Approaches to Soloing Archives | FreeJazzLessons.com

How To Organize Your Chord Practice

Are you searching for an easy way to organize your chord practice? You’ve come to the right place. In this lesson you’ll find a free sample from my beginner jazz piano course, “The Zero To Jazz Piano Hero Program” (Free sample video tutorial below) Update: The Zero To Jazz Piano Hero Program has been released! You can…

How To Improvise With Symmetrical Scales

Symmetrical Scales: As an art form has seen countless permutations. Starting with simple blues melodies in the early 1900s; incorporating chromaticism and arpeggios with the rise of bebop led by Charlie Parker in the 1940s. Taking a dive into the modal era pioneered by Miles Davis in the 50s and 60s; through even more experimentation…

Piano Transposition Secrets Masterclass

Do you want to skyrocket your piano transposition skills? ==>Click here to register for this masterclass Alright, so over the years we’ve talked about a lot of different strategies to really take advantage and maximize your practice time right… We all only have 24 hours in the day. So, when we can find ways to shortcut…

2 Unusual Oscar Peterson Jazz Exercises

Do you want to learn 2 unusual Oscar Peterson jazz exercises? I’ve had a lot of students ask me who I studied when I was an up and coming jazz pianist. We’re all constantly looking for ways to maximize our return on investment with our jazz piano practice time right? Well, I’m reaching out to you today…

Announcing A Brand New Piano Lessons Online Website

Hey there! We’ve got a major announcement today. I’m so excited to release this video. So, over the years we’ve had a ton of requests from students who’ve asked us if we could create some different styles of music in our tutorials. I’ve heard things like, “We love the jazz tutorials but can you also teach…

Pentatonic Scale Piano Made Easy

Would you like to learn more about pentatonic scale piano techniques? Well, you’ve come to the right place! In today’s free video lesson you will quickly learn how to incorporate pentatonic scales into your improvisation skill set. After watching this video your music will sound that much more beautiful. So, be prepared to capture your…

Learn Piano: The 7 Most Popular Lessons on FJL in 2015

It’s that special time of year again! Welcome to the 3rd annual list of the 7 most popular free piano lessons of the year. This year was quite a special one. We saw record growth in so many ways: What We’ve Been Up To In 2015 I started this site in 2012. I started by throwing…

4 Piano Improvisation Shapes You Need To Know

Are you struggling with you piano improvisation? Do you find yourself quickly running out of ideas when your soloing? In this free piano improvisation video lesson, I’m going to teach you how to start using a cool improvisation technique called ‘vertical playing’. This chordal based approach to improv will add all kinds of new possibilities into your soloing.…

10 Most Popular Jazz Piano Tutorials Of 2013

I thought it would be fun and useful to share a list of the most popular jazz piano tutorials that were published on this site in 2013. I was able to go back and look at my analytics for FJL and see what pages people visited the most. It’s a pretty cool feature and the…

Jazz Piano Improvisation: Build Great Licks

Do you wish you were better at jazz piano improvisation? Do you wish you could improvise over major 7th chords better than you do now? Do you find yourself lost when major 7th chords come up in your favorite jazz and rock songs? Well, in today’s lesson we’re going to explore some new licks and…

Jazz Masters Method Special Video Blog Thank You

Hey everybody! Today’s post is going to be short but sweet. I’m truly humbled right now. I’d like to thank everybody who’s ordered the Jazz Masters Method DVD so far during this launch week. The response has been simply been AMAZING. I am truly blessed! Thank you!! I prepared a quick little video blog as I…

Clifford Brown Jazz Improvisation Lesson

I always tell my jazz students if they really want to learn jazz improvisation and master the bebop language then they need to go directly to the source. They need to learn from people like Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, Bud Powell, and Sonny Stitt. So, in today’s jazz improvisation lesson we’re going to do just that!…

How To Add The Major Bebop Scale To Your Playing

Have you ever heard of the bebop scale? Do you wish knew more ways to bridge the gap between the scales you know and what real jazz musicians actually use in their jazz solos? One of the best ways to go about doing this is to learn the method behind the major bebop scale. When used…

Altered Scale – A Simple How To Guide

Are you curious how to use the altered scale? Are your dominant chords getting a bit boring? Do you wish you knew some more interesting scales to use over them? Well, in today’s jazz scale lesson I’m going to teach you a very cool sounding scale you can play over your dominant chords. This scale…

7 Tips To Help You Play Better At Fast Tempos

Do you have trouble playing well at faster tempos? Do you feel like you just can’t execute your ideas as clearly as you’d like? Do you sound good at slower tempos but the second the tempo starts getting up there your jazz improvisation starts to suffer? If you answered yes, (which most musicians probably will) there…

How To Play Great Jazz Piano Licks Starting On Any Note

Parts in this series: #1: Starts on the root of a minor chord. #2: Starts on the 9th of a minor chord. #3: Starts on the 3rd of a minor chord. (Featuring licks from Joe Pass and Harold Land). #4: This one stars on the 11th (also known as the 4th) #5: Starting on the…

Jazz Minor Scale Formulas And How To Solo With Them

In today’s jazz lesson you’re going to learn how to quickly add jazz minor scale techniques and modes into your playing. Whether you’re playing in a jazz rock band, a bebop band, a latin jazz band, or another jazz style, this jazz minor scale tutorial will be useful. I think you’ll enjoy this particular jazz…

3 Of The Most Useful Scales To Play Over Major Chords

When most players first start jamming over major chords they’ll usually turn to licks and ideas built from the major scale. This can create a nice inside sound but often times the lines can get predictable and somewhat boring. We don’t want to be boring and predictable right? 🙂 Fortunately, there is a solution to…

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…

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…

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 –…

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…

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…

Wes Montgomery’s solo on Satin Doll

Here‘s a Wes Montgomery solo I transcribed about a year ago on the jazz standard “Satin Doll”. (scroll down for the solo.) There’s all kinds of great jazz licks in this one. I could write a 10 page essay on everything that I like about this solo but I’ll just mention 4 things here: 4 Wes…

How To Solo Over the Jazz Standard All The Things You Are.

Would you like to be able longer jazz licks? Do you feel like your licks sometimes sound like run on sentences? How do you play those beautiful and long flowing lines that a lot of the great jazz masters play? You know the ones that always sound good no matter how long they go? Your Jazz…