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 ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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 serious improviser… However, this particular tune can pose a challenge for even the best players, and oftentimes it’s reduced to predictable theory devices. That’s why ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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 just about everyone, so they tend to present more of a challenge than major, minor, or dominant chords. So what makes half diminished chords more ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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 for any musician striving to learn the language and find their musical voice… And the world of jazz trumpet is no exception – from the ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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 play simple tunes… I’m talking about the regular old jazz standards that we practice all the time. It’s all about those times in the club ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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 in every solo… And as hard as you might try, the reality is that you’ll end up at a creative wall at some point or ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
The Most Tricky Chord in Rhythm Changes: The Flat VII7 Chord
In every tune, there’s always a measure or two that’s tricker than the rest of it, and Rhythm Changes is no different. Of course, if you’re unfamiliar with the form, most of tune is tricky, however as you get deeper into it, there’s one measure in particular that gives everyone a tough time. The specific ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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 chord for four bars, like at the beginning of I’ll Remember April, and thought to yourself, this should be easy! Why is it so challenging? ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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. But then the problem soon becomes, how do you take this understanding and put it into your musical practice? In other words, transcribing is great ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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 you want to… Every musician has felt the sting of this frustration, especially when listening to all those important records and amazing players. It seems ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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 jazz standards, but unfortunately, this is one of the tunes that the infamous Real Book got wrong… The chord progression of Well You Needn’t written ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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 this common progression because everything you practice over them translates to all other aspects of your playing. So in this video lesson, we’ll give you ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM