Would you like to play jazzier blues solos? If you can already improvise reasonably well using scales, such as major and minor blues scales, then this lesson shows you the next step towards that fluid “jazz” sound. It’s mostly a video lesson, so be sure to watch. It includes clear instructions, teaches you some great sounding lines, and clearly shows you where and how to use them. The lesson also includes structured, guided practice with backing tracks.
The lesson is mostly aimed at guitar players but it’s for all instruments really. As one viewer commented
“I play piano but have gotten some of my favorite lines from your videos.”
How to play & teach a great technique for jazzier solos
This lesson teaches you how to incorporate passing II-V lines into a blues solo to give it a “jazzier” and more connected sound. A passing II-V is a Two Five cadence added to create extra harmonic movement, creating smooth transitions between chords.
This video lesson is part two of a series. Part one introduces passing II-Vs, and Part three explains how the lines are built. Part 4 (coming soon) will teach you what you need to practice and how in order to fluently play lines like these and assimilate them naturally into your solos.
If you are a teacher: this video does two things: First, it teaches a useful jazz improvisation technique that has certainly been effective for many of my students. Secondly, it models a way of teaching that includes modelling, scaffolding, explicit instruction, and semantic waves to facilitate structured, cumulative knowledge-building.
Free downloadable PDFs
Here are free PDFs of the lines for this lesson. They include notation and guitar TAB: Passing II-Vs for jazzier blues solos PDF download.
And here’s a page with PDF materials to go with a bunch of other video lessons:
Lesson materials (free downloadable PDFs).
