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.
George Benson & John Scofield Compared
Transcribed from Video: For this lesson I picked 2 of my favorite living jazz guitar masters...George Benson on the bebop side and John Scofield on the post-bop side. Some might even call it old school and new school, side by side. Stylistically speaking, they sound...
McCoy Tyner Jazz Guitar Lesson Tribute
Transcribed from Video: This is a special tribute lesson to McCoy Tyner, a very influential jazz pianist who I was sad to learn passed away on March 6, 2020. For those guitarists who are new to jazz or not familiar with this name, McCoy was none other than the pianist...
How to Solo “Outside”
In this lesson I unravel the mystery of playing "outside" without sounding like you made a mistake or got lost in the changes. Now, if you are new to jazz and have no clue what playing "outside" is, let me just briefly sum it up as temporarily improvising over...
2 Ingredients to Bebopify your Solos
If you're a beginning to intermediate jazz guitar student and know your basic scales, but you feel your solos don't quite sound like jazz...this lesson is for you! In this video I teach you how to incorporate 2 important melodic ingredients that are characteristic of...
5 Chromatic Licks To Jump-Start Your Solos
In this video lesson I want to share some cool chromatic lines that are sure to grab your listeners ear when you start a solo.... You know that section after playing the head to a standard, where the whole band stops and the soloist plays a flurry of notes leading...
Miles’ Secret Solo Sauce Revealed!
Have you ever wondered why Miles Davis is so revered as a jazz improviser and why so many musicians worldwide transcribe and study his solos? I just posted one of my all time favorite lessons in which I play 4 measure fragments of 10 different solos that Miles...
This Chord Will Revitalize Your Standards!
Did you know that there's a seldom used chord, that when used in the right places will breathe new life to those overplayed Standards? It's one the old beboppers didn't know about . I heard it for the first time in the playing of Allan Holdsworth, John Abercrombie,...
Phrygian Cadences
What do tunes like Miles Davis' "Nardis", Wayne Shorter's "Speak No Evil", and Chick Corea's "Spain" & "La Fiesta" have in common? That they all employ phrygian modal cadences, also the subject of this video!In this lesson, not only do I give you examples of both...
Dorian Cadences: Comping and Soloing Made Easy
This is the first in a 2 part series on Modal Cadences. In this lesson you will learn all about Dorian Cadences...what are they; how to identify them in many standards that you most likely already play; when and how to create them to add more harmonic motion to your...
SLONIMSKY SYSTEM: 24 Permutations of a 4 Part Chord (Preview)
What do John Coltrane, Allan Holdsworth, Freddie Hubbard and Frank Zappa among several other great music innovators have in common? That they all claim to have studied and practiced using Nicholas Slonimsky's "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns". In this...
Jim Hall’s “Bemsha Swing” Solo
In this video lesson I teach a great solo by one of my all time favorite guitarists...Jim Hall! It's off a 16 bar blues by Thelonious Monk entitled, Bemsha Swing. After playing the solo at tempo, I then teach it to you slowly, and explain what is going on measure by...
Rhythm Changes: Why it’s required study for jazz
In the 1930’s George and Ira Gershwin penned the show tune, I Got Rhythm for their musical, «Girl Crazy». By the time bebop was born during the 1940’s, jazz musicians had already adopted this chord progression as their choice harmonic vehicle for the exploration of...
Jazz Guitar Articulation: from bebop to post-bop
Have you ever thought about what makes two jazz guitarists such as George Benson and John Scofield sound so radically different ? Most respond that it's due to their choice of notes. And yes that is true, but there are other defining factors that are just as...
Blue Bossa Improvisation Concepts
In this lesson I teach you 6 concepts to apply when soloing over Blue Bossa. Truthfully, once you get them down you can apply them over virtually any standard! I just chose Blue Bossa because it is a popular standard and If you don't already know it, it's fairly easy...
Coltrane’s Ghosting Technique on Guitar
So you're probably wondering...what on earth is this "ghosting" technique John Coltrane used and why would I as a guitarist want to learn it? Simply because by emulating it on guitar it's bound to add a whole new dimension to your phrasing! Let me briefly describe it....
Playing Outside Using 5ths
"Coltrane, Wes & the Power of 5ths" If like most of us you first learned to play rock and blues on guitar, I'm sure you have spent considerable time playing perfect 5ths all over the neck. Yes...I'm talking about those infamous power chords. Fortunately, there is...
Recycle Your Existing Jazz Licks
Regardless of what level we're at, the fact is that as improvisers we all have pet licks we tend to fall back on. These so called jazz licks are pieces of something we might have learned from a transcription which has become part of our habitual improvisational...
Implying the Harmony in a Jazz Guitar Solo
One of the trademarks of a great solo is that if you strip away the rhythm section you will hear the chord changes implied in the soloist's lines. This brings to mind several great saxophonists who have recorded trio sessions with just bass and drums. Of course John...