I was completely flooded with emails this week asking me to do a part 2 for Blues For Alice. Listeners wanted to develop strategies for measures 5-8 and I totally understand why. These measures are by far the most difficult part of this tune due to chromatically descending ii-V progressions. In this episode we talk about several different strategies for developing material over this section and I give you a couple of example pieces of vocabulary that can and will get you started. It's quite … [Read more...]

This week I'll tell you all about the metronome I know and love and why you should have the same one. 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 the first 4 measures of one of my favorite Charlie Parker tunes, Blues For Alice. These measures provide a difficult descending chord progression that requires a closer look. We will be focusing on creating lines that lead seamlessly into one another to start developing an ear and a feel for the chords and start getting some vocabulary under our belt. Bird really has come up with an amazingly difficult reharm of the blues with this tune and anyone that is studying bebop or … [Read more...]

This week's episode is all about the new film from John Scheinfeld, Chasing Trane. 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...]

I'm willing to bet that most of you have never heard of the fantastic Italian Saxophonist, Max Ionata. Well we're here to fix that this week and bring you an amazing 16 bar section of his solo on George Gershwin's 'But Not For Me.' Max has an incredible ability to play the jazz language in a very clear way that is perfect for us to learn from. We normally don't bring you such a long excerpt from a solo but this week, we felt like we had to. Max puts together such a nice phrase here that we are … [Read more...]

This week we are going to look at something that's a bit less glamorous than a totally killing harmonic device or something that makes us feel like we are John Coltrane reincarnated. This, however, makes all of the really cool stuff we learn come to life and without it, we just sound like a dud. Accents are what makes jazz sound like jazz. If we don't understand how to use them, we won't be getting gigs anytime soon. In this episode we talk about how to use different accent patterns to create … [Read more...]

Would you ever watch TV or read the paper while you practice?? 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 going to get our listeners to add a little bit of creativity to their practice. Learning vocabulary is a necessity, but we also need to be original in our playing. What if we took the blueprint of something that we know works and put our own spin on it? That is what this week is all about. By creating a great template and then writing our own lines based on it, we get the best of both worlds. Enjoy the episode and your practicing for the week! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG … [Read more...]

This week is all about certain instruments that everyone should be able to play.... 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...]