The Lesson Library

Welcome to The Jazzadvice Lesson Library – featuring insider knowledge, actionable exercises, and powerful practice tips.

What Happens When You Learn A Tune By Ear

As a musician you know should be learning tunes…After all it’s the backbone of how you play with other musicians, speak the language, and share your musical ideas. But, the big question is: How exactly should you go about doing this? Right now you might be wondering this as you work to build your repertoire ...

Hot House

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. Much busier than classic jazz standards, these intricate melodies are generally more difficult to learn, understand, and commit to memory. So what do you do ...

Beginner jazz mistakes

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 a small handful of beginners develop quickly toward the player they want to become…most actually have difficulty improving and never really get out of the ...

Never get lost in jazz chord changes

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 this vital information operating in your brain on a deep level, you’re bound to get lost easily during your solo… You know how it goes…you’re ...

Chord function fundamentals

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 more! Today we’ll unravel the slew of questions that arise from exploring chord function. Questions like, how do you build chords within a key? Why ...

Demystify Altered Dominants

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! There seem to be a million ways you can alter them and so many available scales. And even when you know the theory, playing over ...

Jazz Improvisation Audit

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 we often focus on the solos of master musicians and important improvisation concepts here at JazzAdvice, today we’re going to focus on you. Specifically the ...

learn chord changes from the recording

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 task compared to the alternative of simply grabbing a fake book and looking up the chord changes. But there are huge benefits to learning the ...

the jazz improvisers memory

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 tool, they’re all useless… The jazz musician’s most important tool is their memory. Harold Mabern used to drive this point home to us all the ...

The Ear training Test for musicians

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 minute. But there’s just one problem – you don’t know the key of the song and you don’t know the chords. All you know is ...

10 Brilliant Jazz Solos Transcribed

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 that it ever happened at all. But look back even further and you’ll find it… The truth is that every great musician started out as ...

Jazz Ear Training

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 focus on intervals, chords, root movement, and have other common ground, but how are they actually different? Over the years, I’ve taken quite a few ...

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