Welcome back! This week we move on to talking about the hardest part of learning a tune, the chord progression! Depending on where you are in your jazz journey, I will give you some different advice on this part. Learning everything by ear is obviously the goal, but when it comes to chords (depending on what tune you are learning) it can be EXTREMELY difficult. In this episode, we talk about several different approaches and how they can help you. Enjoy the show! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG … [Read more...]

This week we continue our series on learning tunes by finally talking about the melody! Of course, I want you to learn melodies by ear and in this episoee, we talk about some of the challenges and advantages that come along with the process and how to approach different styles of melodies. Enjoy! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be bringing you many extras … [Read more...]

This week we take a look at one of my favorite jazz standards by Ferde Grofe, On The Trail. I wasn't really trying to do anything specific with this etude but did take some inspiration from the great, Joshua Redman and his licks that we studied last week. Enjoy the etude and don't forget to grab the PDF! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be bringing you many … [Read more...]

This month we take a look at a couple of fantastic Joshua Redman lines from his solo on Walter Smith III's album TWIO. This excerpt is from one of my favorite jazz standards, "On The Trail." Enjoy the episode and have fun with this material! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be bringing you many extras exclusively to our patrons including transcriptions and a … [Read more...]

This week we take a look at a few more essential progressions that we didn't have time for last week. Then we talk about how to figure out the basics of form, simply by using our ears. Here we go one step further to actually learning some tunes. Enjoy the episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be bringing you many extras exclusively to our patrons including … [Read more...]

This week we start a brand new series on learning tunes! As always, it's not as simple as diving into your favorite tune. We have some legwork to do first. In this episode we talk about some of the most common chord movements and how to practice hearing them. This is sure to make your life much easier when you get down to actually learning a jazz standard. Enjoy the episode and be sure to practice this material! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon … [Read more...]

Well, here we are at the end of our series on the tri-tone substitution! This week we are studying our second tune of the month and this one is over the, ubiquitous, rhythm changes. The rhythm changes progression allows us ample opportunity to flex our muscles with our newfound knowledge and produces some very interesting sounds. Enjoy the episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and … [Read more...]

Here we are at our first tune of the month episode in this series. This week we take a look at an etude written over the Bb blues that contains the majority of the work we have done over tri-tone substitutions. This etude is not easy and make sure you really get into the nitty gritty of how I am using the substitutions. Enjoy! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be … [Read more...]

This week we take a step back and learn some important information about resolving the progressions we have studied so far in this series. Using tension and release comes with some important caveats and we go over them in today's episode. Enjoy! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be bringing you many extras exclusively to our patrons including transcriptions and a … [Read more...]

We are back this week taking our series on the tri-tone substitution to the next level! In this episode, we discuss the possibilities for substitutions on a iii-VI -ii-V-I progression. The thinking is similar, but the execution is a bit different from last month. Enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be bringing you many … [Read more...]