Chick Corea: 7 Essential Dominant Chord Techniques
Chick Corea is one of the true giants of this music. A name that’s synonymous with dizzying technique, stunning harmonies, and an unmistakeable creativity that is apparent on every one of his records… But here’s the question for anyone learning to improvise and searching for their sound: What can a regular musician actually learn from ...
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11 Modern Jazz Compositions That’ll Transform Your Playing
Beyond standards and bebop melodies lie what what we might call modern jazz tunes – the compositions of musical innovators who pushed the music in a new direction. And navigating these tunes can be pretty challenging… As a musician, you know you want to expand your creative horizons and the musical options for your solos…to ...
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9 Incredible Jazz Piano Solos You Should Know
The piano is a cornerstone of this music, lending some of the finest composers, soloists, and forward thinking improvisers throughout history. And as a serious musician, you should be studying jazz piano solos too… Whether it’s comping, soloing, or playing tunes, pianists are continually integrating the core elements of musical expression – rhythm, melody, and ...
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9 Jazz Standards That’ll Boost Your Melodic Skills
You know the routine…You pick out a new tune, read through the melody, and start to work on a solo. You’ve got a few ideas, throw in a couple of your favorite licks, and follow the guide tone lines. And then it happens…you’re stuck playing the same old scales and patterns that you use in every ...
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Why Melody is the Secret to Playing Better Jazz Solos
Ask any musician or teacher what you should practice to develop exceptional jazz improvisation skills, and you usually hear words like “Scales” and “Modes” or “Guide-tone lines.” Sometimes even “Transcribing”… This is all useful information. And it will help you understand the harmonic function and music theory behind all those jazz standards. But it’s missing ...
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3 Tricks to Learning Tunes From Recordings That Have Nothing to Do With Practicing
With all the play-along sets and backing tracks available everywhere today, it’s becoming less and less common for people to learn tunes directly from recordings. I mean, why waste your time figuring out the changes when a simple search online can tell you what they are, what scales to play, and provide you with full ...
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The Secret to Unlocking the Lydian Sound: From Boring Modes to Killing Solos
Open up any music theory book and you’ll find the term “lydian.” A funny sounding word that refers to the fourth mode of the major scale. You’ve, no doubt, played this scale. You’ve probably even practiced it in every key and studied it’s relationship to the tonic… But what if I told you that you don’t ...
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10 Diminished Patterns That Will Transform Your Next Jazz Solo…
What comes to mind when you hear the word diminished? A chord? A scale? Wait, is it whole-steps and half-steps…or the other way around? If you’re like most players, the diminished sound often creates more questions than answers. But it’s a sound that the greatest players – from John Coltrane to Michael Brecker and beyond ...
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Finding a Fresh Approach to Playing the Same Old Tunes
Repetition. It’s one part of learning to improvise that’s par for the course. We practice scales over and over again until the technique is securely in our fingers, we spend hours repeatedly working out ii-V7 lines that we’ve transcribed, and we memorize the melodies and chord changes to numerous tunes until we can play them ...
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50 Jazz Interviews to Get You Inspired
Interviews are a great way to hear and see how jazz musicians think, feel, and articulate their ideas. You can learn a lot just by watching them… Today we’re sharing with you 50 jazz interviews to get you inspired! Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter John Coltrane An Interview in Japan from 1965 Coltrane interview with ...
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Mastering Sus Chords: Adding Options to Your Arsenal
Sus chords on tunes like Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage can be pretty confusing for the developing improviser. Is it a sus chord a normal dominant chord? What’s special about it? Do you need a new scale? Are you allowed to play the third of the chord? After studying and transcribing solos of some of my ...
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50 Jazz Education Clips That Rock
Here’s a collection of some of the best jazz improvisation educational video clips I’ve found. They include: Pat Martino, Jerry Bergonzi, Joe Lovano, Michael Brecker, Hal Galper, Joshua Redman, Bill Evans, John Scofield, Chris Potter, Billy Taylor, Joe Henderson, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mulgrew Miller, Oscar Peterson, Terence Blanchard, Walter Bishop Jr., and Kenny Werner. Enjoy! Pat ...
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