Transcription
Nobody learned English by reading this cover to cover. You learn by speaking it. Jazz is the same way. You will not become a great improviser by scrolling through a jazz dictionary. But here's the problem: If you don't know what the words and phrases are in that language you're trying to learn, it's literally impossible for you to build your own vocabulary.
So, I'm building the Jazz Phrase System, the world's first jazz language dictionary with 10,000 real phrases from your jazz heroes, organized systematically to help you learn how to improvise.
Learning a full transcription to become a better improviser is a bit like learning a five-paragraph essay to try and have a conversation in a foreign language. There's some value if you're an advanced player, but for most beginner and intermediate players, this way of learning is completely backwards.
If you're in this intermediate level, you've probably already learned a bunch of solos and etudes from these transcriptions, and you know that they haven't helped you learn how to improvise freely yet. You still feel nervous when trying to improvise over a tune, and feel like you're either inserting licks or don't know what to play. Either way, it doesn't feel like you can have a conversation, a musical conversation, when you're improvising.
What you really need to learn are the common words and phrases among all of these jazz greats. Something that you can play without having to think about, something that just falls out of your hands from so much repeated practice.
And the real problem with trying to learn a language without even knowing what the words of that language are is you don't give your brain a way to understand what that musical idea is. You hear something cool from Wes or Bird; you don't even know how to organize what you hear. Is that a cool word? Is that a combination of words that get played? How do we understand what gets played so that you can use it and even create your own variations of it?
One of the early beta testers for Jazz Phrase System, Dan, said that using this was very motivating and it surfaced phrases that were at his level. And that's exactly what's missing from how jazz improvisation gets taught.
So, the Jazz Phrase System fixes that by teaching you the real vocabulary that these greats use in a way that you actually can learn them, and I'll show you exactly how we do that with an audio-first method that I haven't seen done anywhere else.
This is super important. It's one of my pet peeves. A lot of the exercises and advice you see on YouTube and in various guitar courses do not actually use vocabulary from real solos. They don't use examples that you would see in real playing situations. They make up certain exercises or combinations of patterns that seem logical but are not how these guys actually play, and it ends up sounding kind of lame. Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame.
So, before we do that, let's talk about the nine essential jazz patterns, which are the underlying grammar of the jazz improvisation language.
Okay, so we're coming over to the whiteboard so I can break down this essential jazz pattern framework for you. Now, I've analyzed tons and tons of transcriptions, and in doing so, I realized that there was this common structure underneath all of the jazz language I was seeing from masters of all eras, and I broke this down first into 31 essential jazz patterns, and as I really refined it, it became nine essential jazz patterns. And there's a very interesting underlying structure to this that I think you'll want to check out.
So, the first three essential jazz patterns: these are simple melodic patterns. So, let's say simple melodic.
Now, the first essential jazz pattern here is a 1-2-3. We're essentially playing a scale. So, EJP1 is that scale. Let's call it 1-2-3. After that, essential jazz pattern two is our triad. That is 1-3-5. And then, another common one that we talk about a lot of times with advanced playing like Giant Steps, but we don't talk about as often for other more simple ideas, is the 1-2-3-5. And this is the combination of 1-2-3 and 1-3-5, the scale and the triad together as a four-note group. So, I call this EJP number three, the 1-2-3-5.
Now, these function like our nouns in language. This is the basis of the melodies that we create.
Essential jazz patterns four to six are the arpeggios. The first one here is that seventh arpeggio, our standard seventh arpeggio. After that, essential jazz pattern number five are what I call the ninth arpeggio, or this arpeggio starting on the third of the chord. We get to the ninth, we start to get to those extensions. And then, finally, essential jazz pattern number six here is the pivot arpeggio. So, this kind of arpeggio has a very specific purpose: to play the notes of the arpeggio, but instead of ascending or descending very quickly, it skips us initially a jump of a sixth, the interval of a sixth, and then comes back. So, it stays within a very confined range. It has a very specific purpose for doing that. Horn players tend to have more limited range than say the piano, so you'll hear a lot of these pivot arpeggios from horn players as well.
Now, these in the grammar of the jazz language, are our verbs. Why are they the verbs? So, they're the verbs because they are taking action in spelling out the harmony. The simple melodic patterns are our content, and then the arpeggios are defining that action of the harmony. We're spelling out the chord. It also has this ascending and descending function where we quickly have movement, whereas with the simple melodic patterns, we don't necessarily have much movement. Sometimes these patterns just kind of start and end in the same place. So, these group are our verbs.
And then our last group here, patterns seven through nine, this is chromaticism. The first one here is continuous chromaticism. So, two or more continuous half steps start to become this continuous chromaticism. The eighth essential jazz pattern here is our two-note enclosure, and then our ninth essential jazz pattern here is the three-note enclosure.
What are these essential jazz patterns doing for our improvisation? They are embellishing our playing. They're embellishing the notes we target. They're embellishing the arpeggio. What do we call the words or the type of words that embellish other kinds of words? These are our adjectives and our adverbs. So, they work to embellish what we have over here. By themselves, they aren't really the content of what we're playing, but we do want them to make the nouns and verbs more interesting when we are playing them.
So, let me show you something that's really, really interesting. When we can take a solo and describe it with these different combinations of essential jazz patterns, we can really see the commonalities between different players in what they're playing. And it's done in a way that you can't otherwise see this, 'cuz it's within phrases, it's within parts of solos.
So, let's take one of the most simplest ones, which is the essential jazz pattern one into essential jazz pattern four. So, 1.4, scale into arpeggio. Scale into arpeggio. So, like I said, this is what I call essential jazz vocab 1.4, 'cuz it's pattern one into pattern four. I'll play some examples.
Now, let's listen to how Wes Montgomery plays another example of scale into arpeggio.
>> [music] >>
And finally, Benson playing scale into arpeggio. This is descending scale into arpeggio.
>> [music] >>
So, hopefully you can see that these are the exact same phrases. Now, in this case, we get lucky that they happen to be playing them in the exact same key as well, but you can see that this is existing within different phrases. So, it's not just this exact piece of vocab, but it leads in differently and leads out differently as well. But, within there, there is this essential jazz vocab 1.4 of this scale into this arpeggio. That specific structure is its own piece of vocabulary that we can learn. And now, there is a way of finding that kind of vocabulary and drawing that from these different sources.
Okay, let's now dive into the actual software itself, Jazz Phrase System. I'll show you in the walk-through.
Jazz Phrase System will solve three big problems for most jazz guitarists. The first one is finding good phrases that you want to learn. And Jazz Phrase System will do that in under 10 seconds. Let me show you.
So, we jump over here. This is the home page. And just as simple as this, you go over to library, click on library, and then go to browse. And right here in browse, you can find an exact phrase filtering by artist, by tune, by the type of progression, by a specific chord you want to play over, by a specific essential jazz pattern that you need to work on, whether you've learned it or mastered it. We'll talk about that in a minute. By a specific target note, and even starting on a specific part of the beat, whether it's an upbeat or downbeat or specific and. So, so many ways of filtering this, and they all work in combination as well. So, under 10 seconds you'll find a great phrase just doing that.
Say you're working on the tune Stella by Starlight, and you want to come up with some phrases that you can play over Stella. You can go to the tune. You can go find Stella. Click there, and let's say you also want to find Benson phrases from Stella. You hit apply, and boom, you have a bunch of phrases that Benson plays on Stella by Starlight, and you can check them out here. So, let's click this one. Right here.
Now, when you go to the phrase, there's a real audio here, um, playing this phrase, not from the actual recording, but from me playing these phrases on guitar. You also have features to loop that, to count that in, click track, ways of practicing this to help you out. Underneath, you can add that to your vocabulary, which then will get sent to the practice section. So, let's do that. Add to my vocabulary. And underneath that, you will see similar phrases that are either functionally equivalent, also long minor 2-5s in this example, or you click melodically similar and they have similar melodic contours to the one you're working on. So, it's a way of discovering new phrases that you might not explicitly be looking for.
Okay, the second big problem that this solves is knowing what to practice. So, if you've added a bunch of phrases or you want to go into practicing your improv and you have a bunch of phrases, how can we organize this? The way that a lot of these members have been using Jazz Phrase System is in the library in the packs section. So, three types of packs: artist packs, tune packs, organizing them by tune, and progression packs. And there are many, many more packs coming this way. I added one just yesterday, and we have another bunch coming very soon. So, whether you want to learn the vocabulary of a specific artist that's your jazz hero or for a specific tune that you might need to play on a gig or for a specific progression that you are trying to work on like a 2-5 or a minor 2-5. Very easy organization, you can just check out the whole pack which has a mix of vocabulary for whatever organization or topic you chose.
Finally, the third problem that this solves, and this is my favorite and I think the most interesting thing that this solves, is a way of practicing that's audio first. So, in language learning, they've done tons of studies on this, and I've experienced it myself, the best way to learn is listening to what is being said or played and then repeating it back. The notation is helpful, but it can be a crutch, and it can actually slow us down to actually feeling like we can do this, uh, fluently without having to think.
So, the way we solve that is with a digital flashcard. Let's go to practice section and I'll show you. So, we have three cards here available from what we added, and I hit start practice. And now you'll see a card here for this, uh, Charlie Parker phrase on this tune, and it gives me the context of the chord or the chord progression and then no notation, just the play button. So, let's hit play here.
>> [music] >>
And just from that, it's something I have to listen to and understand, maybe play with my instrument and try and figure out what that is. Again, you can loop this, you can add a click or count in. You can also change the tempo, um, if you need to slow it down to figure that out. So, you play this over and over again. If you're not getting it, you can hit show hint and it'll tell you the starting note for those that don't have perfect pitch. I don't have perfect pitch. Um, or if you need that starting help. And then also another hint which will tell you the essential jazz patterns involved to give you some of the structure of the phrase without revealing the exact notes.
Okay, say you figured it out. After you want to check out the answer, you flip this digital flash card, flip for answer, and it will show you the notation. So, you can check what you thought it was with what it actually was. And by doing it audio first, we really have to listen to these phrases. And just from a few tries of doing this, you will be so amazed at how well you're remembering these licks that you won't be worrying anymore about, "Hey, I learned this lick and I just keep forgetting it. It never stays in my vocabulary."
Then underneath, we also have a spaced repetition algorithm based on how you self-report you did. If you missed that, if you almost got it, or if you got it and mastered it. And if you think you mastered it, you can just hit mark mastered. But after three times of getting it correct, then it becomes a lick or phrase that you've mastered fully and you don't necessarily have to review within this kind of practicing. So, let's say I got it. And then we want to go to the next phrase. It brings us to our next digital flashcard. And we can repeat the process.
In the my vocabulary section, this gives you sort of the stats of your practice, what chord contexts, what artists, how many phrases you are learning first mastered, how many days you've been active, etc. And you can reference those phrases as well. We also have a dark mode for those that prefer dark mode.
So, let me zoom out and talk about the vision for Jazz Phrase System. What you just saw is version 0.1 of this. My goal for right now, as we push towards the first 1,000 phrases, is to really cement the canon of jazz guitar language. I'm talking about Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, George Benson, Charlie Christian, guys like these well-known masters.
Then we'll go deep on even more great jazz guitarists like Django Reinhardt, Kenny Burrell, Tal Farlow, Emily Remler, Barney Kessel, and many, many more. After that, we expand to other well-known instrumentalists. Obviously, need Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins. Now, some of these phrases from these guys already exist within Jazz Phrase System, but we'll go even deeper there so that we can see the common phrases, how Charlie Parker uses a certain combination of phrases that Wes uses, that George Benson also uses, and we can see how that shared language actually exists.
As we get more and more phrases in here, there are a lot of cool features I want to add in, such as a way of tracking these phrases through the actual lineage of the players playing them. So, we can really, really see how the jazz language has developed and where these commonalities exist.
To build the dictionary I showed you earlier, took hundreds of years, and I'm trying to do this in much less. Now, the 100 founders are the ones who are going to help me fund that. They are going to get a say in how this thing develops, what artists or tunes get prioritized, and it's going to be because of them that we actually reach our goal here in developing this. They also get every new phrase pack, artist pack, and tune pack for life, and the price locked in for life as long as they're a member. The founders rate is $199 per year, and once those 100 spots are gone, the public pricing becomes $39 a month or $399 per year. Now, we already have 12 spots gone as of this recording, which is about a week from when you saw this, so more spots might be gone at that time as well, because I opened it up to my Chasing Guitar Academy members first.
If you want real Wes, Bird, Grant Green, and Benson language falling out of your hands without having to think, and just naturally and freely improvising, I encourage you to check out jazzphrasesystem.com. You can get a 14-day free trial, and again, for a limited time, there's 100 founder spots for the best possible price that this will ever be offered at, and you can lock that in if there's 100 spots left or before July 5th, whichever comes first. Thanks for watching. Let's keep building.