This thread dropped some serious knowledge on me and changed everything for good. … [Read more...]

This week we are starting a multi-part series on what you should be doing to nail down the basics of the bebop style. Bebop is the most important thing to understand when it comes to playing modern jazz as the information provided by these revolutionary musicians informed all music that came after it. You can think of bebop as the building blocks for everything you will play and in this week's episode we get into the must know exercises that come from the world famous musician and teacher, … [Read more...]

Getting the most out of your practice is all about your energy levels. When is the best time for you??                             … [Read more...]

Pat Martino is probably my favorite guitar player ever. On an instrument with such a storied history, people like him and Joe Pass still make me smile and tap my foot every time I hear them play. Today we are taking a look at one of his ii-V-i licks over Blue Bossa. This tune is one that every jazz musician should know regardless of skill level. This tune gets called at so many jam sessions and contains some essential chord progressions that everyone should know. Martino uses several devices … [Read more...]

This week's Motivation Monday is all about turning off the biggest distraction in any room.                             … [Read more...]

This week is a continuation of last week's lesson. Now we are taking our contrafact and writing new chord changes to it, effectively coming up with our own tune. This is a great exercise in many different ways because there are so many possibilities. You can make your re-harmonization as plain or as out there as you would like. Maybe you stumble upon a great set of chords that can be used outside of this exercise entirely. There are so many ways this can benefit your playing and writing skills! … [Read more...]

Writing a contrafact is the act of taking an existing set of chord changes and writing your own melody to it. This is great for a number of reasons. First, you can cure writers block beautifully with this tactic. Sometimes when we can't come up with anything new and fresh on our own, it's valuable to take someone else's creativity and put our own spin on it. Secondly, this is a great way to practice our own melodic writing using some of the best chord changes from the history of this … [Read more...]