digital courses

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 Bebop Blues, with its fast tempos, 12-bar structures, superimposed chords, and sophisticated improvisations, became a defining force in jazz during the 1940s. Embraced by guitarists like Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, and Barney Kessel, Bebop Blues became the vital dialect in the jazz language we know today. Mastering Bebop Blues is essential for any jazz guitarist; it builds the fundamental skills needed for improvisation, timing, and harmonic comprehension in the broader jazz idiom.

David Shorr’s ‘Exploring Bebop Blues’ focuses on the expressive language of Bebop Blues with a comprehensive, hands-on curriculum, including over 20 key concepts, harmonic approaches, and melodic devices that comprise the Bebop Blues language.

”I’ll explain and demonstrate an essential vocabulary of harmonic and melodic techniques and creative concepts. We’ll apply each over backing tracks for musical context. Using TrueFire’s learning tools, we’ll practice and play through ten etudes exploring different approaches for playing over commonly encountered bebop blues feels, tempos, and changes.

We’ll start with a typical jazz blues progression and work our way up to applying more expressive approaches for playing over more sophisticated changes like Bird Blues. As you play through all ten etudes, you’ll learn many essential and characteristic melodic lines and how to approach bebop’s many rhythmic complexities.” 

 In the world of jazz, the art of comping—short for "accompanying"—is essential for any guitarist. Comping involves providing harmonic and rhythmic support to a soloist or vocalist, enhancing the overall performance while staying in the background. It requires a deep understanding of chord voicings, rhythmic patterns, and musical interaction.

David Shorr demonstrates and breaks down 17 essential comping approaches in his ‘Exploring Melodic Jazz Comping’ interactive curriculum.

”We’ll work on a colorful variety of melodic and harmonic approaches that we can use when comping for a soloist or vocalist. We’ll work on crafting more sophisticated comping parts using Drop 2 voicings, chord subs, approach chords, diminished concepts, and voice leading.

We'll also dive into triadic approaches, partial chords, using ‘Scales as Chords’ and the art of borrowing notes and dominants. You’ll learn how these melodic comping approaches can be artistically applied using backing tracks based on the changes to popular jazz standards like 'Autumn Leaves,' 'Another You,' and 'All the Things You Are.”