Jamie Taylor

Connections

Another good one from Mr. Taylor. I can feel the connections hooking up in my brain. It's fun and by golly it works! -Steve

Mobile Rhythm

I found this video to be very informative. He breaks down a couple of different approaches. He answered many questions I had about playing rhythm guitar.

Great Course!

Very practical, well-designed, full of information and reference to good materials! Thank you Jamie!!

Unmissable and essential. Clear and applicable.

This nails it. If you have spent a lot of time on ear training and feel that what happens on the bandstand is a different process then you need to watch this. It bridges the gap by adopting a different method of perception. I can vouch for the effectiveness of the method in picking out melodies but Jamie takes it to a whole different level of sophisticated harmonic hearing. At last I have a reasonable hope of mastering more complex harmonies.

Connect the islands of your knowledge of applied jazz theory

Jamie’s course is a tour de force of pedagogical brilliance. He focuses upon the harmonic aspects of jazz guitar comping (not much about rhythm here) which he approaches from a good number of interrelated angles. Some or many of these angles may already be familiar to the student. What is so magnificent in this course is Jamie’s insightful explanation and reasoning about basic matters, and then his exciting demonstration of techniques for extending and interconnecting the basic principles of the topics that he covers. Those topics include: shell voicings, different voicing strategies according to whether a bass player is involved, bass line comping (on guitar), chord cognates (same fingering yielding different chords depending on choice of root), drop 2 voicings, the chameleon nature of diminished and half diminished chord voicings and how they can be leveraged to form chord substitutions in an applied context, basics of chord melody and voice leading. You have likely visited and possibly concentrated upon a good many of these topics. But Jamie’s masterful presentation is bound to get your harmonic thinking and feeling flowing in new ways; new synapses will form, islands of familiarity will become connected by new causeways, and your archipelago of knowledge and skills risks becoming... a continent. Thank you, Jamie, for this treasure chest!

Exceptional!!!

An exceptional more than useful course. Thank you very much Jamie.

Oscar Moore, Body and Soul

I'm stumped for words in reviewing this. It will sound trite if I go on about "how much I like the course." The fact is I do love it. I love the way Jamie presents it, and plays it beautifully! A great way to learn and enjoy a great tune. Thanks!

Outstanding way to break into Giant Steps

Thanks again, Jamie! You present great information in your lessons here on Mike's Master Classes, and every bit of that information is immediately translatable into playing. Your approach to Giant Steps offers new insight and helps students understand how to see the song in triads that capture the fast-paced changes of the tune. Then, students learn how to use melodic devices to make lines that are more expressive without losing the underlying chord tones. With those foundations, the door is now open to creating great improves to this challenging Coltrane composition. Another fine lesson from a great instructor!

Insightful is an understatement!!!!

Thank you, Jamie, for the wonderful course! Everything is done very well and your explanations and teachings are beyond my expectations! You gave me the very best analysis of Donna Lee that I have ever learned --and, sad to say, I have been playing that song for over 40 years. Your course demonstrates your expertise in musical understanding and performance; however, it is also a clear demonstration of your tremendous teaching ability. Thanks again!

Essential viewing

Superb. Hard to know what else to say. This guy is just a great teacher. Get this lesson.

HDQ

Jamie Taylor, is absolutely the best class editor on the site. His videos are HD quality, perfect audio, no dead time, no wives passing through - thanks to a professional media editing. Great class! I hope other will follow with more complex tunes.

The ear approach

What makes Jamie Taylor special, is his constant point of view on how to learn things with your ear, more than just with your mind. In this session there are lots of absolutely great insights about practicing with this approach. Thanks Jamie.

Jamie, "KNOCKED IT OUT THE PARK" with this Masterclass “Comprovisation” The missing Link, what a great introduction to playing patterns or melodic fragments as Jamie presents them. I am glad Jamie opens up the video explaining that Comprovisation is a word he made up. In short, it is condition (pattern) playing combined with spontaneous expression (improvisation). Jamie is quick to point out that these are not licks, but compositional elements borrowed from other sources. If you have the time, I suggest that you listen to the original source material to fully comprehend the potential of the pattern/fragment. Jamie borrows material for his patterns from the jazz repository: Strong melodic fragment from a well-known standard, melodic fragment(s) from a Jazz icon’s solo that he extended into a pattern(s), Scale fragments and arpeggios. To get the most out of the material, you should probably have a rudimental knowledge of chord progressions and harmony. The value of practicing patterns is understanding the musical situation the pattern fits in. In my opinion, practicing patterns in the wrong place or wrong key can be counter-productive. Jamie helps with this effort by listing the chords for most of the progressions and walks you through his thought process for applying the patterns to common progressions. Specifically, how to work your way into the pattern and how to work your way out of the pattern and resolving to the tonic of the key. This is an excellent way to absorb the jazz language. By continuously practicing this material and constantly adding to the patterns contained in this masterclass; hopefully, you will find that this material will integrate with sounds that you are already familiar with, and become a part of your muscle memory. And ultimately, be improvised and performed effortlessly in the moment. Good luck, and thank you Jamie for another great class.

He did it again!

Not every musician is a good teacher, but Jamie definitely is both. If you are (like myself) well informed, have practised hours, days and years, but your playing is still somehow just about average than I strongly recommend Jamies videos (all of them). He seems to know my questions, shows me exactly what to do or redo or makes me look at well known material from a new and more acessible point of view. I just love it.

Great presentation! <br /> <br /> A note on one of the previous comments: Unless I am forgetting something of past Abersold studies, I find Jamie's approach actually quite different than Abersold, in that it does not so much focus on a chord by chord analysis, but rather goes for the big picture, giving students the barest bones structure, the essence, of Rhythm Changes and then working up from there, gradually adding more sophisticated harmony. <br /> <br /> This matches my approach to teaching and studying jazz harmony. I really appreciate how Jamie is able to impart this understanding with less technical jargon, than the usual approach, and still impart something substantial -- as opposed to either getting very abstract and technical (which is a tendency I struggle with when teaching), or on the other hand just giving a bunch of licks to play, a la &quot;50 licks you must learn&quot;, which don't necessarily impart a deeper understanding of the music. Well done Jamie! This approach is well worth developing and fleshing out with other standard progressions. I would say go for it!<br /> <br /> And thanks so much to Jamie and Mike for making this particular lesson avaIlable for free!

I believe I have downloaded all of Jamie's classes now. His lessons are practical and applicable to the jazz genre. With this new addition &quot;Heads, You Win!&quot; you now have the tools to interpret and embellish the Jazz repertoire with confidence. Along with Jamie's other lessons and dedicated practice, you can develop a credible performance repertoire to gig with. After studying this music and attending gigs, the most important thing that I have learned is that the Jazz Fan is astute in how the standards should be performed (they know these tunes-Trust me!); as a musician you can't cheat it.

Another excellent master class. There is a major amount of material for study in both Comping 1 and 2. Jamie Taylor really opens the door into alternate ways of thinking musically. I'm an intermediate player who has worked hard for a long time and these classes are an inspiration.

I bought Jamie's Blues video right after Rhythm Changes. It's just as great. The basic foundations of the blues, and the chart examples and variations that he demonstrates, are excellent in every way. My knowledge base and musical understanding has just been given a tremendous boost. I'm working my way through all his videos one by one, will try comping next.

For me, the Rhythm Changes &quot;Two Speed&quot; video is the best I've ever seen on the subject. I've looked at lots of other books and videos and never had things explained so clearly, simply and effectively. Jamie Taylor gets my vote as being one of the very best guitar/music teachers ever. Great teachers are great communicators, who know how to break their subject down to its basic foundations in a way that makes things fascinating and easy to understand. In addition to his superb teaching skills, Jamie really knows how to play. That's a rare combination. He's someone you want to emulate. His extremely clear and organized explanations have really opened up my eyes and ears. I'm on to his Blues video next and I have no doubt I will buy all his lessons, they are that good.

After playing Jazz for ages, I wondered if it was a good idea to buy a video on such a basic topic as jazz time feel - and yes, it was a very good decision!!<br /> <br /> I only bought the video because I knew Jamie from his other videos and I was not dissapointed, again receiving great ideas that had immediate effect on my playing. Thanks!