Next Workshop: Minor Blues & Bebop
Published: Wed, 10/11/23
"Bebop is mysterious. And silly and powerful. I gave up trying to figure it out years ago."
Fortunately, with enough time and distance from both the academy and the marketplace, my curiosity got the better of me. I had never stopped listening to jazz, and, assisted by David Rosenthal's invaluable Hard Bop, additional books by Tom Piazza, Gary Giddins and Martin Williams, and an ever-increasing access to jazz recordings of every era, my determination crystalized in a way it never had before: I would learn, not how to play everything, in every key, at every tempo. I would learn one thing: how to play the changes on the blues like the musicians on my favorite Blue Note, Prestige and Riverside albums from the 1950s.
Two other factors turned this notion from just an idea into an actual project. First, in one of countless music conversations with my friend Bret, he brought up a statement of Wynton Marsalis' to the effect that, if they wanted to teach jazz properly in a four-year university, they ought to spend the first three years just teaching the blues. The more we teased this idea apart, the more sense it made: not only are the blues form, vocabulary and sensibility integral to jazz expression generally; the blues progression itself includes the most essential challenges lurking in Tin Pan Alley tunes and jazz standards: dominant chords, ii-V-I's, altered chords, diminished chords.
Second, around this time I was due to create a new course for Truefire. They had been having success with a new "50 Licks" format; I was looking for an excuse to transcribe a bunch of jazz licks (and get paid for it, if possible). I pitched the idea of "50 licks that jazz musicians would use on the blues," they liked it, and voila: now I had an excuse and a deadline to get up close and personal with a bunch of my favorite records.
The upshot of all this is that I went from feeling frustrated and overwhelmed with jazz to feeling focused and enthusiastic, just by drawing a clear, finite boundary around a territory I actually cared about. And I can even report that the Wynton hypothesis proves true: after spending the majority of my jazz energy simply on navigating the blues, when I did finally turn my attention once again to the occasional standard, I felt substantially more tuned in and equipped to improvise on those tunes, just from the time I had spent on the twelve-bar changes.
Both my upcoming workshop, Minor Blues and Bebop, and my previous Bebop For Beginners are designed to provide you with a clear, simple, step-by-step way to put this pared-down, focused approach to work in your own playing. If you want to know how to go beyond basic pentatonic licks and get that elusive jazz guitar sound on the blues, without getting lost in an endless swamp of modes, arpeggios and other details, these workshops can show you the way.
Minor Blues & Bebop will specifically address how to play the changes on the minor blues progression: the essential jazz phrasing you need to play expressive, musical solos, and the scales and arpeggios – just a few – you do need to incorporate altered and diminished licks into your blues playing. Which begs the question:
"How is playing minor blues any different from playing major blues?"
I thought that might be easier to explain with a video than a newsletter, so that's what today's Youtube lesson is about. You can find it at the link below:
Major vs. Minor Blues – What's The Difference?
You can learn more about the current Reliable Source workshop series and sign up at the link below. Join for the whole three-part series, or just sign up for the upcoming Minor Blues & Bebop class on October 21st:
Minor Blues Workshops Registration
More soon,
David