Learn to Play the Blues!

The blues is like poker: easy to learn but hard to master. It's the best place for people who are just beginning to learn to play jazz and improvising because it's easy and sounds great. It's also important to never stop playing the blues as you advance into bebop and other styles because it really is the foundation of most contemporary styles of music (rock, jazz, gospel, pop, country, etc...). I recommend constantly playing the blues scale and figuring out new ways to play it. One teacher once told me, "play the blues every day for forty years and then you will finally be able to play blues."

The Blues Scale

12 Bar Blues

Jazz Blues