Taught by renowned trumpet player
Ethan Chilton
As improvisors, our vocabulary is our language: the ideas, motives, and phrases that come together to form complete thoughts. In this course, Ethan Chilton provides the ultimate introduction to building your vocabulary. He begins with an exploration of patterns you can generate from scales, as well as ways to use them over various chord progressions. Then, he shares an introduction to bebop fundamentals, where he discusses the building blocks that make up jazz language. Finally, Ethan teaches you how to practice all this information so that it shows up when you improvise. By the end of the course, you'll be more familiar with some of the most common elements of jazz language and better equipped to get practicing. Good luck!
Scale-Based Patterns
Scales are never ending resources for improvisors! In this lesson, Ethan shows you inventive ways of using simple pentatonics, triads, and arpeggios over ii-V-I chord progressions. The attached PDF resource contains dozens of patterns, written in all 12 keys, for you to explore.
Bebop Fundamentals
This lesson explores what Ethan calls the "building blocks" of bebop. First, Ethan explores short, common lines going from a V chord to a I chord. Then, he arpeggiates over a ii-V-I chord progression, highlighting how great improvisors vary a basic 1-3-5-7 skeleton. He also discusses "linear patterns," which are collections of commonly used language over a ii-V-I. He concludes by exploring more angular patterns that innovators like Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw developed. This lesson will immerse you in the jazz sound – an excellent place to get the basics under your fingers!
How to Practice Vocabulary
Once you have found patterns you really like, how do you access them subconsciously while improvising? The answer is – repetition! In this lesson, Ethan explores some smart strategies to practice vocabulary in the right context, whether that's playing free, using just a metronome, or putting the language over a tune.
Click here to download the course workbook PDF and see the full syllabus →Ethan Chilton is an improvising trumpeter and composer based in Los Angeles.
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