Learning Pathway 1: Foundations

 

Prepare for success with focused, jazz-based exercises

This pathway features the bedrock foundational exercises every jazz musician needs at some point in their development.

These are hands-on, no-nonsense materials designed to be drilled deeply into your fingers and ears — the nuts and bolts that support everything else: language, fluency, and advanced concepts.

If your playing feels inconsistent, underpowered, or conceptually shaky, this is where stability is built.

Core resources (suggested progression)

• Creative Major Scale Exercises
  Develop control, clarity, and melodic flexibility within the most fundamental tonal framework.
• The Blues Arpeggio
  Train the essential major/minor 3rd dichotomy at the heart of jazz and blues expression.
• Soul Scale Exercises
  Expand beyond academic scale practice into expressive, idiomatic sound.
• Natural, Melodic & Harmonic  + Dorian Minor exercises
  Strengthen minor-key fluency with practical, musical applications.
• Compendium of Major Embellishments
  Learn how great players decorate major harmony with taste and intention.
• Compendium of Minor Embellishments
  Essential vocabulary for shaping minor lines with color and direction.

 

What this pathway trains

• Core jazz preparatory technique
• Essential embellishment language
• Fundamental harmonic movement (cycles & progressions)
• The major/minor 3rd “yin–yang” at the heart of jazz phrasing
• Strong finger–ear connection

How to use this pathway

This pathway is designed to be followed progressively.
You don’t need everything at once — choose one resource, work with it deeply, then add the next when you’re ready.

 

Where to start

If you’re unsure where to begin, start with Creative Major Scale Exercises and work with it for several weeks before adding anything else.

It establishes technical clarity, tonal awareness, and disciplined practice habits — making everything that follows more effective and musical.

👉 View the full Foundations Path Collection