Jazz Blog Archives - Page 10 of 11 | FreeJazzLessons.com

How to Play Jazz Piano – A Beginners Guide

Alright, so how do you really learn jazz piano? Since I started this site I’ve received numerous emails from readers asking me the best way to learn how to play jazz piano and how to get started learning jazz as a beginner. Let’s first start with my jazz piano journey to give you an example……

Tritone Substitution – The Ultimate Guide

Check out this cool tritone substitution tutorial: In this video I’m going to teach you how to play a tritone substitution. We all know how important the II-V-I chord progression is to jazz music. It’s used in thousands of jazz standards. Now, it a beautiful sounding chord progression but sometimes in order to not sound…

Interview With Jazz Legend Joey Defrancesco

One of the best ways to learn jazz is to sit down and talk with virtuosic jazz musicians. In this incredible interview we get an opportunity to sit down and explore the mind of jazz organ virtuoso Joey Defrancesco. (audio interview below) Who Is Joey Defrancesco? Joey Defrancesco is simply one of the greatest jazz…

What Do You Struggle With The Most When Playing Jazz?

Hello readers! For today’s jazz post I’d like to start a very important discussion with you guys. One that should have taken place along time ago. If you are reading this article you have no doubt a love and passion for learning jazz and improvised music. Playing jazz is an unbelievably rewarding journey. Learning such…

7 Tips To Help You Play Better At Fast Tempos

Do you have trouble playing well at faster tempos? Do you feel like you just can’t execute your ideas as clearly as you’d like? Do you sound good at slower tempos but the second the tempo starts getting up there your jazz improvisation starts to suffer? If you answered yes, (which most musicians probably will) there…

How To Play Here’s That Rainy Day-Reharmonization Lesson

We all want to learn more about jazz chords don’t we? We love the way (fill in your favorite jazz musician here) plays but for some reason we can’t seem to figure out what they’re doing. Great jazz musicians tend to play so much more than what’s on a plain old chord chart. So, how can…

Interview With 7 Time Grammy Award Winner Paul Wertico

Wow, do I have a treat for you guys today! Recently I had an opportunity to sit down and talk all things music with 7 time Grammy Award Winning drummer Paul Wertico. (video below) Lucky for you all the whole thing was filmed and recorded. The interview took place over Skype and it’s all included…

19 Things I’ve Never Told You

Hey jazz fans! It’s 5am and I just settled into writing mode. The coffee is kicking in! I’ve just started editing an interview I had with a 7 time Grammy Award Winning Jazz Musician. I will post that interview in the next week. Super excited about it and you will love it! In the meantime,…

Ear Training: 4 Guaranteed Ways to Turbo-Charge Your Ears

When it comes down to it, great jazz improvisation requires a great ear. Otherwise, we end up doing what Jamey Aebersold refers to as “letting our fingers do the walking.” Without a properly developed ear, instead of creating music that’s truly unique, authentic, and powerful, we tend to fall into what naturally falls under the…

2 Famous ii V I Licks Starting On The 3rd

In today’s free ii V I licks lesson we’re going to explore a couple of very famous licks from legends Joe Pass and Harold Land. If you want awesome ii V I licks these guys are some of the best to learn from! This is the 3rd article in our series “How To Play Great Jazz…

An Essential Tool To Help You Learn Jazz

What if you could take a jazz piano lesson with Bill Evans? How about a trumpet lesson with Miles Davis? What if we could study advanced jazz piano improvisation techniques with Chick Corea? Or imagine what it’d be like taking a piano for beginners class, taught by Duke Ellington. Unfortunately, these great masters have long…

How To Play Great Jazz Piano Licks Starting On Any Note

Parts in this series: #1: Starts on the root of a minor chord. #2: Starts on the 9th of a minor chord. #3: Starts on the 3rd of a minor chord. (Featuring licks from Joe Pass and Harold Land). #4: This one stars on the 11th (also known as the 4th) #5: Starting on the…

Jazz Minor Scale Formulas And How To Solo With Them

In today’s jazz lesson you’re going to learn how to quickly add jazz minor scale techniques and modes into your playing. Whether you’re playing in a jazz rock band, a bebop band, a latin jazz band, or another jazz style, this jazz minor scale tutorial will be useful. I think you’ll enjoy this particular jazz…

Jazz Fake Book – 5 Recommended Books For Learning Jazz

Want a list of the best jazz fake books out there? You need music to play right? Do you have time to transcribe all your favorite jazz recordings and slowly build a library of your own personalized jazz charts? How can you learn music more quickly without investing hours and hours trying to learn songs…

How To Play A II-V-I-VI Chord Progression With Jazz Chords

Are you looking for information on the II-V-I-VI chord progression? Congratulations. You’ve come to the right place! There are tons of free lessons and articles on jazz and piano chords on this site. Make sure you bookmark this site and let’s get to learning! I also recommend you check out several of the other jazz…

4 Bill Evans Jazz Chords You Need To Know

Here’s a free jazz piano lesson featuring the awesome jazz chords of Bill Evans. This particular lesson features a ii-V-i-IV (2-5-1-4) chord progression in a minor key. These beautiful chords are very useful because you can use them in solo jazz piano arrangements and you can also use them to play behind other instrumentalists. They…

4 Tips For Switching From Classical To Jazz

In todays lesson we’re going to focus on 4 tips that will help you make the transition from playing classical music to playing jazz. I recently received a question from a new reader asking me how to make this switch more easily. I think this is a great question because most instrumentalists initially start with…

How To Play A Jazz Blues Chord Progression

In today’s free jazz blues chords lesson we’re going to take an in depth look at how to mix together some jazz piano chords and some blues piano chords into an incredible chord blend. This combo of jazz and blues piano chords will make your blues sound way more interesting. Players like Oscar Peterson, Wes…

3 Of The Most Useful Scales To Play Over Major Chords

When most players first start jamming over major chords they’ll usually turn to licks and ideas built from the major scale. This can create a nice inside sound but often times the lines can get predictable and somewhat boring. We don’t want to be boring and predictable right? 🙂 Fortunately, there is a solution to…

How To Get Jazz Lessons Designed For You

Today’s jazz post is very short, but it’s very important. I need you to answer one question for me: Is there anything you want me to write a lesson about? To be honest, a lot of the content on my site comes directly from the emails that people have sent me asking to cover a…

Jazz Scales – A Complete List

Do you want to learn more about jazz scales? Congratulations you’ve come to the right place. This jazz scales article and many others on this site will help you! Musicians love scales. We really do! They sit nicely on our instruments, they are easy to play over changes, and many of us have been playing them…

Wynton Kelly Jazz Lick Lesson and Video

One of the best ways to learn how to improvise in jazz music is to study the licks and improvisation of the jazz masters. So, today we’re going to check out a super fun Wynton Kelly jazz piano lick. This particular lick has some fantastic source material in there to really get your jazz language…

Grammy Nominee James Weidman Jazz Piano Interview

It is isn’t often that you’re fortunate enough to sit down with a Grammy Nominated jazz piano player and discuss how to become a better jazz musician. It must be our lucky day though because that’s what we’re going to do right now! James Weidman is a member of the Grammy Nominated Joe Lovano Band…

3 Uncommon Tips For Practicing Jazz Piano Technique

When most of us think about practicing jazz piano technique or jazz piano exercises we usually think of the same old boring exercises that piano players have been playing for countless years. Things like scale practice, arpeggios, Hanon exercises, and playing classical pieces. Now, to be fair these technique studies and piano drills can be…

Cool Red Garland Jazz Lick Lesson and Video

If you need to get some more jazz licks under your belt this would be a great place to start. Here’s a new Red Garland lick lesson and video. I love this lick and it was fun to teach! Red Garland became world famous by playing in Miles Davis quintet (with John Coltrane) from the…