The 10 Minute Jazz Lesson Podcast

Composition is an important part of any well rounded jazz education path. With that being said, let's figure out how to get you started down this path! One of the most intimidating parts of composing is starting at an empty page. It can stop even the most enthusiastic blossoming composers in their tracks. In this episode, we talk about how to get started with your own, original material doing away...

This week's episode brings our series in October to a close. Do you feel like you gained some valuable information on learning tunes in multiple keys?? I sure hope you did. We are going to finish up the series with an etude written over, It Could Happen To You. There is a catch, however. The etude is written in the key of concert F (which is a key you should know this tune in). Your challenge is t...

The month of October has five Fridays, so I decided to put out an episode that was more of a discussion than a lesson. We have spent the past three episodes talking about techniques for learning and understanding tunes in multiple keys, but haven't really asked why we are doing this. This week, I wanted to just talk about the advantages both immediate and long term of learning tunes in more than o...

This week, we continue our series on learning tunes in multiple keys. In this episode, we move on to another amazing jazz standard, How High the Moon. In a vacuum, this melody is much easier to play than Au Privave. But upon closer inspection, we realize there may be more hiding under the surface that make things a bit more difficult. We explore what to do when a melody has several key changes and...

This week we continue our journey to learn how to play melodies in multiple keys. Last episode, we looked at a very simple melody, Sonny Moon for Two. This week, we are diving into a much more complicated melody, Au Privave, by the great, Charlie Parker. We get down to business numbering the different notes in the tune, exploring the technical side of a task such as this. Ultimately, we are lookin...

New month means a new series here at the 10 Minute Jazz Lesson. This month we are going to cover a topic that I think is extremely important to the aspiring improvisor which is learning melodies and tunes in multiple keys. We are going to start with a bridge between learning licks and entire melodies with a tune that is based on a lick. In this episode we will be covering some helpful tips on lear...

This episode culminates our work on using blues phrasing in places we may not have thought of in the past. So far we have discussed using the blues on the ii-V progression, the iii-VI-ii-V progression, and we have looked at some amazing examples of legendary musicians using these techniques. Now it's time to put all of these things together in the form of an etude and see what we get. In this etud...

This week we take a look at some real life examples of the concepts we have been studying all week. We have lines and lessons from Hank Mobley, Sonny Stitt, and Clifford Brown that illustrate how powerful blues lines can be when used in the right place, in the right way. Enjoy the episode and happy blues-ing to everyone out there! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our P...

This week is the natural extension of last weeks episode. We covered how to use the blues over a ii-V-I, now we also check out how the same concept can work over a cadence with more chords and motion. We look at this progressions from two different angles resulting in wildly different results so make sure you tune in and grab the PDF for maximum benefit. Enjoy the episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES A...

This week starts a brand new series where we look at simplifying things in the best way possible. Many times on this show we are talking about some complicated and heady topics. This week, we learn how to play simple, soulful phrases that catch our listeners off guard and make them want to hear more. Enjoy the episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page ...

This week, we finish up our series on the melodic minor scale by utilizing the tune that I think gives us the best opportunities to put our studies into action. Cole Porter's composition, I Love You, is perfect for these applications as it contains a number of the progressions we have been talking talking about all month. Enjoy the episode and don't forget to grab the PDF at our Patreon page! WANT...

This week we are taking a look at the 7th mode of the melodic minor scale and using it to achieve a great sound over an altered dominant chord. This is something that we have talked about in the past but I wanted to give you a very specific device to use. A triad pair that I think you will enjoy and be able to use almost right away. Enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! WANT THE PDF THAT GOE...

This week we look at an awesome application of the melodic minor scale and we get a little bit more complicated. In this episode, we dive into the 6th mode of the melodic minor scale and use it over a half diminished ii chord. This is very useful in certain situations that are explained in the episode. Get your brain ready for some complicated theory work and dive in! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG...

This month we dive into an extremely useful jazz scale and explore the different places it can be utilized. Melodic minor is an important sound in modern jazz and the use of it's different modes are the basis for many familiar sounds. In part 1, we will look at the pure melodic minor from the root and talk about a trio of chords we can use this over. Some of these chords may surprise you but I thi...

This month is all about guitar! We will be transcribing the amazing Joe Pass on this swingin' blues, Bag's Groove. Pay attention to how much Joe does with such limited information and, of course, how much he swings! Have fun :) https://open.spotify.com/track/7JrCNEXOunX7RXlJFDvXYn?si=kfQHmXyJSdGuzisiEzZ3HQ

You thought we were done with fourths, didn't you? I'm happy to say, we have one more episode that dives into this important topic. We will be using the Eddie Harris tune, Freedom Jazz Dance to explore a cool exercise taught to me by the great, James Moody when I was in college. Enjoy this 5th episode of the month and I hope you get something out of it! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISO...

This week is the culmination of our series on fourths and we celebrate it by playing a killer etude over the Miles Davis composition, Tune Up. We use this episode as a way to talk about the form, chord progression, and one tricky spot in the tune. Then we move into how I attempted to use fourths mixed with other material to, hopefully, make it sound a bit more natural in context. Enjoy the episode...

This week we continue our look at fourths and we transition into using them over real chord progressions. In this episode we come up with three ii-V-I lines and explore some different ways of utilizing fourths to craft interesting and angular melodies. Hopefully this will help you to conceptualize how to put this interval into your playing in various ways. Enjoy the episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES...

This week we take a look at one more set of exercises on fourths, building on what we learned in the last episode. This time, our job is to build series of three and four fourths stacked on top of each other. Make sure you pay close attention to what we are talking about here and work on the exercises so you can be ready to apply them in the next episode to real chord progressions. Enjoy the episo...

This month is all about the man himself, Sonny Rollins! One of my favorite saxophonists, musicians, and people on the planet. Enjoy transcribing the melody and solo on I'm An Old Cowhand from his album, Way Out West. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlatJOsLhPA https://open.spotify.com/track/0dL8xfVkwJjbnexqvMhH0r?si=zOVzhvq_QXymjDDIu4T46A

This month we are going back to a more series oriented run of shows. In July we will take a look at the interval of a fourth and how it can be used in a compelling way. We start with some basic exercises to get your ears and fingers wrapped around this sound over two very common chord symbols, the minor-seventh and the major-seventh, sharp eleventh chords. No need to do these in every key quite ye...

This week wraps up our month of listener questions. We are taking a look at the famous Wayne Shorter composition, Footprints. In particular, we are trying to make sense of the turnaround and give ourselves a fighting chance at playing something meaningful over the complicated set of chords. Enjoy the episode and remember to grab the PDF below! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head...

This week's episode is a natural followup to last week's and is something that is often discussed in our FB group. I also think this is one of the most essential skills to becoming a good and complete jazz musician. Vocabulary is something we all have to practice. It's a building block to being a great improviser and something we can't avoid. But how do we get that vocabulary and different sounds...

This week is a long one. You'll have to bear with me while I dive into a long winded topic that requires much discussion. We are continuing our month of episodes directly answering questions from the community. This one is all about how to interpret, understand, and memorize chord progression from our favorite jazz standards. We talk about categorizing tunes into buckets that will help us to remem...

This week's episode is all about simplicity. When we see a flat 9 chord, our minds go to very complicated places that aren't always good. In this episode, I would like to show you an easier, clearer way to start incorporating this sound into your playing. If you're someone who struggles to use this sound and thinking about diminished dominant makes your head swim, you're in the right place. Enjoy...