Inspiration for improvisers
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Jazz Language, Premium Only, Transcribing
You know that you should be transcribing jazz solos. That you should be learning the language of Bird, Miles, Coltrane, and Monk. You’ve heard time and again that it’s the unwritten “secret” to becoming a better improviser… The only problem is that transcribing is also frustrating, time-consuming, and with hundreds of solos to choose from, …
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Chords, Jazz Language, Premium Only
You’ve heard about the scales. You understand the music theory. And you’ve even played through the patterns in a few exercise books. But when it comes to actually improvising with the diminished sound, something is missing. Well, today we’re going to show you how to bridge that gap… You see, scales, shapes, patterns, and harmonies …
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Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards, Premium Only
Here’s a question for you…Are you making the process of learning to play jazz standards harder than it has to be? …searching for answers in theory books, obsessing over scales, and turning your daily practice session into a soul-searching quest for your personal sound when you just want to be playing music? The thing is, learning …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Standards, Premium Only
What if I told you there’s a simple little trick to learn chord changes to a tune in a just a few minutes? That the countless hours you’ve spent reading tunes out of the Real Book can finally come to a close and you can begin to have chord changes live in your head, where …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards, Premium Only
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 patterns…I mean soloing at breakneck speed with actual melodic lines over the progression. Trying to improvise on uptempo tunes can be frustrating and the truth …
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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 only problem is that many players approach this sound with the same old scales and licks every time. And this can get pretty boring… That’s …
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How to Practice Jazz, Premium Only
In case you were starting to mistake jazz musicians for super-humans…Or highly talented individuals that know thousands of tunes, have perfect pitch, and transcribe solos in mere minutes, I thought I’d write a post to correct that picture in your mind. In fact, I want to show you one of the most important rules when …
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Playing Techniques, Premium Only, Rhythm
It’s the subtleties of 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 teach. And it’s personal. Nearly every player has their own distinct method of articulating, which yields a different result. With all this ambiguity, how can we …
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Jazz Language, Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards, Premium Only, Transcribing
Kenny Garrett is an incredible musician. He’s arguably had one of the largest impacts on alto saxophone since Charlie Parker. In fact, when he started to gain popularity, most every alto player in the world had to rethink their concept. All of a sudden, copying Charlie Parker didn’t seem that cool anymore. But the thing …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Musicians, Playing Techniques, Premium Only, Transcribing, Visualization
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 in reality, professionals think simpler than you’d ever imagine. It’s the beginners and intermediates who study the pros and abstract what they think is going …
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Blues, Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards, Premium Only
If you’ve ever listened to Mark Turner you’ve probably wondered the same thing as me…What the hell is he playing? Rather than coming from the mind of an improviser, his solos sound like the work of an ambitious architect. Complex structures reaching into the stratosphere, lines with impossibly wide leaps, columns of arpeggios, and winding …
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Chords, Jazz Musicians, Playing Techniques, Premium Only
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, the soloist has the freedom to add all sorts of chord alterations to their melodic lines. But it requires a sense of how these altered …