Back when I was in college, I studied with a great jazz guitarist in New York City named Steve Cardenas. Steve is a fantastic jazz musician, tours around the world with lots of different artists, and has recorded albums. In all senses of the word, a very accomplished musician and seasoned jazz player. In one of our lessons, one time, when I went up to his house in Brooklyn, he told me something that was slightly disturbing, at least to the way I was thinking about learning music and jazz at that time. And that was, he told me that he had never transcribed a jazz solo before. And this shook ..read more

If you play guitar, saxophone, trumpet, bass, and piano, this episode is for you. On this podcast, we talk about jazz improvisation and things that literally all harmonic and melodic instruments need to be doing to improve at playing jazz. But, inevitably, there are certain technical elements of each one of these instruments that do need to be addressed that will help you actually play jazz better. So, on today's episode, we're going through each one of these instruments. We're also going to talk about things that all of them need to do, and if you are not one of those instruments, you're g ..read more

Hey, so we know there's a lot of jazz standards out there to learn and sometimes we wonder which ones should we be learning to be able to play with other musicians who play at jam sessions or even play at gigs. And so, it can really be helpful to understand what the categories are that we need to be focusing on, the subgenres of jazz that will come up time and time again as far as tunes being called in public settings. So, today on the podcast, we're talking about 7 categories of songs that you need to be learning for jazz. In this episode: The 7 Categories of Jazz Standards You Need to Lea ..read more

Today, on the podcast, we are talking about chord extensions and alterations, what are they, how can we use them in our comping and how can we even use them in our soloing to spice up our jazz improv and jazz playing. In this episode: 1. The 5 qualities of 7th Chords that are commonly used in jazz:       a) Major 7th chords       b) Dominant 7th chords       c) Minor 7th chords      d) Half Diminished chords      e) Fully Diminished chords 2. What are Extensions and Alterations 3. Extensions we can add on top of the ch ..read more

I hear from a lot of you that a big goal is to play at a public jazz jam session. But there may be some barriers, either in your mind or your actual playing ability that is stopping you from actually doing that. So, how do you prepare to play at jazz jam sessions and with other musicians in general? That's why we're going to go back into the vault of the LJS podcast, pull out an episode where I get two of my good friends and professional jazz musicians, Wallace Stelzer and Diego Baldonado, and we have a discussion where we talk about this subject. I know you're going to find it incredibly v ..read more

Today, on the podcast, I want to talk about thinking big.  Thinking big in your jazz playing. What I mean by that is aspiring to be something that you probably could never attain. Perhaps it's playing just as good as Sonny Rollins, perhaps it's playing with your own band at the Village Vanguard. Audacious goals that are really, really difficult to attain, if not, impossible for you to attain. I want to talk about how this kind of thinking will actually propel you forward in your musical journey and will have a tremendous output for you when you allow yourself to think this way. In this ..read more

One of my jazz mentors once said that the secret that pro-level jazz musicians have, some of the best jazz musicians in the world, is they've mastered the art of practicing. In fact, he went on to say that, pro jazz musicians spend just as much time fine-tuning their actual practice as they do their actual jazz playing. And so, today, I want to talk about the strategy called P.B.R. practice. Elements of practice sessions that will help set you up for success and jump-start your playing and help it improve a lot faster than it would, otherwise. In this episode: 1.  What is P. B. R. pra ..read more

So, tell me if you're going to relate any of this: You want to go play at a public jam session, but you're kind of just afraid that you're not going to sound good and you're afraid of what the other jazz musicians are going to think of you and your playing. Or, you go up to perform and all the eyes staring back at you make you tremble, make you clam up, and in general, it's just an incredibly uncomfortable experience that doesn't allow you to actually have fun performing and playing jazz. Well, in today's episode, I'm going to share with you my personal experience with performance anxiety ..read more

Today, we're talking about the 6 lies of jazz success. Things that you've probably heard before are good things, but it turns out they actually aren't and could be holding you back from reaching your goals in your jazz playing, and becoming the musician that you want to be. So, let's get ready to do this. Pay attention and grab your notebook. In this episode: The 6 lies about jazz success and the alternative ways to turn it around Lie #1:  Everything you practice matters Lie #2:  Practicing a lot of things gets more results Lie #3:  We must practice the same things Lie #4:&nb ..read more

So, we just got up for Inner Circle Retreat this last weekend, and my friends, it was an absolutely amazing time. So motivating and so inspiring. A lot of our Inner Circle members came together. We did workshops, we did masterclasses, and we did group breakout sessions. It was an amazing time and we learned a lot together. I want to share with you one little thing that we did talk about during the retreat 'cause I think it will be helpful for you as well, And that's this concept about playing "B.A.D" jazz solos and how playing "B.A.D" jazz solos all-year long could be the secret to massively ..read more