Some basic skills in arranging jazz standards for solo playing are a great addition to a jazz guitarist’s abilities for several reasons:
1. With a large enough rep or enough skill to arrange tunes on the fly you can stop splitting up the money from all those “music to be ignored by gigs” that we all love so much. Continue reading »
George Van Eps first coined the phrase “lap piano” as a way to describe his style of guitar playing. I think I would have to agree with this methodology. In this lesson we’ll discuss an approach to the instrument that will make your harmonic playing more melodic, and your melody playing more harmonic. -This is a good one so check it out! Continue reading »
Using substitute chords is a common practice that spices up chord changes and often makes melodies sound more “modern.” The most common chord substitution you see is the tritone sub. Continue reading »
This, like many of my other articles, will be the first in a series discussions which will hopefully get you thinking about different things you can do as an artist to improve your melodies, both in composition as well as improvisation. Continue reading »
The minor7b5 chord is found diatonically across major and minor scales but is often misunderstood, or worse, poorly applied. Continue reading »
It’s interesting to me that while a guitar might have 6 strings, the majority of guitarists find using more than one at a time a real feat. In this lesson I touch on some simple techniques to spice up a single note melody. Continue reading »
My first article on transposing instruments was a brief overview of instrument transposition, if you’re looking to write for these instruments and don’t play them yourself. Continue reading »
When I’m reading down saxophone music and I see a written pitch, the pitch that sounds is different from the one written. This is because saxophones are in a class of instruments known as “transposing instruments”. Continue reading »
Major what? Augmented who? Intervals can be confusing, but by breaking them down into their smallest forms one can quickly demystify them and the start putting them to use almost immediately. Continue reading »
Many people cringe at the mention of key signatures. In actuality, a key signature can be a huge help and a great short cut to memorizing intervalic relationships, scale shapes, and more. Continue reading »