May 3, 2012 in Learning Jazz
Etudes, transcribing solos, and jazz licks are the three most helpful tools for learning the jazz language. Here is a bebop etude over the changes of the tune Perdido.
Perdido Jazz Etude
Perdido Etude (Guitar) (with standards notation and tablature!)
Perdido Etude (C Instruments)
Perdido Etude (Bb Instruments)
Perdido Etude (Eb Instruments)
Perdido Etude (Bass Clef Instruments)
Click here to learn …
March 6, 2012 in Learning Jazz
This is one my favorite jazz education videos on youtube… the perspective of is that of a brilliant guitarist, but any instrumentalist could use these concepts. I’ve included a summary below of his main point for reference (or if you aren’t a guitar player and have trouble following what Vic is doing).
Summary for all instrumentalists:
Over a ii-V7alt-I-VIalt progression, …
February 2, 2012 in Learning Jazz
Learn Jazz Standards.com focuses on helping jazz musicians expand their repertoire. Jazz musicians are required to know jazz standards for working gigs and playing at jam sessions. However, it’s also very important to practice soloing over chord progressions, such as the ii-V-I-VI7 progression. This progression will show up time and time again in many tunes, and so practicing improvising over these changes will pay HUGE …
November 13, 2010 in Learning Jazz
Ain’t Misbehavin’ is an important tune by Fats Waller. This is probably the tune people think of first when you think of the harmonic motion in the three bars:
IMaj7 #idim7 | ii-7 #iidim7 | iii-7
This is an important progression, and this tune embodies that progression.
Fats Waller did the tune in Eb, so that’s …
November 5, 2010 in Learning Jazz
This is likely my favorite jazz standard of all time. It’s got a great melody, and I love blowing over the changes! It was written for the musical comedy “And the Angels Sing” by lyricist Johnny Burke and composer Jimmy Van Heusen. Released as a song by Jo Stafford, the tune also reached #10 on the Billboard chart one week …
November 3, 2010 in Learning Jazz
In my teaching, I sometimes feel the need to make a chord chart for a particular song to help guitarists comp through a tune. This isn’t intended to be what Joe Pass would do, but it’s a few jazz voicings to get you started comping over St. Thomas. Elizabeth, this is for you (and I’m sure others will benefit also). …
October 6, 2010 in Learning Jazz
Soloing over a minor iim7b5-V7-i progression is often played with either melodic minor harmony or harmonic minor harmony. Some musicians prefer the melodic minor sound, while others prefer using the harmonic minor sound. I will demonstrate both sounds over this next two-post series.
Jazz melodic minor soloing is a very hip sound. Over a minor ii-V-i, the melodic minor sound …
September 13, 2010 in Learning Jazz
I saw a post by Vic Juris on the All About Jazz Forum recommending the Kreutzer Violin Studies as a way of improving your guitar technique. If it’s good enough for Vic Juris, I’m definitely using it. The Study seems like a pretty good resource for some guitar sight reading as well, although the primary purpose seems to be technical. …
August 30, 2010 in Learning Jazz
I’m getting ready to go back to teaching mode soon, so this week I will be focusing on sharing some of the teaching handouts I have been developing for various instruments. This is a list of 20 Jazz Chords for the Guitar:
PDF of 20 Basic Jazz Chords for Guitar
20 Basic Jazz Chords (.pdf)
It is organized as follows:…
August 28, 2010 in Jazz Standards, Learning Jazz
This is the last post in a two week series on the blues in all keys. Here is a list of blues tunes you can learn. Have fun with them! Most of them can be practiced with the play alongs on the other posts in the series.
One of my favorite things I’ve ever done at a gig is going …
