How to Play Straight Ahead Jazz 

Special Launch Discount on the new "25 Hard Bop Etudes" PDF Package! Use Code “CA5” for an additional $5 OFF! www.jazzlessonvideos.com/downloads Sign up to work with Cecil through the Jazz Gym. www.jazzlessonvideos.com/thejazzgym

I was lucky enough to sit in on a jam session with Cecil. He was nothing but encouraging and at the time I wasn’t feeling very confident about my playing being a very new jazz player. I later ran into him around a year later after my chops had improved and he remembered me and that just made my day. Such a humble guy and great player!

FINALLY!! A player who EXPLAINS what he’s playing in a clear, simple effective way.

Just what i want to learn:) Thank You Cecil

Excellent,well played,, super fun!

This is the best explanation of music I have ever seen. Simply amazing!

Thank you for the amazing lesson/information sir. Liked and subscribed.

CALM, CLEAR, and CONCISE. Well done! I will subscribe. Thank you.

This video is a gift. Thank you for these beautiful pieces and your thorough yet clear analysis! I understand about a third of it, which is gods work.

Awesome!! As soon as as realised you were on RU-vid I subbed straight away!!

Bravo! Thank you for the very informed and informative in depth look at the historical and functional language that makes this music come alive. I've seen so many students who want a sound, want the excitement of a living solo and are given solos to copy without any functional or aural context. So it becomes a finger exercise. Your approach not only shows where your perception comes from, but also presents a lexicon for anyone to apply in their own approach. Nice!!!

Love your style and ideas, man! That sound is perfection.

I'm not really a jazz player, but I love music theory. Anyway, this material was so well presented, and the persona is so likeable, that I both liked and subscribed.

Wow, this is exactly what I've been looking for. As an amateur rock and blues pentatonic hobbiest, I've fumbled around with attempts at playing jazz but have no idea what I'm doing. I don't completely understand everything laid out in the video, but although it's complex, it's simplified enough for me to almost grasp. I suspect this channel is going to get very popular. Thank you.

I just got your 25 Hard Bop Etudes. Now my Jazz playing will get much closer to my goals. Awesome. I knew there was a "missing piece" and now I can start to color it in.

Thank you very much for your great help!

Wow! Unbelievable fantastic Jazz guitar explanation master, unique in the internet! Never seen this!👏

This was wonderful thankyou.

This lesson is so amazing.

oh yeah this is the good stuff. thanks! it's a few steps above where i'm at so a fantastic challenge and learning experience as well.

Fantastic, and I love the large-headstock Strat.

This is the most I've learned about jazz from one video and I'm 2 minutes in

hi CECIL,an excellent lesson is so many ways.....what hit me most was the way you played 8th notes in the slow tempo...so many teachers when they get to 'slow tempos' they bounce the 8th notes eg...1st and last of triplets..da...de da....de dah etc...instead of the 'straight 8ths the way u [and joe ,wes] play them ....loved ur concerts ......bob jackson ...new zealand....

Subscribed, because this is too cool.

I cant beleive this video is real and this channel exists in my lifetime. Literally a treasure trove of invauable jazz theory and information at anytime, for free. God bless you, sir.

Pure gold!!!

Such solid lines! Really cool!

Excellent!

thank you

This is excellent, glad this showed up in my feed.

Fantastic!!🙏

His method of instruction is far superior to many of the others whose videos appear on youtube. For some of the others whose videos appear regularly on RU-vid, it's difficult to tell exactly what points they're trying to get across. Gonna check him out.

Incredible.

This is a great video. Subscribed.

The intro was enough to understand i can learn a lot from this dude

Great. Great video

I am learning a lot with your materials. Thanks a lot !

Nice! Great lines!

trying to learn this, liked and subbed!

Pro-level content and really clearly explained and demonstrated. Not for beginners, but if you are ready for this level, you won't find better teaching. Respect!

Very Wonderful & Detailed 🙏🏽💥🙏🏽

Holy ship, a lesson from cecil alexander?!?!? Thank you!!!!

Not really into soloing (yet...maybe... never🙃) I love the chord changes.

Cecil channeling his inner Pat Martino in the intro. Love it 😍

Eccellente spiegazione 👍

Very nice

salut . merci beaucoup monsieur

Thats a pretty sweet jazz tone a bit old school. 😀

Amazing that you could think about and organize these runs and play them at the same time..... I'd be crippled ......👌👍👏💪😎🔥🇺🇸 unless of course you rehearsed them before hand

great presentation . 4 on 6 by Wes is very important to guitar!

Oh man...! I got this set of lessons and it had so many of my favorite songs! And his playing is just what I am after. I highly recommend this set of songs, backing tracks, and videos! I have some very big plans for 2023, now!

Great, and concise relay of knowledge 👌

Cecil has such effortless control over the guitar, I’m a bass player but love listening to him nonetheless!

Great stuff...what's the opening progression?

Cecil, I first saw you on Hunter McCay's When Pigs Won't fly recording, and its always fun to see where you pop up!

Outstanding!

Love the tone on that strat

This is Beautiful

Great playing and explanation. 🙂👌🤓

The deflat major pivot that was thrown in there, does that come from advanced theory or just something thats proven useful but not anything to do with key of Bb Major, G minor?

Holy sh*t! YES I’m subscribing. 🎸☮️

After 1st 4 notes I decided to subscribe 🎸 The thing is I'm a rock and folk guitarist and I cannot understand how can I create shapes and improvisation 😀

What Brand guitar do you use? Website Link Guitar shop please. Thank you

Enjoying your improvisations and explanations ... regarding the Lester Young style phrase discussed at the end the "Stable Mates" example, it sounds like a musical quote from "Mares Eat Oats" (a.k.a. "Mairzy Doats"), which is apparently from about 1943 vintage, and also a reference to horses, maybe?

great stuff here.

Yep just bought it.

how do u get this tone

Muito bom 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍.

Awesome content! You have a new subscriber!

are there a lot of double time lines like the one you played on song for my father? and is that particular line you played in the book?

Playing jazz on a strat is cool

great i 'm going to buy it

Should I get the Bb tuning or Concert for guitar?

May I play some softbop instead thou?

Hie folks😍🖐,l'm new hear just bumped into this video l don't know how😉🙃😇.Well as a beginner in jazz l'm completely taken aback by this awesome loaded tutorial.Most jazz tutors have failed maybe l'm just dull but hopefully here l've found my new home!.l will cram first then play in required speed and study later!🙈.

This pink guitar is Burning 🥰🥰

Thank you got it. Peace

How do you make a strat sound like that? Love it

great

song for our Father

sir can i get the backing track

im 49 seconds into the video and have already subscribed lol god damn that was some intro

Great lesson, hello from Asia

Súper BOP

This is great thanks! But how do you practice improvising with this stuff?

11:15

Great lesson! The Lester Young course is an old New England song: O mares eat oats and does eat oats And little lambs eat ivy A kid'll eat ivy, too Wouldn't you?

Is there any place where we can see the full list of songs covered?

Why is hard bop "hard"? What's the meaning of hard here?

Did you ever live in New Orleans?

I love the analysis of the lines, but if you’re thinking all that when you’re playing I’m doomed 😂 I can learn the lines and know the theory, but can’t pull it out at light speed! Incredible stuff.

I think when I said bebop when I first listened to jazz I meant hard and post pop.

With a title like "Hard Bop", you'd think that the artists in this sub-genre would be doing the opposite of slow tempo music.

And to think when I was a kid I thought u could only play jazz guitar on an Gibson ES 175. LOL

Very indepth silo line concepts. How about showing chord voice leading concepts To me, chords are scales stacked. Singing lines with soulful mastery of rhythms as you know. Some will ever learn to "dance" because they think unimportant and we know who are/where the master singers and dancers!

I imagine whatever jazz guitar classes that get offered in Heaven will be very similar to this.

Amazing tone, though I don't believe jazz players are necessarily always consiencious of phrases as much as those dissecting them

How about harmonic Major/ionian b6? Why there is nothing about how use this in real music? No songs,videos,nothing... harmonic Major is very interesting for several reasons firstly, we have a few rootless dominants in it not only in the seventh degree (but these roots are nondiatonic,what opportunities does it give us?) second, we have several different tonic chords for one scale degree (on few degrees,not all) if we omit the rule of 3rd chord construction. For example C harm Major,iii degree we have chords: e,g,b - minor chord e,a-flat,b - Major chords for the same scale e,a-flat,c- augmented chord 3 chords for one scale what scale is this?Minor or Major? Minor phrygian,Major phrygian and augmented phrygian? or dimminished phrygian scale? Because we have b2,b3 and b4... Harmonic minor was created to solve the problem of natural minor - ok melodic minor was created to solve the problem of harmonic minor - ok who,when and what for create harm Major? (if noone use it,even for teaching)

Hmm, this must be Cecil Alexander ...

Sounds great, but not sure enough of what you are explaining. My ears tell me that it's great tho.