JAZZ IMPROVISATION
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NOTE: Click on “Older Entries” at the bottom of this page for more lessons or see the complete list on the PREMIUM page.
How To Learn A Jazz Transcription With No TAB
So you got a copy of a great solo transcription by one of your favorites, but there’s no TAB! How do you begin to decide where to play it on the fretboard, what fingerings to use, and how to extract improvisational vocabulary from it? In this lesson I show you how I...
Jazz Improvisation Facts & Fallacies- Part 2
In this second and final video of this lesson series, I continue to dispel many myths and half-truths about jazz improvisation. If you enjoyed the first one, this one goes even deeper as I clear up some common theoretical misconceptions! It includes several topics...
Jazz Improvisation Facts & Fallacies- PART 1
The Internet has some good info about playing jazz, but then there's a lot of myths and half-truths. And if you're just getting started with jazz improvisation or you've been at it for a while and feel like you're not making significant progress, who knows...some of...
II-V-I Diad Lines
In this lesson I teach you how to add new textures to your jazz solos by inserting “diad lines” in the midst of your single note lines. In case you’re not familiar with this term, “diad lines”, they are simply 2 note phrases, for the most part in 3rds. Unlike triads,...
Chick Corea – Bessie’s Blues Solo
On February 9, 2021, I was saddened to learn that Chick Corea, one of the most influential jazz musicians of all times, had passed. So I decided to dedicate this lesson to his memory by transcribing the first 3 choruses to his solo on John Coltrane’s “Bessie’s Blues”,...
The Bebop Scale: Everything You Need To Know!
This video is all about the bebop scale...what it is, what it isn’t and when and how to use it! In this comprehensive lesson, I teach you how to easily come up with all the variants of the original bebop scale, how to instantly apply them to improvise over any II-V-I,...
Jazz Arpeggio Sweeps Lessons 5-8
This post includes Lessons 5-8 of Jazz Arpeggio Sweeps. Through this ongoing series, each week you get to build up your improvisational vocabulary as well as your economy picking chops with new sweep arpeggio based licks. Let me add that jazz musicians sometimes refer...
John Scofield’s Intervallic Style Licks
In this lesson we explore the use of wide intervals, sometimes referred to as intervallic improvisation. One of the jazz guitarists who has become best known for his frequent use of this concept, is none other than John Scofield. In this 7 minute information packed...
How To Improvise Off A Standard’s Melody
If you are fairly new at jazz improvisation and you gradually want to get your feet wet before getting into the complexities of bebop, in this lesson I share with you two valuable steps that will enable you to improvise a simple, yet nice solo using a standards main...
Master Tuplets
I'm going to assume that like most guitarists you're fairly accustomed to playing triplets. But how about quintuplets, sextuplets and septuplets? Are they a part of your rhythmic vocabulary or does the mere sight of them on a piece of music make your knees tremble...
Jazz Arpeggio Sweeps Lessons 1- 4
This post includes the first 4 installments of Jazz Arpeggio Sweeps. Through this ongoing series, each week you get to build up your improvisational vocabulary as well as your economy picking chops with new sweep arpeggio based licks. Let me add that jazz musicians...
Turn Those Boring Scale Exercises Into Jazz
You know those boring exercises many books start you out with when you're first learning your scales on the instrument? For the most part, they are based on a 4 note motif that is diatonically transposed to begin on every degree of the given scale. This is what is...
Triad Pairs PART 2
Hope you were able to watch PART1 of Triad Pairs from Hexatonic Scales which I posted last week. In it I taught the theory and procedure to get you started on this post-bop concept that has been employed by many jazz guitarists such as Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, John...
Triad Pairs PART1
Click Here for "Hexatonic Triad Pairs PART 2" Just in case you're wondering, "what on earth is a hexatonic scale?", let me answer that first. Being a guitar player, I'm sure that you're familiar with pentatonic scales which consist of 5 notes. Well, a hexatonic scale...
1 String Improvisation Exercises
In this lesson I want to introduce you to an effective fretboard mastery method suggested by one of my mentors, the late Charlie Banacos. For those not familiar with him, although he was a pianist, his students played a variety of other instruments. Among his guitar...
Miles and the Lydian Chromatic Concept
(NOTE: Unlike YouTube, the above video contains the complete lesson) In this lesson I introduce you to an alternative system of using scales for jazz improvisation. And it just so happens that Miles Davis was busy studying and practicing this concept during the period...
Improvising with Polygonal Shaped Tetratonics
In this lesson I share with you a hidden fretboard resource for improvisation! I'm sure you agree with me that the guitar is a very visual instrument and many players take advantage of this feature to recall certain chords and scale patterns. With that in mind, in...
EZ 9th Chord Arpeggio Trick
Transcribed from video: In this lesson I want to show you an easy trick that will instantly make your solos sound jazzier. And no this isn't click bait...jazz improvisation is not easy to learn, but if you are putting in the time and learning the basics, the simple...