Tunes

Transcribing Chris Potter’s solo on “Easy To Love”

A real-time demonstration: I transcribe Potter’s solo and tell you everything I’m thinking as I go.

Guide Tone Soloing: Learn to Identify the Most Important Notes in Chord Progressions (and Keep Your Place in the Form)

Learn the most important notes in a chord progression and keep your place in the form.

Scale interval exercise to add syncopation in 3/4 (Black Narcissus by Joe Henderson)

How to break out of the box rhythmically when playing in 3/4

Finding that soft, airy Joe Henderson-esque tone in the upper register

What Joe Henderson can teach you about getting that warm, breathy tone up top.

Modal Melodies: How to Find the Right Notes (and Play Them Creatively)

Using the Joe Henderson song “Black Narcissus” as an example, I cover practice strategies for mastering each chord, scale, and the tune as a whole.

Realtime Analysis: What I’m Thinking as I Improvise Over “Lady Bird”

This will give you a glimpse into exactly what I’m thinking as I analyze my decisions—and results—in real time.

Minor 7th Chord Sidestep Workout (+ Sonny Rollins’ Eternal Triangle solo)

A staple bebop lick you want to have under your fingers in all keys.

How to Get What You Transcribe Under Your Fingers (Michael Brecker – “Syzygy”)

Here’s a very effective way to approach the transcription process.

Listening Lab: Driving Rhythmic Feel, Hip Harmonic Ideas, and Laid-Back Blues Phrasing: Johnny Griffin on “Blue Monk”

Studying this solo reveals tons about rhythmic feel, hip harmonic ideas, and blues-soaked nuances.

Days of Wine and Roses: Learning a Song from Recordings (What to Listen for and How to Make the Most of It)

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Transcription Analysis: Days of Wine and Roses (6 lessons)

A step-by-step analysis of a transcription of my a cappella solo.

8 Ways to Get (More) Creative with Learning Tunes

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Anthropology

This course has lots of different avenues for productive practice. In it you’ll learn how to practice with the metronome on different beats to improve your time feel, use a bebop melody to make improvisational material, and superimpose different chord qualities over dominant chords.

Improve Your Tone While Learning a New Melody

Another “kill two birds with one stone” practice strategy. Great way to work on tone while also memorizing a new melody.

Blue 7

Melodic motifs, rhythmic displacement, and the Lydian dominant scale are covered in this series on the classic blues tune by Sonny Rollins.

I Should Care: Learning Tunes from Multiple Sources

Frustrated because the information doesn’t seem to come together for you?

Transcribing in Real Time: Step-By-Step How I Learn a Solo By Ear (Chris Potter on “Everything Happens to Me”)

I walk you through my exact transcribing process, in real time, so you can hear exactly what I’m taking from the material.

How to Transcribe a Fast Lick (that seems too fast to figure out)

Think you can’t transcribe? Think you can’t transcribe fast lines? Sure you can.

In the Car with Joshua Redman: Jig-a-Jug

Join me in the passenger seat as I share my favorite moments–and why I think they’re noteworthy–from this track.

Warming up on Green Dolphin St.

A demonstration of how I sometimes begin a practice session by playing a tune.

Night In Tunisia: Learning A Tune From Multiple Sources

This course on Night in
Tunisia covers learning the melody by ear off the recordings (and checking multiple
sources), learning the harmony by ear, and weaving chord changes together. Jump in
wherever you’re comfortable, no rush to get through the whole course.