Learn To Play Jazz With A Master Musician
Click the icons below for more information on jazz lessons (on any instrument!) or music production lessons:
The Boston System
Built on the principles taught in Boston, George’s Skype jazz lessons form a clearly designed SYSTEM to help you learn to play jazz and any other improvised music. We study concepts such as scales and modes (and why master jazz musicians DON’T use the “modes”!), chord progressions, jazz chord voicings, and how to play jazz with a great feel, and you’ll learn jazz theory that is VERY different than 90% of what’s “out there”, taking the shortcut to understanding how to play jazz beautifully!
Written Supplements & Custom Play-Along Tracks
Scores of scores! PDFs of essential information clarify the concepts we’re talking about in the lessons, and 100s of grooving play-along tracks in jazz, funk, and latin styles energize your practicing
ALL INSTRUMENTS
I’m a keyboardist by trade, but I teach improvisation on all instruments; in fact, I learned most of what I use from a saxophonist! I teach jazz theory that EVERY instrumentalist can use; learn jazz piano, study jazz saxophone, or learn jazz guitar. And you’ll learn jazz concepts that are applicable to a wide variety of styles: from straight-ahead swinging jazz to funk, R & B and “fusion” styles, these improvisational concepts cover it all!
BEYOND YOUR INSTRUMENT
If you’d like to study music production, orchestration, learn to use Logic, explore synthesizer technique, mixing, arranging…I am a true believer in seeing all the angles as a musician. Several of my students taking music production lessons are close to finishing their first CDs!
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About George
Grammy-award winning keyboardist George Whitty has spent 25 years playing on the road with the Brecker Brothers, David Sanborn, Richard Bona, Chaka Khan, Sadao Watanabe, and a dozen others, and his resume as a session musician includes some of the best-selling records of all time: Santana's "Supernatural" (with Dave Matthews), Celine Dion's "Falling Into You" and "These are Special Times", and more than 100 other CDs. As a producer/keyboardist, his Grammy-winning streak began with Chaka Khan's "The Woman I Am" in 1992 and extends through 3 award-winning releases with the Brecker Brothers, most recently Randy Brecker's "34th and Lex", a Grammy-winner for Contemporary Jazz Record of the Year, which George produced and mixed. In April 2010, he completed work on several tracks for Herbie Hancock's CD "The Imagine Project", programming Herbie’s live rig for the tour as well. In August, 2014, George joined Herbie, Wayne Shorter, Carlos Santana, and Marcus Miller playing at the Hollywood Bowl for the “Concert for Peace”.And in 2018, Herbie hired George to arrange 3 of Herbie’s tunes to play at the LA Philharmonic’s 100th Anniversary concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and at Disney Hall with Herbie as the featured performer.
On the road, George has played with the Brecker Brothers (1992 - 2000), David Sanborn (1998 - 2014), Richard Bona, Sadao Watanabe, and 14 years and counting with CMD and the Nomads
George's resume in jazz instruction features hundreds of workshops and clinics around the world, and thousands of private lessons and music lessons via Skype. His approach to learning to play jazz is distilled from decades as a music instructor and 25 years playing on the road with some of the most intense musicians of our time. He is the author of several instructional articles on how to play jazz, featured in Keyboard magazine
Whether you're just starting to study jazz or are already a skilled player, George's logical, progressive approach to learning improvisation will take you higher quickly. Supplemented by hundreds of custom play-along tracks and a large archive of PDF written material, this is a comprehensive, carefully thought-out way to learn jazz from an in-demand expert in jazz education!
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Video Jazz Lessons and Resources
The Secret to Playing Jazz like the masters
Free Jazz Lesson (Video)- Why use Bebop Scales Instead of Modes? And some free play-alongs & PDF reference! I had been studying jazz for years before I learned perhaps the most important piece of jazz theory anyone ever showed me. For all the jazz lessons I’d taken, somehow my improvising never seemed to really sit Read more about The Secret to Playing Jazz like the masters[…]