Learn Jazz Standards Podcast Folgen

Welcome to episode 273 where I discuss the only thing I would practice for jazz if I could only pick three. Most of us don't have a lot of time to practice, but we want to improve our jazz skills quickly. We need to be focusing on the most impactful things and discarding the rest. I share with you mine and encourage you to think about yours.One massive question that I get all the time from subscribers is what should I practice if I only have a very little bit of time to practice? What's going to get me the biggest bang for my buck? We don't have a lot of time to practice, to work on stuff but we want to improve as musicians. We want to improve our jazz improvisation. What do we do?There are a billion things you could practice, a billion things you could do. And I'm always trying to answer the question. How do we simplify things? How do we boil things down to the most essential? And that's what we are going to talk about in today's episode. I'm going to talk about only 3 things. If I were only to pick 3 things to practice for jazz for the rest of my life, what would they be?In this episode:1. Using jazz standards as your primary vehicle 2. The 80/20 rule for jazz 3. Chord Tones 4. Learning solos 5. Composing solos6. Discovering your 20% Important Links:LJS Inner Circle MembershipFree Guide to learn standards by ear: Learn Jazz Standards the Smart WayLearn Jazz Standards Inner Circle: Get 50% off your first month!

Welcome to episode 272 where I discuss an array of different jazz gigs I've played over my career as a performing jazz musician. I talk about the worst gigs I've played, the best ones, the worst paying, the best paying, the ones where I learned the most, and I share all the lessons I've learned along the way.You know, over the years, as a professional jazz musician, I played hundreds and hundreds of gigs and I've really experienced the entire spectrum of experiences as a gigging musician. I've experienced some of the worst gigs ever like horrible working conditions, near-disasters, or just difficult people to work with. I've experienced amazing gigs -- incredible musicians, incredible experiences, maybe fancy gigs that I've attended or worked with. I've experienced ones that taught me a lot of lessons. I've experienced others that made me want to go and hang my head in shame when I got home. I've experienced a lot and I'm excited to do a very special episode where I go through a bunch of different gigs that I have played and show you the good, the bad, and the ugly and the lessons that I have learned from all of themIn this episode:1. Best long term gig I've played 2. Best overall gig I've played 3. Worst gig experience 4. The fanciest gig I've played 5. Worst paying gig I've played 6. Best paying gig I've played 7. Gigs where I've learned the most 8. Gigs that have had the biggest life impactImportant Links:LJS Inner Circle MembershipFree Guide to learn standards by ear: Learn Jazz Standards the Smart WayLearn Jazz Standards Inner Circle: Get 50% off your first month!

Welcome to episode 271 where today we are exploring the question of how to know what the correct chord changes are for a jazz standard. Because jazz musicians have often manipulated original chord changes, and often take liberties with chordal harmony, it can be difficult to know exactly what the chords are to standards. I give you some practical tips to help guide you through.One thing that would be very frustrating about learning jazz and playing jazz is that a lot of times jazz musicians will play a song just slightly differently. Maybe it's the way that they phrase the melody. Maybe it's the way they play the chord changes -- adding chord changes, subtracting chord changes, playing an entirely different key. It can get very confusing and you wish you just knew what the exact original changes that everybody's playing at the jam sessions are so that you're not confused by all the options out there.Well, in today's episode, we're going to be talking about that specifically. How do you know what changes you should be using and learning when you are learning a new jazz standard? In this episode:1. Don't use the Real Book or iReal Pro as primary resources 2. Consult the original recording, but realize that Great American Songbook original changes may be different than what jazz musicians play 3. Realize that some tunes have more than one set of "correct" changes Important Links:LJS Inner Circle MembershipFree Guide to learn standards by ear: Learn Jazz Standards the Smart WayLearn Jazz Standards Inner Circle: Get 50% off your first month!