This week is all about, perhaps, the most well known jazz solo of all time. We are taking a looks at Miles' use of negative space on his solo over Freddie Freeloader. Talking about space and resting may seem boring, but don't let this important topic go unaddressed in your playing! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be bringing you many extras exclusively to our patro...
Mar 12, 2021•15 min
Welcome to a new month and a new series! This month, we will be studying one of the greatest musicians in the history of jazz, Miles Davis. In the first episode, we look at how just how effective harmonic simplicity can be by studying a few phrases from Miles' solo on Oleo. Most of us get caught up in trying to play the most advanced, complicated material we can on rhythm changes. Let's take a lesson from Miles and simplify while keeping things super hip. Enjoy! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH...
Mar 05, 2021•15 min
This month's tune comes from Cy Coleman and is one of the most interesting chord progressions I have come across. It actually manages to demonstrate all three modulations we have been talking about this month! This is a wonderful walking ballad and I hope you enjoy the etude I have prepared for you and you can hear all of the wonderful key changes contained in this harmony. Have fun! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a m...
Feb 26, 2021•14 min
This week we get into a bit of a tough modulation. Modulating up a major third happens in some important jazz standards and every musician should know how to accomplish this key change in a smooth and consistent manner. Enjoy the episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be bringing you many extras exclusively to our patrons including transcriptions and a FREE gift ...
Feb 19, 2021•14 min
WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be bringing you many extras exclusively to our patrons including transcriptions and a FREE gift of our latest Ebook, The Diatonic Method. We hope that we bring you value every week here at the 10 Minute Jazz Lesson and we appreciate all of your support!
Feb 12, 2021•15 min
Welcome back to a new series on the podcast! This month we will be looking an element of jazz we should all be familiar with, modulation. Most compositions have at least one key change. What do we do as improvisers to make the transition from one key to another as seamless as possible? That is what we will be discussing in this episode and for the rest of the month. Enjoy and don't forget to do your homework! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when...
Feb 05, 2021•14 min
Welcome to another Tune of the Month episode! This month we are finishing up our series on the playing of the legendary Charlie Parker by writing an etude over one of his most well known tunes. I strove to use the concepts from the previous three episodes this month in my writing and I think you will find a nice mix of the things we have talked about and explored. The challenge for this etude is to practice it enough to be able to be play at quite a fast tempo, as Bird would have. Good luck and ...
Jan 29, 2021•16 min
Welcome back to our third installment of episodes on the great Charlie Parker and how you can sound more like a bebop master! This week we are looking at the varied and amazing rhythmic phrasing that Bird uses to keep you on the edge of your seat. Through a combination of eighth notes, triplets, and sixteenth notes, we can learn how to form our own phrases with the same fantastic rhythmic sense and variety of Parker. Enjoy the episode and don't forget to do the homework! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES A...
Jan 22, 2021•16 min
Welcome back to part 2 of our series on what we can learn from the great, Charlie Parker. This week we take a look at the shape of Bird's lines and how his combinations of horizontal and vertical playing lead to some very exciting sounds. The explosiveness these elements produce is unparalleled and if we can even get a little bit of this into our playing it will really pay off. Enjoy the episode and don't forget to do the homework! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to ou...
Jan 15, 2021•16 min
Welcome back! I wanted to try some new things this year and in the month of January we will take an up close look at some of the aspects of Charlie Parker's playing that makes it so unique and special. Bird was the architect of so many of the concepts we study today and his playing is just as relevant today as it was in the 1940's. We will kick this series off by looking at the way Parker connects chords and measures with half steps. There is some homework involved with this episode so make sure...
Jan 08, 2021•17 min
Happy New Year everyone! Let's kick off 2021 the right way by starting a brand new transcription project. This episode will feature a recording from 1946 by Lester Young. 'No Eyes Blues', is all about how to play an effective melodic statement. Think more about the delivery rather than the content when transcribing this tune. Looking forward to hearing you all play this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwuJI5bSWls
Jan 01, 2021•9 min
Welcome back everyone! This is the final episode of 2020 and I want to thank all of you for a fantastic year (under less than ideal circumstances). I hope you have enjoyed the material we presented in 2020 and I'm very excited for this final episode, bringing our series on the minor blues to a close. This week I have prepared an etude for you with some pretty adventurous changes. Your job is to analyze the changes and figure out what I was thinking so you can use some of these same devices in yo...
Dec 25, 2020•14 min
Welcome back everyone! This week we continue our journey on the minor blues and making it as interesting as possible. In this episode, we take a look at what we can do to reharmonize measure 8 of the progression and go over two interesting variations. Hope you are enjoying this series and getting something out of it in your practice time! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will...
Dec 18, 2020•14 min
This week we continue our series on the minor blues. In this episode we add a few chord changes, giving the progression a unique sound and giving our lines more direction. Enjoy the episode and don't forget to complete the homework assignments before moving on to the next episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be bringing you many extras exclusively to our patron...
Dec 11, 2020•12 min
Welcome to a new month and a new series! This series was spurred by one of our listeners. They were wondering if I could do some episodes on the minor blues progression and how to handle it. This form is very common in jazz and it will pay off to dive into this set of chords more deeply. In this episode we take an overview of the changes, learn the basics, and lay some ground work for more advanced ways of reharmonizing the minor blues to come in future episodes. Enjoy! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES AL...
Dec 04, 2020•15 min
This week we wrap up our series on composition. In keeping with the tradition, this is a tune of the month episode but this time, instead of using a jazz standard, we use the composition that I have been writing this month for you. I'm taking the chord progression from last episode, writing my own melody over it, and providing you with an etude as well. We talk about some of the decisions I made when writing this melody based on tempo and feel, a motive, and a few other things that will hopefull...
Nov 27, 2020•14 min
Welcome back! This is our third episode on the art of composing and what you can do to get started with this important part of being a jazz musician. This week, we talk about writing chord progressions before melodies and some tips and tactics you can use to come up with your first chord progression from scratch. There is some homework in this episode so make sure your ready to put in some time! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3...
Nov 20, 2020•13 min
This week we look at the age old question, should I write the melody or the chord changes first when composing? My answer is; both! This episode will be all about writing short melodies with prompts and a few rules. This will be the first time you are faced with a blank page but don't worry, we will try to make it as easy as possible for you to write a few simple melodies. Composition is fun, valuable, and exciting so let's dive in. Enjoy the episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISO...
Nov 13, 2020•14 min
Composition is an important part of any well rounded jazz education path. With that being said, let's figure out how to get you started down this path! One of the most intimidating parts of composing is starting at an empty page. It can stop even the most enthusiastic blossoming composers in their tracks. In this episode, we talk about how to get started with your own, original material doing away with the empty page and providing a starting point. Enjoy the episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG...
Nov 06, 2020•14 min
This week's episode brings our series in October to a close. Do you feel like you gained some valuable information on learning tunes in multiple keys?? I sure hope you did. We are going to finish up the series with an etude written over, It Could Happen To You. There is a catch, however. The etude is written in the key of concert F (which is a key you should know this tune in). Your challenge is to learn the melody in concert F before you even touch the etude. Good luck and have fun! WANT THE PD...
Oct 30, 2020•10 min
The month of October has five Fridays, so I decided to put out an episode that was more of a discussion than a lesson. We have spent the past three episodes talking about techniques for learning and understanding tunes in multiple keys, but haven't really asked why we are doing this. This week, I wanted to just talk about the advantages both immediate and long term of learning tunes in more than one key. Turns out, there are very practical and immediately useful reasons for this, which are discu...
Oct 23, 2020•13 min
This week, we continue our series on learning tunes in multiple keys. In this episode, we move on to another amazing jazz standard, How High the Moon. In a vacuum, this melody is much easier to play than Au Privave. But upon closer inspection, we realize there may be more hiding under the surface that make things a bit more difficult. We explore what to do when a melody has several key changes and how to make it easier to memorize and, ultimately, move it into other keys. Enjoy! WANT THE PDF THA...
Oct 16, 2020•13 min
This week we continue our journey to learn how to play melodies in multiple keys. Last episode, we looked at a very simple melody, Sonny Moon for Two. This week, we are diving into a much more complicated melody, Au Privave, by the great, Charlie Parker. We get down to business numbering the different notes in the tune, exploring the technical side of a task such as this. Ultimately, we are looking to use our ears at the end of the day to put this melody in different keys. Enjoy! WANT THE PDF TH...
Oct 09, 2020•13 min
New month means a new series here at the 10 Minute Jazz Lesson. This month we are going to cover a topic that I think is extremely important to the aspiring improvisor which is learning melodies and tunes in multiple keys. We are going to start with a bridge between learning licks and entire melodies with a tune that is based on a lick. In this episode we will be covering some helpful tips on learning Sonny Rollins' melody, Sonny Moon for Two in every key. Enjoy the episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GO...
Oct 02, 2020•12 min
This episode culminates our work on using blues phrasing in places we may not have thought of in the past. So far we have discussed using the blues on the ii-V progression, the iii-VI-ii-V progression, and we have looked at some amazing examples of legendary musicians using these techniques. Now it's time to put all of these things together in the form of an etude and see what we get. In this etude you will notice many techniques being used side-by-side in an effort to create a complete statemen...
Sep 25, 2020•14 min
This week we take a look at some real life examples of the concepts we have been studying all week. We have lines and lessons from Hank Mobley, Sonny Stitt, and Clifford Brown that illustrate how powerful blues lines can be when used in the right place, in the right way. Enjoy the episode and happy blues-ing to everyone out there! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be...
Sep 18, 2020•14 min
This week is the natural extension of last weeks episode. We covered how to use the blues over a ii-V-I, now we also check out how the same concept can work over a cadence with more chords and motion. We look at this progressions from two different angles resulting in wildly different results so make sure you tune in and grab the PDF for maximum benefit. Enjoy the episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you ge...
Sep 11, 2020•14 min
This week starts a brand new series where we look at simplifying things in the best way possible. Many times on this show we are talking about some complicated and heady topics. This week, we learn how to play simple, soulful phrases that catch our listeners off guard and make them want to hear more. Enjoy the episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you get this PDF and every other. We will also be bringing yo...
Sep 04, 2020•13 min
This week, we finish up our series on the melodic minor scale by utilizing the tune that I think gives us the best opportunities to put our studies into action. Cole Porter's composition, I Love You, is perfect for these applications as it contains a number of the progressions we have been talking talking about all month. Enjoy the episode and don't forget to grab the PDF at our Patreon page! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or...
Aug 28, 2020•15 min
This week we are taking a look at the 7th mode of the melodic minor scale and using it to achieve a great sound over an altered dominant chord. This is something that we have talked about in the past but I wanted to give you a very specific device to use. A triad pair that I think you will enjoy and be able to use almost right away. Enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month you...
Aug 21, 2020•13 min
