Melodic Development – How to make your solos more interesting

In this video I quickly explain how to take a basic idea and try to develop it to make your solos more interesting and memorable. Remember to leave lots of space!! Recommended reading: Hal Crook: An analysis of his core improvisational style: An analysis of trombonist Hal Crooks’ improvisational style from 1994-96, through the examination… Continue reading Melodic Development – How to make your solos more interesting

A list of the most popular jazz standards

This post if for the jazz guys, and possibly those that want to venture into jazz territory. I talked about repertoire yesterday, and today I was asked by a friend to put together a list of the most popular jazz standards that might be called at a jam session…this is what I came up with,… Continue reading A list of the most popular jazz standards

The Importance of Repertoire

In this short post I want to spend a few words on the importance of knowing tunes, either written by other musicians or by yourself. ‘Repertoire’ is often a fancy word we use to identify ‘all the tunes we know’. In my experience as teacher I have found to be a divide between the guitarist… Continue reading The Importance of Repertoire

Larry Carlton lesson on Diminished scale

The last lesson I posted was about the Diminished scale…I stumbled onto this great video where guitar player guru Larry Carlton Talk about the diminished scale. He is one of my favourite guitarists of all times …if  had to suggest any records, just check out ‘Sleepwalk’ or ‘Strike twice’ or any of his work with Steely… Continue reading Larry Carlton lesson on Diminished scale

How to use the Diminished Scale Pt 2

Continuation of the diminished scale video…in this Pt2 I show how to incorporate triads into phrases or altered chords voicings. If we take a C half step/whole step scale C, Db, Eb, E, F#, G, A, Bb we see that four triads can be found within the notes of this scale: C major, Ebmajor, F#major,… Continue reading How to use the Diminished Scale Pt 2

Phrasing – Build your own vocabulary of melodic material

This is where things get quite interesting. In this video I will show you how to use material from other solos you might already know, or you want to learn. All this will build your vocabulary of musical ideas/ knowledge of styles if you do it the right way: 1. Learn a phrase (=musical idea… Continue reading Phrasing – Build your own vocabulary of melodic material

Modes of major scale pt2

Modes of the major scale Pt2. In the first video I showed you all the modes from one scale (C major), where all the modes shared the same notes, each one starting from a different note. Here I’ll do something different: all my modes will start from the same note (C). Of course all these… Continue reading Modes of major scale pt2