This week we talk about an important music theory topic that comes up a lot in our day to day playing. This is something that you may know about, but never knew what it was called. Secondary dominants create more motion in our chord progressions and give them more gravity leading us to the ultimate cadence of V to I in Western Music. There are many places, like the blues, where adding a secondary dominant to your playing can make all the difference between sounding like an amateur or sounding … [Read more...]

This is a really special episode for me. I got to sit down with Brent Vaartstra of the amazing website, podcast, and YouTube channel, Learn Jazz Standards. Brent is the mastermind behind these incredible resources for musicians and I have been using his materials for years to improve my playing and continue to learn. Brent tells us a little about his path as a musician and then gives us an amazing lesson on learning tunes using his LISTS method. It was a real pleasure to speak with Brent and … [Read more...]

This week's podcast is all about some reaction I got to episode 1oo and why I feel so strongly about keeping it simple and going deep. 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...]

Welp, we made it to episode 100! I can't thank everyone out there enough for sticking with me and my annoying voice for 100 episodes. It's so fun to bring all of you new material every week and here the benefits that you get from it. Thanks so much! This week's material might seem pretty mundane, but if you really unpack this stuff and spend some time with it, I think you will see major results. Like, earth shattering, make you question everything type of results. Scales are something you … [Read more...]

Sorry for missing the Motivation Monday Podcast last week! Everything gets explained in this podcast..... 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 brings to a conclusion our 3 part series on the Never Ending Exercise. This week we are taking things in a bit of a different direction by adding 7th chords into the mix. Over the course of the past two weeks, you have probably learned how far you can take the pure triads in this exercise. By adding 7th chords we achieve a much higher degree of difficulty and really change up the sound of the study due to the presence of half steps. Hopefully now you can see why this is called the never … [Read more...]

This week we are going to get deeper into our triadic exercises in fourths that we presented on the last episode. How do we take this exercise deeper you ask? By adding chromaticism! They don't call this the never ending exercise for no reason. There is so much we can do with this exercise, we are only scratching the surface with these two exercises. There is a lot of work to do here so I hope you enjoy this episode and it sheds some light on how amazing triads can be! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES … [Read more...]

This week makes you really think about who your favorite musician is, why they're your favorite, and what that does to your playing. 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 an exercise that combines two important concepts in jazz: fourths and triads. If I had to pick some of the most important facets of music with which to work your butt off, these would be on the top of the list. You may have even heard some of these exercises before, but what makes it the never ending exercise is the amount of options and variations you can create within a simple concept. Part 1 goes into some of the more simple forms this progression can take. Next week … [Read more...]

This week I recount a great anecdote from the legendary educator and pianist, Charlie Banacos. This story reminds us that we need to connect with the music on a spiritual and meditative level. 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...]