Today I've been practising using a string of enclosures on the the chords in a Rhythm Changes. This little line/exercise uses two tryes of enclosures, aiming at different notes of the chords, also making sure the chord tones are generally on the STRONG bats (1234) with the enclosure notes surrounding them. Try it out! (By the way, the transcription of this is in the "Exercises" course in my classroom for anyone on Premium or VIP tier)

🏅The Challenge🎻 You have two options: 1. Take a line that you often play in C Major and learn to play it in Eb, Gb/F# and A. 2. Just learn my line in all of those keys (shown in the video) Then post it on here, you will get some feedback and encouragement from me and the group! As a thank you for taking part il send you a transcription of this line! ❓Why do this⁉️ Learning lines in major or minor thirds really helps you learn lines properly. It also gets you working out how you might change position or fingering for each key to make it work for you. There’s usually some way to play any piece of jazz language in each keys that will work, doing this sort of transposition helps you find the gaps you have in your technique whilst solidifying jazz language.

It's hard to get new lines and concepts into your playing. Often we say "play it in all twelve keys" I like doing this but I find playing it in 3 or 4 keys that feel quite distant from each other will help you do this faster. I always practise my lines either in major or minor thirds. The fingerings in keys like C-Eb-Gb-A are so different from each other in first position, that it means that you are pretty much covering all bases just by doing these four keys. Here I am doing this with a line I posted last week. If you want a transcription of this (in C) to help you learn it faster you can get hold of that in the "weekly exercises" course in my Classroom.

I put this line together to try and work some chromatic Bebop ideas into my own playing. I took a little bit from a Clifford Brown solo and finished it off woth both the Dominant and the major bebop scales. Try it out! What are you working on today?

I was just about to start a practise session today when I got a call from nursery to say that my 2 year old son has a high temperature. Oh well. These things happen, I was just getting geared up to learn an old Ralph Rainger song “Love In Bloom”. Now I’m watching Blippi on YouTube. Sometimes life gets in the way and we have to focus on the things that are more important than jazz violin. Blippi (if you know, you know)