This week is all about some strategies I use to learn and retain tunes. This is an essential part of being a competent jazz musician. You're expected to know many tunes! 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 are covering a topic that I think will help many people out there. Sometimes reading chord symbols is a very confusing thing. What do the extensions mean? What notes are available over certain chords? These are all questions I hear almost everyday in my teaching career and now we have an episode that will, hopefully, clear some things up for you. We are starting this series with the most common chord symbol in jazz, the dominant chord. There are so many ways of notating this chord … [Read more...]

This is going to be a controversial episode, I'm certain of it. We talk sports and how it relates to other pursuits such as music. Enjoy! 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 is all about using the melody from this famous jazz standard as a springboard to creating your own lines. The melody is always the place that I start for solo ideas. Why not use something that's readily available, and very well written, as a starting point for our improvisations? If you listen closely, you'll hear many of your favorite musicians quote melodies on a regular basis. The material we are presenting this week comes from a brand new video course called Standard Time: Take The … [Read more...]

This week is all about a different way to think about time spent on your instrument that might be a little bit more doable for most. 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...]

Joshua Redman is a perennial favorite among jazz fans and musicians alike. This week we are going to take a look at one of his choruses from Blues On Sunday. We will figure out what makes his playing so convincing and compelling. The mixture of blues and bebop are really what makes this solo CRAZILY HIP! This podcast is more about looking at the whole instead of zooming in on one thing. Enjoy! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate … [Read more...]

This week we talk about whether your goals are realistic or unrealistic. You might be thinking about it the wrong way! 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 work on major modes but we ratchet up the difficulty a bit. We are starting from a common root this week which makes each and every exercise on the sheet travel through seven different key signatures all at once. Practice it if you dare! 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 is all about Jacob Collier and a YouTube video that will drop your jaw. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnBr070vcNE 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 is all about major modes. This, I believe, is the most definitive way to practice your major modes in the most effective way possible. These exercises get us into real life situations which might be lacking when you practice something of this nature. Too often we practice material like this in a way that's removed from playing over actual tunes. We solve that problem today and put these modes into context that will present itself to you in everyday life as a musician. Understanding … [Read more...]