Jazz Blues Changes

This fourth unit of The Practicing Blues Guitarist gives you three essential tools for playing the jazz blues changes: altered sounds, diminished licks, and authentic ii-V-I resolutions. Playing the blues like a jazz musician isn't about stressing out over the Lydian mode or memorizing standards – it's about recognizing just a few key moments in the 12 bar progression and learning what vocabulary sounds best in those moments.

 

Jazz blues changes are the specific chord changes jazz musicians from the 1940s and '50s use to improvise over the 12-bar form. They're just different enough that you can't finesse them by ear, and the specific vocabulary that fits them is what makes the blues playing of guitarists like Kenny Burrell, Grant Green and George Benson sound so distinctive and hip. Jazz Blues Changes identifies those moments and shows you intuitive, guitaristic ways to use altered and diminished sounds and to play authentic-sounding blues-based bebop lines over the ii-V-I turnaround. You'll learn new scale fingerings, licks and lines, and get specific, hands-on ways to practice improvising, expand your vocabulary and fuel your creativity.

PLAY THE CHANGES ON THE BLUES

In these thirteen lessons, you'll learn:

  • the key moments to focus on in the jazz-blues chord progression, and what to play over them
  • how to incorporate altered and diminished sounds into your your existing blues vocabulary with specific, guitar-friendly fingerings
  • how to make the ii-V-I turnaround sound both soulful and sophisticated using the same approach as blues-based bebop musicians like Joe Pass and Oscar Peterson

Jazz Blues Changes includes 13 video lessons, pdf scale diagrams and selected tab, and custom jam tracks to practice to. All streaming videos, jam tracks and pdfs are also downloadable and belong to you forever.

Here are the topics covered in nearly two hours of video. You can watch lessons 2 and 11 in their entirety above to get a feel for the material and how it's presented.

  1. Charlie Christian V Chord Licks
  2. ii / I Resolutions In The Home Position
  3. ii / I Resolutions In The Upper Position
  4. ii / I Resolutions In The Third Position
  5. Altered Scale Fingerings
  6. The Altered Sound From The Upper Position
  7. The Altered Sound From The Third Position
  8. The Altered Sound From The Home Position
  9. Diminished Scale Fingerings
  10. The Diminished Sound From The Home Position
  11. The Diminished Sound From The Upper Position
  12. The Diminished Sound From The Third Position
  13. Jazz Blues Solos

When you purchase the course, you have immediate access to all of the lesson material, and can download, stream and study all of it at whatever pace suits you best. By giving you the authentic tools to play altered, diminished and ii-V sounds and showing you how to integrate them into your existing blues vocabulary, Jazz Blues Changes unlocks the sound of the great blues-oriented jazz musicians, expands your understanding of the fretboard, and provides a practical, hands-on path to mastering the jazz blues progression.

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