Jazz Education

Jazz theory, improvisation, instruments, listening guides

What You’ll Learn in This Guide A precise definition of acid jazz and why the name was deliberately provocative How London DJs and a small independent label built … Read more

What You’ll Learn in This Guide How jazz piano evolved from ragtime and stride through bebop to contemporary styles The defining harmonic, rhythmic, and improvisational characteristics of jazz … Read more

Jazz fusion is a music genre that emerged between approximately 1965 and 1970 by blending jazz harmony and improvisation with the rhythms and electric instrumentation of rock, funk, … Read more

Cool jazz is a style of modern jazz that emerged in the United States between the late 1940s and early 1950s, characterized by melodic restraint, lighter tonal colors, … Read more

Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that emerged in the mid-1950s as a deliberate intensification of bebop, fusing the harmonic complexity of bebop with the emotional directness … Read more

Jazz guitar chords are extended harmonies, 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths, built on guitar-specific voicings that prioritize the guide tones (3rd and 7th) over root-position stacks. Unlike the … Read more

Jazz guitar is a style of guitar playing, and a family of instruments, central to jazz music from the 1920s to the present day, encompassing everything from the … Read more

Modal jazz is a style of jazz improvisation, originating between 1958 and the mid-1960s, in which musicians improvise over static or slowly-changing scales (modes) rather than working through … Read more

Jazz piano chords are multi-note harmonies built from stacked thirds, typically 7th chords extended with 9ths, 11ths, or 13ths, that define the sound of jazz through tension, color, … Read more

What You’ll Learn in This Guide What jazz improvisation is and why it defines the genre How improvisation works structurally, including common song forms The full historical arc … Read more

Jazz chord progressions are recurring harmonic sequences, built primarily from seventh chords and their extensions, that form the structural foundation of jazz standards, bebop heads, blues forms, and … Read more

What You’ll Learn in This Guide A precise definition of bebop jazz and why it changed everything How and where bebop originated, including the key role of Minton’s … Read more