Playing and Improvising

This is where the theory grows hands. Eleven pages about playing, practicing and making things up, and the first one has you improvising inside the page before you have read a single rule.

Start here

Start Improvising.

Three notes and a backing track. You will improvise before you have read anything, which is the correct order.

Jump straight inPress the triangle to hear it, the name to read it

Making it up

Getting better

With other people

Making it up

Start ImprovisingPlay your first solo on three notes over a looping groove, and find out why the fear of a wrong note shows up and how a small palette removes it.
Chord Tones and TargetingHear why the third and seventh carry a chord while the root does not, then target chord tones over a moving progression and play the approach notes.
Building a SoloHear why a flat solo loses the room after eight bars, then place your peak, hold something back and end a chorus so that it lands.
Scales in SolosPlay one scale across a whole progression, then a scale per chord, and hear what each choice costs you before the theory explains why.
Soloing Over the BluesSolo over a twelve bar loop with the blues scale and hear how phrasing, bends and silence do more for a blues line than adding notes.
Jazz ImprovisationHear a line that spells the chords next to one that only fits the key, then practice guide tones over ii V I and learn how standards are navigated.

Getting better

With other people

Keep going

The other sections

Everything on this site sits in one of these, in the order they are meant to be learned.

The building blocks

How music works

In practice