When I was in the 9th grade, my band director taught me the blues scale. He said I could use that one scale to play over the whole song, and it would sound good.
And in the 9th grade, I thought it sounded pretty cool.
But, as I've gotten older and listened to some of my favorite players ... people like Oscar Peterson, Gene Harris and Monty Alexander ... I've learned that the blues scale is only part of that sound, but it's not the whole sound.
Oscar playing some crazy blues lines.
Of course, they play the blues scale too. But, they do something else with it, and around it, that gives their playing that incredible sound I love.
So I got really curious about filling that gap, and I couldn't really find a book that unlocked this for me.
So, I started transcribing their playing, and when I did I noticed a few key differences:
You could hear the chord changes within their lines in a way that the blues scale alone can't do.
Every line sounded intentional, and each line fed into the next in a way that was really clear for the listener to follow. But my solos sounded like random noodling.
They used more chords, and cooler chords, than I was using over a simple 12 bar blues.
As I figured this out, I was able to start emulating these sounds in my own playing. My students started asking me about this sound, and when I showed them what I was doing, they were able to do it too.
And so, I took those ideas and I shot 4 hours of video lessons walking you through each of these ideas step by step. I've been working on this new Jazz Blues course for most of the year, and it's finally finished.
Watch the new course, now.
As a Jazz-Library member, you get access to everything I produce before anyone else. I've already added the new course to your members area, so you can start watching it now.