The 10 Minute Jazz Lesson Podcast

This is episode 200 of the 10 Minute Jazz Lesson Podcast! Thanks so much for sticking with me and making this show such a success. It has been a pleasure to join you for the past 200 episodes and I look forward to many more! This month we are starting our series on the rhythm changes bridge. This is an interesting and perfect chord progression for many different concepts in improvisation. For part 1, we will talk about the simplest way to play this bridge and how it is structured, preparing us for episodes to come where we will dive deeper and give ourselves some options. Enjoy! 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!

This month is all about transcribing a melody from the late, great, Clark Terry. Although this is just a melody, it very well could be the toughest assignment yet. Have fun and make sure you post your work on the 10 Minute Jazz Lesson Community FB Page! Would you like to support the creators of this podcast? If so, please head over to our Patreon page and show your love by donating $3 or more each month. You get incredible benefits and this keeps the podcast coming at you regularly. Thanks so much! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjruI-f_IjQ  

This week brings an end to our series on melodic fragments (crying sound) and, like we always do, we are finishing this one off with a bang featuring an etude over our tune of the month. This month features Miles Davis' composition, Four. It seemed appropriate to feature this tune since there is, in fact, a melodic fragment that starts the melody. It also contains great changes to practice these fragments we have been discussing this month. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions! 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!

This week brings our series on melodic fragments to a close. This time, we examine not only using the fragments in order, but mixing them up, giving you some brand new sounds with the same notes. Next week we will put these concepts into action with an etude so make sure you stay tuned! 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!

Hey everyone! I don't think I have ever been more excited to present something to you on this show. This week marks the beginning of our monthly ear training course for our Patreon members. Jazz is a form of music where good ears are absolutely essential. Therefore, we need a tried and true method to start recognizing intervals, harmonic movement, root movement, chord qualities, and so much more. With that being said, I present to you a very special preview of the 10 Minute Jazz Lesson Ear Training Course. This course is not your typical buy it once type of thing. This course will be ongoing month-to-month and progress you through the process of having amazing ears! The first month is based around diatonic intervals of the major scale both identification and singing. This is where the foundation of good ears all begins. In the coming months, we will be progressing through more difficult material in a way that makes sense and builds upon the skills we are developing. The beauty of this course is that you can take it anywhere with you. Imagine practicing ear training on your morning commute, on your daily walk, in bed before you fall asleep. Anywhere you can put on a pair of headphones or listen to music is fair game! So I'm sure you're wondering, "Nick, wehre do I get this course??" You get this course exclusively on our Patreon page for the low price of $3 per month. This course is worth that price alone, but you also get many other benefits of being a patron including all of our PDF's that accompany our episodes. We so appreciate the support and you can be confident that your monthly donation will guarantee results and lead you down the path of becoming the jazz musician you want to be. Don't wait any longer, sign up to become a patron today and get instant access to the ear training course and so much more!

This week's episode is building on the work we have already done in this series with an introduction to five note melodic fragments. Here we discuss the combination of our three note fragments into longer phrases that will allow you to cover more of the octave in a single idea. We are connecting the 3rd to the 7th and connecting the 5th to the 9th by way of our five note fragments. One more episode coming at you in this series next week where we take it to the next level so get your work done on these episodes this week! 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!

This month is all about one of my favorite recordings, Saxophone Colossus by the great Sonny Rollins. The particular track we are going to be studying is Blue 7 and taking a special look at the relationship between the saxophone and bass. Enjoy! Would you like to support the creators of this podcast? If so, please head over to our Patreon page and show your love by donating $3 or more each month. You get incredible benefits and this keeps the podcast coming at you regularly. Thanks so much! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59aXJ8GvMYE

Welcome to part 2 in our series on melodic fragments. This series is all about allowing you to center your solo around chord tones while using small melodic fragments to connect the important notes. Last week, we discussed two different fragments. One starting on the third and one starting on the fifth. This week, we discuss a fragment starting on the 7th and then talk about mixing the fragments up and how different they sound from each other. Enjoy the episode and remember to get this stuff down so you're ready for what comes at you next week! 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!

This month we are working an amazing Chet Baker transcription. Work on effectively turning his vocal stylings into something you can play on your instrument. Enjoy! Would you like to support the creators of this podcast? If so, please head over to our Patreon page and show your love by donating $3 or more each month. You get incredible benefits and this keeps the podcast coming at you regularly. Thanks so much! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccLQWlVWLiM

This week's episode introduces us to a brand new topic that I think will help your playing tremendously. Melodic fragments are any grouping of a given number of notes to focus your melodic intent and keep you from meandering through a solo. We start the series with a 3 note fragment based on 2 different scale segments. The goal here is to develop fluency and flexibility using these over a blues so we can later get more complicated and creative. Enjoy the episode and make sure to practice the worksheet! 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!

This culminates our series on reading with an etude based around the minor blues. We tried to bring together everything we talked about in the last 3 episodes and implement it, providing for a very tough exercise! If you really want to go the extra mile, we have also written a version of the same etude up a half step. Enjoy the episode and good luck! 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!

I had a unique experience last week that allowed me to see, what I think, is the current state of jazz at the JEN Convention last week. Would you like to support the creators of this podcast? If so, please head over to our Patreon page and show your love by donating $3 or more each month. You get incredible benefits and this keeps the podcast coming at you regularly. Thanks so much!

This week continues our series on reading and becoming a more well rounded musician. Remember, you will get a lot more gigs if you can read at a high level! This week brings us to syncopation. We have already done episodes on tough keys and sub-division, now it's time to take a look at one of the most important aspects of jazz: having a good handle on playing off the beat. Syncopation is a defining characteristic of jazz and we need to be able to land on each and every part of the beat. These exercises will challenge you, no doubt about that, but if you keep at it and follow through, you will see your reading skills increase tremendously through these exercises. Enjoy! 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!

In addition to giving you something to transcribe each month, we will now be giving you a specific thing to listen to with notes on what to listen for. This month: Chris Potter and Shai Maestro play All The Things You Are! Would you like to support the creators of this podcast? If so, please head over to our Patreon page and show your love by donating $3 or more each month. You get incredible benefits and this keeps the podcast coming at you regularly. Thanks so much! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiDt5LNXsMY

Welcome back to our second episode in the new year. This week we continue our work on reading with a great rhythmic exercise to test your flexibility and attention to sub-division. When reading and improvising, playing sub-divisions of beats correctly and accurately is very important to our overall sound. This exercise is meant to take the same idea and put it through 8th notes, triplets, and 16th notes all designed to prepare you for anything that's thrown your way. Enjoy and make sure to grab the PDF for this episode, it's an important skill! 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!