Mark Stefani: "Swing Blues: The Doorway to Jazz" course

[angelpa]

Hello All:

Sorry if this has been discussed before. My goal is to be able to improvise over standards. I like melodic sounding solos (Louis Armstrong, Charlie Christian) but i am not very interested in bebop stuff.

Regarding my goal, I'm wondering if anyone reading this knows anything about the 24 lessons in Mark Stefani's "Swing Blues: The Doorway to Jazz" course, and what you think about the course.

Thank you!

[MarkRhodes]

I had some lessons with Mark many years ago. I learned a few things. He seems like a very nice, helpful guy. He was very responsive to questions. He was very focused on playing, not so much on theory. I think that's the right way to start. (The theory makes more sense when you know lots of tunes and have soloed on them many times.)

I can't recall the lessons vividly enough to compare them with comparable material. Maybe someone else posting on this will jog my memory....

[angelpa]

Thanks Mark! Hopefully others here might chime in

[woland]

What you get out the course is what you put in. You must reserve time to work out the tunes and keep asking Mark for feedback otherwise you will NOT get your money worth. What you get from Mark is sort of invitation to dialog - a jazz blues standard plus several examples of typically some 2-5-1 turnaround phrases, all arranged with notation, tabs with all fingering. And everything recorded with some commentary from Mark. Usually no backup track.
Is it enough?
It will depend on you. I work out some tunes and send him recording - the feedback I got was HONEST. Many of the tunes I simply did not have time at the moment so I never sent anything in. I took that course some years ago and I still occasionally go back to those lesson and pick up couple new elements. So I have no complaints.
Here is list of tunes (might be incomplete):
c_jam
sweet_alice
naptown
billys_bounce
tenor_madness
freight_train
freddie_freeloader
things_aint_what_they_used_to_be
blues_in_closet
opus_de_funk
rock_a_bye
straight_no_chaser
sundown
clockwise
kc_blues
mr_pc
riot_chous
bessies_blues
all_blues
au_privave
blue_monk
unit_seven
walkin
west_coast_blues

[angelpa]

Thanks woland!

[MarkRhodes]

Here is list of tunes (might be incomplete):
c_jam
sweet_alice
naptown
billys_bounce
tenor_madness
freight_train
freddie_freeloader
things_aint_what_they_used_to_be
blues_in_closet
opus_de_funk
rock_a_bye
straight_no_chaser
sundown
clockwise
kc_blues
mr_pc
riot_chous
bessies_blues
all_blues
au_privave
blue_monk
unit_seven
walkin
west_coast_blues

I was hoping someone would post a list and here it is! I didn't finish the course---I don't have this much material in my Mark Stefani bincer. I do have the first 8 listed here plus KC Blues. Looking over that list---it's a great set of blues for a player to know. If you're at home with most of that, you're sitting pretty for jazz blues!

[woland]

I was hoping someone would post a list and here it is! I didn't finish the course---I don't have this much material in my Mark Stefani bincer. I do have the first 8 listed here plus KC Blues. Looking over that list---it's a great set of blues for a player to know. If you're at home with most of that, you're sitting pretty for jazz blues!

Well - I may be missing a lesson there - so the list is probably 98% complete.
Mark made couple nice TrueFire courses - worth checking too:
Jazz Guitar Lessons - Jazzed Blues Assembly Lines - Mark Stefani
Jazz Guitar Lessons - Chord Melody Cafe - Mark Stefani

[angelpa]

Thanks guys. Wondering how much his course helps when it comes to improvising over tunes not included in his course.

[woland]

Thanks guys. Wondering how much his course helps when it comes to improvising over tunes not included in his course.

I think that Mark's course may motivate you to spend a lot of time working on a blues set of tunes. So you will acquire some repertoire. It will also give you plenty of very solid 2-5-1 phrases. But as far as of grabbing some standard - eg. What Is This Thing Called Love - and working out solo from scratch.... ummmm.... no very likely. I would definitely recommend Gary Burton course on Jazz Improvisation on Coursera - I think next session is coming very soon (Sep or Oct). It is free and it is the best single source of basic jazz knowledge I ever came across.

[angelpa]

I think that Mark's course may motivate you to spend a lot of time working on a blues set of tunes. So you will acquire some repertoire. It will also give you plenty of very solid 2-5-1 phrases. But as far as of grabbing some standard - eg. What Is This Thing Called Love - and working out solo from scratch.... ummmm.... no very likely. I would definitely recommend Gary Burton course on Jazz Improvisation on Coursera - I think next session is coming very soon (Sep or Oct). It is free and it is the best single source of basic jazz knowledge I ever came across.

Thank you a ton woland; much appreciated

[angelpa]

Thanks jbyork! Do You think that his stuff teaches how to improvise over tunes not included in his course?

[angelpa]

Thanks again jbyork; my phone seemingly won't let me open the clips. I'm going to consider the course. I've had a couple emails from him, and he does genuinely seem to be a good guy. Thanks again, and let me know if you "take another shot at it all over again!"Best of luck to ya

[woland]

If you are not in a great hurry I would consider doing Gary Burton jazz Improvisation course first:
https://www.coursera.org/course/improvisation

[angelpa]

Thanks woland; I might to the Burton course (signed up to receive a notice when the Burton course starts again).

[voxss]

$30 each solo....wow..awesome stuff but ill think lill keep saving for that gibson classic 57 pickup replacement

[voxss]

thats better $15.......wheres my wallet

[Stu Foley]

Just to clarify, is it $30 per lesson (not withstanding the opening offer)? And one lesson, of which there are 24, contains one complete solo and related material is this correct? Would this not invite the student to purchase material and work through it at their own pace? What I mean is that there is no obligation, or indeed advantage, to buying the complete course and working to the two week-per-lesson schedule?

[voxss]

i just joined...best site ive seen for jazz guitar education...some free stuff there too...

[woland]

i just joined...best site ive seen for jazz guitar education...some free stuff there too...

Mark's site has good stuff. But I would hesitate calling it the best.

[woland]

Just to clarify, is it $30 per lesson (not withstanding the opening offer)? And one lesson, of which there are 24, contains one complete solo and related material is this correct? Would this not invite the student to purchase material and work through it at their own pace? What I mean is that there is no obligation, or indeed advantage, to buying the complete course and working to the two week-per-lesson schedule?

The idea is to have feedback from Mark and that would not be a very good deal for him if you purchase one $30 lesson every month and half and in the meantime send him daily emails. PLus if you buy several lessons in a row you get some discount.

Btw (talking about guitar education websites) - what about Jimmy Bruno?
Learn Jazz Guitar | Jimmy Bruno Guitar Workshop
That class is sth like $20 per month and you get personalized feedback from Jimmy on video - without prior limits on the amount of interactions.
Also class schedule is tailored to your progress and it is not at all limited to jazz blues - I think that the first tunes you cover are Blue Bossa and Autumn Leaves.

[Stu Foley]

I really dig Mark's ethos about getting some music under your fingers and particularly the jazz blues. I recall printing off some of his 'coach's corner' articles probably circa 2000. However, I'm not quite understanding how the course is self-perpetuating if the lessons are self-contained and paid for individually. So would it be a case of if I buy lesson one then I would receive two weeks support at which point I would be expected (but not obligated) to purchase the next lesson for the support to ensue?

I have one of Mark's truefire vids so I'm sure the material is great but I'm used to a format such as a recurring payment for access to a pool of material (ala Jimmy Bruno) or a one off fee for complete materials (ala Rich Severson).

[Stu Foley]

BTW I'm not the OP. Sorry for mini-hijack Angelpa. I think the material looks very good, just figuring how much buy-in is required.

[woland]

I think that there is no harm if you buy one lesson every 6 weeks or so - try to negotiate that type of deal with Mark. To me one lesson every two weeks pretty much meant playing nothing else but lesson material. And after a while I started falling behind.

[angelpa]

Just to clarify, is it $30 per lesson (not withstanding the opening offer)? And one lesson, of which there are 24, contains one complete solo and related material is this correct? Would this not invite the student to purchase material and work through it at their own pace? What I mean is that there is no obligation, or indeed advantage, to buying the complete course and working to the two week-per-lesson schedule?

Stu: I'd encourage you to email Mark; a very nice guy!

[Stu Foley]

I will certainly contact Mark when I'm in the the market for new study materials. I like his approach.

For those of you who have followed the course; In practice how much e-mail/telephone interaction is needed if you are given the solos demoed and transcribed note-for-note with fingereings? I mean, if I couldn't bring a passage up to tempo, I'd just have to slow down the metronome until I could play it and surely no amount of 'support' would bypass this fact. Am I thinking too simplistically?

The learning material sounds attractive but I recognise that a proportion of the cost of the course must be attributed to the after-sales support. What form does this supervision take? On what matters have you felt the need to e-mail Mark wrt this course?