Having taught thousands of Zoom/Skype lessons over the last ten years, I’ve come to believe that Skype is a great way to both teach and…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 185: Sax Alley Masterclass
https://www.saxalley.com/ This is the video from a masterclass at Sax Alley in Loveland Colorado. The shop is owned by Roy and Mendy Sturgeon and supported…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 164: Yardbird Suite Etude
Here’s an Etude I wrote for Bari Sax player Andrea Edwards. Andrea is an excellent Bari player studying Jazz at KU. This Yardbird Suite Etude…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 163: Blues For Alice Etude
This is an etude I wrote for Alto saxophonist Keegan Kaiser. It’s one chorus of 8th notes and uses the bebop scale, chromatic approach notes,…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 162: Rhythm Changes Etude.
There are very few living Jazz musicians that have not spent countless hours working on improvising over Rhythm Changes. There’s a often retold story that…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 158: Cycle 5 – Harmonic Major
This lesson covers one possible pattern using the Cycle motion concept through the modes of Harmonic Major. This is a short excerpt from a new…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 154: Major 7 b9 Melody
The b9 is not commonly over a Major 7 chord. This melody is one a wrote to help me incorporate it’s use into my melodic…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 152: Maj Triad add #11 Tetrad
The 4 note cell or Tetrad using 1, 3, #11, 5 has many harmonic contexts and can be used for creating voicings, improvising melodically and…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 148: I Hear A Rhapsody – Etude
Etudes are a great way to work on new material, vocabulary, phrasing and a whole host of positive musical skills. Here’s a one chorus etude…
Read Full Blog PostEar Training Series II (Melodic Minor Modes)
Passive Ear Training: A Natural Approach to Hearing and Understanding Modes. This innovative ear training method, which I call “passive ear training,” mirrors the natural…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 167: Giant Steps – Cycle 5 Melody
As a creative educator in improvisor, I often enjoy working on Cycle 4 and Cycle 5 melodies. This Etude is a vertical melody over the…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 150: Blues Etude – 4 note cell
Here’s a blues etude that uses some different 4 note cells (tetrads) and various scales. By writing an etude you can learn to hear melody…
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