Most Popular Lessons

🎵 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.

Check out the attached PDF!

Check out the attached PDF!

Two choruses of All The Things You Are with notation. 

The audio and the pdf is attached. 

I tried something new and talked through the piece. Is this helpful? 

Print out the pdf to not only practice but for notes with the video. 

We had a great workshop week this year! In the workshop, we spent a lot of time talking about ii-V's in minor and the various structures. This etude covers a few important positions for the half diminished chord; one where the root is in the bottom and the other where b5 is in the bottom. Also, it goes through some important closed and open positions.   

In previous lessons, we analyzed the bridge of rhythm changes and explored how to apply those ideas to other tunes. However, the A sections are just as important, as they follow common harmonic movements found in many standards. By practicing rhythm changes, you're effectively preparing yourself for countless other tunes.

Hello all,

The vibraphone is one of the only instruments we play where you have to work extra hard to control the ending of a note. It requires two separate strokes to play and end any given note with dampening, whereas on, say, the saxophone, you can end a note by simply stopping your air. Thus, it's important to figure out how all this relates to playing the instrument in any context, including in lines, so that you're able to play what you're hearing.

I find a lot of people don't use the pedal at all when playing staccato things, but I think it's important to know how to use the pedal to get whatever note length you want. This lesson is on what I call "staccato pedaling."

Check out the attached PDF!