Most Popular Lessons

Learning the vocabulary of jazz is one of my favorite -- and, I would argue, most rewarding -- things to do in the practice room. Just like human language, jazz vocabulary allows us to musically understand one another, know how to react to one another, and keep ourselves from saying something stupid. From Monk-ish quirks to the pentatonic idiosyncrasies of Coltrane, jazz history is, in many ways, synonymous with jazz language -- you can see the evolution of the music, the cultural influences, the “family tree” of players, etc.

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I had some time so I decided to make a couple of audio lessons on triads, which have been the focus of my practicing lately! After years of practicing seventh chords, 9th chords, 11th chords, and 13th chords, I've come to appreciate what triads can do.

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In this dampening lesson, I explain a technique I call "partial-deadstroking" and its implications for playing ballads, as well as comping on swing tunes!

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Here's the last part in my series on diminished chords and thinking of them as dominant chords instead. This isn't meant to be the singular approach when soloing over them, but to be used in tandem with blues sounds, the diminished scale, the diminished 7 arpeggio, etc.

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Just another dampening lesson! This time, we're looking at staccato dampening and dead-stroking, the differences between the two, and where to use them.

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Here's a quick lesson on the three types of glissandos I find myself using, and how to practice them. I also discuss how to practice flams on vibes to help with glissandos.

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I’ve got some exciting lessons for the next few months, starting with this series on diminished voicings. These three lessons will really go in depth with how you can creatively voice diminished chords, and how you can use the same shapes on non-diminished chords. Do you know the diminished major substitution? The dominant diminished substitution? The four main alterations of a diminished chord? How to use diminished shapes to play “out?” These lessons will go through all of this with a practical mindset, giving you tangible things to work on.

Some personal little extras.

Line Building Blocks Exercise