
Setting goals is an essential part of improving at anything you do…whether it’s learning a language, getting in shape, or mastering an instrument and building your skills as an improviser.…
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How to Think About Chords & Tunes Like a PRO…
Have you ever noticed how there’s a special group of improvisers that seem to know EXACTLY what to play over any tune at any time – no matter what it…
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Why Perfection is The Enemy of Jazz
Everyone hopes to be perfect one day. Play with perfect intonation, the perfect sound, perfect lines…But what if I told you that the whole idea of perfection is actually what’s…
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15 Mistakes Beginner Jazz Improvisers Make
Every single person who wants to play jazz starts out as a beginner. There’s no way around it!! And over the first couple years of learning how to improvise, only…
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5 Simple Things You Can Do Today To Play Better Solos
You’re constantly practicing, listening, and striving to improve your ability to improvise…yet for some strange reason, the next level of playing somehow seems to elude you. Etudes aren’t doing the…
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What Most Players Are Missing When They Transcribe Solos…
The typical jazz transcription process usually goes something like this…you start with a solo, you listen to the recording a few times, maybe even slowing it down a bit, then…
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The Two Types of Chords You’ll Find in Any Piece of Music
Here’s something that you’ve probably realized by now on your musical journey…that jazz improvisation can get very complicated, very quickly. In the blink of an eye your enjoyable musical hobby…
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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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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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Discipline For Musicians: How to Get It Without Going Crazy
To an outside observer, I look like a disciplined person. The kind of person who works hard and puts the time in to move forward on their goals. And to…
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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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