Tag Archives: Charlie Parker

Donna Lee – Free Solo PDF

I was invited to participate in a jazz solo collaboration on the Jazz Duets channel by Nick Holmes. It is always fun to write solos and explore harmony so here is a 1 chorus Donna Lee Guitar Solo.

The idea was for  all 4 of us to compose a 1 chorus solo of only 8th notes (I decided to leave a few spaces though) and then play it and analyze it.

You can check out the video here:

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Download the Free PDF of the Donna Lee Guitar Solo

You want to download the PDF you can do so here:

Donna Lee Solo for Jazz DuetsDownload

The GuitarPro version of this solo is also available via Patreon.

3 Charlie Parker II V I Licks How To Play Them On Guitar

If you want to learn how to play jazz then it is probably a good idea to check out how Jazz Giants play like some Charlie Parker II V I licks!

Learning Bebop and Charlie Parker

A thing I never get tired of checking out is Charlie Parker and Bebop in general. I guess I still find it fascinating how the lines are so good and the material they are created with is really quite basic.

In this video I am going to go over 3 II V I licks. I will focus on how Charlie Parker is great at having surprising turns and leaps in his lines so they don’t sound like running up and down scales and he also still manages to get them to sound like real melodies instead of abstract interval exercises. He also often gets away with melodies that move across the bar line.

Hope you like it!

Learning from a Master improviser

These licks are clear examples of Parkers musical or melodic language and are really a great place to get some more ideas on how to come up with great lines. I especially find the way he uses displacement of different parts of the lines to open up the sound of his solo fascinating.

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Top 5 Jazz Books that I have learned a lot from!

“What books or methods do you recommend for learning jazz” is one of the questions that I get all the time on my videos and on social media. Everybody is looking for good Jazz Books!

I usually don’t really answer the question because for me books have been one of many ways I have studied and I have never worked through a method from cover to cover. There are many aspects of learning jazz and absorbing the information, and taking it from a book is only one way and not the path you can use for learning a lot of things.

That said there are of course books that I have had a lot of fun with and learned a lot from. In this vlog I will try to talk about some of them and also talk about what I have learned and how I have used them. This way of approaching the usefulness of a book is often overlooked in my opinion.

The Jazz Books

Charlie Parker Omnibook

https://geni.us/F6iNG9u


The Charlie Omnibook is a must for checking out Bebop! You just can’t go wrong with that one!

Kreutzer Etudes

https://geni.us/92fUueT


I have learned a lot from figuring out and practicing these etudes. This book is about making music with your technique but also about using your fretboard knowledge to be able to play them in the first place.

Ted Greene – Modern Chord Progressions

https://geni.us/xoLK


Ted Greene could make music like no one else with chords. His use of different types of chords and always making the harmony flow in a great melodic way is certainly worth a study!

Joe Pass – Guitar Style

https://geni.us/nTYWH

Learning bop language is a tricky business on guitar, but who better to learn it from than Joe Pass?

Mick Goodrick – The Advancing Guitarist

https://geni.us/Ht5H4y

The ideas and methods illustrated in this book are a huge part of my playing. In this book it is a good thing that most of the material covered you have to work out yourself.

The honourable mention:

Joe Pass – Chord solos

https://geni.us/2iBeP

Again Joe Pass is the one we turn to when you have to learn something really difficult. This time it is chord soloing!