In this podcast episode, Brent introduces the "One Jazz Standard Strategy for Jazz." The philosophy behind this strategy is rooted in the belief that the most effective way to improve jazz playing is by learning new songs. The strategy involves dedicating one month to learning a single jazz standard, focusing on the melody, chords, and choosing one specific area of improvement. The approach aims to deepen understanding, address weaknesses, and manage practice expectations effectively. This focus...
Jan 12, 2024•9 min•Season 2Ep. 10
In this episode, Brent addresses a question about balancing learning new jazz songs and retaining previous ones, especially with limited practice time. He highlights the importance of mindset, emphasizing that not every song needs to be remembered forever. The key is understanding the purpose of learning a song for playing with others or educational benefits. Brent suggests incorporating periodic review sessions into practice routines, dedicating time to refresh and maintain the songs already le...
Jan 11, 2024•10 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Brent discusses the role of metronomes in jazz practice, responding to a question about the pulse metronome. He emphasizes that metronomes help develop internal time and a steady time feel. Suggesting online metronomes, he provides exercises for flexibility in time feel. Brent underscores the value of playing with recordings and adapting to different tempos, urging musicians to use metronomes judiciously as one tool among many. Important Links: Free Guide to learning standards by ear: Learn Jazz...
Jan 10, 2024•11 min•Season 2Ep. 8
In this podcast episode, Brent addresses a question from Cliff Dunn about counting while soloing. Brent advises against counting while soloing, emphasizing the challenge of trying to coordinate two different tasks simultaneously. Instead, he recommends practicing feeling the time and provides various strategies, such as listening to recordings, working with a metronome, and breaking down the feeling of a measure. Brent encourages musicians to focus on feeling the music in their bodies and offers...
Jan 09, 2024•9 min•Season 2Ep. 7
In this podcast episode, Brent addresses a question from Ed Robinson about the preference between a jazz trio or a quartet. Brent emphasizes the value of playing with other musicians and highlights the diverse challenges and experiences that come with different band settings. He shares personal insights, expressing a preference for a quartet setting with bass, drums, guitar (himself), and a saxophone. Brett encourages musicians to explore various settings to grow as jazz players and musicians. I...
Jan 08, 2024•9 min•Season 2Ep. 6
In this podcast episode, Brent talks about adopting the Batch Practice Method to improve jazz skills. and outlines a simple but focused approach to achieve measurable progress by breaking learning goals into small, manageable batches to master over multiple practice sessions before moving on incrementally. Key steps include defining a concrete overall project like learning a new standard monthly, then batching subsets like intervals of melody, chords, or solos to deeply ingrain before adding mor...
Jan 05, 2024•10 min•Season 2Ep. 5
In this episode, Brent answers a question from an inner circle member of the Learn Jazz Standards community, on whether musicians should think while improvising or just play what they feel. Brent explains that the best improvisers utilize both conscious thinking to guide their playing and subconscious reactions to melodies and emotions. He advises practicing 'playing free' without goals to enter a relaxed mental state, as well as deeply studying theory, chords, and licks in the practice room so ...
Jan 04, 2024•10 min•Season 2Ep. 4
In this episode, Brent answers a listener's question asking how to use melodic minor scales over dominant seventh chords in jazz improvisation. Brent explains music theory provides tools to conceptualize improvisation, though the goal is applying scales flexibly to add textures and flavors. He demonstrates three uses of melodic minor scales: over half-diminished II chords in minor key progressions, a half-step up from the root of dominant V chords, and the root of minor I chords. Key takeaways a...
Jan 03, 2024•11 min•Season 2Ep. 3
In this episode, Brent answers a listener's question on who was the first jazz musician in history. He explains there is no definitive single originator but rather an evolution in New Orleans reflecting diverse musical and cultural influences. Key musicians mentioned are Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, and Louis Armstrong, among others. Brent emphasizes understanding jazz history and listening to key recordings to appreciate how the music developed and continues evolving. Important Links: Free ...
Jan 02, 2024•8 min•Season 2Ep. 2
In this episode, Brent provides beginner jazz musicians advice on the best standards for learning jazz improvisation. He recommends simple tunes covering basic concepts like modal playing, blues forms, and ii-V-I progressions to get started. Key takeaways explain building blocks like scales, relative major/minor keys, and chord/melody relationships. Important Links: Free Guide to learning standards by ear: Learn Jazz Standards the Smart Way LJS Inner Circle Membership Listen to the Learn Jazz St...
Jan 01, 2024•10 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Today's episode marks the 2nd season of the Learn Jazz Standards podcast. Brent explains shifting the show's direction to better serve listeners by focusing on answering their specific jazz learning questions, with shorter 10-minute episodes four days a week and 'Fast Track Friday' strategy episodes. The host conveys excitement for the coming daily content and urges listeners to subscribe. In this episode: 1. Taking Season 2 in a slightly different direction 2. New podcast schedule Important Lin...
Jan 01, 2024•2 min0
Okay, so this is the second time I'm restarting recording this episode. I want to get this right. So I am taking a break from the Learn Jazz Standards podcast, and I'm going to talk about what's gone into this decision, what this means for the future, what it means for you as the podcast listener, and why I'm actually incredibly excited about the future and you should be too. And why this isn't goodbye by any stretch or any sort of way. I'll leave with that up front, but let's talk about that. I...
Oct 09, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 440
"Music and the opportunity for music is all around us. And you can find inspiration in conversation or just the rhythm of something happening around you. And so I would just take these snippets, get home, and say, what can I do with this? And I would start to sing a melody around those words and think about what the story could be that surrounds those words." That was Christian Schrader, a self-described hobbyist musician who recently created a pro jazz album. He described this as one of the big...
Oct 02, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 439
Do you ever get that feeling when you're looking at your instrument sitting there in the corner and you just don't feel like picking it up? It's kind of a strange feeling because deep inside you're excited about music and jazz and you want to improve and you know you have that idea of practicing but then when you actually go to do it there's some kind of resistance there. And sometimes the reason that is is because practicing can sometimes be boring. That is if you practice in a boring way. So i...
Sep 25, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 438
If you're a complete beginner to jazz, this episode is for you. If you are an intermediate jazz player, this episode is for you. And if you consider yourself an advanced jazz player, this episode is also for you. In today's episode, we are going to be talking about the fundamentals of learning jazz. Whether you are brand new and you need to know this information or you're somewhere down the line, it is important for us to continually revisit what actually works and what we actually do need to kn...
Sep 18, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 437
So a common piece of advice when learning jazz and becoming a better improviser, learning songs is you should do it by learning it by ear rather than reading sheet music. And there are a plethora of reasons why teachers will say this is a good idea. However, for someone who is new to this idea or who was trained to read music or use tablature, this could be a very scary, foreign, and frustrating concept. So in today's episode, I want to go over ten tips that I regularly share with my Inner Circl...
Sep 11, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 436
The best way to learn jazz and improve over time is simply to learn more songs, aka jazz standards. But those jazz standards, those songs are made up of chord progressions. The good news is that even though there are a lot of complex chord progressions, or at least seemingly complex chord progressions in jazz standards, a lot of them come up time and time again, over and over. So once you learn one jazz standard in two or three, you're going to start seeing those same chord progressions come up ...
Sep 04, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 435
Hey, my friends, Brent here from Learn Jazz Standards. Here on the podcast for the month of August, we've been doing a themed month called Free Masterclass August, where I've been giving away different Masterclasses that we've done in the past here on Learn Jazz Standards, whether it be from our virtual summits, retreats or otherwise, just to, you know, it's the summer, it's the end of the summer. We're about to go into the fall coming up here soon, and I just kind of wanted to unleash a lot of ...
Aug 28, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 434
Hey, my friends, Brent here from Learn Jazz standards. We are continuing our themed month of August called Free Masterclass August, where I'm giving away some Masterclasses here on the podcast that we've done in the past at various different events and mediums just to give a little extra special, a little bit of fun here and value for finishing up the summer so. So, I hope you enjoy it. We've had some great Masterclasses this month on the podcast. Already today, I want to share a Masterclass tha...
Aug 21, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 433
Hey, my friend Brent here from LearnJazz Standards. We are continuing our themed month here in the podcast of free masterclass August, where I'm giving away different masterclasses that we've done in the past here on LearnJazz Standards. Last week, we came out with a free masterclass podcast episode and we're continuing that on here in today's episode. So really excited to dive into this one. This particular masterclass was a masterclass that was conducted at our Inner Circle Retreat earlier thi...
Aug 14, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 432
During the month of August, we are doing a themed month called Free Masterclass August. For over the next four weeks, I'll be sharing with you different masterclasses that we've come out with in the past on Learn Jazz Standards. Masterclasses that range from topics on jazz improv and practicing and theory and really just all kinds of stuff to help you improve your jazz playing. These are special masterclasses that were presented at events such as our Learn Jazz Live Virtual Summits that we've ha...
Aug 07, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 431
Imagine someone calls you for a jazz gig that's to be performed in a couple of weeks and they hand you the list of repertoire, 20 songs, and you don't know any of those songs. What would you do in order to learn a lot of jazz songs quickly and is it even possible? Well, in today's episode, I'm going to be talking about strategies to help you do that, to be successful in a situation like this, as well as some strategies that will help you in the long term. In this episode: Strategies and tools to...
Jul 31, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 430
Here at Learn Jazz Standards, our philosophy is that the best way to learn jazz and improve is to learn jazz songs, aka. Jazz Standards. The fastest the best way to improve is to simply learn more songs, even if you're starting at the very beginning of your jazz journey. But there may be some holes for you for how to go about learning. Learning a song, especially a jazz song. It can be an overwhelming task. You may wonder what the best way to do it is, and you may wonder how to improve faster by...
Jul 24, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 429
So, what does it take to become a jazz master? I'm talking about someone who plays jazz at the highest possible level, feels comfortable playing in any situation, and always plays amazing music that wows other people. I'm going to talk today about what I see as the formula for becoming a jazz master, everything that you need to essentially become really good at to get to that level. In this episode: - A jazz master is someone who is proficient at playing jazz and their instrument, whether famous...
Jul 17, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 428
So you've probably heard the advice before that learning material in All 12 Keys is a great idea, whether it be for the sake of playing jazz or any other style of music. You've probably heard this conventional wisdom before and wondered to yourself is it really worth my practice time to learn things in All 12 Keys, or is it really just this frustrating process that doesn't really have a lot of net benefit? Well, in today's podcast episode, we're going to talk all about playing in All 12 Keys, th...
Jul 10, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 427
One of the most important things that you can do is listen to jazz music, and that seems so simple, but literally you are practicing when you listen to jazz music. You will become a better jazz musician, simply by putting on your headphones or putting them on the speakers and just listening to how this music actually sounds. So today I'm gonna talk about 25 jazz albums that every jazz musician absolutely needs to know, absolutely needs to listen to. In this episode: 1. Listening to jazz is essen...
Jul 03, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 426
The movie Whiplash came out in 2014 and it's about this young jazz drummer named Andrew Nyman, who is determined to succeed as a jazz musician, and he's driven by his demanding music teacher, Terrence Fletcher, who can be best described as a harsh, ruthless yet highly respected instructor who really has abusive teaching methods. And Andrew the drummer, a student at college, can best be described as an overly ambitious young musician who is completely obsessed with improving and, of course, fulfi...
Jun 26, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 425
Have you ever played sports on a team before? Perhaps while you were growing up, and if you've ever done that before, you probably had a coach. Now, I know for a fact that you have gone to school before, at least to some degree elementary school, high school, perhaps even college and while you were in school, you had what's called a teacher, and the difference between a coach and a teacher is actually quite interesting, and that's really what we're going to talk about today. When it comes to you...
Jun 19, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 42
The melodic minor scale is one of those scales that can be used to explain what we call "chord scale theory" in jazz improvisation. It's essentially like the mixture of a minor scale and a major scale, having the major third included in it, and you can do all sorts of different cool things, playing the melodic minor scale in different sorts of ways over top of different kinds of chords. Well, in today's episode, I want to simplify all of that. Forget about all of the possibilities that you could...
Jun 12, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 423
Hey, I've got a question for you. What's your relationship with music like? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it perhaps a little bit of both? Well, on today's episode, I'm gonna get a little bit vulnerable with you, share a little bit my personal life experience with music, my journey with music, and how oftentimes in this journey of playing music and exploring it and getting better, it was quite an abusive and unhealthy relationship. And this past of mine with a bad relationship with music has greatly...
Jun 05, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 422
