Inspiration for improvisers
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Remember the first time you played a modal tune like Impressions and how fun it was to wail over a minor chord? Maybe you’ve had this experience, or maybe it’s in your near future, but one thing is for sure: it’s fun just to let loose on a minor chord vamp and solo for hours! …
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Composition, Jazz Advice and Tips, Tunes
Learning tunes goes hand in hand with being a jazz musician. But if you’ve ever tried to learn a tune by ear or attempted to memorize a list of jazz standards, you know it’s not the easiest task in the world… In fact it can be downright frustrating. Like many musicians, I struggled for years …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Premium Only, Transcribing
Over the years I’ve attended dozens of masterclasses. Poured through hundreds of interviews with master musicians, and took lessons with the best players I could find. However, after a few years ONE thing kept surprising me – there was a disconnect between what these great players said and what they actually did… In fact, some …
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Jazz Advice and Tips, Transcribing
Every day we receive countless variations of what, why, where, who, when, and how to transcribe questions in our inbox. Should I transcribe lines or whole solos? Do I need to transcribe from the recording or can I just use a transcription book? Who should I transcribe? Do I have to transcribe Charlie Parker? Can …
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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 …
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How to Practice Jazz, Inspiration, Jazz Advice and Tips
You’re constantly practicing, listening, and striving to improve your ability to improvise…yet for some strange reason, the next level of playing somehow seems to elude you. Etudes aren’t doing the trick. Scale patterns have become boring and predictable. And memorized lines simply won’t translate into amazing musical phrases. Despite all of your time and effort, …
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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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The Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim is well known to improvisers with dozens of tunes frequently played and recorded in the jazz repertoire. However, one song in particular stands out… The “Garota de Ipanema” or The Girl from Ipanema. Composed in 1963, it propelled a Bossa Nova wave around the world and was recorded by …
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Ear Training, How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Perspectives, Playing Techniques, Transcribing
Practice is an essential part of your journey as a musician. We all do it every day…or at least we try our best to, however daily practice doesn’t always guarantee improvement. Why? Simply because not all practice is created equal. If you look at the big picture there are two basic types of practice: (1) …
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Jazz Standards, Premium Only, Tunes
You’re on stage. In the practice room. Or rehearsing with your friends. It’s time to run through yet another jazz standard. But here’s the thing, this time you’re not going play it like you always do. You’re done sounding like everyone else with a real book. It’s time to get creative on your own terms… …
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Chords, How to Practice Jazz, Jazz Advice and Tips, Jazz Education, Jazz Language, Jazz Standards, Visualization
Picture this. You’re backstage before a big performance waiting for your turn to step into the spotlight. A few steps away from the curtain you can hear the murmur of the audience and your pulse starts to race. You take a deep breath and confidently walk onstage. The heat of the lights hits you and you …
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Music Theory, Playing Techniques, Scales
When you first began learning how to improvise, chances are the first thing you encountered were scales. Memorizing lists of scales from Major and minor to diminished and octatonic. Knowing which scales work with which chords. It can seem like the practice of scales never ends. This philosophy has become so entrenched within the art …