Your Jazzadvice Journey
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The Making of a Jazz Musician
Improving at jazz can feel overwhelming — so many topics, so many skills, and no clear path forward. This page gives you a simple, step-by-step roadmap you can follow no matter your instrument or experience level.
You’ll explore five key aspects of becoming a complete jazz improviser:
- Training your ear
- Understanding harmony
- Building real melodic language
- Learning the concepts great improvisers use
- Developing the mindset & mental habits that fuel progress
1. Train Your Ear
If you want to improvise with clarity and confidence, ear training is where everything begins. Hearing the harmony, recognizing intervals and chord qualities, and internalizing melodic shapes — these are the fundamental skills that make improvisation feel natural instead of mechanical.
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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Why You Should Be Hearing Music in Your Mind
I have a vivid memory of the first time I tried to play in an early jazz group. I was in school and was asked to play the trumpet part…
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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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Can Your Ears Pass This Simple Test? The Answer Might Surprise You…
You’re waiting by the stage. In a few moments it’ll be your turn to walk into the spotlight to take a solo. And your heart is beating a mile a…
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6 Practice Essentials for Every Improviser
You walk into your practice room. You sit back in your favorite chair and mentally prepare to play your first note of the day. You glance at your stack of…
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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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5 Skills You Won’t Learn in School: How to Connect Your Ear to Your Instrument
You’re a trumpet player. You play the piano or the guitar. Maybe you’ve taken up the saxophone. Out of a dozen different instruments, this is the one that you’ve chosen…
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How to Learn Chord Changes Straight Off a Recording: A Handbook [Free Download]
Learning a tune straight from a recording is THE way to learn it. But the most difficult part is always deciphering the chord changes. And it’s certainly not an easy…
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What Happens When You Learn Music By Ear
As a musician you know should learn music by ear…After all, the tunes you know deeply are the backbone of how you play with other musicians, speak the language, and…
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The Truth About Ear Training and Jazz Improvisation
What exactly is ear training? You’ve heard musicians talk about it. Your teachers have recommended it. And if you’re a regular here you’ve seen it pop up in more than…
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Why You Shouldn’t Be a Real Book Player
Take a peek into a high school jazz band rehearsal or grab a seat at a college jazz combo concert. Better yet, walk into your local jam session or take…
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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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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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Jazz Form and Structure: Never Get Lost in the Chord Changes Again
One of the most overlooked and useful elements of learning a tune is the way it’s put together on a macro level, the jazz form that the tune uses. Without…
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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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Stop right there! Don’t Touch Your Instrument until You Do these 4 Simple Exercises
All practice is not created equal. There’s the practice that’s fun. You’re in a room with your instrument and maybe a few friends and you just start playing. The minutes…
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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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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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The Ear Training Course inside PRO walks you through the full system step by step.
2. Jazz Theory Foundations
Theory isn’t about memorizing scales — it’s about understanding how harmony actually works so you can make smarter melodic choices. These lessons break down chord movement, functional harmony, ii–V–I foundations, guide tones, modes, and the underlying structure of jazz standards. The goal is simple: give you the knowledge to navigate chord changes with ease and confidence.
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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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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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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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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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 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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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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10 Must-Know Jazz Chord Progressions
Getting to the next level as an improviser means moving beyond the basics of chords and scales. Specifically, it’s all about focusing on the harmonic relationships in the jazz repertoire…
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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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Jazz Scales – Everything You Need To Know
Jazz scales are something everyone talks about. Chances are, you’ve been told that you need to know dozens of scales to play jazz and that these structures hold the keys…
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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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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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The Jazz Theory Course inside PRO provides a complete blueprint for mastering harmony.
3. Build Your Melodic Language
Improvisation is a language — and learning it means absorbing the vocabulary of the greats. These lessons help you develop the sound of jazz: phrasing, articulation, voice-led lines, bebop shapes, motives, and the melodic tools masters use. You’ll learn how to turn abstract scales into real music that swings, flows, and feels expressive.
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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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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Unlock Any Jazz Line With These 5 Simple Steps
In your daily search for musical information you’ve probably come across a “lick of the day,” various short musical excerpts from world famous jazz solos that are neatly written out……
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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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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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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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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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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 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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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 Inverted Arpeggio Trick
Bebop is by no means easy, but if you know specific bebop tricks that the great players use, you’ll set yourself up for success. In today’s video, you’ll learn one…
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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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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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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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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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The Melodic Power Course takes you through the complete process of building real jazz vocabulary, available in PRO.
4. Jazz Concepts: How to Play Jazz
Once you understand the harmony and build your vocabulary, the next step is learning how great improvisers think. These lessons dive into the essential tools of modern improvisation:
- Connecting chord changes
- Motivic development
- Targeting and approach notes
- Voice leading and guide tones
- Rhythmic concepts
- Modern melodic ideas
- The “why” behind iconic solos
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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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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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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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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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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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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How to Play V7 to I like a Pro: 5 Techniques from the Masters
One thing that gets lost in the day to day mentality of practicing jazz improvisation is this simple fact – you don’t have to solve EVERY musical problem each time…
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How To Play Like Michael Brecker For Mortals
Michael Brecker is one of the greatest saxophonists to arise after John Coltrane. Like Trane, he took the instrument places it had never gone before, adding new fingerings, effects, and…
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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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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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4 Things To Practice This Summer That’ll ACTUALLY Improve Your Solos!
Ahh the summer…a time to take a break from the daily grind and a moment to take stock of your progress. A few months to relax, reset, and refocus on…
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5 Powerful Storytelling Tactics for Your Next Jazz Solo
Think of a jazz standard that you often play. One that you’ve been working on in the practice room. Picture the chord progression in your mind and imagine yourself getting…
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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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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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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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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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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 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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Join PRO to unlock the complete library — Hundreds of in-depth lessons covering everything from bebop to advanced modern concepts.
5. Mindset & Mental Training
The mental side of jazz improvement is often the missing piece. Your practice habits, confidence, inner musical imagination, and long-term mindset determine whether you grow steadily or stay stuck in cycles of frustration. These lessons brings together ideas that help you:
- Build mental strength for the long journey
- Practice more intentionally
- Atay motivated
- Develop a productive musical mindset
- Visualize the harmony and changes more clearly
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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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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How to use the 4 stages of learning to achieve your dreams as a musician
Why is learning how to play jazz so hard? Is it that there are a million tunes to know? Or the thousands of great jazz solos to transcribe? Or is…
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These 4 Creativity Hacks Will Transform How You Improvise
If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you spend your fair share of time in the practice room honing your musical skills. All in preparation for that moment when you can…
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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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Why The Way You’re Thinking About Music Could Be Holding You Back
Scales, Chords, Progressions, and Tunes… These are the words we all use to define and think about music. It’s how we make sense of the songs we hear, how we…
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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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How to Adopt an Improvement Mindset in Music and Everything Else
So you want to change the way you play? To improve your sound and your solos. To become more effortless in your technique. To finally get rid of those bad…
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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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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…
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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…
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUMWant to perform and think about jazz like a pro?
Use the Reprogramming The Mind course to change your attitude & habits and The Jazz Visualization Course to train your brain to internalize music on a much deeper level. Both courses are included with PRO All-Access.