Learn To Play Jazz on ANY instrument:
The improvisational principles I teach are applicable to all melodic instruments. In fact, in my own quest to learn to play jazz, I got by far the most useful instruction from a great saxophonist, Jerry Bergonzi. And when I was at Berklee, busily transcribing the solos I loved? I transcribed as much Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Cannonball Adderley on saxophone, Pat Martino on guitar, and Jaco Pastorius on bass as I did piano players. In Boston, when I was getting it together, the great guru you’d see to learn to play jazz was Charlie Banacos. Charlie was a pianist, but he taught everyone on every instrument. The great guitarist Mike Stern studied with Charlie (Mike continued to study with Charlie for decades after he played with Miles) and Boston’s best saxophonists, even bassists all took lessons with him. The things that make music “work” are common to all instruments, dating right back to the time of Bach and before. And THAT is what we’ll discuss as we cut through the fog of “modes” and other jazz buzzwords that don’t really work, and learn to play jazz the way the masters actually thought of it!
NEXT: Beyond your instrument: Production lessons in Apple’s Logic software