Steve Nixon
Jazz Scales Piano – How To Actually Use & Apply Them
Do you want to learn more about jazz scales? Congratulations, you’ve come to the right place. This jazz scales article and many others on this site will help you! Musicians love scales. We really do! They sit nicely on our instruments, they are easy to play over changes, and many of us have been playing them…
Wynton Kelly Jazz Lick Lesson and Video
One of the best ways to learn how to improvise in jazz music is to study the licks and improvisation of the jazz masters. So, today we’re going to check out a super fun Wynton Kelly jazz piano lick. This particular lick has some fantastic source material in there to really get your jazz language…
Grammy Nominee James Weidman Jazz Piano Interview
It is isn’t often that you’re fortunate enough to sit down with a Grammy Nominated jazz piano player and discuss how to become a better jazz musician. It must be our lucky day though because that’s what we’re going to do right now! James Weidman is a member of the Grammy Nominated Joe Lovano Band…
3 Uncommon Tips For Practicing Jazz Piano Technique
When most of us think about practicing jazz piano technique or jazz piano exercises we usually think of the same old boring exercises that piano players have been playing for countless years. Things like scale practice, arpeggios, Hanon exercises, and playing classical pieces. Now, to be fair these technique studies and piano drills can be…
Cool Red Garland Jazz Lick Lesson and Video
If you need to get some more jazz licks under your belt this would be a great place to start. Here’s a new Red Garland lick lesson and video. I love this lick and it was fun to teach! Red Garland became world famous by playing in Miles Davis quintet (with John Coltrane) from the…
Bill Evans Jazz Chords Lesson and Video
If you love the sound of rich jazz chords then you’ll love this free jazz piano lesson. So, in today’s video I’m going to be teaching you guys how to play some really sweet Bill Evans chords. (Notation of chords below the video). Bill Evans was truly a harmonic genius. Whenever I want to learn…
Bill Evans Jazz Lick Lesson and Video
Here’s a free Bill Evans lick lesson and tutorial video. Bill was a harmonic genius and one of the truly great jazz musicians. This Bill Evans lick is just so beautiful sounding I had to share it with you all! (After you check out this lick you will want to check out this additional Bill…
10 Ways To Dominate Dominant Seventh Chords
Jazz Scales Demystified Do you want to learn more about playing jazz scales and soloing over dominant chords? Awesome. This article on jazz scales and many other articles on this website will help you. To get started quickly you can check out any of the 3 jazz scale lessons below. 3 important minor jazz scales –…
Charlie Parker Lick Lesson and Video
Here’s a free Charlie Parker lick lesson and tutorial video. I had a lot of fun shooting this one. Make sure you also scroll down for the notation of the lick and some quick tips. Some Cool Things About this Jazz Lick 1. The lick starts on the “and of 1”. In general, jazz licks…
The 6 Steps To Success In Your Jazz Practice Routine
I recently was invited by the fantastic jazz guitar player Matt Warnock to write an article for his blog. You can find the article I wrote here right here 6 steps to jazz practice success. I highly recommend you check out this article if you want to really take your jazz practicing skills to the…
Oscar Peterson Lick Lesson
Here’s a fun Oscar Peterson lick. Oscar played this lick over a blues but you can throw it in over many other tunes. This little 4 bar lick is filled to the rim with all kinds of blues and jazz vocabulary. (audio and tips for learning this lick below) You can click on this lick…
Jazz Piano Standards You Should Learn
Have you ever wondered what the first jazz songs you should learn are? If so, I’d like to help you get started. There are so many fantastic jazz songs in the Great American Songbook that it can feel overwhelming when trying to find a place to start. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of…
Great Red Garland Solo – Jazz Transcription
For today’s free jazz lesson we’re going to take a look at a jazz transcription of Red Garland’s famous solo on the jazz standard What is This Thing Called Love. This is one of the first jazz solos I ever transcribed and when I studied Red’s solo it paid off big time! So, let’s take…
How To Play Extensions on Dominant Seventh Chords
Want to spice up your chords and arrangements and make them more jazzy? One of the best ways to do this by adding extensions to your chords. Unfortunately, most people don’t understand how to do this properly. So, you’re probably saying right now, “Steve, How do you play extensions on chords?” “I heard…
What’s the first jazz solo you should transcribe?
Have you heard that you should be transcribing solos but just aren’t sure where a good place to start is? Are you having problems finding a jazz solo that is not only easy to play but has tons of great jazz licks in there? Or perhaps you’ve already tried transcribing for a bit but found…
Learn How To Make Your Jazz Melodies Swing More
I recently was invited by the great jazz saxophone player and educator David Carlos Valdez to write an article for his blog. David’s blog is one of the top jazz blogs in the whole world and I was honored and excited for the opportunity. If you don’t know David Valdez’s playing yet you need to!…
How To Play Satin Doll With Spread Voicings
A couple weeks back we learned about a very famous style of jazz chords called spread voicings. (If you missed the lesson and have no idea what spread voicings are make sure you check out the how to play spread voicings lesson). Anyway, since then I received a couple emails from subscribers to the site asking me…
How To Play Spread Voicings on Piano – Great Jazz Piano Chords!
– Are you struggling to find good solo jazz piano voicings? – Do you only feel comfortable when you’re playing in a trio and there’s a bass player laying down the bottom end for you? – How about accompanying vocalists? Do you have trouble finding the right voicings to play behind a singer? If you…
How To Practice Jazz For Long Term Growth
One of the most common questions I get from my beginning and intermediate jazz students is, “How do I practice jazz successfully?” Or, in other words, “How do I practice so I’m consistently moving in the right direction and not wasting my freakin’ time??” There are hundreds (maybe even thousands) of directions you can…
4 Tips to Get More Jazz Gigs
Ok, so you want to get more gigs huh? Here are a few tips that have helped me secure gigs over the years, keep working on the jazz art form, and even put food on the table. 1. Know lots and lots of tunes (but start with 20). You must realize that you will increase…
Misty Chords & Cool Reharmonization
If you want to learn Misty chords to the jazz standard Misty then you’ve come to the right place! Ok, so as promised I charted out the chords for the jazz piano video lesson I made on reharmonizing Misty. If you haven’t seen the video check it out here: Misty reharmonization lesson. Thanks to Bill Evans…
How To Play Misty – Jazz Piano Reharmonization
Make Your Jazz Standards More Interesting Have you ever noticed that great jazz piano players seem to play so many more chords than are written in your everyday run of the mill fakebook? Why is this? For starters, most of the time the chord changes written in a fakebook are either very bland, boring, or…
Shell Voicings Lesson – Super Simple Yet Powerful Jazz Chords
Have you ever wondered what shell voicings are? Do you ever wonder what chords people like Bud Powell, Barry Harris, and Al Haig play in their left hand when they’re soloing in their right hand? Well, most of the time they are using a particular type of chord voicing known as shell voicings. Shell voicings are super…
Bebop Piano Lick Lesson II – V(alt) – I
Here’s a new II – V- I bebop lick instructional video I just shot. This particular lick is one of my favorites because it uses alot of the classic building blocks of bebop. I’ll list some of the more “theoretical” elements of lick that make it bebop. (video below) 1. chromaticism with mostly chord…
Jazz Comping Chords – How To Play Two Handed Comping Chords (Rootless)
When I was first learning jazz I searched for a long time trying to find a good book or a method to learn how to comp in a jazz rhythm section. Sadly, there isn’t a ton of information out there on this subject. How To Comp It’s vitally important for everybody to learn how to…