How To Play The Blues

If you can play the blues, you can play anything.
Learn the secrets to sounding like the masters, capturing the essence of the blues in every note.

If you can play the blues, you can play anything.

Learn the secrets to sounding like the masters, capturing the essence of the blues in every note.

In this course, you will:

  • Develop clear phrasing

  • Build melodic vocabulary

  • Expand your harmonic palate

  • Discover rhythmic “DNA”

  • Learn strategies to enhance your practice

Meet Your Teacher

One of the most unique genre-bending musicians in jazz today, John Raymond has a singular voice as a trumpeter and composer and is “steering jazz in the right direction” (DownBeat Magazine). He has released nine albums under his own name to critical acclaim, and has been a sideman or featured artist on over thirty other recordings, including four GRAMMY-nominated albums.

John is also a sought-after educator, both as Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and as a guest clinician and soloist at schools around the world.

Course Contents

  • - Call / Call / Response

    - Balancing Playing & Resting

    - Listen for the Echo

    - Anticipating the Phrase

    - Phrasing Over The Barline

  • - Blues

    - Gospel Blues

    - Bebop Blues

    - Outlining Changes

    - Bebop Scales

    - Triads

    - Intervallic Approach

    - Chromatic Approach

  • - I-IV-V

    - ii-V-I

    - Secondary Dominants (and ii-Vs)

    - Passing Chords

    - The Turnaround

    - The Long ii-V

    - Chromatic ii-Vs

    - Tritone Subs

    - Planing / Modulation

    - Free Approach

    - Bird Blues

    - Trane Blues

  • - Core Blues Heads (and their Rhythmic ID)

    - Using the DNA

    - Quarter Note Pulse

    - Push & Pull the Time

  • - Putting It All Together: Improvising Without Overthinking

    - Target Method

    - Changing Keys & Tempo

    - Listening To (And Playing With) Records

    - Play-Alongs + Jam Sessions

    - Repetition, Repetition, Repetition