Jazz Blog Archives - Page 10 of 11 | FreeJazzLessons.com

2 Famous ii V I Licks Starting On The 3rd

In today’s free ii V I licks lesson we’re going to explore a couple of very famous licks from legends Joe Pass and Harold Land. If you want awesome ii V I licks these guys are some of the best to learn from! This is the 3rd article in our series “How To Play Great Jazz…

An Essential Tool To Help You Transcribe Jazz

What if you could take a jazz piano lesson with Bill Evans? How about a trumpet lesson with Miles Davis? What if we could study advanced jazz piano improvisation techniques with Chick Corea? Or imagine what it’d be like taking a piano for beginners class, taught by Duke Ellington. Unfortunately, these great masters have long…

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…

Jazz Fake Book – 5 Recommended Books For Learning Jazz

Want a list of the best jazz fake books out there? You need music to play right? Do you have time to transcribe all your favorite jazz recordings and slowly build a library of your own personalized jazz charts? How can you learn music more quickly without investing hours and hours trying to learn songs…

How To Play A II-V-I-VI Chord Progression With Jazz Chords

Are you looking for information on the II-V-I-VI chord progression? Congratulations. You’ve come to the right place! There are tons of free lessons and articles on jazz and piano chords on this site. Make sure you bookmark this site and let’s get to learning! I also recommend you check out several of the other jazz…

4 Bill Evans Jazz Chords You Need To Know

Here’s a free jazz piano lesson featuring the awesome jazz chords of Bill Evans. This particular lesson features a ii-V-i-IV (2-5-1-4) chord progression in a minor key. These beautiful chords are very useful because you can use them in solo jazz piano arrangements and you can also use them to play behind other instrumentalists. They…

4 Tips For Switching From Classical To Jazz Piano

In todays lesson we’re going to focus on 4 tips that will help you make the transition from playing classical music to playing jazz. I recently received a question from a new reader asking me how to make this switch more easily. I think this is a great question because most instrumentalists initially start with…

How To Play A Jazz Blues Chord Progression

In today’s free jazz blues chords lesson we’re going to take an in depth look at how to mix together some jazz chords and some blues piano chords into an incredible chord blend. This combo of jazz and blues piano chords will make your blues sound way more interesting. Players like Oscar Peterson, Wes Montgomery,…

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 Piano Scales – 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…

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…

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…

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 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…