Rowan Pattison

After learning how arpeggios are used to improvise and exploring the foundations of improvisation, it’s important to learn from the great improvisers and how they applied the theory so that we can reproduce these techniques in a musical and more authentic way.  One of the best ways to start internalizing the jazz language is to transcribe these great musicians. By transcribing we develop not only our ear, but it also allows us to train our muscle memory to feel swing, accents, and particular passages that are very common in, and are a crucial part of jazz music from a range … Read more

Many of us have heard of the musical term “arpeggio,” but we are aren’t aware of what it actually means and how arpeggios can help our playing. To play all these notes–with big jumps up and down the fretboard of the guitar seems daunting, and the thought of improvising with them even more so! The reality of this is true in a sense. To master your arpeggios all over the fretboard takes a long time, but when you begin learning, you can use them right from the start, so the process happens naturally as you become more eager to expand … Read more

The previous article discussed jazz improvisation, and now the next most important aspect of music to discuss is the harmony. In jazz music, the harmony is often quite complex, and there are some classic chord progressions that make up a huge amount of the harmony of the jazz standard repertoire we know of today. Learning these progressions will help all aspects of your musical playing, from pop, rock, or even classical music, as it opens up your ear to new sounds and studying jazz is a great way of learning how harmony works. The Numerical System Jazz music, particularly that … Read more