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Jazz Song Practice Playbook

Effective Step-by-Step Method for Practicing & Learning Jazz Songs on Guitar

Marty FriedmanTommy EmmanuelSteve VaiEric GalesEric Johnson

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Jazz Song Practice Playbook
Mimi Fox

Mimi Fox

Educator

jazz, modern jazz

Genres

About this course

The most frequently asked questions our educators get are, “How and what should I practice to improve as a player?” and “What is the best approach for learning songs?” Mimi Fox to the rescue!

"Over the years that I’ve been teaching and playing, I developed what I consider to be the most effective step-by-step method for practicing and learning songs. And not just jazz songs -- this method will work for any style of music. I’m excited to share that method with you here in the Jazz Song Practice Playbook. We’ll take one of my own tunes, Blues For Two and apply the entire step-by-step approach for learning and practicing that song."

With Mimi Fox's Jazz Song Practice Playbook, you’ll start with the melody and work through the 10 stages for internalizing the melody of a song, and mapping the associated arpeggios and scales all over the neck. Next, you'll focus on the harmony of the song and Mimi will guide you through 9 stages for learning the changes, extensions, alterations and practicing harmony against a track.

Next, Mimi will show you how to work on the rhythm starting with Four to the Bar and Charleston. You'll also learn how to mix basic rhythms and harmony and develop more complex rhythms. Finally, you'll work on mixing all of the rhythmic ideas together and practice with a metronome and then an actual track. At the end of the course, Mimi includes a video of herself performing Blues for Two live in concert along with a commentary video.

Mimi 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 play songs with Mimi Fox!

What you'll learn

  • Apply the same chord shapes in different fretboard positions
  • Apply triplet-based rhythms to chord progressions
  • Use sliding and anticipation to add rhythmic interest
  • Think rhythmically like a drummer when comping
  • Develop complex rhythmic variations beyond basic Charleston and four to the bar patterns
Release date: 12/05/2019 • 2h 01m runtime
intermediatelate intermediateguitarelectric guitarpractice
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Sample lessons
SECTION 1: Learn the Melody
SECTION 1: Learn the Melody
Overview
Practice Scales for the Changes
Practice Scales for the Changes
One Position: Demo
Practice Scales for the Changes
Practice Scales for the Changes
Entire Fretboard: Demo
Practice Subs & Extensions with a Metronome
Practice Subs & Extensions with a Metronome
Demonstration

What's included

37 lessons • 28 charts • 1 Jam Tracks

Jazz Song Practice Playbook
Hi, I'm Mimi Fox and welcome to Jazz Song Practice Playbook.

I'm really stoked about this new course! I've wanted to make a course about practicing for a long time, as "how to practice" is one of the most common questions that students ask. Organizing your practice time with this logical step-by-step process (covering melody, harmony, and rhythm) will streamline your learning process and increase your repertoire... it will also enhance your technique/creativity and increase your enjoyment. Let's dig in!
SECTION 1: Learn the Melody
The great early jazz/blues musicians were masters at playing/interpreting melodies in beautiful and soulful ways. They often didn't improvise that much because their reading of the melody was so exquisite. Sometimes in our effort to learn all kinds of cool skills and improvisational ideas, we can neglect playing the melody creatively. Some guitar players that play in quartets with piano or saxophone neglect learning melodies, and this is unfortunate. The melody is the foundation of all successful improvising. Please don't neglect this important aspect of learning a song!
Blues for Two: Live
The melody to this original blues of mine is deceptive. I think of it as fairly simple, but it has a few unusual/tricky rhythmic accents. It's important when learning a melody to get as close to the original melody as possible before you elaborate upon it. Check out the way the bass/drums lock in with me. We're all playing our own parts yet are very aware of each other. This is a really fun piece and I hope you enjoy learning it!
Internalize the Melody of the Tune
In this excerpt, there are some cool guitaristic ideas that you'll learn, including: slurring, hammer-ons, octave playing, harmonics and more. All of these concepts help the melody come alive and make you sound more musical/soulful in the process.
Find Arpeggios for the Changes
I can't emphasize enough how important it is to learn your arpeggios! This lesson covers all of the basic arpeggios you will need to play through a 12 bar blues in Bb. I wrote an entire book on arpeggios and the importance of being able to outline all of your chords with arpeggios (Guitar Arpeggios on Jazz Standards, Mel Bay Publications). Without the anchor of arpeggios, one's playing can sound a bit amorphous and rambling. Integrating arpeggios with scale tones creates the most musical solos. It also trains your ears to hear chord tones and greatly enhances your technique.
Learn Arpeggios in One Position
In this lesson, you'll learn how to stay in one area of the neck and play all the arpeggios you need for a given piece. This is super important because you need to be able to learn all of the notes on the fretboard but it's not possible to learn them all at once! If you learn your notes one arpeggio at a time, pretty soon the entire neck will start to reveal itself to you. In this lesson, I also demonstrate playing arpeggios over two chords and playing continual eighth notes.
Practice Arpeggios Across the Neck
In this segment, you'll learn how to take one arpeggio and play it everywhere on the neck. This is a great way to not only learn the notes on the fretboard but also to train your ears to hear the notes that make up the chords. It's also a fantastic way to develop great guitar technique because you'll learn how to connect one shape to the next in a seamless fashion.

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Reviews

20 results

Stephen17124

Verified buyer

02/07/22

Couldn't ask for more

I took Mimi Fox's Jazz Song Practice Playbook along with a Frank Vignola course. For me the two are complimentary. Mimi leads you through the process of learning how to play a song, any song, with confidence, and it is process I was searching for. I am so pleased with Mimi's instruction I have taken her processes and started to apply it retrospectively to my personal music catalogue. I come from a rock and blues background. It's easy to be superficial in that school. Making a noise is fun but is not making music. Mimi is my 'foot-up-the-behind'. She makes me want to do better, to know more, to be a better musician. I like her. She loves what she does and it shows. Her attitude is infectious. Since starting her course I find myself saying, 'thank-you Mimi,' at some stage when I practice.

Angelo60

Verified buyer

01/18/22

Great

Corrado43

07/08/21

Jazz Song Practice Playbook-introduction

I really enjoy learning Mimi's approach to the basics of Jazz. She starts you off in such a way that it lends itself to a practical, yet creative style that I found meets my immediate needs. I have been playing guitar in a band for some time now but I always felt I could do more to enhance the flow of the music without getting in the way of someone improvising. Mimi Fox has given me the needed tools I was looking for. Thanks, Mimi

Gina

06/02/21

Thank you for the "Aha!" moment

After years and years copying guitar licks but not understanding the underlying structure I came upon this course. There's nothing more exciting than that moment when everything starts to make sense. Thank you Mimi for bringing me that moment!

trader46

Verified buyer

01/08/21

Stretch and Grow by Playing

Especially powerful for applying everything Mimi teaches. A very useful way to be disciplined in your practice - and, as ever, Mimi creates plenty of stretch - always inspies to aspire.

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