The 10 Minute Jazz Lesson Podcast

This week we talk about an absolute must-learn exercise for anyone who wants to increase their knowledge of chords and gain the kind of technique that will have you flying all over your instrument with ease. These exercises are a mix of knowledge you need in your head and dexterity that you need under your fingers to feel more free when improvising. We start by learning a great chord sequence over a major-seventh chord that requires you to work on your chromatic approaches. We then move into another exercise that utilizes a minor-seventh chord and gives you an approach to begin using the 13th over this tonality. These exercise are great for anyone at any level. Make sure you move slowly and methodically through them and always apply them to a real life situation once you feel comfortable enough. Enjoy the episode! 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!

This week we bring back our poular 'Lick Of The Month' series with a bang! Coltrane is one of my favorite jazz musicians of all time. His playing on the most famous jazz recording of all time, "Kind of Blue," is second to none. This week we are going to look at a great two measure, double time line he played over "So What." I find that one of the hardest things to do is play over a static chord progression where there aren't many changes. In this lick, Coltrane shows us how he handles playing over a minor chord and makes it very interesting and compelling. This tune is a favorite for young musicians and is played all the time at jam sessions. Studying what Coltrane does over this chord can make your own solos more compelling and give you some ideas that you may have never thought about before. As always with these licks, strive to put it in more than one key and actually use it in your practice time. Remember to grab the PDF and learn everything about what makes this line tick! 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!

This week we talk about some of the chords that we dread seeing when we are playing and improvising. We all have them, we all hate them. The good news is, we can learn to play over them just like the easy chords that we feel most free over. The key to this is being as familiar with tough keys as we are with easy ones. This requires more time and effort because they don't come as easily to us as we would like. As always in jazz, learning all 12 keys of something is important. But what if we spread those 12 keys over weeks and months instead of trying to cram them all in to an hour of practicing? This is a game changer. This episode is packed with exercises to work on that will make you fly around the tough keys with ease! As always, go slow, take your time, and you will start to see this stuff pay off in a relatively short amount of time. 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!  

This is part 2 of our diminished chord series. Last week we looked at learning the chord tones and how to build a diminished chord. This week we are getting a little bit more complicated and talking scales. The good news is, just like last week, there are only three sets of different scales. Our job is to associate them with the different chord changes and be able to use them in action. The scale that is associated with diminished chords is the whole-half scale and is exactly what it sounds like, a series of whole steps followed by half steps. This week will take a little bit more work on your part to complete. Remember to stick with it and go at your own pace! Rome wasn't built in a day and playing over diminished chords with an amazing sound won't happen overnight! Your ears are your best weapon here. If you can hear it you can play it. Have fun with this material and remember to send me any questions you might have! 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!    

We're back after a brief hiatus! This week we are going to start a 2 part series on one of the most confusing and difficult chords in jazz for most people; the diminished chord. We see this chord in so many tunes but I think for many beginner and intermediate jazz players, this chord can be a mystery. That's why I have decided to break it down first with the chord tones and next week we will talk about the scales. At the end of the episode we will apply the diminished chord tones to the blues and immediately start using it in action. Make sure you grab the PDF below and get ready to be able to FINALLY play over those diminished chords you see everywhere! 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!

This week we are talking about one of the most important concepts for any jazz musician. Having good time is not just for rhythm section players, each and every one of us needs to have great time and be able to swing. Not to mention drummers and bass players will love you if you have great time! In order to develop good time we need to use the correct tool. This tool is the metronome and it's impossible to have good time without using this extremely important device. There are countless ways to work with the metronome from beginner to advanced but the most important thing is that you're doing it. The nice thing is, these days, we can download a metronome right to our smart phones for free. My favorite is the Pro Metronome app. It's packed with amazing features and the upgrade price to get you many more features is very reasonable. Good luck with this concept and turn that metronome on! 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!

They say that in life timing is everything. Did you know that it's the same for playing jazz? You might not think about which notes happen when, when you're improvising but it's very important and in this week's episode I'll explain why and help you get better at timing the most important notes that you play in each measure to make you sound like a pro. In this episode we talk about what strong beats are and how we can utilize them, along with chord tones to give our solos amazing structure and clarity. The concept involves coming up with a skeleton for your solo and then filling in around it. Kind of like when you build a house you have to frame it before you do anything else. If the framing isn't done right your house can fall down and this is a lot like our solos. If the underlying structure isn't there than we won't have a very nice composition once all is said and done. This concept is particularly important in bebop and can be heard by countless masters of the music throughout history. Enjoy the episode! 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!    

This week is a real treat for the listeners of the 10 Minute Jazz Lesson Podcast. We welcome our first guest host to the show and what a great host he is! I'd like to welcome Jeff Schneider to the podcast and he has a fantastic lesson on triads over dominant chords. Composer and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Schneider is a DownBeat Magazine award winner and three-time recipient of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award. His music is featured in films and advertisements by CNN, NASA, Visa, Intel, Citigroup, Benjamin Moore, Estée Lauder, Donna Karan, Ermenegildo Zegna, Ferrari and many more. Jeff takes us through some of his ideas over ii-V-I's in this episode and we go from simple concepts to very complicated all in the span of about 15 minutes. The triad is one of the most useful devices an improvisor can use in their solos because it outlines a particular tonality in the the most clear and concise way. The real magic happens when you decide to play a triad in a different key than the actual chord that's happening at the current moment. This is where Jeff's lesson will benefit you the most. Enjoy the episode and make sure you check out Jeff's fantastic website and Youtube channel. There's so much information he has put out that it can keep you busy for years!     You can find all of Jeff's materials here:   Jeff Schneider Music Jeff's YouTube Channel 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!  

I have to apologize to the piano players this week. This episode is not for you unless you're a true beginner. Instead, this week is for all of the instrumentalists who need to de-mystify the piano and be able to play very simple chord progressions. Every great musician needs to be able to play some piano. Especially in jazz, being able to sit down and plunk out a simple chord progression, or accompany one of your students is a must. The good news is, with some of the knowledge you've gained from this show already, you should be able to learn this skill without too much trouble. In today's episode I will give you a simple formula that you will be able to apply to all simple chord changes and be playing them on piano quickly! We talk about stacking the chord tones and one extension on top of each other in open and closed position making for nice voice leading that will have you sounding like you have been playing piano for years in no time. Remember to send me an email if you don't understand any of this and I'd be happy to help you. Enjoy this week's episode! 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!

This month we take a look at a couple of licks from one of my favorite trumpet players, Tom Harrell. Tom has a way of playing some of the clearest lines I have ever heard while still being totally creative and melodic throughout. Clarity is something that we all strive for in our lines and is one of the most important aspects you can work on. These two lines are a great place to start. By dissecting these lines and learning what makes them tick, you stand a great chance of being able to bring this type of sound into your own playing. The first lick is a double time line that we have slowed down aver a V7-I progression. The use of chromaticism and weaving throughout the chord are masterful. The second lick for this week demonstrates how to handle an altered dominant. Tune in this week for a masterclass on the vocabulary of Tom Harrell 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!

Cherokee is right up there with the blues and rhythm changes in terms of tunes you need to know and be able to play on convincingly. Cherokee can be particularly intimidating because of the tempo that it is normally played at. I'm talking break-neck, 300 miles an hour here. The good news is that everyone you have ever heard play Cherokee at mach speed had to practice it slowly at some point. That's the first piece of advice in this episode, slow down! This tune is not all that complicated, especially after talking about Coltrane Changes for the past two weeks! This week we break down what makes Cherokee tick and I show you a certain way of breaking down the ii-V-I's into something a little less intimidating. Once you get over the initial intimidation, you start to see how beneficial this tune can be for your practice routine. The amount of keys that it covers is astounding and can be a great daily process to get your technique and mind ready for whatever is thrown at you. Enjoy the episode!   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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!

We're back with another episode on the infamous Coltrane Cycle. I wasn't going to create a part 2 for this series but after last week I started thinking about the tune Countdown and how much it confused me when I was learning about Coltrane and how his progressions worked. Countdown is different than Giant Steps, which last week's episode was based on. These changes can be used in a multitude of different ways and the more we discover and understand, the more places we can use this interesting harmony. Countdown teaches us how to insert the Coltrane cycle over a traditional ii-V-I and get some very interesting sounds over a progression that sometimes needs some spicing up. So sit back, relax and let's go a little further with our lesson on Coltrane Changes! 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!

This week we are going to delve into a fairly complicated set of changes. That's right, it's Coltrane time! The Coltrane Cycle is one of the most important things to understand in modern jazz. Giant Steps is something that everyone is expected to be able to get through these days, so it would behoove you to learn what these are all about. Today we feature 3 different pieces of vocabulary that will get you off to a great start handling these progressions. Remember to use the provided material as a springboard to writing your own. You don't want to sound like a carbon copy of Coltrane when playing over his tunes so get creative and take this in your own direction. Make sure you grab the provided PDF and enjoy the episode!   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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!  

In this month's Lick Of The Month Episode, we are taking a look at a long Charlie Parker ii-V-I from the Omnibook. This particular line has a lot to unpack and shows off several of the devices that Bird used to get his quintessential sound. Bebop concepts are the basic building blocks for every style off jazz that came after it so you can be sure that this is information you need to know. Remember to put this line in all 12 keys and spend some time analyzing it further to catch anything that I might have missed. Good luck and have fun with this one! 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!

This week is less about one concept and more about something that will benefit the entire process of becoming the best you can be. There are enough things to work on when it comes to being a jazz musician that it can be overwhelming. If our focus is on too many things, we never end up getting better at anything. The only way to get really deep into a concept is to limit what we allow ourselves to work on at any given time. When we think of the masters of jazz, it becomes clear that they would work on a concept until it is a part of them and they can pull off whatever they want to in any situation they encounter. Can you honestly say that about yourself? Recently, I have been working on fewer things every day but giving those few things more time and attention as to make them a real part of my playing instead of scratching their surface. The point of this week's episode is to give you some direction in what can sometimes be a frustrating field of study. Slow down, realize that becoming a good improviser is a lifelong process, and start with a few core concepts that will lead you to everything else you want/need to work on. Hope fully this will benefit some of you out there and help you to achieve your goals! 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! SIGN UP TO BE A PATRON TODAY!