Category: The Jazzy stuff (but good for every style!)

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

Playing in Fourths

I really like this style of phrasing, take some great examples like McCoy Tyner, and a lot of the ‘hard bop’ jazz cats. The basic idea is this: take a scale, in this example I will use a C major scale. Now  play all the diatonic fourths contained in C major: In the video I am playing… Continue reading Playing in Fourths

Tips: play Giant Steps on guitar

Giant Steps has always been a challenging standard to play, in this video I give a few tips on how to approach this famous tune. The Chords (from the fake book-as far as I know it is not copyrighted material so I am posting the original): One good ‘pattern’ to start familiarising with the progression in playing… Continue reading Tips: play Giant Steps on guitar

Jazz guitar: Altered Chords Pt2

In this video I show how to use the Superlocrian mode (nothing more than the 7th mode of a minor melodic scale) to improvise over altered chords. On C7 the choice would be C Superlocrian C, Db,Eb,E, F#,G#,Bb (also known as Db melodic minor starting from C). Listen to a few examples of resolution from C7(alt) to… Continue reading Jazz guitar: Altered Chords Pt2

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

How to use the Diminished Scale Pt 1

In this guitar lesson I am going over a scale that is widely used in the jazz and fusion circles and creates quite a distinctive sound. Actually…it is not a single scale, but two. The two scales are very similar and in my opinion this is something that can create some confusion. These two diminished… Continue reading How to use the Diminished Scale Pt 1