weidig1
Verified buyer
01/26/26
Ted Ludwig H2O
A fantastic wealth of information and practical approaches. Ted Ludwig is the best online instructor I’ve encountered. His lessons have helped my playing progress immensely.
Jazz H2O
Learn "Musical Shorthand" for Jazz Guitar Improvisation
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About this course
Ted Ludwig’s Jazz H2O reveals a “musical shorthand” for approaching sophisticated harmonic and melodic concepts by reducing them down to a very simple process for jazz guitar soloing and improvisation.
”I like to think about soloing like reading a good book or watching a great movie. You’re telling a story… your story is building up to a climax using tension and release… your story is flowing smoothly like tides ebb and flow.
I’ll demonstrates ways to access many different types of chord changes with just a few scales. You’ll learn how to build a versatile vocabulary of lines that work over multiple chord types. Most importantly, you’ll learn a variety of creative approaches for crafting your solos and telling your stories.”
Highly acclaimed jazz guitarist Ted Ludwig has been a part of the jazz scene in New Orleans since 1997. JAZZIZ magazine says, ”Ludwig has a soulful melodic style with a great harmonic palate and he can flat burn up the fingerboard with mind-boggling technique!”
The youngest inductee into The Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame, Ted has recorded, produced, and released four albums as a leader and has performed and recorded with countless top jazz artists.
All About Jazz Magazine says, ”Ludwig’s jazz is a carefully distilled product, like the finest Gin. He is rhythmically and metrically perfect. He is the definition of swing.” We couldn’t agree more which is why we’re thrilled to welcome Ted to the family with his first TrueFire course, Jazz H2O!
Across a series of eleven concept sets and sixteen performance studies, Ted will guide your exploration of melodic and harmonic applications for the Dorian Mode, Melodic Minor, Sub Dominant Minor, Tritone Subs, Triad Pairs, Chromaticism, Major to Minor Shifts, how to play inside and outside the stated harmony with side-slipping, and much more.
”We’ll play over the changes to popular jazz tunes like John Coltrane's Impressions, Miles Davis’ classics like Milestones and Solar, Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage, some jazz standards, blues jams, and versatile practice tracks for 251’s and modal tunes.”
Ted will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches as you play your way through the course. 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 Ted Ludwig!
”I like to think about soloing like reading a good book or watching a great movie. You’re telling a story… your story is building up to a climax using tension and release… your story is flowing smoothly like tides ebb and flow.
I’ll demonstrates ways to access many different types of chord changes with just a few scales. You’ll learn how to build a versatile vocabulary of lines that work over multiple chord types. Most importantly, you’ll learn a variety of creative approaches for crafting your solos and telling your stories.”
Highly acclaimed jazz guitarist Ted Ludwig has been a part of the jazz scene in New Orleans since 1997. JAZZIZ magazine says, ”Ludwig has a soulful melodic style with a great harmonic palate and he can flat burn up the fingerboard with mind-boggling technique!”
The youngest inductee into The Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame, Ted has recorded, produced, and released four albums as a leader and has performed and recorded with countless top jazz artists.
All About Jazz Magazine says, ”Ludwig’s jazz is a carefully distilled product, like the finest Gin. He is rhythmically and metrically perfect. He is the definition of swing.” We couldn’t agree more which is why we’re thrilled to welcome Ted to the family with his first TrueFire course, Jazz H2O!
Across a series of eleven concept sets and sixteen performance studies, Ted will guide your exploration of melodic and harmonic applications for the Dorian Mode, Melodic Minor, Sub Dominant Minor, Tritone Subs, Triad Pairs, Chromaticism, Major to Minor Shifts, how to play inside and outside the stated harmony with side-slipping, and much more.
”We’ll play over the changes to popular jazz tunes like John Coltrane's Impressions, Miles Davis’ classics like Milestones and Solar, Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage, some jazz standards, blues jams, and versatile practice tracks for 251’s and modal tunes.”
Ted will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches as you play your way through the course. 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 Ted Ludwig!
What you'll learn
- Navigate ii-V-I cycles moving down in whole steps without outlining every chord
- Navigate between different pentatonic positions smoothly
- Play melodic minor/Lydian pentatonic for modern bright sounds
- Choose appropriate scales based on song style (standards vs modern)
- Learn three minor pentatonic approaches for major 7 chords
Release date: 06/10/2021 • 3h 06m runtime
Sample lessons
Pathways to Resolution
Concept & Demo
2 5 1 Pathways Applied
Overview
Using Jazz Melodic Minor
Performance
Mixing up the Strut
Overview
What's included
52 lessons • 16 charts • 11 Jam Tracks
Jazz H2O
Hi, I'm Ted Ludwig. Welcome to Jazz H2O!
I like to think about soloing like reading a good book or watching a great movie. You're telling a story...your story is building up to a climax using tension and release...your story is flowing smoothly like tides ebb and flow.
In the course, I'll show you a “musical shorthand” for approaching sophisticated harmonic and melodic concepts by reducing them down to a very simple process. I'll demonstrate ways to access many different types of chord changes with just a few scales. You'll learn how to build a versatile vocabulary of lines that work over multiple chord types.
Most importantly, we'll work on a variety of creative approaches for crafting your solos and telling your stories.
Across a series of eleven concept sets and sixteen performance studies, we'll explore melodic and harmonic applications for the dorian mode, chromaticism, and how to flow like water from inside and outside the stated harmony with side-slipping. There's mixed-tension dominants, major to minor shifts, how to organize your solo, and lots more.
We'll play over the changes to popular jazz tunes like John Coltrane's Impressions, Miles Davis' classics like Milestones and Solar, Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage, some jazz standards, blues jams, and versatile practice tracks for 251's and modal tunes...
Grab your guitar and let's get your jazz game flowing...
I like to think about soloing like reading a good book or watching a great movie. You're telling a story...your story is building up to a climax using tension and release...your story is flowing smoothly like tides ebb and flow.
In the course, I'll show you a “musical shorthand” for approaching sophisticated harmonic and melodic concepts by reducing them down to a very simple process. I'll demonstrate ways to access many different types of chord changes with just a few scales. You'll learn how to build a versatile vocabulary of lines that work over multiple chord types.
Most importantly, we'll work on a variety of creative approaches for crafting your solos and telling your stories.
Across a series of eleven concept sets and sixteen performance studies, we'll explore melodic and harmonic applications for the dorian mode, chromaticism, and how to flow like water from inside and outside the stated harmony with side-slipping. There's mixed-tension dominants, major to minor shifts, how to organize your solo, and lots more.
We'll play over the changes to popular jazz tunes like John Coltrane's Impressions, Miles Davis' classics like Milestones and Solar, Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage, some jazz standards, blues jams, and versatile practice tracks for 251's and modal tunes...
Grab your guitar and let's get your jazz game flowing...
A World of Dorian
Something that all jazz musicians possess is an ability to reduce their thought process while playing. Many songs have complex chord changes that move quickly, and it's important to be able to access the proper scales without much thought involved. We need a musical shorthand for accessing these sounds.
In this segment, we'll look specifically at the Dorian scale (even more specifically, the D Dorian scale) and how it can be used as shorthand when thinking on your feet over the changes.
In this segment, we'll look specifically at the Dorian scale (even more specifically, the D Dorian scale) and how it can be used as shorthand when thinking on your feet over the changes.
Dorian Impression
Now we're going to do two performance studies that highlights using the Dorian over the changes, the first of which focuses on the melodic aspect, the second focusing on the harmonic aspect.
The tune we're playing over is the changes to John Coltrane's "Impressions", a 32-bar, AABA form with fairly simple chord changes. Let's dig in!
The tune we're playing over is the changes to John Coltrane's "Impressions", a 32-bar, AABA form with fairly simple chord changes. Let's dig in!
Dorian Impression: Melodic Approach
Let's start out by checking out the melodic approach, using the Dorian scale to navigate the changes. The tune we're playing over is John Coltrane's "Impressions", a 32-bar, AABA form with fairly simple chords.
Dorian Impression: Melodic Approach
Let's start out by checking out the melodic approach, using the Dorian scale to navigate the changes. The tune we're playing over is John Coltrane's "Impressions", a 32-bar, AABA form with fairly simple chords.
Dorian Impression: Harmonic Approach
Here we have the harmonic approach to using the Dorian scale to navigate the changes. The tune we're playing over is John Coltrane's "Impressions", a 32-bar, AABA form with fairly simple chords.
Dorian Impression: Harmonic Approach
Here we have the harmonic approach to using the Dorian scale to navigate the changes. The tune we're playing over is John Coltrane's "Impressions", a 32-bar, AABA form with fairly simple chords.
+ 45 more lessons
Reviews
26 results
Mukul
04/09/25
Excellent course and a great Instructor!
giuliosalva
Verified buyer
01/04/25
Awesome
This course is awesome. there is a lot of musical material to study for many months. the organization and explanation of the topics covered is excellently organized and the author demonstrates passion and knowledge of the topics.
StephDav
Verified buyer
12/26/24
Jazz H20
I really like the experience and depth Ted brings to his lessons; as someone who's learning tunes, his insights on what to expect on the bandstand is relly helpful!
Bernard
03/11/23
Amazing course. Could not have hoped for better.
It could be "personal", but in this course Ted nails into everything that I wished I would have known about when I was young, was listening to new jazz and could not figure out what was going on. After all, this is my favorite music and it's great to learn about ii-V-I and standards to get acquainted to jazz but it stills leaves you (almost) clueless for your modal or free improv. Thus course fills a huge void and I'd be more than happy to see more of that type of material being taught. Ted gets directly to the point and leaves us with action items that we can jump from.
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