Hey, just a heads up that I recorded a couple of lessons with internet overlord Justin Sandercoe :) In the first one we talked about…
Read MoreDonna Lee Lesson with Jens Larson, Mike Outram, Nick Homes, Sergio Wagner
Donna Lee is a classic jazz tune, nice chord changes, challenging melody, and tons of classic recordings to pore over. So last week my buddy…
Read MoreDeconstructing a Pat Metheny Phrase on All The Things You Are
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Read MoreChord Tone Improvisation – The Gateway to Musical Connections
Hi, wanted to tell you about one of our courses at ElectricCampfire.com It’s called ‘Chord Tone Improvisation’, and it’s a video based course about musical…
Read MoreHow To Improve Your Soloing
TODAY I’m going to improve your soloing. Plain and simple. In the next 10 minutes. You’re going to find out if you can play a good idea. You’ll…
Read MoreMy 10 Favourite Solos
Here are my 10 favourite solos. They’re also the 10 most beneficial solos I’ve learnt from. I keep coming back to them for inspiration again…
Read MoreAll The Wrong Notes In All The Right Places
In this article you’ll learn 3 ways you can use ‘wrong’ notes to transform your usual bread-and-butter pentatonic playing into the colourful chromatic kind of sounds you hear…
Read More40 Essential Instructions Books for Jazz Guitar, Improvisation & Practising
Here are my personal recommendations for instruction books that I’ve found very useful. These are the ones (out of the hundreds I’ve used) that I…
Read MoreAnother Shoe, Another You
Imagine, when you next have a gig, stepping into someone else’s shoes. Be them for the next forty minutes. Choose well.
Read MoreLocrian Chords & Alternative Scales or: The Old Man And The Dog
Locrian Chords “What the hell else can I do with a Minor 7 flat 5 chord? Locrian Mode? Ok, that sounds weird, I’ll maybe stick…
Read MoreQuality Change
Are you bored of using the same voicings/sounds every time you play a blues? Well here’s an easy way to explore some new sounds. Change…
Read MoreLightning In A Bottle: Coltrane Changes
Play these alternating major and minor barre-chord shapes all the way down the fretboard. Use them to play a chord-melody version of the first eight…
Read MoreInner Urge Pentatonic Cheat
Here’s a nice little cheat for the B section of Inner Urge. You can just play descending minor pentatonics starting from C# minor. Here’s the…
Read MoreOn Topic
At one place I teach at, there’s a class where the students have to perform a new tune every week and improvise on it. I…
Read MoreTour Guide
Think of your job as taking the audience on a little tour of the piece you’re playing. Point out interesting bits. Tell tall stories. You…
Read MorePhrasing Exercise
This is a simple idea that will help you play with clarity. You improvise an idea over two bars of Gm7 and then transpose the…
Read MoreMotivic Transformation
There are several ways to transform motifs: Repetition Sequence Displacement Inversion Diminution Augmentation Retrograde Extension Fragmentation Transposition And you could combine any number of these…
Read MoreNight and Day: Mining The Music
Lurking within the tunes that you already play are ideas waiting to be used. Take the standard Night and Day for example. A common way…
Read MoreStart From a Different Place
Just resist what you normally do. Do you play solos that start low and end high? Start high then. Start with a barrage of 32nd…
Read MorePlay into changes before they happen
Play into changes before they happen. Easy example: say you’ve got a progression that goes F- to Cmaj, you just start playing Cmaj sounds whilst…
Read MorePlay. No Pitches
Improvise a solo, or a free improvisation, but don’t use any definite pitches. Maybe mute the strings so you’re just creating a muffled thud. Now…
Read MoreNegative Space, Playing Space
Here are two ideas to do with space The first comes from artist Betty Edwards. In her fantastic book, Drawing on the Right Side of the…
Read MoreTriad Pairs
Root Note Solo
The idea is to solo over the chord progression above but you’re only allowed to use the root notes of each chord. Only play ‘A’…
Read MoreMinor Pentatonics on Giant Steps
There are three minor pentaonics in a major scale. In G they are: A- B- and E- pentatonic. Analyse the notes of each penatatonic in…
Read MoreLinear Connections – Moving an Interval Through Chords
This time you’re applying an interval to this chord progression and moving it through the scales. Maybe do this in a zone, or do it…
Read MoreLinear Connections – Triads
Same chord progression as before: C-7 A-7 F#-7 Eb-7. But this time applied to the available triads within the Dorian mode. You could apply yesterday’s…
Read MoreLinear Connections #1
Here’s a chord progression which modulates: C-7 A-7 F#-7 Eb-7 Decide on a scale, let’s say Dorian: C Dorian: C D Eb F G A…
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