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...]

Welcome to the Lick of The Month! This week we learn a line from one of the greatest jazz musicians that has ever lived, Michael Brecker. This lick is from his solo over the classic tune, Song For My Father. Brecker, in his classic style, doesn't stay inside the key of the chord he's playing over. This one short lick is like a masterclass on how to use tri-tone substitutions. If you aren't quite ready for substitutions yet, don't worry! File this episode under work to be done when you feel … [Read more...]

This week completes our look at core exercises which every jazz musician worth their weight needs to know. We already studied major modes, chord tones and extensions, and this week we complete the series with a look at chromatic exercises. Chromaticism is important in every form of jazz but particularly in bebop. I like to think about bebop as the first form of "modern" jazz. Meaning that all music that came after it was very informed by the bebop style. These exercises will translate well to … [Read more...]

This week we are continuing our look at exercises I consider the building blocks of effective improvisation. Last week we studied some scale based exercises and this week we will take a look at chord based exercises. Learning all of the upper structure chord extensions is a way to break out of your regular chord tone based solos. These exercises will cover notes such as the 9th, sharp 11th, and 13th and work them seamlessly into regular chord tone exercises giving them a new flavor and giving … [Read more...]

This week we are going to start a series on core concepts and exercises that I feel every jazz player should have in their toolbox. Our first stop is going to be a great exercise dealing with the modes of the major scale. This exercise is a simple one but it carries huge benefits when it comes to developing a general base of technique and facility when improvising. There is much talk of practicing your 'jazz scales' but the way I think of it is scales are scales no matter what type of music … [Read more...]

Welcome to part 2 in our series on chromatic approaches and diatonic chords! This week we will work on approaches as they relate to diatonic 7th chords instead of triads. This adds a new dimension to the sound, and although similar to part 1, provides some new challenges and opportunities when it comes to this important concept. One of the particular challenges is coming up with the right rhythms to use with 5 note figures. A big part of this episode will be showing you how to group the notes … [Read more...]

Our second installment of the Lick Of The Month series brings you an awesome bebop iii-vi-ii-v-I line. Also known as a turnaround, this progression is widely used in tunes, bebop tunes in particular. One place that you can immediately start to apply this material is over rhythm changes. You'll notice that this line contains a lot of chromaticism and this will be tough to figure out at first but give it some time and effort and you will be hearing and playing this in all 12 keys. This part is … [Read more...]

One of the toughest things to do in jazz is incorporate chromaticism. It's so easy to just stay inside of the diatonic scale, after all we have been working on scales since we first picked up our instruments, right? Starting to incorporate chromaticism sometimes feels like jumping off a cliff with no safety rope. It sounds and feels foreign to us. In this episode I  give you some exercises that utilize chromatic approaches in relation to diatonic triads. Diatonic triads are built off of each … [Read more...]

I got a questions from one of our listeners, Andrew about how he could improve his skills of learning tunes by ear. I thought that this was a great topic to do an episode on as it concerns one of the most important parts of playing jazz: ear training. This is a particularly hard part of ear training because it requires us to figure out harmony as well as melody and rhythm. This skill can also come in very handy when we want to play a tune or piece that has not been charted out anywhere. This … [Read more...]