Inspiration for improvisers
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How to Practice Jazz, Inspiration, Jazz Advice and Tips
Time is the only thing we really have in life and there never seems to be enough of it. But whether your goals are to just play for fun or to become a professional musician, there are techniques you can start using today to make use of your time more effectively to become the musician …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips
One of the most frequently asked questions that we get concerns finding time to practice or improving with a limited amount of practice time. “What should I do if I don’t have enough time to practice everyday? I want to practice more, but I don’t have time to.” If you haven’t already, at some point …
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Chords, Ear Training, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Education, Jazz Language, Perspectives, Playing Techniques
From the moment we are born, the world tends to have a container already built for us to fit inside: A social security number, a gender, a race, a profession, an I.Q. I ponder if we are more defined by the container we are in, than what we are inside. Would we recognize ourselves if …
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Chords, Jazz Language, Premium Only
There are certain things that you need to do if you want to improve your musical skills…Setting aside time each day to practice. Listening to important recordings. Seeking out teachers to guide you along the way. The same is true if you want to improve your jazz improvisation skills. You need to spend time listening, transcribing solos, building …
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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 …
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Chords, Music Theory, Playing Techniques, Scales
The Altered Scale, also known as the Super Locrian scale, allows access to the most beautiful tensions of a dominant chord in a flash. But using this scale effectively is not easy. In this lesson, we’ve assembled the keys to utilizing the Altered Scale to its full potential. We’re going to get into all of …
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Inspiration, Jazz Advice and Tips
You’re a musician. Or at least you used to be one…You played an instrument in high school, faithfully took private lessons, and performed at dozens of recitals and concerts. Maybe you even went on to study in college. There’s a guitar sitting in your closet, a piano in the spare room gathering dust, and a …
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Ear Training, How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Education, Transcribing
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 etude books, the half transcribed solo sitting on your music stand, and your growing list of tunes to learn and you let out a heavy …
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Learning how to improvise can be overwhelming. There’s an enormous gap in knowledge to overcome as soon as you decide that you want to play jazz. Before you even improvise a single note, you have to contend with over 100 years of musical history, from Louis Armstrong all the way up to the innovators of …
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How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Standards
Every musician has spent time in the practice room working on etudes. Diligently running through exercises that cover various techniques like articulation, the altissimo range, or diminished arpeggios. This is a good start for most players, but where does the jazz musician turn to develop the techniques that are essential for improvisation? After all jazz …
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Playing Techniques, Premium Only, Rhythm
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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Chords, How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Education, Jazz Language
The commonly known Pareto Principle states that 80% of the effects of something, come from 20% of the causes. In terms of learning, this means: figure out where the largest gains can be made and focus on those. For some reason in learning most anything, we tend to give equal weight to everything. We give …