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...]

The blues scale is a great device for beginners and an easy way to explain playing over the blues. At the 10 Minute Jazz Lesson, our goal is to move beyond the basics and expand your horizons into deeper levels of playing. This isn't always easy, but is usually very fulfilling and leads to quick improvement. This week we are going to move beyond the blues scale into what is called the Mixolydian Sharp 9 Scale. This may sound complicated when you first hear it, but is very close to the blues … [Read more...]

Chris Potter is a one of a kind musician. If you have ever heard him play you know what I'm talking about. His work ethic and skill level should be an inspiration to us all if not being slightly depressing at times :) This week we are going to take a look at a phrase that he plays over Cherokee and see what makes it tick. This material largely mimics the bebop language but with Potter's own special twist on it. If you don't take anything else away from this episode, just hear how flawlessly … [Read more...]