Herbie Hancock Plays You’re My Everything
As a listener, it’s thrilling to hear world-class musicians improvise flawless solos over crazy tempos & impossible progressions. But one of my favorite things, is listening to my musical heroes play simple tunes… I’m talking about the regular old jazz standards that we practice all the time. It’s all about those times in the club ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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 ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
The Most Tricky Chord in Rhythm Changes: The Flat VII7 Chord
In every tune, there’s always a measure or two that’s tricker than the rest of it, and Rhythm Changes is no different. Of course, if you’re unfamiliar with the form, most of tune is tricky, however as you get deeper into it, there’s one measure in particular that gives everyone a tough time. The specific ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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 chord for four bars, like at the beginning of I’ll Remember April, and thought to yourself, this should be easy! Why is it so challenging? ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
6 Roy Hargrove Minor Exercises on What Is This Thing Called Love
When you start to transcribe and discover what your musical heroes are doing, you begin to open up a whole new understanding about how to improvise and approach chord changes. But then the problem soon becomes, how do you take this understanding and put it into your musical practice? In other words, transcribing is great ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
How to Create a Thematic Jazz Solo
Have you ever felt like you’re missing a piece of the puzzle when it comes to improvisation? As if you’re following all the rules, yet still not playing the music you want to… Every musician has felt the sting of this frustration, especially when listening to all those important records and amazing players. It seems ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
Well You Needn’t – How to Dominate This Jam Session Tune
If you’ve ever been to a jam session before, you’ve probably encountered the famous Thelonious Monk tune Well You Needn’t. Over the years, it’s become one of the most popular jazz standards, but unfortunately, this is one of the tunes that the infamous Real Book got wrong… The chord progression of Well You Needn’t written ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
The Two Minor Tactic: More Tools for Rhythm Changes
After building your fundamentals on Rhythm Changes, you’ll open up a ton of new ways to think about these chords, but the truth is you never stop acquiring tools for this common progression because everything you practice over them translates to all other aspects of your playing. So in this video lesson, we’ll give you ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
Tune Up – 3 Legendary Solos
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 ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
5 Bud Powell Tunes Every Improviser Should Know
Every musician dreams of creating solos full of flowing melodic lines. To play compelling ideas over fast tunes, ballads, complex chord progressions, and standard forms like the blues or rhythm changes… The only problem is that most of us are trying to achieve this melodic vision with the same old scales and exercises, piecing them ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
Master Maiden Voyage – Bobby Hutcherson’s Perfect Solo
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 ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM
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. And it’s something that you’ll be dealing with as long as you play an instrument. You see, the best players not only understand this song ...
FREE PRO PRO & PREMIUM