Randy Johnston is one of my favourite bebop jazz guitarists with an amazing command of the blues. Having seen Randy perform live earlier this year at the Thailand International Jazz Conference cemented my immense respect for his musical chops. I also managed to take a private lesson with him which was very helpful. Knowing that he has a series of videos on Mike’s Master Classes allowed me to keep learning from him at my own pace again and again.
This course is a great way to spend an hour with Randy, virtually! It’s pretty much what the description says with Randy going through 8 different Jazz Blues changes from bebop to Coltrane along with tritone subs and a lot of the classic jazz sounds we’ve heard on records. The changes are notated in the accompanying PDF file but the solos and lines are not transcribed. So, that’s up to us to transcribe if we hear something cool. Randy delivers the course in a friendly manner with clear theory explanations when needed too.
If you feel like you’ve been repeating the same subs during your jazz blues solos, check out this video for some ideas to spice things up. To learn, you can just play along with Randy (many times on the same changes if you’d like) to internalise the sounds and time feel too. I’ve gone through it once so far and can see myself repeating it to get more out of it.
Pros: Friendly, logical, conversational presentation makes this video very accessible!
Cons: None.
TLDR: Wanna learn jazz blues chord changes? Need an hour-long practice routine? Get this video now.
How to Buy:
This course is available here on the Mike’s Master Classes website, one of a series of Randy Johnston videos currently available. There is a rent option (limited time streaming only access) as well as a download version. The video works great as a play-along practice session so I recommend buying the download version for long term development.
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[Submissions for Review Consideration]
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NOTE: All reviews reflect my honest personal opinion so be aware that I will point out both cool Pros and Cons that I see in the work. You dig? 🙂
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