There IS a way to practice improvising over chord progressions that ensures complete harmonic accuracy
🎸 Without getting lost
🎸 Without overthinking
🎸 Without resorting to licks or old habits
🎸 Without sounding robotic
Introducing
Nail the Changes
by Jared Borkowski
Solo over any jazz chord progression with complete accuracy and confidence
Enrollment for Nail the Changes is currently closed
Enrollment opens again on January 20th, 2025.
It will be available to join for one week.
Mark your calendar and fill out the form below to get notified.
Enter your info to get early access when NTC reopens
This also signs you up for my email list. I send one free lesson every Tuesday and occasional course announcements.
Many improvisation methods talk about what scales to play over what chords.
But they don't provide a clear path for how to master making real music out of them.
I struggled with this myself. I searched far and wide to figure out how to improvise freely, accurately, and confidently over chord progressions without feeling like a total imposter.
I took private lessons for two decades from amazing guitar players, I got a college degree in jazz improvisation, I played nightly gigs for years, I went to small workshops taught by some of the best improvising guitar players in the world such as Mike Stern, Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, Stanley Jordan, and many more...
And I'll admit, I sounded pretty good in certain ways: My technique was solid, my time and feel was locked in, my theory knowledge was on point.
But after all that high-end training, I STILL didn't come out the other end with a crystal clear solution for how to truly play freely over chord changes without resorting to licks, without playing disconnected ideas, without constantly jumping positions on the fretboard, and frankly, without "faking it" half the time.
Even as a professional guitarist, I vividly remember feeling completely defeated and typing into Google, "How the @#$% do you improvise in jazz?!!".
I'm not joking. I remember it clearly. I was practicing in North Carolina the day before my brother's wedding.
I knew I had music in me. I knew I had something to express. But all the pieces just weren't clicking together in the way that I thought they should.
Maybe you've heard this too, but everyone I looked up to for guidance kept saying, "Just keep practicing your scales and arpeggios" I listened for what they were going to say next... but that was it.
I was practicing my scales and arpeggios! What was I missing?
One night, suddenly, a huge cartoon light bulb appeared above my head while playing a regular gig at a hotel bar in Seattle called The District Lounge.
I played a line that was more fluid, connected, and expressive than my usual playing. It felt amazing. That's how I wanted to play!
I realized immediately that the physical arpeggio and scale structure I was drawing from was one I had just practiced that week in a very specific way. I had worked on outlining this one chord in every key, but only in ONE specific position on the fretboard.
That's when I realized that being completely fluent with arpeggios, but limiting my practice to one specific position on the fretboard was the secret to unlocking the ability to play over any chord, anywhere on the fretboard, equally well.
By letting myself play all over the neck all the time, I was avoiding certain shapes. By avoided those shapes, I wasn't ready to use them when they were the closest "right" notes from my previous improvised idea.
Everything clicked. Limiting my chord tone targeting to one fretboard position would force to me to be equally comfortable with every physical arpeggio and scale shape that exists, which I could then use anywhere on the neck.
BINGO! That's how to truly be fluent. I put it to the test and I rapidly improved. After some gritty vocabulary exercise work, all in that one position, I started being able to connect lines and play fluidly in the way I had always dreamed.
My joy, my expression, my artistry, my craft, my creativity, and my confidence all skyrocketed after that.
I applied my new system to every song I had to solo over—for every gig, for every jam hang-out, for every late night backing track practice session.
After that I devised and refined the core exercises for this approach and called it SLIM. The Single Location Improv Method.
I took SLIM and taught it to all my private students who were studying jazz.
It worked for them too! 🤯
From there I added trainings on time, feel, tone, and phrasing to the curriculum so that all those perfectly connected "right notes" could sound even more like real musical ideas.
After many, many years of struggling, and then slowly piecing together this solution, I finally had an organized practice system that really worked.
And it doesn't just work for "talented" (pardon my French) musicians, it works for ANYONE.
I've never had what people would call "musical talent". I'm simply passionate and persistent.
Like any practice method that really works, this one is not quick, and it's not easy, but if I can do it, and if many of my students can do it, then you can too.
Check out what Don Calame, on of my online course members, said about this approach:
There is a LOT here to learn and it takes effort and practice to get it all down but Jared’s teaching style makes it seem achievable. And it is! I’m living proof."
- Don Calame
Even the most efficient path to proficient improvising is still a long-game effort, but for those who are serious about their soloing, I'm happy to say that my SLIM method works much faster than the windy, wobbly path that I took.
You CAN solo freely over chord changes with complete harmonic accuracy.
- Without getting lost.
- Without overthinking.
- Without resorting to licks or old habits.
- Without jumping positions.
- Without sounding mundane
- Without feeling like you're faking it.
Introducing
Nail the Changes
by Jared Borkowski
Solo over any jazz chord progression with complete accuracy and confidence
Nail the Changes is a comprehensive, straightforward, and step-by-step program on how to accurately improvise over any jazz chord progression, target chord tones perfectly, and unlock beautiful melodies with voice leading on the fly.
🎸 Without getting lost.
🎸 Without overthinking.
🎸 Without resorting to licks or old habits.
🎸 Without jumping positions unintentionally.
🎸 Without feeling like you're faking it.
Hear what improvising guitarists like you are saying about Nail the Changes:
"If you have a desire to learn how to properly maneuver around the fretboard, to move with the changes of a jazz song, this is a great course for you—well, well worth the money."
- Chris Fontana
"Nail the Changes has been a revelation for me."
"While the focus of the course is purportedly jazz, I feel like this info can help any guitar player. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to get better at soloing over chord changes and not just aimlessly noodling over the same scales."
- Leisha Cook
Read Leisha's full testimonial
"This is a system that makes sense . . .
I can now improvise . . .
This is quite a (for me) life-changing course in terms of playing guitar."
- Sherman Wang
Here's just some of what you'll learn inside NTC...
- What really makes an improvisation sound professional (It's not about the "right notes").
- How to work on phrasing to tell a story in your music (with specific, step-by-step phrasing exercises).
- The twelve chord types needed to accurately play over any chord progression.
- How to improve your sense of musical time with a little-known metronome strategy that does wonders.
- How to have complete control over voice leading by targeting exactly the notes you want to hear when chords change.
- Exactly which scale to prioritize using over each and every chord type.
- A simple way to figure out, from scratch, what scale works over any chord.
- My innovative SLIM method for practicing with only one shape for every chord type, which then unlocks the entire fretboard.
- How to take advantage of—and make great music out of—"wrong" notes.
- How to add passing, chromatic notes when targeting chords.
- How to practice more effectively to get the most out of your learning efforts.
- How to improve your feel by accenting specific notes at specific times.
- How to improve your fluidity by slurring onto specific beats in time.
- How to improvise with complete tonal freedom so worrying about "mistakes" becomes a thing of the past.
- The five tunes that include every chord type we need to improvise over ANY song.
- How to superimpose familiar chord tone forms to target extensions when soloing without learning any new physical shapes.
- How to use the chromatic scale effectively when soloing.
- How to sound sophisticated and advanced by playing harmonically "out" before resolving to chord tones.
- What backing track and looping options to use while practicing.
- How to master one chord at a time, in every key, in one location, so you can target the harmony in any song.
- How to take advantage of the Phrygian dominant scale when playing in minor keys.
- What the bebop scale is and how it's used.
- How and when to ignore certain chords to play bigger ideas and longer phrases.
- How to take advantage of the "built-in melodies" that exist in every single chord progression.
- And so much more!!!
Check out the full curriculum!
MODULE 0
Course Summary Presentation/Q&A and Exercise Workbook
3 introductory videos to get your started + multi-level exercise workbook download
MODULE 1
Introducing the System That Will Change Your Improvising Forever
4 video lessons + slide presentation downloads
MODULE 2
Where True Expression Really Comes From - How to Work on TIME, FEEL, TONE, and DYNAMICS
7 video lessons each with individual lectures and exercise demonstrations
MODULE 3
Phrasing is Everything - Turning Collections of Notes into REAL Music!
4 video lessons + multi-level practice checklist
MODULE 4
The Foundational Vocabulary Needed to Nail Changes (Especially in Jazz)
4 video lessons + multi-level practice checklist
MODULE 5 (in two parts)
Chord Tone Confidence - Mastering the 12 Chords We Need to Play Over Any Other Chord Type (In All 12 Keys)
16 lesson videos + 12 chord tone mapping demonstrations + multi-level practice checklist
MODULE 6
What About Scales? - How to Change Scales Mid-Playing and Make it Sound Like Real Music
6 video lessons + multi-level practice checklist
MODULE 7
Hearing a New World by Applying Chromatic Notes
6 video lessons + multi-level practice checklist
MODULE 8
Putting It All Together in REAL Music (Yay!)
6 video lessons + multi-level practice checklist
MODULE 9
Targeting Extensions, Unlocking the Rest of the Fretboard, and Where to Go Next
5 video lessons + multi-level practice checklist
Hear what improvising guitarists like you are saying about Nail the Changes:
"If you want to be able to improvise—if you want to be able to follow chord changes, play with phrasing, play with melodies—and not just noodle around, I highly recommend this program, Nail the Changes, you will see the fretboard in a whole different way."
- Eric Becker
"I have been incorporating Jared’s method of chord tones, and it just changed my life really, and given my a lot of joy in the process.
It’s just a beautiful thing when you’re hitting the right note at the just right time . . .
I would recommend this course to anybody. It will help you play so much better. It’s just brought so much joy to my life and I’m sure it will to you too."
- Kenny Miller
"I’m feeling more confident and playing with other people, and playing more complex material . . .
For me, this has been excellent. I highly recommend this method."
- Jeff Furlong
"If you’re considering getting this course stop considering and pull the trigger. You will be a better player for it.”
"It was a real game changer for me. Jared is an excellent teacher who lays everything out for you step by step. There is a LOT here to learn and it takes effort and practice to get it all down but Jared’s teaching style makes it seem achievable. And it is! I’m living proof."
- Don Calame
Read Don Calame's full testimonial
"Now I understand things that I couldn’t understand before with other courses . . .
This course was great for me. I really recommend the course."
- Paulo Trigueiros
"It really works. It’s a great program. I feel like I’m not fishing around for the right notes anymore . . .
It’s been life-changing so I highly recommend it."
- Sean Wholey
"It’s really methodical, the course, there’s a lot of very structured exercises.
It’s been great for me. My improvements and confidence has just soared."
- Dave Remanant
Maybe you're thinking, "Sounds great, but how much does it cost to invest in my improvisation skills with a program like this?"
Between 20+ years of private lessons, tons of paid workshops, a college music degree, and a sky-high pile of method books, I've spent many tens of thousands of dollars attaining the skills and developing the methods that I share in this course.
Students who have learned this approach from me in one-on-one coaching, at $100 per session, took several months of weekly lessons to get through the exact material in this program. I'll let you do the math on that!
You could try to improve your sound by buying a new guitar, a new amp, or a bunch of pedals, and wracking up a huge bill in the process. Or you could improve how you sound with any piece of gear by investing in your skills.
Nail the Changes is not your typical guitar course. This is not just another online guitar program for you to watch through and get under your belt. NTC is a massive, life-long resource for how to improvise and sound great over chord changes. It's a method that you'll continue to reference and work on for the rest of your guitar journey, and lays out for you, with crystal clear instructions, the exact exercises that I still use for my own practicing to this day.
Yes, the NTC curriculum is linear, structured, and step-by-step, but it's also an encyclopedia-like library of trainings with every exercise explained and demonstrated as three different difficult levels: Beginner, intermediate, and advanced. That essentially triples the usefulness of the program. You can go through the same course as a beginner, again as an intermediate player, and yet again, years later, as a more advanced player.
How much would a resource like that be worth to you?
Check out this screenshot of an email I got from Dan, a student in Nail the Changes:
I'm sure you can see how powerful a program like this is.
It's thorough. It's extensive. It's deep. And best of all, it works.
I want to help as many people as possible learn how to play freely-improvised melodies over chord changes like this.
But I also want to make sure that you're committed, that you value how serious of a program this is, and that you put in what it takes to skyrocket your playing skills.
There's a reason that students who take private lessons make huge improvements.
It's actually not necessarily because of the teacher they have.
It's because private lessons involve more of an investment, which makes students take their practicing more seriously.
Many students take one lesson every week for $100 per lesson, and though they get one-on-one attention, it's rare that they get a linear, structured practice plan that targets their goals perfectly.
At the going rate, for less than five private lessons, you can become a lifetime member of Nail the Changes for a one-time investment of just $497
If you look through the curriculum again you'll see that this is a ridiculous deal for what you get.
If improvising at a high level is one of your life-long goals, then it deserves a life-long resource; not a quick fix, not another average course, not a simple method, not a practice hack, but a deep and thorough guide from a teacher who is dedicated to being there for you and making the experience the best it can be.
I'm constantly improving NTC and thinking of ways to make it better for the students inside. I have exciting updates to it coming in the future. And everyone in the course gets all the updates for free.
Yes, it will be dense! That's because I'm including everything required to ensure that you get the exciting results that are possible for your playing.
I don’t believe in creating fluff material. I believe in providing whatever it takes to actually help you make huge improvements.
Choose the version of Nail the Changes that best fits your goals:
ESSENTIAL
$497
The Essential Curriculum
SPOTLIGHT
Currently Unavailable
+ Personalized Feedback!
Enrollment for Nail the Changes is currently closed
Make sure you're on my email list get notified when Nail the Changes becomes available again.
I send a free lesson video every Tuesday and occasionally promote deals on courses. You can easily unsubscribe anytime.
If you're thinking...
🤔 What if this course doesn't deliver?
🫤 What if I don't end up using the program?
🧐 What if I decide that it's not the right fit for me?
🤨 What if I just don't like the way this Jared guy teaches?
Worry not! You don't even have to decide at this very moment. You can sign up right now, see if you like the material, and if anytime in the first 90 days you decide it's not for you, I got you covered.
With my rock-solid, 90-day, hassle-free, super-chill, with-a-smile, no-questions-asked, 100%-money-back-guaranteed return policy, there's no harm in giving it a try :)
90 Day 100% Money Back Guarantee
30 day return policies are everywhere, and 60 day guarantee's are common as well, but you have a full 90 DAYS to try this course out and decide if it's right for you. That's how confident I am about the program.
That's right, signing up for Nail the Changes is totally risk free!
I'm confident that this course will provide immense value for your guitar playing and musicianship. However, if you decide after enrolling that it’s not the right fit for you, for any reason, just contact me within the first 90 days after your purchase and I'll give you a full refund with no hassle whatsoever :)
Even if you decide that you want your money back simply because you don't like the sound of my voice, that's no problem! Just email me within 90 days (jared[at]soundguitarlessons.com) and I'll gladly return every penny.
Yep, there's no risk on your shoulders at all.
Worst case you get a full refund, best case NTC becomes the smartest investment of your guitar playing life-time.
Maybe you're like me...
Maybe you rely on music to navigate the challenges of the world.
Maybe you have those little moments of finally feeling centered and at peace during the flow-state of learning, practicing, and creating music.
Maybe the very fact of having music in your life as a hobby, as a challenge, and as a means of personal expression is a fulfilling end unto itself.
And maybe all of those positive experiences are accentuated and deepened by having a clear path to follow that you trust.
We know that practicing music, at any skill level, can bring us deep joy. Yet the profound moments of meaning seem to get put on pause when we don't have clarity on what practice structures will get us closer to our goals.
What would it mean to you if you finally had the exact techniques, tools, diagrams, explanations, and know-how to work towards improvising at a much higher level than ever before on the guitar?
How nice would it be to show up to practice and know exactly what to work on without having to spend extra hours searching around for answers in random places?
And imagine yourself years from now when you're playing at a level that you never thought possible. Imagine even a few months from now, practicing as usual, but finally starting to sound how you've always wanted to sound.
What would it feel like to eliminate that "faking it" and searching-around feeling while improvising on the guitar?
On the other hand, like many of us have already experienced, years could go by only to look back and realize that we haven't made any progress—that we're still just playing the same old lines, that we're still skating over important harmonic information in the underlying music, and hoping that nobody notices.
You could definitely keep trying to piece together your own solution to improvising like I did, which took me years and years.
Heck, if you had the money you could go get a $100,000+ college degree in jazz guitar and try to figure it out that way (the average cost of college in the United States is $35,551 per student per year 😬). But even that can leave one feeling more confused about how to find their own voice than when they started. That was my experience anyway.
Years from now you could be getting straight to heart of every song you play over, with less and less practice time needed to get there, and sounding spot-on, because you worked on the core, fundamental concepts that tie all harmonic progressions together.
With an abundant reference guide like Nail the Changes, that's exactly what can happen.
I'll be perfectly honest, I devised the method taught in NTC for me. I made it selfishly so that I could finally play over any chord that comes up and feel truly fluent at it. It's just that it worked so well that I now feel it's my duty to help as many people as possible by introducing them to the very same approach.
So the choice is yours. I've done my part to make that choice as easy as possible for you—the rest is up to you.
- Jared
Hear what students are saying about the Nail the Changes system
Matt Fordham
I had been playing guitar for a long time, but never fully wrapped my head around playing through the changes.
Jared's systematic approach to the challenge was just what I needed.
Now, whenever I'm working on a hard tune, or working on a scale I'm less familiar with, Jared's system is right there when I need it. I know it will be with me forever and I really appreciate it.
Scott Shanks
Jared has a natural ability to understand what we as students struggle with, the roadblocks that discourage us and stop our progress.
His method for teaching improvisation he calls “Nail the Changes" is a simple-to-follow roadmap to master the art of improvisation over chords.
I hope that you will find this system is a game changer as I did in breaking through the mental barrier of how to make the guitar sound really cool.
William Lygate
I’m about half way through the course after many months of practicing. What I have gained on the way is certainly dexterity and increased knowledge on constructing scales.
My mind is now expanding into pulling together my own song intro’s and ideas for writing entire songs.
I don't do reviews on people, but Jared does deserve it. Jared comes across as not just a very accomplished player, but a thoroughly nice guy.
Choose the version of Nail the Changes that best fits your goals:
ESSENTIAL
$497
The Essential Curriculum
SPOTLIGHT
Currently Unavailable
+ Personalized Feedback!
Enrollment for Nail the Changes is currently closed
Make sure you're on my email list get notified when Nail the Changes becomes available again.
I send a free lesson video every Tuesday and occasionally promote deals on courses. You can easily unsubscribe anytime.
"It's pretty hard to find something that you resonate with. With Nail the Changes, this is exactly what I wanted . . .
The quality is really good."
- Andrei Cristof
"It was just a maze to me before, but through Jared's clear structure of the course you build up such an amazing fundamental knowledge."
- Stuart Alexander
"I'm a student of Nail the Changes and would highly recommend it. It's been great for me in helping me continue in my study of the guitar, giving me a systematic way of approaching it."
- Robert Morgan
"Many sites promise to transform you into a professional guitarist with the wave of a magic wand.
Jared Borkowski, he knows that learning is done over time. He takes the time to explain everything to you with obvious passion."
- Gedin Christian
Read Christian's full testimonial
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I'm just a beginner? Should I still join?
Do I need to know music theory before joining this course?
Do I need to be able to read music to use this course?
Is this course only for playing jazz? What if jazz isn't my main goal?
What if I don't have much time to practice?
Should I finish your other courses first before starting this one?
How long do I get to keep the course for?
What if I don't like the program after signing up?
How difficult are the exercises?
Does this method work on an acoustic guitar?
How is your paid content different from your YouTube lessons?
What do you mean by, “voice leading” when talking about playing over the changes?
90 Day 100% Money Back Guarantee
No questions. No hassle. Zero risk.
Have we met yet? Hi! I'm Jared :)
I'm a guitarist from Seattle who has been teaching and playing professionally for twenty years.
I struggled with figuring out how to improvise freely on the guitar over chord progressions for many years. After fifteen years of studying with amazing teachers, and slowly piecing together a solution, I now have an organized practice system that really works.
I've even tested it out on dozens of private students, then dozens more in my first version of NTC, and have proven its effectiveness. And it works for ANYONE. Like any practice method that really works, it's not quick, and it's not easy. But it works much faster than the path that I took.
I have a degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Washington School of Music where I also extensively studied classical guitar performance, music theory, and composition.
I post weekly lesson videos on my YouTube channel called Sound Guitar Lessons and I love playing jazz guitar, practicing classical guitar repertoire, and writing songs.
Also, I ride the unicycle, and I'm disappointed that there isn't a unicycle emoji.
