Most Popular Lessons

🚨 Tune Deep Dive: “Wave” – Pt. 2: Guide Tone Movement in the Intro 🚨

In Part 2, we dig into the intro vamp of Wave (Dm7–G7) and explore guide tone movement. This exercise builds from a single voice to two, three, and finally four voices, showing how harmonic richness can grow naturally out of simple lines. By working through these patterns, you’ll train your ear and hands to connect chords smoothly while keeping the groove intact.

In this lesson we’ll:

What do you guys think? This is what I think and how i approach all this for better or worse!!!! 

I mention the Gary Burton Coffee Hang in this lesson. Here's the link to it. 

https://www.vibesworkshop.com/video-embed/gary-burton-june-coffee-hang/tonymiceli/060125

Here's my version of Waltz New - a contrafact of Someday My Prince Will Come

I talk about There Will Never Be Another You and include an 'Epic Etude'. 5 Choruses of chord study with some easy soloing. 

Great lesson to break into playing tunes solo. 

Here are links to all the other vids: 

Misty Intro

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

🚨 Play a Great Blues in 3 Months – Week 5

So far in this series, we’ve focused on building a strong comping foundation:

• Guide tones in the left hand
• Smooth voicing movement
• Consistent time and rhythm

This week, we shift the focus toward line development.

👉 Using 3rds and 7ths, we begin outlining the blues with single-note lines, helping you connect harmony in a clear and musical way.

When we learn I think it's best to break things down into small chunks. Learn a piece move on, put a couple pieces together. That's the way I do it. So let's take this simple beginning of the tune and work on it. 

Do you know and can you see that this is basically a 12 bar blues? 

I'm a big fan of practicing the bridge of rhythm changes. The harmonic movement in fourths is common in many tunes, making this a valuable exercise for improving your ability to navigate various progressions.

You should be able to do this. 

Watch great players and if they do something you can't do, like a warm up or they're standing in the corner with there sax and they play something. You should be able to do it. If they say well I did this when I was young, then you should be able to do it also. Don't worry about why, just do it. The why will come later. 

Check out the attached PDF!

Check out the attached PDF!