This week is about limiting our note choice to provide more meaningful melodies and harmonic impact. Most of the time, if we try to fit the maximum amount of information into a given space, we will end up sounding contrived and like we are trying to fit information into a kind of improvisational clown car. This episode is all about creating statements that limit the notes we can use over a given chord. This frees up our minds to think about more than just the notes and clarifies our thinking. … [Read more...]

This is one of my favorite jazz standards of all time. This tune can be very intimidating due to the bridge. The topic of today's show is how to approach a tune that has a tricky section causing you to avoid it. By using a simple trick that allows you to think through difficult changes slowly, we can start to sort some of these things out in our playing. Thinking fast is essential when playing this music, but thinking slowly is also an essential part of practicing. Learning to balance the two … [Read more...]

One of the most hated roles in our society! It's time to become the dreaded AUDITOR! Would you like to support the creators of this podcast? If so, please head over to our Patreon page and show your love by donating $3 or more each month. You get incredible benefits and this keeps the podcast coming at you regularly. Thanks so much! … [Read more...]

This week features one of my favorite Trumpet/Flugelhorn players from Bristol, UK, Gary Alesbrook. Gary plays an amazing version of Clifford Brown's Joy Spring on his Instagram page and we are using that as the basis for this episode. This one is a bit different from our usual lick of the month series. Instead of looking very closely at a lick or piece of vocabulary, we will be talking about some of the larger issues and concepts that make Gary's playing so amazing. Don't fret though, the full … [Read more...]

Our third and final installment of questions from Andrew asks the question of what motivated us initially. Would you like to support the creators of this podcast? If so, please head over to our Patreon page and show your love by donating $3 or more each month. You get incredible benefits and this keeps the podcast coming at you regularly. Thanks so much! … [Read more...]

This week continues our look at simple, actionable devices that we can use over sus chords. Last week we talked about pentatonics you can use over over these chords. This week, is all about triadic material that you can easily insert over these types of chords. The first device is so simple you can start using it right away. The second may be a little bit tougher, but I promise you will have it down in no time. Enjoy the episode and remember to support us on Patreon if you enjoy this … [Read more...]

This is the second in our three part series on everything that has to do with motivation and practicing. Would you like to support the creators of this podcast? If so, please head over to our Patreon page and show your love by donating $3 or more each month. You get incredible benefits and this keeps the podcast coming at you regularly. Thanks so much! … [Read more...]

The inspiration for this week's show came from a student of mine that was having trouble with sus chords. She wasn't sure what to do when she saw a sus chord and what was appropriate as far as melodic devices. So, this week, I'm giving all of you the exact same material that I gave her. We investigate a couple of pentatonic scales that work very nicely over sus chords and the differences in sound between them. Enjoy! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon … [Read more...]

The next three MM episodes will feature questions from one of our long time listeners, Andrew. They are based on a project he has to do for a class he is in on motivation. Hope you enjoy and tune in the next two weeks for more of these topics! Would you like to support the creators of this podcast? If so, please head over to our Patreon page and show your love by donating $3 or more each month. You get incredible benefits and this keeps the podcast coming at you regularly. Thanks so much! … [Read more...]

Confirmation is one of those tunes that is very scary to look at. There's a good reason for this as Confirmation is usually played at extremely fast tempos and has a ton of changes! But don't fret, we are here to simplify some of the most difficult parts and give you a way to approach them with sequences. Sequential playing is an important aspect of playing bebop and tunes like Confirmation. It does a couple of important things: Gives you good sounding material that helps you learn the texture … [Read more...]