Are you a visual learner? I know I am and I have been investigating ways to make this work to my advantage. 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's episode is a little bit on the advanced side of things. We are going to learn how to quickly tonisize new keys and really be on top of our game in terms of thinking on our feet. This was an exercise that one of my professors in graduate school had me do on a regular basis and it helped me out a lot. This exercise not only will help the brain but will also get you to hear things in a brand new way. By using the relationship of minor thirds we can easily transition between keys … [Read more...]

This week is all about a listening format that is coming back to prominence and is easier than ever to incorporate into your life. Vinyl is the way to listen, especially to jazz! 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 we finish up our series on practice progressions with the hardest ones yet. So far in this series, we have talked about progressions that make total sense from a traditional point of view. The problem is, in modern creative music, we can't always count on the progressions to be traditional. We have to be ready for anything that's thrown our way. These two progressions aren't the most complicated but also don't follow any type of circle of fourths or fifths motion. I think this will … [Read more...]

This week we talk about a handy tool that is both free and extremely useful for your musical life and beyond! 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 we continue our work on practice progressions. The only difference between this week and last is now we are dealing with V-I progressions instead of a mono-quality exercise. These progressions are sure to open up your playing if you spend enough time on them. Another difference between this week and last is that I want you to shoot for playing a particular sound over each V chord instead of playing a piece of prescribed vocabulary. This will force you into a different frame of mind and … [Read more...]

NEW COLTRANE! This is very exciting for me for several different reasons. To listen to new Coltrane material in 2018 is very special stuff. Check it out! 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 starts a series on something that I use in my practice each and every day. These progressions are how I get ideas into my playing and functioning as I'd like them to. Whether you're learning vocabulary or trying to get a certain sound into your playing, these examples will be extremely valuable additions into your toolbox. This week we start with simple, mono-quality chord progressions that have us looking at either major, dominant, or minor chords. I have also given you a piece of … [Read more...]

We all know that Charlie Parker is the father of modern jazz. The advancements he made in such a short life are nothing short of amazing. He changed the face of music and transcended what was possible on his instrument. Almost every legendary jazz musician attributes Bird as being one of their main influences. This warrants deep study of his music and this is what we are going to do today. There is one line on Confirmation that has always stood out to me as being a very important piece of … [Read more...]

I just got back from a 10 day tour yesterday and this week I share some of my thoughts on using music as a vehicle for traveling and spreading the love through our instruments. 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...]