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 ...
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Joe Henderson Plays Recorda Me
Recorda Me is one of Joe Henderson’s most famous compositions. Recorded on his epic album Page One from 1963, he actually composed the popular jazz standard when he was only 15. And over the years, it’s become a mainstay in jazz education and jam sessions alike, making it a need-to-know tune to add to your ...
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The Art of Jazz Phrasing: Six Secrets from Chet Baker
Beyond scales, music theory, and all those memorized licks lies something that gets to the core of what improvisation is all about – the art of crafting musical ideas. It’s what we often refer to as phrasing… The ability to take a tune, hear its melody, understand its chord progression, and then focus on that ...
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The Forgotten Side of Jazz Phrasing: A Lesson With Miles Davis
Phrasing is one of those things that everyone talks about, but most cannot clearly define. Like the concept of “swing,” it’s something you can feel and hear, but as soon as you start trying to use words to describe it, things get pretty ambiguous. First, let’s talk about musical phrases… In music, a phrase is ...
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How to Decode Greatness – The Process to Solve Any Musical 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 to approach a progression in hopes of clarifying their musical ideas and better communicating them to the listener. So if you want to play jazz, ...
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How to Play in 3/4 Time: Hank Mobley on Someday My Prince Will Come
Of all the time signatures that we encounter in jazz or any other music, the most common by far is 4/4, meaning it has 4 beats per measure and a quarter note is equal to each beat. In fact, 4/4 is so common that it’s actually called “common time” and has its own symbol in ...
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5 Tips to Use Sequences like Paul Desmond
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 if every single idea he plays naturally builds on what came before it… So how does he do it? How does Desmond so effortlessly move ...
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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 many musicians today, his music can seem old hat, antiquated, and even irrelevant – I mean what can you actually learn from a bunch of ...
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The Powerful Rhythmic Principles of Charlie Parker
With his unique improvisational style and innovative approach, Charlie Parker not only revolutionized how to play alto saxophone, but how to play jazz as a whole. He had a concept all his own that transcended what came before him and elevated the music to new heights! It’s no wonder that nearly every jazz musician since ...
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The Beginner’s Guide to Jazz Articulation: Coltrane Techniques Demystified
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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10 Surprising Secrets to Jazz Phrasing I Learned From John Coltrane
John Coltrane is probably best known for Countdown and Giant Steps, or his earth-shattering intensity on A Love Supreme. But often overlooked is the depth and beauty of his phrasing and lyricism… When I first heard the album Kind of Blue, I was blown away. And I still am to this day. There is so ...
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5 Skills You Won’t Learn in School, Skill Three: The Secret to Great Time
Ever feel like something is missing from your solos? You spend hours learning tunes and transcribing solos from your favorite recordings, you’ve memorized the chord progressions and diligently practiced the tricky fingerings, but when you listen back something is off. And it’s frustrating because you can’t quite place your finger on the problem… You’re playing ...
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