OK - just having practiced a bit and then watched Matt's 'quick start' video - I started with blues and bebop scales in all keys, and then worked through a bit of Usher Abell's 'Jazz violin studies'.

I took a short bit of the line we worked on in the Practise Club yesterday and used it to explore different V7 → i minor progressions where the A diminished works. A diminished 7th chord can be used over a dominant chord that’s a semitone below its root. Because a diminished 7th chord is made up of the same interval stacked over and over, the same diminished chord works in four different keys. So A°7 can be used over G#7, B7, D7, and F7. I played the same basic line each time, just changing the ending slightly to fit each key. Here are the progressions I played it over: • D7 → G minor • F7 → Bb minor • G#7 → C# minor • B7 → E minor

Today I've been practising using a string of enclosures on the the chords in a Rhythm Changes. This little line/exercise uses two tryes of enclosures, aiming at different notes of the chords, also making sure the chord tones are generally on the STRONG bats (1234) with the enclosure notes surrounding them. Try it out! (By the way, the transcription of this is in the "Exercises" course in my classroom for anyone on Premium or VIP tier)

🏅The Challenge🎻 You have two options: 1. Take a line that you often play in C Major and learn to play it in Eb, Gb/F# and A. 2. Just learn my line in all of those keys (shown in the video) Then post it on here, you will get some feedback and encouragement from me and the group! As a thank you for taking part il send you a transcription of this line! ❓Why do this⁉️ Learning lines in major or minor thirds really helps you learn lines properly. It also gets you working out how you might change position or fingering for each key to make it work for you. There’s usually some way to play any piece of jazz language in each keys that will work, doing this sort of transposition helps you find the gaps you have in your technique whilst solidifying jazz language.

It's hard to get new lines and concepts into your playing. Often we say "play it in all twelve keys" I like doing this but I find playing it in 3 or 4 keys that feel quite distant from each other will help you do this faster. I always practise my lines either in major or minor thirds. The fingerings in keys like C-Eb-Gb-A are so different from each other in first position, that it means that you are pretty much covering all bases just by doing these four keys. Here I am doing this with a line I posted last week. If you want a transcription of this (in C) to help you learn it faster you can get hold of that in the "weekly exercises" course in my Classroom.