The 10 Minute Jazz Lesson Podcast

This month, as usual, we are looking at the same tune we did our Lick of the Month episode on, George Gershwin's, But Not For Me. We try to employ some of the things we learned from Roy Hargrove last week and just have a little bit of fun. 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 ev...

This week, we take a look at an entire chorus of Roy Hargrove's solo on But Not For Me! We very rarely present this much material in our Lick of the Month episode, but this is an exception due to the absolutely incredible material Roy plays on the first chorus of his solo. This is a great lesson in rhythmic variety, harmonic language, and several bebop devices that all combine to make this 32 bars...

Welcome back! This week we move on to talking about the hardest part of learning a tune, the chord progression! Depending on where you are in your jazz journey, I will give you some different advice on this part. Learning everything by ear is obviously the goal, but when it comes to chords (depending on what tune you are learning) it can be EXTREMELY difficult. In this episode, we talk about sever...

This week we continue our series on learning tunes by finally talking about the melody! Of course, I want you to learn melodies by ear and in this episoee, we talk about some of the challenges and advantages that come along with the process and how to approach different styles of melodies. Enjoy! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3...

This week we take a look at one of my favorite jazz standards by Ferde Grofe, On The Trail. I wasn't really trying to do anything specific with this etude but did take some inspiration from the great, Joshua Redman and his licks that we studied last week. Enjoy the etude and don't forget to grab the PDF! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you do...

This month we take a look at a couple of fantastic Joshua Redman lines from his solo on Walter Smith III's album TWIO. This excerpt is from one of my favorite jazz standards, "On The Trail." Enjoy the episode and have fun with this material! 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 wil...

This week we take a look at a few more essential progressions that we didn't have time for last week. Then we talk about how to figure out the basics of form, simply by using our ears. Here we go one step further to actually learning some tunes. 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...

This week we start a brand new series on learning tunes! As always, it's not as simple as diving into your favorite tune. We have some legwork to do first. In this episode we talk about some of the most common chord movements and how to practice hearing them. This is sure to make your life much easier when you get down to actually learning a jazz standard. Enjoy the episode and be sure to practice...

Well, here we are at the end of our series on the tri-tone substitution! This week we are studying our second tune of the month and this one is over the, ubiquitous, rhythm changes. The rhythm changes progression allows us ample opportunity to flex our muscles with our newfound knowledge and produces some very interesting sounds. Enjoy the episode! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE??...

Here we are at our first tune of the month episode in this series. This week we take a look at an etude written over the Bb blues that contains the majority of the work we have done over tri-tone substitutions. This etude is not easy and make sure you really get into the nitty gritty of how I am using the substitutions. Enjoy! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patre...

This week we take a step back and learn some important information about resolving the progressions we have studied so far in this series. Using tension and release comes with some important caveats and we go over them in today's episode. 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...

We are back this week taking our series on the tri-tone substitution to the next level! In this episode, we discuss the possibilities for substitutions on a iii-VI -ii-V-I progression. The thinking is similar, but the execution is a bit different from last month. Enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you...

This week we take what we have covered so far in our tri-tone substitution series and apply it to the classic jazz tune, You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To. This progression offers us ample opportunities to use what we have learned so far in a real life situation. Enjoy the episode and the etude! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or...

We are back with another Lick of the Month episode! This week, we will take the progressions we learned in Episode 295 and write some killer lines over them. The lines will center around triads and 1235 patterns. This approach allows us to be creative while keeping things relatively simple. Enjoy the episode and be sure to start writing your own lines! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISOD...

Welcome back! This week we continue our series on the tri-tone sub and start to get into the practical applications of using this sound. We take a look at our old friend, the long ii-V-I progression and start to figure out how we can use the tension the tri-tone sub provides us with. Stay tuned for all 5 examples and next week, we will give you some concrete lines to use over these progressions. H...

Happy New Year everyone! Excited to be back and working on something new. In the first series of 2022, we will be talking about the tri-tone substitution and how we can start to hear and use this immensely popular sound in our playing. This device is a great way to  introduce tension and interest into our playing. This series will start from square one and move through many different strategies fo...

I decided to end the year with one of my holiday favorites, Have A Holly Jolly Christmas! This tune actually has some fantastic chord changes that will allow us to put many of the topics we discussed these past two months into action. Thank you all for making 2021 a great year for the podcast and I can't wait to bring you more episodes next year. Happy Holidays! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH T...

This month, we take a look at the genius of Chris Potter and talk about how he displays some of the concepts we have been working on in the current series based on scales. 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 o...

This episode ends our series on practicing your scales in a more creative fashion. This week, we combine some of the rhythmic schemes from last episode with various interval layouts to create an even more intense and beneficial series of exercises. Enjoy the episode and have fun! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3 or more a month y...

This week we continue our series on practicing your scales creatively by moving into what you can do rhythmically. We have a tendency to practice our scales up and down in a homogenous rhythmic pattern (at least that's what I gravitate toward!). What could we learn and do better if we ditched this way of practicing scales and instead thought outside the box creatively?? Tune in to this episode to...

This month we are continuing to look at one of my favorite tunes, After You've Gone. We use some of the material from last month's Q&A episode plus some of the things we learned in our last episode from the amazingly talented, Patrick Bartley. Enjoy and don't forget to grab the etudes on Patreon! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Patreon page and when you donate $3...

Time for the lick of the month episode and this one is a doozy! Patrick is taking over the internet with this particular solo because it is just that good. We are going to look at two similar lines over the same set of changes and see how Patrick uses one device to great effect. Enjoy the episode and don't forget to grab the PDF! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES ALONG WITH THIS EPISODE?? Head over to our Pa...

This week we continue our discussion on how we can breathe new life into our tired scale routine. Last episode, we talked about the three most common and beneficial scale types. This week , we will talk about some less common but just as beneficial scales and how you can incorporate them into your routine on a daily basis. Enjoy the episode and remember to download the PDF! WANT THE PDF THAT GOES...

This month we talk about how to bring new life into something that I'm hoping all of you practice everyday, your scales! In this first part of the series, we talk about how you can combine types of scales, direction, order, and tempo in new and exciting ways to make sure that your routine doesn't get stale and boring. Think of scales as a maintenance item that can never be left behind. Once you fi...

It's the 5th Friday of the month so this week, we treat you to a Q&A episode. We tackle a very poignant question from one of our longtime listeners and supporters, David, about how to approach trad jazz vs. approaching the bebop era and beyond. This is something I have had to work out in my own playing and I hope these thoughts and observations might be useful to you and save you some time! WANT T...