I have to apologize to the piano players this week. This episode is not for you unless you're a true beginner. Instead, this week is for all of the instrumentalists who need to de-mystify the piano and be able to play very simple chord progressions. Every great musician needs to be able to play some piano. Especially in jazz, being able to sit down and plunk out a simple chord progression, or accompany one of your students is a must. The good news is, with some of the knowledge you've gained … [Read more...]

This month we take a look at a couple of licks from one of my favorite trumpet players, Tom Harrell. Tom has a way of playing some of the clearest lines I have ever heard while still being totally creative and melodic throughout. Clarity is something that we all strive for in our lines and is one of the most important aspects you can work on. These two lines are a great place to start. By dissecting these lines and learning what makes them tick, you stand a great chance of being able to bring … [Read more...]

Cherokee is right up there with the blues and rhythm changes in terms of tunes you need to know and be able to play on convincingly. Cherokee can be particularly intimidating because of the tempo that it is normally played at. I'm talking break-neck, 300 miles an hour here. The good news is that everyone you have ever heard play Cherokee at mach speed had to practice it slowly at some point. That's the first piece of advice in this episode, slow down! This tune is not all that complicated, … [Read more...]

We're back with another episode on the infamous Coltrane Cycle. I wasn't going to create a part 2 for this series but after last week I started thinking about the tune Countdown and how much it confused me when I was learning about Coltrane and how his progressions worked. Countdown is different than Giant Steps, which last week's episode was based on. These changes can be used in a multitude of different ways and the more we discover and understand, the more places we can use this … [Read more...]

This week we are going to delve into a fairly complicated set of changes. That's right, it's Coltrane time! The Coltrane Cycle is one of the most important things to understand in modern jazz. Giant Steps is something that everyone is expected to be able to get through these days, so it would behoove you to learn what these are all about. Today we feature 3 different pieces of vocabulary that will get you off to a great start handling these progressions. Remember to use the provided material … [Read more...]

In this month's Lick Of The Month Episode, we are taking a look at a long Charlie Parker ii-V-I from the Omnibook. This particular line has a lot to unpack and shows off several of the devices that Bird used to get his quintessential sound. Bebop concepts are the basic building blocks for every style off jazz that came after it so you can be sure that this is information you need to know. Remember to put this line in all 12 keys and spend some time analyzing it further to catch anything that … [Read more...]

This week is less about one concept and more about something that will benefit the entire process of becoming the best you can be. There are enough things to work on when it comes to being a jazz musician that it can be overwhelming. If our focus is on too many things, we never end up getting better at anything. The only way to get really deep into a concept is to limit what we allow ourselves to work on at any given time. When we think of the masters of jazz, it becomes clear that they would … [Read more...]

As promised, here is part 2 of our series on making your solos over the blues much more interesting. Last week we looked at some changes that we could put into the blues progression to make it sound more bebop-ish, thus giving us a little bit more direction and interesting harmonic movements to solo over. This week we are going to take everything more "outside" the chord changes by working with tension and release, as well as chord substitutions. A word of warning before jumping into this … [Read more...]

The blues is one of the most, if not THE most important progression that you have to learn to play over. The blues is the basis on which so much of jazz is built on that I consider it a right of passage for every player. One of the coolest things about the blues is we can play it with extremely simple changes or very complicated changes along with every combination in between. This week we are going to look at some chord changes that you can put into the blues to spice things up and make … [Read more...]

We all know that learning vocabulary is vitally important for becoming a competent improviser. But learning vocab is sometimes not very rewarding in the way that we can't be as creative as we would ultimately like to be. This week's episode is focused on taking our normal vocabulary building exercises and spicing it up with some of our own ideas. Things like changing direction, adding or subtracting from a line, or changing something the slightest bit can force us to get deeper into what we … [Read more...]