Learn Jazz Standards Podcast

In this podcast episode, Brent talks about adopting the Batch Practice Method to improve jazz skills. and outlines a simple but focused approach to achieve measurable progress by breaking learning goals into small, manageable batches to master over multiple practice sessions before moving on incrementally. Key steps include defining a concrete overall project like learning a new standard monthly,...

In this episode, Brent answers a question from an inner circle member of the Learn Jazz Standards community, on whether musicians should think while improvising or just play what they feel. Brent explains that the best improvisers utilize both conscious thinking to guide their playing and subconscious reactions to melodies and emotions. He advises practicing 'playing free' without goals...

In this episode, Brent answers a listener's question asking how to use melodic minor scales over dominant seventh chords in jazz improvisation. Brent explains music theory provides tools to conceptualize improvisation, though the goal is applying scales flexibly to add textures and flavors. He demonstrates three uses of melodic minor scales: over half-diminished II chords in minor key progres...

In this episode, Brent answers a listener's question on who was the first jazz musician in history. He explains there is no definitive single originator but rather an evolution in New Orleans reflecting diverse musical and cultural influences. Key musicians mentioned are Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, and Louis Armstrong, among others. Brent emphasizes understanding jazz history and listeni...

In this episode, Brent provides beginner jazz musicians advice on the best standards for learning jazz improvisation. He recommends simple tunes covering basic concepts like modal playing, blues forms, and ii-V-I progressions to get started. Key takeaways explain building blocks like scales, relative major/minor keys, and chord/melody relationships. Important Links: Free Guide to learning standard...

Today's episode marks the 2nd season of the Learn Jazz Standards podcast. Brent explains shifting the show's direction to better serve listeners by focusing on answering their specific jazz learning questions, with shorter 10-minute episodes four days a week and 'Fast Track Friday' strategy episodes. The host conveys excitement for the coming daily content and urges listeners t...

Okay, so this is the second time I'm restarting recording this episode. I want to get this right. So I am taking a break from the Learn Jazz Standards podcast, and I'm going to talk about what's gone into this decision, what this means for the future, what it means for you as the podcast listener, and why I'm actually incredibly excited about the future and you should be too. A...

"Music and the opportunity for music is all around us. And you can find inspiration in conversation or just the rhythm of something happening around you. And so I would just take these snippets, get home, and say, what can I do with this? And I would start to sing a melody around those words and think about what the story could be that surrounds those words." That was Christian Schrader,...

Do you ever get that feeling when you're looking at your instrument sitting there in the corner and you just don't feel like picking it up? It's kind of a strange feeling because deep inside you're excited about music and jazz and you want to improve and you know you have that idea of practicing but then when you actually go to do it there's some kind of resistance there....

If you're a complete beginner to jazz, this episode is for you. If you are an intermediate jazz player, this episode is for you. And if you consider yourself an advanced jazz player, this episode is also for you. In today's episode, we are going to be talking about the fundamentals of learning jazz. Whether you are brand new and you need to know this information or you're somewhere...

So a common piece of advice when learning jazz and becoming a better improviser, learning songs is you should do it by learning it by ear rather than reading sheet music. And there are a plethora of reasons why teachers will say this is a good idea. However, for someone who is new to this idea or who was trained to read music or use tablature, this could be a very scary, foreign, and frustrating c...

The best way to learn jazz and improve over time is simply to learn more songs, aka jazz standards. But those jazz standards, those songs are made up of chord progressions. The good news is that even though there are a lot of complex chord progressions, or at least seemingly complex chord progressions in jazz standards, a lot of them come up time and time again, over and over. So once you learn on...

Hey, my friends, Brent here from Learn Jazz Standards. Here on the podcast for the month of August, we've been doing a themed month called Free Masterclass August, where I've been giving away different Masterclasses that we've done in the past here on Learn Jazz Standards, whether it be from our virtual summits, retreats or otherwise, just to, you know, it's the summer, it&apos...

Hey, my friends, Brent here from Learn Jazz standards. We are continuing our themed month of August called Free Masterclass August, where I'm giving away some Masterclasses here on the podcast that we've done in the past at various different events and mediums just to give a little extra special, a little bit of fun here and value for finishing up the summer so. So, I hope you enjoy it....

Hey, my friend Brent here from LearnJazz Standards. We are continuing our themed month here in the podcast of free masterclass August, where I'm giving away different masterclasses that we've done in the past here on LearnJazz Standards. Last week, we came out with a free masterclass podcast episode and we're continuing that on here in today's episode. So really excited to dive...

During the month of August, we are doing a themed month called Free Masterclass August. For over the next four weeks, I'll be sharing with you different masterclasses that we've come out with in the past on Learn Jazz Standards. Masterclasses that range from topics on jazz improv and practicing and theory and really just all kinds of stuff to help you improve your jazz playing. These are...

Imagine someone calls you for a jazz gig that's to be performed in a couple of weeks and they hand you the list of repertoire, 20 songs, and you don't know any of those songs. What would you do in order to learn a lot of jazz songs quickly and is it even possible? Well, in today's episode, I'm going to be talking about strategies to help you do that, to be successful in a situa...

Here at Learn Jazz Standards, our philosophy is that the best way to learn jazz and improve is to learn jazz songs, aka. Jazz Standards. The fastest the best way to improve is to simply learn more songs, even if you're starting at the very beginning of your jazz journey. But there may be some holes for you for how to go about learning. Learning a song, especially a jazz song. It can be an ove...

So, what does it take to become a jazz master? I'm talking about someone who plays jazz at the highest possible level, feels comfortable playing in any situation, and always plays amazing music that wows other people. I'm going to talk today about what I see as the formula for becoming a jazz master, everything that you need to essentially become really good at to get to that level. In t...

So you've probably heard the advice before that learning material in All 12 Keys is a great idea, whether it be for the sake of playing jazz or any other style of music. You've probably heard this conventional wisdom before and wondered to yourself is it really worth my practice time to learn things in All 12 Keys, or is it really just this frustrating process that doesn't really ha...

One of the most important things that you can do is listen to jazz music, and that seems so simple, but literally you are practicing when you listen to jazz music. You will become a better jazz musician, simply by putting on your headphones or putting them on the speakers and just listening to how this music actually sounds. So today I'm gonna talk about 25 jazz albums that every jazz musicia...

The movie Whiplash came out in 2014 and it's about this young jazz drummer named Andrew Nyman, who is determined to succeed as a jazz musician, and he's driven by his demanding music teacher, Terrence Fletcher, who can be best described as a harsh, ruthless yet highly respected instructor who really has abusive teaching methods. And Andrew the drummer, a student at college, can best be d...

Have you ever played sports on a team before? Perhaps while you were growing up, and if you've ever done that before, you probably had a coach. Now, I know for a fact that you have gone to school before, at least to some degree elementary school, high school, perhaps even college and while you were in school, you had what's called a teacher, and the difference between a coach and a teach...

The melodic minor scale is one of those scales that can be used to explain what we call "chord scale theory" in jazz improvisation.  It's essentially like the mixture of a minor scale and a major scale, having the major third included in it, and you can do all sorts of different cool things, playing the melodic minor scale in different sorts of ways over top of different kinds of ch...

Hey, I've got a question for you. What's your relationship with music like? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it perhaps a little bit of both?  Well, on today's episode, I'm gonna get a little bit vulnerable with you, share a little bit my personal life experience with music, my journey with music, and how oftentimes in this journey of playing music and exploring it and getting better,...