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Jazz Improvisation

Apr 14
2 min

Rhythmic Transcription

What are the jazz notes? Seriously, what are the notes that distinguish jazz from other styles of music? What notes are different in...

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Note Detective - Crossword Puzzle Transcription

Matt McVeigh

Apr 8
2 min

Note Detective - Crossword Puzzle Transcription

Humans seem to be hard-wired to move from left to right, top to bottom. It seems like a basic literacy concept so formally in-grained...

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Matt McVeigh

Apr 2
2 min

Transcription Prescription

Last fall, we featured a series of blog posts on transcribing. This was an important series and it laid out many of the basics of the...

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Out of the Box Strategies for Learning Tunes Pt 3: Write a Contrafact

Matt McVeigh

Mar 29
2 min

Out of the Box Strategies for Learning Tunes Pt 3: Write a Contrafact

A contrafact is simply a new melody on an existing chord progression. There are tons of contrafacts and certainly this idea is not...

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Out of the Box Strategies for Learning Tunes - Pt 2: Transcribe the Melody

Matt McVeigh

Mar 5
2 min

Out of the Box Strategies for Learning Tunes - Pt 2: Transcribe the Melody

If you have a Real Book, check out the melody to There Will Never Be Another You. I will save you some time. You will see the melody to...

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Out the box strategies for Learning Tunes Pt 1: Make a Playlist

Matt McVeigh

Mar 1
2 min

Out the box strategies for Learning Tunes Pt 1: Make a Playlist

Learning tunes is where technique meets creativity. This is where the melody and the harmony This is where we get to put it altogether...

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Matt McVeigh

Jan 22
2 min

Memorizing Tunes

Here is a quick 3-step strategy to memorizing any jazz standard: repetition, repetition, repetition. I mean....yes, and no. It is true...

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Matt McVeigh

Jan 18
1 min

Where do I Start?

So this may sound a little cliche' but the best tunes to learn are the ones that you are most excited about. I used to spend a lot of...

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Matt McVeigh

Jan 13
2 min

Learning Tunes

A musicians repertoire is like the chef's recipe's. This is largely what gives us our identity as a musician. We can amass serious...

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Matt McVeigh

Jan 11
3 min

New Year - So where are we going...

Have you gotten the ads from the "get in shape" crowd? I have, and it always feels strange to me. It isn't that I don't think I need it,...

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Matt McVeigh

Jan 11
2 min

Influence Pt IV: Language

It doesn't happen often. But when it does I know it. Despite my intentions my fathers words come out of my mouth. These aren't bad...

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Matt McVeigh

Dec 17, 2020
3 min

Influences Pt III: Intensity of Craft

John Coltrane is the gold standard of pursuit. Coltrane's story focuses a lot on the last decade of his life. His pursuit of music was...

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Matt McVeigh

Dec 8, 2020
2 min

Influences Pt 2: Finding Voice

I have had the benefit of falling in love with a lot of jazz musicians. Some are similar, but generally I fall in love with each one for...

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An EZ Play Christmas Book, A Soap Opera Theme Song and the formation of Musical Influence.

Matt McVeigh

Dec 1, 2020
3 min

An EZ Play Christmas Book, A Soap Opera Theme Song and the formation of Musical Influence.

I have been thinking a lot about influences. How they change, and how they don't. How we can be initially inspired in a flash and then...

6 views0 comments

Matt McVeigh

Nov 30, 2020
2 min

Group Transcription - Pound Cake Phrase 3

There is a lot of focus among improvisers on the third phrase of the blues, and rightly so. This is the phrase that pulls the first two...

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Matt McVeigh

Nov 25, 2020
2 min

A Jazz Thanksgiving

There is always jazz for every Occassion. Below is some selected music for the thanksgiving holiday. Vince Guaraldi - Thanksgiving Theme...

2 views0 comments

Matt McVeigh

Nov 23, 2020
1 min

Group Transcription - Pound Cake Phrase 2

Last week's blog post focused on the first phrase of Lester Young's solo on Pound Cake. This post is going move into the second phrase...

4 views0 comments

Matt McVeigh

Nov 19, 2020
2 min

Transcribable Solos

Transcribing solos (or parts of solos) is the single most important thing you can do to develop your skill as a jazz musician. But I am...

3 views0 comments

Group Transcription - Pound Cake Phrase 1

Matt McVeigh

Nov 16, 2020
2 min

Group Transcription - Pound Cake Phrase 1

The next several blog posts will work through a chorus of a Lester Young Solo. I am going to break this solo down phrase by phrase and...

6 views0 comments

Matt McVeigh

Nov 12, 2020
3 min

Beginning Transcription, Now What

Part two of this series takes a look at some of material to transcribe. If you are reading this, you probably already know that...

17 views0 comments

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