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🎵 Play A Great Standard In One Month – Stella – Week 4

Last week, we worked through a full chorus of "Stella By Starlight" using clear, relatively simple melodic ideas. The goal was to hear the harmony through basic scale and chord tones without feeling like every phrase needed to be a complicated bebop line.

This week, we're taking that same basic framework and adding another layer:

👉 Chromaticism.

🎵 Play A Great Standard In One Month – Stella – Week 3

Over the past two weeks, we've been developing our approach to "Stella By Starlight" through voicings and chord melody.

Week 1 established our harmonic foundation, while Week 2 explored how to combine those voicings with the melody to create a complete arrangement.

This week, we're shifting our attention to improvisation.

👉 Finding clear melodic lines.

🎵 Play A Great Standard In One Month – Stella – Week 2

Last week, we began our study of "Stella By Starlight" by developing a practical set of voicings through the entire form.

This week, we're taking those voicings and putting them into a more musical context:

👉 A basic chord melody.

🎵 Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months – Week 14

We've made it to Week 14 and the final lesson in our Play A Great Rhythm Changes In 3 Months series!

Over the course of this series, we've worked through rhythm changes from a number of different angles:

• Common four-mallet voicings
• Comping rhythms
• Guide tones and 3rds & 7ths
• Bebop, diminished, and chromatic vocabulary
• Chord and scale outlinings
• Substitute harmony
• Longer melodic phrases
• Transposition and register considerations

🎵 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.