This week continues our series on reading and becoming a more well rounded musician. Remember, you will get a lot more gigs if you can read at a high level! This week brings us to syncopation. We have already done episodes on tough keys and sub-division, now it's time to take a look at one of the most important aspects of jazz: having a good handle on playing off the beat. Syncopation is a defining characteristic of jazz and we need to be able to land on each and every part of the beat. These … [Read more...]

In addition to giving you something to transcribe each month, we will now be giving you a specific thing to listen to with notes on what to listen for. This month: Chris Potter and Shai Maestro play All The Things You Are! 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 … [Read more...]

Welcome back to our second episode in the new year. This week we continue our work on reading with a great rhythmic exercise to test your flexibility and attention to sub-division. When reading and improvising, playing sub-divisions of beats correctly and accurately is very important to our overall sound. This exercise is meant to take the same idea and put it through 8th notes, triplets, and 16th notes all designed to prepare you for anything that's thrown your way. Enjoy and make sure to grab … [Read more...]

A new series on the podcast: Transcribe This will feature something I want you to transcribe each month and keep you on target toward your goals in 2020. This month: Dexter Gordon's Second Balcony Jump! 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! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3brLNLRBoPM … [Read more...]

Happy New Year everyone! This year is going to kick off with our series on reading. We don't typically think about reading as an essential skill for improvisation, however, it is an essential skill for being a complete musician, which I think all of us strive for. This month will provide you with some difficult exercises that will hopefully bring you to the next level and allow you to read like a true ninja. This week is all about enharmonics and becoming comfortable reading in uncomfortable … [Read more...]

Welcome to our last episode of 2019! This has been an absolutely awesome year and I want to thank all of our listeners and community for the show of support and all your hard work to become better musicians. Looking forward to 2020! This episode is the culmination of our series on using tensions in context. Will will take all of the information gathered over the month and see it in a real world situation over one of my favorite jazz standards, There Is No Greater Love. I have done the hard … [Read more...]

This week I'm going to give you 5 albums that I loved in 2019 that will hopefully bring you some musical cheer this Holiday season! In order that I talk about them: Tom Harrell: Infinty Jonathan Blake: Trion Miguel Zenon: Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera Gary Alesbrook: The Stories We Tell Ourselves John Coltrane: Blue World 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 … [Read more...]

This week features yet another episode about playing tensions in context. This week we move on to the minor-seventh chord and discover some great structures we can use to work in the 9th, 11th and 13th to these chords. Hopefully, you are starting to understand what super-imposing does for your playing. This is a very powerful strategy to come up with new sounds over chords you have been playing forever. Enjoy the episode and remember to grab the PDF on our Patreon site! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES … [Read more...]

This week is all about the wonderful world of music apps! 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 weeks continues our look at playing tension notes in context and also continues our look at the #11. This episode, we look at the #11 in terms of a dominant seventh chord. This provides us with some brand new opportunities to use different structures. We focus on building a triad off the flatted seventh, a minor-major arpeggio off the fifth, and a half diminished chord based off the #11. Enjoy the episode and have fun with this material! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS … [Read more...]