Rhythm is Key.

  • You’ve been playing your instrument a very long time. 
  • You know your scales and how to use them.
  • You know a ton of tunes, and can accompany others.

But when you go to improvise, you ask yourself “Why do I still suck?”

The notes don’t matter. Rhythm is key.

Learn how to play better rhythm and become a better player.

With the help of today’s leaders in jazz, this course will show you how everything can be solved with better rhythm and exactly how you can master your rhythmic vocabulary and start playing better today.

  • All LEVELs
  • 14 Lessons
  • 3 hourS
  • Living notation
  • PDFs
  • Subtitles: English

Meet Your Instructor

Christian McBride is a eight-time GRAMMY® Award-winning bassist/composer.

Aside from various stints with Sting, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes, and others, McBride has been artist-in-residence and artistic director with organizations such as Jazz Aspen, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Jazz Museum in Harlem, Jazz House Kids, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center – Newark, the Montclair Jazz Festival, and the Newport Jazz Festival.

Meet Your Instructor

Peter Martin is an acclaimed jazz pianist, educator, and founder of Open Studio. Peter has performed and recorded on six continents with Wynton Marsalis, Dianne Reeves, Betty Carter, Christian McBride, Joshua Redman as well as his own ensembles. He has recorded over 400 lessons, pioneering the field of online jazz education and was recently featured in the New York Times for his ground breaking work.

Peter co-hosts the acclaimed music podcast “You’ll Hear It” with Adam Maness.

Meet Your Instructor

As Open Studio’s Creative Director, Adam Maness develops the curriculum of all of the courses, in addition to teaching his own popular course like Magic Voicing SystemPiano Fingering Independence and more.

Adam is a versatile pianist, arranger, composer, and producer whose performances, original compositions, and arrangements have been featured on numerous recordings and on national and international radio and television broadcasts. He is best known as co-founder and composer for the genre-bending chamber ensemble, The 442s.

Meet Your Instructor

Frequently performing around the world with various orchestras and ensembles, Sean Jones is a premier trumpet player. He has been prominently featured with a number of artists, recording and/or performing with many major figures, including Wynton Marsalis, Illinois Jacquet, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Gerald Wilson and Marcus Miller. 

Sean is currently the President of the Jazz Education Network, on faculty at The John Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and serves as Artistic Director for the NYO JAZZ Program of Carnegie Hall.

Meet Your Instructor

Alexa Tarantino has appeared with a wide variety of ensembles including the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Cecile McLorin Salvant Quintet and OGRESSE ensembles, and more.

Meet Your Instructor

Grammy award winner Geoffrey Keezer is a highly sought after pianist, composer and educator. Geoffrey has recorded and toured with Art Blakey, Ray Brown, Benny Golson, Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride, Chris Botti, Sting and more. 

Meet Your Instructor

Imbued with both groove and spirit from birth, Reuben Rogers combined the calypso and reggae rhythms of his native Virgin Islands with the gospel sounds of the church and the freedom and improvisation of jazz to create the unique chemistry that would make him one of the most distinctive and in-demand bassists in modern jazz.

Reuben has performed with Charles Lloyd, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Tomasz Stanko, Roy Hargrove, Marcus Roberts, Nicholas Payton, Mulgrew Miller, Jackie McLean and Dianne Reeves, among many others.

Meet Your Instructor

Melissa Aldana, a rising star in the world of saxophone and the first female instrumentalist to win the coveted Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. She has played concerts alongside artists such as Peter Bernstein, Kevin Hays, Christian McBride and Jeff “Tain” Watts, and more.

Meet Your Instructor

Greg Hutchinson has performed and recorded with countless jazz greats including Betty Carter, Joshua Redman, Dianne Reeves, Wynton Marsalis, John Scofield, Roy Hargrove, Diana Krall and Harry Connick Jr. He has appeared on over 160 recordings, including several Grammy® winners and is widely known for his masterful technique, advanced expertise in bebop drumming. 

Meet Your Instructor

Romero Lubambo‘s guitar playing unites the styles and rhythms of his native Brazilian musical heritage with his fluency in the American jazz tradition to form a distinctive new sound.

Lubambo has performed and recorded with many outstanding artists, including Dianne ReevesYo-Yo MaDiana KrallHerbie MannWynton MarsalisKenny Barron among many others.

Meet Your Practice Guru

Bob DeBoo is an in-demand performer on both the double and electric bass. Some of the projects he’s been involved with the last couple years include playing with David Sanborn’s Acoustic Quartet, Peter Martin, Geoffrey Keezer, Alarm Will Sound, James Carter, Matt Wilson, Ron Miles, the 442s, leading his own quartet, and much more.

Bob has also been a part of numerous Open Studio live concert events and courses. He is also highly active in education, having worked with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz for Young People program, JazzSTL’s JazzU program and more

Course Contents

Course content

  • Reuben Rogers – Tapping Your Foot
  • Adam Maness – Vocabulary: Sonny
  • Peter Martin – Getting That Bounce
  • Sean Jones – Beat Placement
  • Bob DeBoo – Practicing with a Metronome
  • Romero Lubambo – Rhythmic Precision
  • Adam Maness – Vocabulary: Monk
  • Alexa Tarantino – Variety, Placement, and Time
  • Reuben Rogers – Groove
  • Warren Wolf – Developing Rhythms
  • Geoffrey Keezer – Comping Rhythms
  • Melissa Aldana – Integrated Rhythmic Practice
  • Adam Maness – Over the Bar
  • Greg Hutchinson & Christian McBride – That Hump