🎵 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.
🚨 Play a Great Blues in 3 Months – Week 14
We’ve covered a lot over the course of this series:
• Guide tones
• Blues comping
• Chromaticism
• Whole tone and diminished language
• Chord melody textures
• Harmonic movement underneath simple melodies
For our final lesson, we bring many of those ideas together using:
👉 “The Intimacy of the Blues”
This arrangement continues the idea of using a relatively simple melody as a framework for richer harmonic movement underneath.
This week introduces:
🚨 Play a Great Blues in 3 Months – Week 12
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been working with blues melodies and combining them with chord voicings—moving toward a more complete, chord melody approach.
This week, we introduce a new tune:
👉 “Sonnymoon for Two”
This melody has a slightly different character than Bag’s Groove—it’s more rhythmically active and sits differently against the harmony.
In this version, you’ll notice: