In this lesson, I play each phrase of this Blues Etude slowly so you can learn the whole chorus completely by ear. This is great…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 174: Giant Steps Etude
Here’s a second Giant Steps Etude I wrote for Keegan Kaiser, an excellent alto saxophonist who I’ve been working with that Kansas University. This Etude…
Read Full Blog PostNew Book of Contrafacts
Original Contrafacts written by Matt Otto. Buy The Contrafact and Blues Book for 10$ – That’s 52 Cents per chart 🙂 Writing contrafacts (new songs…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 173: How To Write A Contrafact
In This Video lesson I go through the process of writing a Contrafact from scratch. There are many methods one can use to do this…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 172: How To Write A Song #2
In this video I demonstrate a simple method for writing music that uses an “aleatoric” or random system. Here’s the basic outline: Using 3 by…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 171: Byzantine – Double Harmonic Scale.
In this lesson we look deeply at the Byzantine or Double Harmonic Scale. Each mode has a unique sound and can add some interesting color…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 170: I Love You Etude
Here is an Etude written over “I Love You”. Three of my trombone students at KU learned the etude by ear and memorized it for…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 169: How To Write A Song.
In This Video I cover how to use the your singing voice and a “chord palette” to write a song. This is how I write…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 168: The Half Whole Diminished Scale
The Diminished Scale is one of the most important scales in Jazz. In this (video) lesson I explain as clearly as possible the C half…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 166: Thriving After College
In this video I offer you my advice on how to survive and thrive after college in your early 20’s. This can be a challenging…
Read Full Blog PostZoom or Skype Lessons
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 84: Miles -Trane
In this lesson we’ll look at 2 short phrases played by Miles Davis and 2 short phrases played by John Coltrane on a live recording/video…
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