Play Along

This study isolates a B-flat blues, which is ground zero for all development in jazz. Blues phrasing, and the B-flat blues in particular, is the most ubiquitous structure for jazz players at all levels in all corners of the globe. A student who has the patience to go through this will benefit enormously and will have a roadmap for pursuing just about everything else in the world of jazz.

Knowing the blues gives you the phrasing you need to get through everything else. It teaches you how to lay back. It teaches you how to articulate. It teaches you how to deal with the third and the seventh, the guide tones, the ones that really matter. It teaches you a very obvious melodic tension and release, intimately tied to the harmony. So many of these things translate and transfer immediately to just about every genre of American music and every jazz standard imaginable, even something as difficult as Inner Urge, Donna Lee or Giant Steps.

Being able to play the blues is the fruit of the efforts you make practicing your scales. What I have hoped to provide in these play-alongs is that work made real: the practical application, the proof that your work practicing scales matters. It will give you freedom of movement, and you can play this.

But for stylistic reasons, and to get a sense of where you're going, it is also beneficial to focus early on playing things like this, whether it's what I'm presenting here or following recordings you like, so that you have a target. Music is about knowing where you are and where you're going, where the beginning and the end are, or at least having a target. This gives you a view from higher up: what this whole thing really means, and why you're playing scales.

The hope is that when you start playing these, you'll feel that you have technical issues that can only be resolved by doing the hard work. That work is in the app.

So should you stop everything and work on these? No. And should you wait until your technique is ready? No. Play one of these, feel where it's hard, and take that back to the exercise. Then come back and play it again.