Uncaged Jazz Improv

Jazz improvisation is the sound of life and freedom. Players like Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, John Coltrane, and Cannonball Adderley are all masters of improvisation, effortlessly coloring the changes by weaving melodic lines in and out of the underlying harmony. But as guitar players, many of us struggle to break free of the boxes, scales, and chord shapes we all know and love.

Wolf Marshall’s UNCAGED Jazz Improv will open your ears, free your hands, and UNCAGE your improvisation!

Wolf Marshall is internationally acclaimed as an accomplished master guitarist and as one of the most prolific, insightful guitar educators on the planet. He has authored hundreds of articles and columns in virtually ever guitar publication. Wolf has been interviewed by scores of magazines and newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, as a celebrity educator and music expert. Recommended by the legendary jazz artist Kenny Burrell, he has been on the faculty of the UCLA Jazz Department since 2007.

We’re thrilled to welcome Wolf to the family with his first TrueFire course, UNCAGED Jazz Improv! You will likewise be thrilled as you play your way through what we consider to be one of the most enlightening curricular approaches on the topic of jazz improvisation.

”Freedom of playing outside the confines of boxes is key to a flow of sounds and ideas for guitarists. This course is specially designed to help players achieve the freedom and facility conducive to creativity and the flow of sounds and ideas. UN-CAGING allows these musical events to occur effortlessly on the fingerboard. Along the way, you'll gain the vocabulary, technical skills, and aesthetic insights that are essential to speaking the jazz language on guitar.”

Wolf organized this course into five sections. In the first, he unveils minor-seventh CAGED chord shapes and explores several creative approaches for improvising melodies oriented around those shapes. In the second section, you will learn how to UNCAGE your improvisations by exploring the “transitional” shapes that live between CAGED forms.

The third section expands the UNCAGED system into dominant chord applications for even more flexibility and bluesier lines. You’ll also explore minor-chord conversions and some ii V applications over a funk vamp. In the fourth section, Wolf unlocks two more “exotic colors” by incorporating the sounds of the melodic minor and harmonic minor.

In the last section of the course, Wolf guides you as you put all of these improvisational approaches to work over four jazz tracks in a variety of keys and grooves.

Wolf will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included to work with on your own as well.

Grab your guitar and UNCAGE your improvisations with Wolf Marshall!