Listening Lab: Erroll Garner, “The Way You Look Tonight”
This month’s transcription challenge is a masterful rendition by Errol Garner of this “must-know” standard.
Upside Down Major 7th Chords (+ How to Instantly Improve Your Medium-swing 8th Notes)
Freshen up your playing AND instantly improve your medium-swing 8th notes with this simple mental trick (and one slight rhythmic shift).
Listening Lab: Branford Marsalis on “Mo’ Better Blues”
I learned so much about nuance and playing inside a “popish” context from Branford’s performance on this song.
Thinking Ahead: How to Practice Executing Vocabulary
Applying a new piece of vocabulary in this fashion will help you quickly absorb it, and know when to use it.
Easy Living Etude Part 2
Learn how to play new sounds over diminished chords and apply your technical practice to this song.
Transcription Challenge Review: Easy Living – Chet Baker Sings
Feedback on members’ submissions for this challenge.
Easy Living Etude Part 1 – Chromaticizing the Turnaround
This etude highlights how having facility with triads and seventh chords can help you create a coherent and flowing solo.
Listening Lab: Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan on “Easy Living”
Two fantastic examples of playing over this beautiful ballad. The tone, lyricism, and time feel of both are top shelf.
Easy Living: Harmonic Analysis and the Elegance of the Circle of Fifths
Several moments in this chord progression are common to many standard tunes. We’ll take a look at them, and discover how the Circle of Fifths guides the ship.
Case study in phrasing a melody: Chet Baker sings “Easy Living”
Imitating this beautifully delivered melody will introduce you to subtle phrasing nuances while providing guide rails for your tone and intonation.
Members Play Harold Land’s Solo On “Joy Spring” (Bebop)
Feedback on members’ submissions for this challenge.
Applying Vocabulary: Practicing the Honeysuckle Rose Lick Over Joy Spring
In this lesson, I’ll show you step-by-step how to practice applying this lick over the 6 different II-V-I progressions built in to “Joy Spring.” (And why it’s so beneficial!)
Understanding the Architecture of Vocabulary: The Honeysuckle Rose Lick
Mapping out exactly how a lick is built helps you assimilate it faster and makes it easier to apply it in your improvisations.
Playing “Out” Doesn’t Have to be Theoretical: Solo Break Over Stitched Up with John Mayer
Focusing on rhythm and spending lots of time practicing triads helped me to create this cool solo break.
Just Friends
How to memorize (and transpose) chord changes faster, motivic development, rhythmic displacement, and a 4-part introduction to triad pairs.
Getting Away from Root-Based Improvising: A Simple Trick to Add Color to Chord Progressions (“Joy Spring”)
Tired of always playing chords from the root? This exercise will help you develop the skill of seeing a set of chord changes and replacing them with a close cousin.
An Improvisational Approach to Practicing Scales in Thirds Over a Chord Progression
Can’t figure out how to go from practicing your scales to actually playing them in your solos? Give this exercise a try.
Case study: scales in thirds in a Stan Getz solo (over “500 Miles High”)
Hear Getz utilize this concept inside a solo + my suggestions for how to add this to your playing.
Review of the “Sonny Stitt on I’ll Remember April” transcription challenge submissions
These reviews get into ways to address (shed) small subsections of a transcription.
Listening Lab: Using Straight 8th Notes to Make Your Lines Swing Hard (Ryan Kisor’s solo on “I Think My Wife Is A Hat”)
You know those medium swing tempos where it’s somehow so difficult to get your 8th notes to swing? This solo offers an ideal example of one solution.
Review of the “He Had a Hat” transcription challenge submissions
These reviews get into what’s creating that cool sound over the dominant chord, using alternate (side) C, and what to do when the transcription challenge is too fast for your current ability.
Transcription Challenge: Bob’s solo on “He Had A Hat” by Jeff Lorber (from a rehearsal with Jeff and Jimmy Haslip)
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Transcription Challenge Review: David Sanborn – Hobbies
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Transcription Challenge Review – February 2018, “Binky” lick
My review of your submissions.