You meander into your practice room, peruse your jazz standard play alongs and grab the first volume that sparks your interest, pop it in, and off you go. Sound familiar? Unfortunately, not only does soloing over and over with a jazz play along waste your valuable practice time in which you could be improving, but it also reinforces the player that you already are. A common misconception plagues many jazz improvisers, which consequently, leads them to put a play along record on loop and solo over the same tune for hours. Many of us, and I catch myself still doing it once in a blue moon, believe that the more they practice soloing over a tune with a play along backing track, the better they will solo over it. To further complicate the situation, when we practice this way, we think we are improving. The truth is, great lines are not born from nothing. Great lines and great solos are crafted using knowledge gained from hours and hours with the music of the masters, as well as much time experimenting with concepts until they sound right. They then can utilize this knowledge at will while they improvise, to create something new in the moment.


12 Bar Blues Chord Progressions


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Commonly referred to as the essence of the blues, the shuffle, has a lopsided triplet feel. A triplet is a group of three eighth notes played within the duration of one quarter note. In order to achieve the shuffle feel simply remove the second eighth note, leaving you the first and third notes of the triplet. You can try this out by taping your foot at a slow to medium tempo.
Boost Your Chops and Get Jam Ready
Blues has kept the same overall form since its growth in popularity during the early-mid 20th century. But its broad influence on jazz and modern rock music cannot be overstated. Every musician should have a good knowledge of the blues. This lesson will introduce you to the blues chord progressions that define the genre, and some common and less common variations. Plus, it'll get you thinking about timing - something that throws a lot of musicians. There are three main forms in blues - 12 bar blues which is what most people are familiar with , 8 bar blues and 16 bar blues less common.
Here's a list of the most commonly called and played jazz blues songs and tunes. A huge part of the jazz standards repertoire consist of blues or bluesy type of songs. There are many variations: form, tempo, tonality, style and harmonic structure come to mind. So, on a quiet Saturday night, you could just watch TV or learn a few of these jazz blues tunes