Lesson

Line Building Blocks Exercise

Hey everyone,

Here's part two in the little diminished lesson series. In this lesson, I'll show you how to better think of flat 3 diminished chords to give you more melodic material.

Hey everyone,

Here is a dampening master in the works!

Hey everyone,

Another lesson on comping on ballads! We're looking at rhythmic density and ways to create an overall sense of arc with your comping, or while you're playing solo. Let me know if you have any thoughts!

Hey everyone,

The next couple comping lessons will be focused on ballads. In this one, I share how I think of the range of the instrument -- like an orchestra, with a low range for bass movement, a middle range for melody and/or chords, and an upper register useful for subtle effects, upper structure triads subtle, and counter-lines. I think this is especially important when playing ballads!

Hey everyone,

Here's the third and final part of my series on comping over a medium swing F blues, and how to give it that rhythmic drive a full rhythm section has. This is an interesting lesson, because I, myself, am still figuring it out! We're talking about sliding -- like a glissando, and how to use it the way guitarists and pianists do.

Let me know if you guys have thoughts on this! I obviously don't think it's applicable in all situations, but I think it certainly has some use in swing and rhythm music.

Hey everyone,

Another lesson on comping. This time I'm looking at octave displacement (a lot less crazy than it sounds in this context) and rolls -- two things vibes players could do more, I think!

Hey Everyone!

New series on comping. In the first few of these lessons, I'm just going to be talking about rhythm while comping and techniques to get a good feel. Obviously, metronome work, recording yourself and listening back, playing along to records, etc. will all help you get a good feel in the minutia of things, so make sure to practice all that, but here are some interesting, tangible techniques to add into your comping to give it some more swing on the macro-level.

Let me know if anyone has any thoughts!

Hey everyone,

Here's another Bud Powell lick from his tune, "Bouncin' with Bud." I like this one because it's simple! I think it's super important when playing bebop to still construct melodies to ground the music, and Bud does that great.