intermediate

🎵 Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months – Week 13

Last week, we moved rhythm changes from B♭ into F, beginning our work on taking the concepts from this series into different keys.

This week, we're staying in F, but we're shifting our attention back to comping.

👉 More specifically, we're returning to the voicings from Week 1 and transposing them into our new key.

On paper, that sounds simple: take every voicing from B♭ and move it into F.

On the vibraphone, however, it doesn't always work that way.

🎵 Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months – Week 12

Over the past seven weeks, we've built a strong vocabulary for rhythm changes through guide tones, chord outlinings, scale motion, substitutions, and bebop language.

This week, we introduce something equally important:

👉 Playing in a new key.

🎵 Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months – Week 11

Over the past six weeks, we've steadily expanded our rhythm changes vocabulary.

We've explored:

🎵 Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months – Week 10

Over the past five weeks, we've gradually expanded our rhythm changes vocabulary.

We've explored:

• Guide-tone lines
• Embellished 3rds and 7ths
• Chromatic approaches
• Diminished and bebop scale language
• Chord-tone based improvisation

This week, we begin bringing many of those ideas together.

👉 Chord outlinings, scale motion, and substitute chord changes.

🎵 Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months – Week 9

Over the past four weeks, we've been steadily building a melodic vocabulary for rhythm changes.

We've explored:

• Guide tones (3rds and 7ths)
• Embellished guide-tone lines
• Chromatic and flat 9 dominant language
• Diminished and bebop scale vocabulary

This week, we shift our focus to another essential improvisational concept:

👉 Using chord tones to build melodic lines.

🎵 Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months – Week 8

Over the past three weeks, we've gradually expanded our melodic vocabulary.

We started with:

• 3rds and 7ths
• Embellished guide-tone lines
• Chromatic and flat 9 dominant vocabulary

This week, we continue that progression by introducing two of the most recognizable sounds in bebop improvisation:

👉 The diminished scale
👉 The bebop scale

🎵 Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months – Week 7

Over the past two weeks, we've been developing melodic lines from the inside out.

We started by connecting the 3rds and 7ths, then expanded those guide-tone lines with more melodic movement and common harmonic variations.

This week, we take another major step toward authentic bebop language.

👉 Flat 9 dominant vocabulary.

🎵 Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months – Week 6

Last week, we introduced one of the most important concepts in jazz improvisation:

👉 Connecting the harmony through the 3rds and 7ths.

Those guide tones gave us a clear picture of the rhythm changes progression while keeping the melodic language relatively simple.

This week, we take the next step.

👉 We're keeping the same guide-tone foundation, but embellishing the lines.

🎵 Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months – Week 5

Over the first four weeks of this series, we've focused entirely on harmony:

• Learning the form
• Internalizing common voicings
• Exploring different textures
• Developing comping rhythms and syncopation

This week, we shift gears.

👉 We're introducing line exercises.

Just like Week 5 of the blues series, we're beginning with one of the most important concepts in jazz improvisation:

👉 3rds and 7ths.

I am pleased to announce that my solo vibraphone book has now been published. The book is called "A Piazzolla Portfolio - 5 Nuevo Tango Pieces" arranged for Solo Vibraphone by Jerry Weir.  The five pieces in the book are:

• Libertango
• Oblivion
• Invierno Porteño
• Tango Final
• Adios Nonino

Videos can be viewed here:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMNORdmY5DXNZTQUaDN9VNsHL0BBtS2Ef