Jazz Ear Savvy
Digital · Print · All instruments
Stop Calculating.Start Hearing.
Most musicians struggle with improvisation because they've been taught to think their way through it. Jazz Ear Savvy trains the connection between what you hear and what you play between mind and instrument.
Available for C, Bb, Eb, and Bass Clef · Digital or print · Risk-free guarantee
Most musicians improvise the hard way by calculating instead of hearing.
Great jazz improvisation isn't about thinking faster.
It's about listening deeper.
— Michael Lake, Music Savvy
What Jazz Ear Savvy Does
Four things this book trains in you.
Not more information — a deeper connection between your ear and your instrument.
Bridge Ear and Instrument. Specific exercises and audio tracks align your ear directly with your instrument for instant musical expression.
Hear Harmonies Clearly. Train yourself to harmonize in real time, allowing your ear to naturally guide your musical choices.
Tap Into Your Musical Imagination. Stop calculating throughout your solos. Instead, channel the music you hear internally through your instrument.
Learning Standards. Exercises on standards training you on playing them in a variety of keys. Now, you start to truly hear them.
Inside the Book
What's Inside
Patterns to develop your ear
Instead of memorizing patterns, you are provided patterns that strengthen your ear to play in every key. While most books simply write them out, here, you rely only on your ear.
59 Custom Audio Tracks
Ear-building exercises with 59 custom-produced audio tracks. Have fun strengthening your ability to hear and reproduce melodies, ideas, and harmonies using guided listening exercises.
Interactive Improvisation Challenges
Put your skills to the test with real-world musical exercises that teach your ear to lead your instrument.
A Section on the Circle of Fifths
Navigate key changes by hearing the movement of harmonic progressions around the circle. Learn to hear the circle and the relationship of key centers.
What Players Are Saying
Real players. Real results.
What your teaching is doing is increasing my ear to instrument reaction time. This is really exciting for me!
Sharilynn H.
Jazz Flutist
Doing what you recommend, I am playing a few things in my solos I never played before. I think because I am more able to now play what I am hearing in my head. Some of it is starting to come out. Thank you!
Charles N.
Trombone Player
I just want to say thanks so much for your teachings. They are crystal clear, practical, and valuable. They are like vitamins.
Marty S.
Jazz Instrument Player
You've given me a road map for how to bring my voice to life. I'm excited to give birth to the music I've always wanted to create and I'm grateful to you for giving it to me.
Paul A.
Jazz Musician
Hear It Directly From Richie Beirach
Exercising Your Musical Mind
Richie Beirach provides an exercise for how to strengthen your musical mind as the driver of improvisation.
Your instrument is secondary. Your ear is primary.
Richie illustrates how to get better in touch with your inner improviser.
This idea of training your musical voice and then expressing that through your instrument is a key concept throughout Jazz Ear Savvy.
Get the Book
Choose Your Instrument & Format
Jazz Ear Savvy is available for all instruments. Select your edition below.
Select your instrument and format above, then click to go to checkout.
Buy Jazz Ear Savvy Risk-Free
If you apply yourself to the exercises and don't feel your playing improve, contact me and I'll refund you in full. No questions asked. No hassles.
And you keep the book.
Questions you might be asking yourself.
Jazz Ear Savvy is available in four editions: C, B♭, E♭, and Bass Clef — covering piano, bass, guitar, trumpet, saxophone, trombone, flute, and more. All editions contain identical content; only the notation differs to match your instrument's key.
Jazz Ear Savvy works for any player who has basic command of their instrument and wants to improvise more naturally. Whether you're just starting to explore jazz or have been playing for years and feel stuck, the ear-first approach meets you where you are.
The digital edition includes 59 custom audio tracks playable directly from the PDF — no separate app or download needed. You'll also get a link to a .zip file to download everything locally.
No. Jazz Ear Savvy is deliberately built around hearing rather than analysis. The exercises train your ear to recognize and respond to what's happening musically — not to calculate your way through it. If anything, it's the opposite of a theory book.
Apply yourself to the exercises. If you don't feel a genuine improvement in your playing, contact me for a full refund — no questions asked. You keep the book regardless.
Your ear already knows the music.
This book helps you play it.
Jazz Ear Savvy gives you the framework to stop calculating and start expressing — naturally, confidently, and on any instrument.
From $24.95 · C, Bb, Eb, Bass Clef · Risk-free guarantee
