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

Bill Evans Jazz Chords Lesson and Video

If you love the sound of rich jazz chords then you’ll love this free jazz piano lesson. So, in today’s video I’m going to be teaching you guys how to play some really sweet Bill Evans chords. (Notation of chords below the video). Bill Evans was truly a harmonic genius. Whenever I want to learn…

Bill Evans Jazz Lick Lesson and Video

Here’s a free Bill Evans lick lesson and tutorial video. Bill was a harmonic genius and one of the truly great jazz musicians. This Bill Evans lick is just so beautiful sounding I had to share it with you all! (After you check out this lick you will want to check out this additional Bill…

10 Ways To Dominate Dominant Seventh Chords

Jazz Scales Demystified Do you want to learn more about playing jazz scales and soloing over dominant chords? Awesome. This article on jazz scales and many other articles on this website will help you. To get started quickly you can check out any of the 3 jazz scale lessons below. 3 important minor jazz scales –…

Charlie Parker Lick Lesson and Video

Here’s a free Charlie Parker lick lesson and tutorial video. I had a lot of fun shooting this one. Make sure you also scroll down for the notation of the lick and some quick tips. Some Cool Things About this Jazz Lick 1. The lick starts on the “and of 1”. In general, jazz licks…

The 6 Steps To Success In Your Jazz Practice Routine

I recently was invited by the fantastic jazz guitar player Matt Warnock to write an article for his blog. You can find the article I wrote here right here 6 steps to jazz practice success. I highly recommend you check out this article if you want to really take your jazz practicing skills to the…

Oscar Peterson Lick Lesson

Here’s a fun Oscar Peterson lick. Oscar played this lick over a blues but you can throw it in over many other tunes. This little 4 bar lick is filled to the rim with all kinds of blues and jazz vocabulary. (audio and tips for learning this lick below) You can click on this lick…

Jazz Standards You Should Learn

Have you ever wondered what the first jazz tunes you should learn are? If so, I’d like to help you get started. There are so many fantastic jazz tunes in the Great American Songbook that it can feel overwhelming when trying to find a place to start. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of…

Great Red Garland Solo – Jazz Transcription

For today’s free jazz lesson we’re going to take a look at a jazz transcription of Red Garland’s famous solo on the jazz standard What is This Thing Called Love. This is one of the first jazz solos I ever transcribed and when I studied Red’s solo it paid off big time! So, let’s take…

What’s the first jazz solo you should transcribe?

Have you heard that you should be transcribing solos but just aren’t sure where a good place to start is? Are you having problems finding a jazz solo that is not only easy to play but has tons of great jazz licks in there? Or perhaps you’ve already tried transcribing for a bit but found…

Learn How To Make Your Jazz Melodies Swing More

I recently was invited by the great jazz saxophone player and educator David Carlos Valdez to write an article for his blog. David’s blog is one of the top jazz blogs in the whole world and I was honored and excited for the opportunity. If you don’t know David Valdez’s playing yet you need to!…

How To Play Satin Doll With Spread Voicings

A couple weeks back we learned about a very famous style of jazz chords called spread voicings. (If you missed the lesson and have no idea what spread voicings are make sure you check out the how to play spread voicings lesson). Anyway, since then I received a couple emails from subscribers to the site asking me…

How To Practice Jazz For Long Term Growth

One of the most common questions I get from my beginning and intermediate jazz students is, “How do I practice jazz successfully?” Or, in other words, “How do I practice so I’m consistently moving in the right direction and not wasting my freakin’ time??” There are hundreds (maybe even thousands) of directions you can…

4 Tips to Get More Jazz Gigs

Ok, so you want to get more gigs huh? Here are a few tips that have helped me secure gigs over the years, keep working on the jazz art form, and even put food on the table. 1. Know lots and lots of tunes (but start with 20). You must realize that you will increase…

Misty Chords & Cool Reharmonization

If you want to learn Misty chords to the jazz standard Misty then you’ve come to the right place! Ok, so as promised I charted out the chords for the jazz piano video lesson I made on reharmonizing Misty. If you haven’t seen the video check it out here: Misty reharmonization lesson. Thanks to Bill Evans…

How To Play Misty – Jazz Piano Reharmonization

Make Your Jazz Standards More Interesting Have you ever noticed that great jazz piano players seem to play so many more chords than are written in your everyday run of the mill fakebook? Why is this? For starters, most of the time the chord changes written in a fakebook are either very bland, boring, or…

Bebop Piano Lick Lesson II – V(alt) – I

Here’s a new II – V- I bebop lick instructional video I just shot. This particular lick is one of my favorites because it uses alot of the classic building blocks of bebop. I’ll list some of the more “theoretical” elements of lick that make it bebop. (video below) 1. chromaticism with mostly chord…

Jazz Comping Chords – How To Play Two Handed Comping Chords (Rootless)

When I was first learning jazz I searched for a long time trying to find a good book or a method to learn how to comp in a jazz rhythm section. Sadly, there isn’t a ton of information out there on this subject. How To Comp It’s vitally important for everybody to learn how to…

Wes Montgomery’s solo on Satin Doll

Here‘s a Wes Montgomery solo I transcribed about a year ago on the jazz standard “Satin Doll”. (scroll down for the solo.) There’s all kinds of great jazz licks in this one. I could write a 10 page essay on everything that I like about this solo but I’ll just mention 4 things here: 4 Wes…

How To Solo Over the Jazz Standard All The Things You Are.

Would you like to be able longer jazz licks? Do you feel like your licks sometimes sound like run on sentences? How do you play those beautiful and long flowing lines that a lot of the great jazz masters play? You know the ones that always sound good no matter how long they go? Your Jazz…

Barry Harris Transcribed solo “On Green Dolphin Street”

Here’s a transcription I made about two months ago of Barry Harris’ solo on the jazz standard “Green Dolphin Street”. Barry has some really killin’ II-V-I licks on here and really plays some really nice stuff through the break section. Check out his lines over the major chords and the break section as well. …

Turnaround Lick Lesson

Need a cool lick to play over a jazz turnaround? Great! Here’s a new jazz piano lesson video on playing a turnaround lick. I recommend you watch the video tutorial first and then scroll down for a bunch of extra tips and resources for you to learn jazz. The lesson features a lick in the key…

Swingin’ II- V- I lick lesson

Here’s a very cool bebop jazz lick over a II – V – I chord progression. I break this lick down to it’s core elements so you can master it and add to your own playing. There is some very nice bebop source material in there including arpeggiation minor line cliche approach patterns altered tones…

Barry Harris Jazz Piano Lick Lesson

Here’s a video lesson on how to play a Barry Harris Lick. He played this lick over the standard “Green Dolphin Street” Barry is one of the best bebop piano players in the world. He was a true disciple of Bud Powell and Charlie Parker. There’s several cool things about this lick but make sure…

ii – V- i Jazz Lick in Minor Lesson

Here’s a very fun bebop lick over a ii -V-i in a minor key. I teach you how to play every note on there and break it down for you. This lick is not just for jazz piano though. This lick will sound great on guitar, saxophone, and trumpet as well. If you are looking…

7 Tips For Playing Better Jazz Piano

Here it is! World touring jazz pianist Steve Nixon’s tips for playing great jazz piano. 1) How to play chords 100% authentic to the jazz style That means using chords that contain the prettiest notes. If you only play triads and basic chords you’re missing 99% of the style. You don’t want your playing to sound…