This is a Jazz Etude I wrote over the chord changes to “Old Milestones”. I wrote and taught the Etude in lessons to my students…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 180: How To Write A Song #3
In this video I write a simple straight 8th tune in real time. I write from the chord progression first and than add a bass…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 179: Whole Tone
This is an overview of the Whole Tone scale. In the video I cover some basic concepts, patterns and theory. There’s a pdf below with…
Read Full Blog Post178: Miles Davis Chromatic Concept
. Here’s a simple lesson on using a chromatic sequence from Miles Davis for jazz improvisation. This concept helps musicians introduce a free concept over…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 177: Charlie Parker “Outside” Concept
In this short video lesson I explain a simple “outside” concept that Bird uses over a Blues solo that can be easily adapted to any…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 176: 3 Note “Lick”
In this simple lesson I outline a 3 note cell or melody that sounds really nice over Major, Minor and Dominant 7th chords. By avoiding…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 175: Learn A Blues Etude By Ear.
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…
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