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 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 PostWanjiku – Live recording June 2022
I wrote this song in 2001. Wanjiku was inspired by the book Pedals of Blood, recommended to me by my step-father Bruce Baron, who studied…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 142: Dominant Shell add #11
The 4 note structure or tetrad made up of 1, 3, #11 and b7 is a very useful note set for voicings and improvising over…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 141: Major #9 Melody
This is a short melodic phrase that I wrote that includes use of the #9 on a major chord. I often think of this sound…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 140: Cycle 4 Melody – Altered
In this lesson (which was originally a live stream discussion) I outline the entire process I go through when I work on a new original…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 139: Simple 3 chord Tune “Melisma”
Yesterday I wrote a short 3 chord tune by writing the melody first using a minor pentatonic scale. Many great songs use a pentatonic scale…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 138: 6 Bar Tune
Here’s a simple progression with a chromatic melody. It’s in the key of G starting and targets iii minor (maj7) and I using substitute secondary…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 135: Practicing Major Scale Melodies
In this short video I attempt to demonstrate how I like to practice Major Scale melodies. Often times we practice the same way we practiced…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 132: Using Space
If you’re like me, you may often listen back to one of your solos and think, ” I am playing too much, I’m not leaving…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 131 b: 4-3 Suspension on Mrs. Jones?
This video is is an extension of lesson 130. here I’m just practicing a simple 4-3 suspension on each cord in the standard have you…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 131 a: “Mrs. Jones” Natural 9
In this lesson I’m practicing playing the natural 9 on every chord of the standard Have you met Miss Jones?. I’m using a displaced quarter…
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