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 the licks you’ve figured out… But the more you listen and learn, you begin to realize it’s the way you move between these chords that ...
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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 you have to play something convincing while keeping the time. The first time I performed A Night in Tunisia was at a concert my freshman ...
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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: new melodies written over existing song forms and chord progressions. This is a practice that has been happening from the beginning as a creative way ...
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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 only is it inspiring, listening closely to your favorite players is a way to step outside of yourself and see a chord, a progression, or ...
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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 over the years, it has served as a proving ground for serious players everywhere. From beginners eager to show they can hang on the changes ...
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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 deep-dive into this standard, we’ll unlock a few key tools that’ll help you improvise with musical confidence… Check out Part I here – How Bye ...
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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, and your solo starts to fall into place… And then there are those tunes where you don’t get any help at all. Progressions where all ...
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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 these tunes can be pretty challenging… As a musician, you know you want to expand your creative horizons and the musical options for your solos…to ...
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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 other. It’s all about discovering those hidden connections and musical pathways that aren’t obvious in the scales you learn or emphasized in the lead sheets ...
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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 a treasure trove of lesser-known blues melodies in his catalog that offer equal insight into his musical genius. In this lesson, we’re diving into 10 ...
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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. And this can be tricky, because the harmony on the page is just a starting point. The real magic begins when you start to move ...
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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 jazz standards, especially these 10 heads he wrote over the Blues… And like his many mind-blowing solos, Charlie Parker’s compositions can give us a unique ...
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