Welcome to another Tune of the Month episode! This month we are finishing up our series on the playing of the legendary Charlie Parker by writing an etude over one of his most well known tunes. I strove to use the concepts from the previous three episodes this month in my writing and I think you will find a nice mix of the things we have talked about and explored. The challenge for this etude is to practice it enough to be able to be play at quite a fast tempo, as Bird would have. Good luck and … [Read more...]

Welcome back to our third installment of episodes on the great Charlie Parker and how you can sound more like a bebop master! This week we are looking at the varied and amazing rhythmic phrasing that Bird uses to keep you on the edge of your seat. Through a combination of eighth notes, triplets, and sixteenth notes, we can learn how to form our own phrases with the same fantastic rhythmic sense and variety of Parker. Enjoy the episode and don't forget to do the homework! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES … [Read more...]

Welcome back to part 2 of our series on what we can learn from the great, Charlie Parker. This week we take a look at the shape of Bird's lines and how his combinations of horizontal and vertical playing lead to some very exciting sounds. The explosiveness these elements produce is unparalleled and if we can even get a little bit of this into our playing it will really pay off. Enjoy the episode and don't forget to do the homework! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over … [Read more...]

Welcome back! I wanted to try some new things this year and in the month of January we will take an up close look at some of the aspects of Charlie Parker's playing that makes it so unique and special. Bird was the architect of so many of the concepts we study today and his playing is just as relevant today as it was in the 1940's. We will kick this series off by looking at the way Parker connects chords and measures with half steps. There is some homework involved with this episode so make sure … [Read more...]

Happy New Year everyone! Let's kick off 2021 the right way by starting a brand new transcription project. This episode will feature a recording from 1946 by Lester Young. 'No Eyes Blues', is all about how to play an effective melodic statement. Think more about the delivery rather than the content when transcribing this tune. Looking forward to hearing you all play this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwuJI5bSWls … [Read more...]

Welcome back everyone! This is the final episode of 2020 and I want to thank all of you for a fantastic year (under less than ideal circumstances). I hope you have enjoyed the material we presented in 2020 and I'm very excited for this final episode, bringing our series on the minor blues to a close. This week I have prepared an etude for you with some pretty adventurous changes. Your job is to analyze the changes and figure out what I was thinking so you can use some of these same devices in … [Read more...]

Welcome back everyone! This week we continue our journey on the minor blues and making it as interesting as possible. In this episode, we take a look at what we can do to reharmonize measure 8 of the progression and go over two interesting variations. Hope you are enjoying this series and getting something out of it in your practice time! 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 … [Read more...]

This week we continue our series on the minor blues. In this episode we add a few chord changes, giving the progression a unique sound and giving our lines more direction. Enjoy the episode and don't forget to complete the homework assignments before moving on to the next 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 … [Read more...]

Welcome to a new month and a new series! This series was spurred by one of our listeners. They were wondering if I could do some episodes on the minor blues progression and how to handle it. This form is very common in jazz and it will pay off to dive into this set of chords more deeply. In this episode we take an overview of the changes, learn the basics, and lay some ground work for more advanced ways of reharmonizing the minor blues to come in future episodes. Enjoy! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES … [Read more...]

This week we wrap up our series on composition. In keeping with the tradition, this is a tune of the month episode but this time, instead of using a jazz standard, we use the composition that I have been writing this month for you. I'm taking the chord progression from last episode, writing my own melody over it, and providing you with an etude as well. We talk about some of the decisions I made when writing this melody based on tempo and feel, a motive, and a few other things that will … [Read more...]