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JAZZ SCHOOL

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One-to-One jazz piano lessons for adults

With Shan Verma

Learn the skills involved in: playing from chords, composition, improvisation, computer music, arranging, accompanying, reading,  transcribing and much more!

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free guitar lessons and music theory lessons.
 
  For the beginners amongst us. A lesson on how to read guitar
           tablature and the conventions used at this site.

  The Modes
  What are modes and how do they translate to the guitar?
           Part 1  2

Guitar Chord Charts
  Jazz Guitar Chord Theory
  How are jazz guitar chords built and how can I find my own?
           Part 1  2  3   4  5  6

Autumn Leaves Sheet Music
  The Lydian Dominant Scale
  Tritone substitution & the lydian dominant scale

Pentatonic Scales  The Pentatonic Scale for Jazz Guitar
  How to play pentatonic scales over chord changes.

Pentatonic Scales  Jazz Guitar Patterns
  Small melodic or rhythmic building blocks for you improvisation.

Latin Guitar  Latin Guitar
  A short introduction to guitar techniques
          used in latin music.

Blues Guitar  Jazz Blues Guitar
  In this guitar lesson we have a look at the bluesy side of jazz.

Autumn Leaves Sheet Music  Autumn Leaves in 5/4
  A guitar arrangement of Autumn Leaves in 5/4.

Guitar Technique  Guitar Technique & Warm Up Exercises
  Gain fluency, speed and accuracy on the guitar neck.

Bach Classical guitar  Guitar Technique:  Bach Classical Guitar
  Improve your technique:  Bach for guitar.

The Bebop Scale for Guitar  The Bebop scale
  What is the bebop scale and how do I play it on guitar?

Bebop  Bebop
  Every jazz musician should be familiar with the bebop language.
          Have a look at some frequently used bebop techniques.

Upper Structure Triads  Upper Structure Triads
  A music theory lesson about upper structure triads +
          a list of the ones that work best.

Voice Leading  Voice Leading for Guitar
  Use voice leading to let your chords and phrases
          flow smoothly.

Triads  Triads over Minor Chords
  Alternating triads over minor chords.

Timing Exercise  Timing Exercise
  Improve your timing:  fun with a metronome.

Guitar Scales  Guitar Scales: the Suspended Sound
  Bring some variety in the way you play over minor chords.

Advanced Guitar Scales  Playing Guitar Scales Horizontally
  A more advanced method of playing guitar scales.

Exotic Guitar Scales  Exotic Guitar Scales
  Add some new colors to your sound.

The Altered Scale  The Altered Scale
  How does the altered scale look on the guitar and what can I do with it?

Melodic Minor Modes  Melodic Minor Modes
  Modes of the melodic minor scale: what are they, how
          do they look on the guitar and what can I do with them?

Jazz Guitar Tips  Jazz Guitar Tips
  Miscellaneous short jazz guitar tips.

Free Voice Lessons

In this first Podcast John Henny covers the basics of Speech Level Singing (or SLS).  Also covered are some initial terms and definitions, including chest voice, head voice and mix.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Podcast 1 Intro to SLS

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My Podcast
 
Lesson 6 Vibrato
Thursday, April 27, 2006
In today’s Podcast, John Henny gives some simple exercises to help create the sensation of vibrato in the singer.  These simple, yet effective exercises can help establish a polished vibrato, even in
 
Lesson 5 Building Strength
Thursday, March 30, 2006
In today’s lesson John Henny starts the process of slowly building strength into the bridges or “mix”.  
 
Narrowing Vowels
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
John Henny covers the “singer’s secret” of vowel narrowing and demonstrates how it can create more ease in singing almost instantly.  This is a key lesson for those singers in need of a “quick fix”.  
 
Lesson 4 Finding Connection
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Today’s lesson begins the process of bringing the vocal cords together and maintaining vocal cord closure though the transition process.  This will begin to strengthen the bridge and eliminate breaks.
 
Finding Release
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Today’s podcast begins exercises to help find the “release” or the sensation of letting go into the head voice.  This will help build coordination and allow the student to change and blend registers q
 
Lessons in Speech Level Singing with top SLS voice instructor John Henny.  Please visit www.johnhenny.com for more information and to schedule private lessons, either in-studio or by phone and webcam.
 
 
 
 
 
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Free Bass Lessons

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The Bass Greats Series

   

     Dave Holland


The Solo Bass Series

The Jazz Improvisation Series

The Slapping Series

The Tapping Series

The Sight Reading Series

The Transcriptions Series

If you don't already have Real Player, you'll need it to listen to the Real Audio files or to view the Real Video clips posted on these lesson pages. You can download it for free Here.

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FREE
Introduction to Drumming

The Basics


This tutorial assumes that you know nothing about drums and have never even picked up a pair of drum sticks. This page will explain everything from reading music to how sticks should be held.

First thing we need to talk about is how you actually play the drums. The great thing about drums is that you don't really need a drum set to play. You can use a table top, your knees or even a friend's head!

OK, if you are a right-handed person you will be using your right hand to play the hi-hat, your left hand to play the snare drum, your right foot to play the bass drum and your left foot to move the hi-hat up and down. If you are a lefty, then everything is reversed...your left hand will play the hi-hat, right hand the snare drum, and so on.

Note: this is not a must, it is more important to play how it feels more comfortable than how you should play the drums. I know several good drummers that are left-handed but play on a right-handed drum set up. For the following examples we will use the right-handed style of playing.

Since we aren't using a drum set at this point we'll just use the desk you are sitting at. Tap your right hand on the desk four times while counting to four. Next add a tap with your left hand on the third count. Take a look below for a more visual sense of what you are doing.


                                             count            1  2  3  4
                                             R=right hand     R  R  R  R
                                             L=left hand            L
                                             

This is the basic hand pattern for 80% of drum music played in today rock/pop music. Repeat this pattern over and over without stopping. When you feel comfortable with this, move on to the next section.

Now that you have got the hand stuff figured out, lets add a foot into the mix! Tap your right foot on count one. See below for what this looks like to help with your counting.


                                             count            1  2  3  4
                                             R=right hand     R  R  R  R
                                             L=left hand            L
                                             F=right foot     F
                                             

Now your cooking! Once you have this hand/foot combination down and can keep up a steady rhythm for at least 3 minutes straight you are on your way to becoming a drummer.

Lets take a look at some actual drum music and then talk about all the different parts of it. This is the same pattern as above written out as a drum transcript. The right hand is playing eighth notes on the hi-hat and the foot and left hand are alternating on the quarter note downbeat. We'll talk more about what eighth and quarter notes are later on.




Notice the MIDI Players above the diagram. Throughout all the lessons these will be available for you to hear the example shown. This way you can actually hear what the drum pattern sounds like and let you know if you are playing it correctly. Go ahead, try it!