Inspiration for improvisers
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Composition, Jazz Standards, Transcribing
Tune Up is one of those classic up-tempo jazz standards that every player should work on. Composed by Eddie Vinson, It became super well known when legendary trumpeter player Miles Davis recorded it on his 1956 album Blue Haze. And over the years, it’s turned into a popular jam session tune that can be pretty …
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Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards, Rhythm, Transcribing
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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Composition, Jazz Musicians, Tunes
Maiden Voyage is a classic jazz standard that all improvisers will encounter at some point in their musical journey. With only four chords, beginners tend to gravitate toward this Herbie Hancock masterpiece because it seems like it would be an “easy” jazz tune… While it’s true that there are only four chords and that the …
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Chords, Jazz Education, Music Theory, Scales
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 to unlocking jazz improvisation. But what you might not realize is that you don’t need to know a million jazz scales to construct a solid …
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Jazz Musicians, Playing Techniques, Premium Only
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 extended techniques that made him seem like more than a man…… Superhuman. That’s the word that comes to mind when I think of Michael Brecker. …
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Composition, Ear Training, Jazz Standards
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 …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Language, Jazz Musicians
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 you need a lot of music theory, particularly scales and modes, along with an understanding of how modes are applied to chords. Many refer to …
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Composition, Jazz Musicians, Music Theory, Tunes
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 exciting… And this is exactly how modal jazz came about. Legends like Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, and Miles Davis began exploring …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards, Playing Techniques
Take The A Train is one of the most classic jazz standards you’ll ever come across. Composed by Billy Strayhorn, the tune quickly became the featured tune of The Duke Ellington Orchestra after his son Mercer Ellington found a draft of the tune in the trash… Clearly, Strayhorn was his own worst critic, so it’s …
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Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards, Playing Techniques, Premium Only
For a long time, patterns in jazz have been popular as a way for jazz improvisers to expand their improvisational toolkit. You see, patterns have a natural order to them that make them perfect for many jazz different improvisation applications. But every great musician uses patterns in their own unique way… Today, we’ll be looking …
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Jazz Language, Jazz Musicians, Jazz Standards
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 “beginner” tunes are not easy to sound great on. Playing beautiful lines through the changes that connect and flow from one chord to the next …
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Jazz Language, Jazz Musicians, Premium Only, Transcribing
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 what he practiced…wouldn’t that be nice? Well, unfortunately, unless he’s your relative, chances are this will never be the case. You’ll never have those practice …