Songwriting & Improv

Songs

An overview of common song forms in jazz and popular music, with examples and repertoire-building tips to help you recognize structure, learn songs more intentionally, and start thinking like a songwriter.

Songwriting

In this lesson, Grace uses an early demo of “Feels Like Home” to show how melodies can evolve through different tempos, arrangements, and collaborations, while introducing core songwriting tools like common chord progressions, contrafacts, and creative collaboration techniques.

Grace & Leo Write A Song

In this lesson, “Blue M&Ms” is used as a real songwriting case study to show how collaboration grows from a simple idea into a structured song through groove, communication, experimentation, arranging, and openness to each other’s ideas.

Ear Training With Grace

In this lesson, you build ear training through interval recognition and the Air Sax method, using familiar songs, daily listening practice, and singing-to-fingering exercises to connect what you hear in your head to what you play on the sax.

Beginner Improvisation

In this lesson, you learn to approach improvisation as real-time musical conversation by starting with emotion, using space, shaping solos over time, listening actively, and even limiting yourself to one note to unlock creativity.

Phrasing

In this lesson, you’ll explore how great phrasing comes from deep listening, strong melodic shape, and rhythmic feel—learning how to make your lines sound more musical, expressive, and intentional rather than just a string of notes.

Advanced Improvisation

In this lesson, Grace and Leo show how to take improvisation from good to great by sharpening your rhythm, groove, speed, voice leading, and tonal “colors,” while learning to use advanced techniques with taste, surprise, and strong musical storytelling.

Solo House Sax with Leo

In this lesson, you dive into Leo P’s Solo House Sax approach by drawing from electronic dance music influences, building driving octave-jump basslines, and using phrygian-based exercises to develop a high-energy solo style that feels both musical and performative.