mehrankmanesh
Verified buyer
02/14/26
Highly respected musician.
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On Location: Jazz Blues Foundations
Two-Note Chord Punches for Jazz Comping and Improvisation
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About this course
Shot on location at Tim Lerch’s West Coast studio, Jazz Blues Foundation is an exploration of very simple and very effective ways to frame your jazz solos and improvisations with hip sounding chord punches. Players like Kenny Burrell, Barney Kessel, Hollywood Fats and all the great B3 players incorporate this creative approach into their playing all of the time.
”As guitarists, we’re lucky to play a polyphonic instrument that is not only capable of playing expressive solos, but also the harmony and rhythm as well. Often we think of melodies and chords as two different things: “Now I’m taking a solo”, “Now I’m playing chords”, but it doesn’t need to be that way!
I’ve designed this course to help you blur the lines between soloing and rhythm by integrating small harmonic punctuations into your solos that spell out the harmony, adding context and form to your lines. You’ll play your way through the course right along with me - just like we’re working on a lesson together in person!”
Tim organized Jazz Blues Foundation into six progressive lesson sets. Each set begins with a simple harmonic & rhythmic workout and then you’ll put those skills to use in a jazz blues etude to help you better understand how to apply the concepts in your own ways.
”In the first set I’ll explain the “Two-Note Magic” principle - paring down the chords to just two essential notes that lie right under our fingers and creating a rhythmic template with space to add simple melodies. Then we’ll apply that approach to a very basic medium tempo swing Blues in A.
Set two continues with this theme of simple melodies with harmonic support. We’ll expand the harmonic palette with a quick IV in bar two, and a I VI II V turnaround.
Our third set changes the key and we move up the neck to discover that the “Two Note Magic” principle is available to us up there as well. Set 4 changes things up a bit more with a Gospel inspired Minor study that opens up possibilities in both the melodic and harmonic areas.
In set 5, we widen the scope harmonically by introducing suspended sounds on a Funky Rumba groove while keeping the melodies simple and to the point. And in the final set, we take on a classic 8 bar blues inspired by Ray Charles that puts all of the elements together in a smoky, slow-burn, 12/8 groove.”
Tim 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 let’s dig in with Tim Lerch!
”As guitarists, we’re lucky to play a polyphonic instrument that is not only capable of playing expressive solos, but also the harmony and rhythm as well. Often we think of melodies and chords as two different things: “Now I’m taking a solo”, “Now I’m playing chords”, but it doesn’t need to be that way!
I’ve designed this course to help you blur the lines between soloing and rhythm by integrating small harmonic punctuations into your solos that spell out the harmony, adding context and form to your lines. You’ll play your way through the course right along with me - just like we’re working on a lesson together in person!”
Tim organized Jazz Blues Foundation into six progressive lesson sets. Each set begins with a simple harmonic & rhythmic workout and then you’ll put those skills to use in a jazz blues etude to help you better understand how to apply the concepts in your own ways.
”In the first set I’ll explain the “Two-Note Magic” principle - paring down the chords to just two essential notes that lie right under our fingers and creating a rhythmic template with space to add simple melodies. Then we’ll apply that approach to a very basic medium tempo swing Blues in A.
Set two continues with this theme of simple melodies with harmonic support. We’ll expand the harmonic palette with a quick IV in bar two, and a I VI II V turnaround.
Our third set changes the key and we move up the neck to discover that the “Two Note Magic” principle is available to us up there as well. Set 4 changes things up a bit more with a Gospel inspired Minor study that opens up possibilities in both the melodic and harmonic areas.
In set 5, we widen the scope harmonically by introducing suspended sounds on a Funky Rumba groove while keeping the melodies simple and to the point. And in the final set, we take on a classic 8 bar blues inspired by Ray Charles that puts all of the elements together in a smoky, slow-burn, 12/8 groove.”
Tim 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 let’s dig in with Tim Lerch!
What you'll learn
- Use two-note chord voicings to spell out harmony while soloing
- Integrate chord voicings as part of melodic lines
- Use chord punctuation rhythmically within minor pentatonic phrases
- Apply minor pentatonic vocabulary over minor key progressions
- Blur the lines between solo playing and rhythm playing by adding harmonic punctuations
Release date: 12/14/2020 • 1h 37m runtime
Sample lessons
Blues in G
Overview
Blues in G
Performance
Blues in G
Breakdown
Suspended Funky Rhumba
Performance
What's included
26 lessons • 12 charts • 6 Jam Tracks
On Location: Jazz Blues Foundation
Hi, I'm Tim Lerch. Welcome to this Jazz Blues Foundations edition of On Location.
As guitarists, we're lucky to play a polyphonic instrument that is not only capable of playing expressive solos, but also the harmony and rhythm as well. Often we think of melodies and chords as two different things: "Now I'm taking a solo", "Now I'm playing chords", but it doesn't need to be that way!
In Jazz Blues Foundations, we'll explore a very simple but effective way to frame our solos with hip sounding chord punches. Players like Kenny Burrell, Barney Kessell, Hollywood Fats and all the great B3 players incorporate this into their playing all the time.
I've designed this course to help you blur the lines between soloing and rhythm by integrating small harmonic punctuations into your solos that spell out the harmony, adding context and form to your lines. You'll play your way through the course right along with me - just like we're working on a lesson together in person!
The course is organized into six progressive lesson sets. Each set begins with a simple harmonic & rhythmic workout and then we'll put those skills to use in a jazz blues etude which will help you better understand how to apply these concepts in your own ways.
All of the performances are tabbed and notated and you'll be able to sync the tab and notation to the video using TrueFire's learning tools. All of the backing tracks are included and you can loop or slow down any of the videos so you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Are you ready to get started? Join me in my studio, grab your guitar, and let's get into some two note magic...
As guitarists, we're lucky to play a polyphonic instrument that is not only capable of playing expressive solos, but also the harmony and rhythm as well. Often we think of melodies and chords as two different things: "Now I'm taking a solo", "Now I'm playing chords", but it doesn't need to be that way!
In Jazz Blues Foundations, we'll explore a very simple but effective way to frame our solos with hip sounding chord punches. Players like Kenny Burrell, Barney Kessell, Hollywood Fats and all the great B3 players incorporate this into their playing all the time.
I've designed this course to help you blur the lines between soloing and rhythm by integrating small harmonic punctuations into your solos that spell out the harmony, adding context and form to your lines. You'll play your way through the course right along with me - just like we're working on a lesson together in person!
The course is organized into six progressive lesson sets. Each set begins with a simple harmonic & rhythmic workout and then we'll put those skills to use in a jazz blues etude which will help you better understand how to apply these concepts in your own ways.
All of the performances are tabbed and notated and you'll be able to sync the tab and notation to the video using TrueFire's learning tools. All of the backing tracks are included and you can loop or slow down any of the videos so you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Are you ready to get started? Join me in my studio, grab your guitar, and let's get into some two note magic...
Two-Note Chord Punctuation
This video lays out the entire concept of playing melodies and using small two note voicings to punctuate the lines giving structure and harmonic context to the lines.
Swing Blues in A
12 bars of two note magic with the rhythm explained and demonstrated. Then, we add a simple melody and some variations.
Swing Blues in A
Take your time and keep it simple, concentrate on the timing of the chord punctuations. If you get the timing of the chord punctuations down, it will all come together from there. Once you get this simple etude to flow, start using your own melodic ideas as well!
Swing Blues in A
Breaking down the etude and putting the ideas under the microscope. Some new melodies came up as well, try to get them by ear.
Punctuating the Turnaround
On this variation, we'll add a quick IV in Bar 2, a #iv diminished, a ii V in Bar 9 and 10 and a I VI II V turnaround to get us in to jazz/blues territory. Be sure to play along with me.
Swing Blues with a Turn
Let's take a closer look at the harmonic variations and some of the melodic possibilities.
+ 19 more lessons
Reviews
27 results
wtrymst
Verified buyer
01/13/26
Very practical course
Super inspiring and very useful. Highly recommended!
Romek
Verified buyer
01/09/26
Danke
Perfekt. Genau was ich gesucht habe. Diese Lektion bringt mich auf ein neues Level.
Ohio5665
Verified buyer
12/20/25
Great Tim Lerch course! lots of great info!
jeff0470
Verified buyer
06/18/25
Great Foundational Blues Course
I love how putting in the chord punctuations forces you to create shorter lines instead of endlessly noodling. Plus I'm more aware of where I am in the song. The melody lines in this course are fairly simple, but very tasteful. Excellent foundational course in my opinion. This is one of the few Truefire courses I was able to finish in its entirety. I even moved these lessons into different keys to really make sure I've internalized the material. There has been a noticeable improvement in my playing from this course. I've re-visited other Truefire courses that I had taken a break from, and found myself getting through them much easier than before. This was the right course at the right time for me. Out of all the Truefire courses I've accumulated over the years, this one has been my favorite! Looking forward to starting on Tim's Jazz Blues Pathways course and feel I'm ready to take on more advanced material.
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