Jazz Music

We’ve all been taught that most intervals are either major or minor… but that unisons, fourths and fifths are special intervals, considered “perfect.” Let’s question that for a minute. Here’s an alternative way of thinking about it that I think makes more sense… [read more]

Did you know that virtually all of the music we listen to hinges on a big mathematical coincidence? Namely, that two to the 7/12 power is approximately equal to 1.5. Seriously. Let me show you what I mean… [read more]

Here’s another compelling reason why musicians ought to practice slowly. To understand it best, consider an analogy to video games. Not playing them… designing them. [read more]

An early recording from John Coltrane is inspiring because it so compellingly debunks any notion that he was born to be a musical genius. His brilliance was hard won through intense practice. [read more]

A different, very useful way of ordering the modes of the major scale in your mind… and a trick for remembering the modes in that sequence… [read more]

Here’s a tip for when you’re trying to improve your improvisation but you’re stuck: Learn to play so it sounds like you’re moving through molasses. Let me explain how & why it works… [read more]

Pentatonic (five-note) scales are the basis for simple folk melodies and nursery rhymes all around the world. So how is it that they can be used in jazz so powerfully, to create so many colors and degrees of tension and dissonance? Let’s take a look. [read more]

An extremely useful word for something we’re all familiar with. [read more]

In a previous post called “Understanding Sus Chords” I discussed suspended chords—what they are and how to think of them. In this one we look at their uses in songs. [read more]

A simple post about a common word in music that seems to trip up a lot of people: REPERTOIRE. [read more]

Consider these two statements: “When you see a G7 chord you can use the G blues scale.” “When you see a G7 chord you can play a G altered lick.” Are they true? The simple answer to each is an unsatisfying “sometimes.” For a more satisfying answer, we need to understand an important distinction… [read more]

A few amazing things you might not know about the man who gave us the saxophone, on his 200th birthday. [read more]

A host of compelling reasons why it’s more efficient and effective to practice sequences of new material in reverse order. [read more]

Did you know that a recording artist gets paid when his/her performance is played on satellite radio, but not when it’s played on FM radio? Take a quiz to test your knowledge of how money flows in the music world… or just read it as a wonderful tutorial. [read more]

It is vital to practice in every key. But, for many purposes, the convenient ways of going through the twelve keys—chromatically or in the circle of fifths—have significant disadvantages. Here is an alternate method. [read more]

Fifty years ago today, a 26-year-old Joe Henderson recorded his debut album, Page One, for Blue Note Records. In addition to its stellar lineup and the fact that it debuts two songs that went on to become jazz mega-classics, Page One is notable in that it displays gorgeous facets of Joe’s playing that one doesn’t hear in his later years… [read more]

Three special concerts, June 14, 15 & 16, paying tribute to one of the great live jazz albums, Art Blakey’s “Ugetsu”, on the fiftieth anniversary of its recording. [read more]

In praise of the song we all love to hate. [read more]

Like most jazz recordings, my CDs have stayed pretty true to the live-concert experience. But here’s a couple tricks we’ve played in the studio over the years that we couldn’t have pulled off live. Audio included [read more]

I encounter a lot of musicians who know the definition of a sus chord but who struggle to understand sus chords as clearly as, say, minor or dominant chords. Perhaps this post will shed some helpful light. [read more]

Archive for the ‘Jazz Music’ Category

Categories

Minor Fourths, Major Fifths

Music and an Accident of Mathematics

Practicing Slow II: What Video Games Teach Us

Unlikely Inspiration from Coltrane

Remembering the Modes

Practicing Slow

Pentatonic Scales: A Deeper Look

Audiation

Sus Chords part II: Their Uses

Pronouncing “Repertoire”

Dynamic and Static Chords

Celebrating Adolphe Sax

Back-to-Front Learning

How we make money from music

Random Roots

Joe Henderson at age 26

The Ugetsu Project

The Girl From Ipanema (at 50)

Studio Confessions

Understanding Sus Chords