Learn To Play Jazz The Way You Learned To Speak.
A proven, step-by-step 8-week course to give you the tools you need to begin playing jazz right away.
If you're reading this, you've probably tried to learn jazz in the past.
Maybe you've taken piano lessons years ago but always wanted to dig deeper into this beautiful music, but never knew where to start.
You've tried other courses, but they've left you frustrated, and you began to wonder if you'd ever crack the code.
The good news is
IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT
Most online Jazz courses and textbooks approach this music from the wrong direction, leaving you overwhelmed and confused from the beginning.
But no matter your age or experience, trust me!
You can learn this music faster than you ever thought possible.
The greatest barrier to learning is stress.
When we were young, we learned our native tongue in a relaxed environment. An environment free from anxiety, stress, and fear of failure.
Given simple words and phrases, we learned by doing. As an older (and wiser) musician once taught me: "Experience first. Then comes explanation."
Mistakes were never considered failure. They were part of the game. And every piece of new information opened up a new world of possibilities. Believe it or not, our brains still work best this way.
The Conversational Jazz Course returns us to these essentials of true learning. Over the eight-week course, I'll retrace my own steps to learning jazz with you, and show you how to make this music your own.
TRY IT FREE FOR 7 DAYSI'll walk you through the very same steps that I took to learn jazz from the ground up
(no metronome or sheet music required)
During this course, I'll retrace the steps I took to learn this music (believe it or not, it took me twenty years to take the plunge—the fear is real), and created this online course to help you get the results you want.
When I first tried learning jazz, I looked everywhere for guidance. Textbooks were of little help; memorizing scales and patterns was useless without context, which is rarely given. Jazz sheet music (yes, it's actually a thing) was the dead end of all dead ends. Listening to jazz recordings was helpful—to a point. What are you supposed to do with an Oscar Peterson solo when he's playing sixteenth notes at 80 miles per hour?
It wasn’t until I hit the restaurants, bars, and local street corners that I started to discover the best way for me to learn, which became the same method I'll use to teach you.
Over the years, I've used these principles to teach others and have seen them achieve remarkable success learning the genre. They start out thinking they’ll need years of formal training, but within a matter of weeks, they're riffing and creating their own renditions of their favorite tunes.
And now it's your turn. Let's play some jazz ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
Imagine if:
You could come home after a long day at work, sit down at the piano with a glass of wine, and for the next 30 minutes, immerse yourself in your own rendition of your favorite jazz tune
You could attend your friends cocktail party, and walk over to the piano (to everyone’s surprise), sit down and play through everyone’s favorite George Gershwin jazz tune.
You could attend a local jazz jam session, and swing out on a blues tune to everyone’s delight.
Student Testimonials
"Doc’s easy, “conversational”, approach to chord development, chord progressions and jazz improvisations really worked for me.
I’ve been playing piano for most of my life and have always struggled with reading sheet music. So much that I never enjoyed learning pieces or would just give up and “fake” them…. I knew Doc was a fabulous musician from visiting his Jazz, TX! Club. So when I had the opportunity to try his Conversational Jazz course, I had to jump in!
His teachings have given me a whole new approach to playing jazz and swing, and the confidence to jump into music that I never would have been able to master."
- Mike Acquisto ,Architect
"I am a daughter of a piano teacher who taught me all the basics of piano with concentration on READING MUSIC.
With that being said, I lacked the skills of improvisation, chord building and chord progression, along with the joy of playing jazz and blues. Doc Watkins’ Conversational Jazz Course gave me the opportunity to expand my knowledge & skills AND experiment with “getting out of the [music] box” I lived in.
The website is very user friendly with all courses and materials easily accessible. The best thing I liked was being able to take the courses at my own pace. You’ll have a lifetime availability to all material, as well as, all recorded tracks and Q&A sessions associated with the course. I find myself going back to the material occasionally for a refresher or to practice my jazz riffs with the snazzy accompaniment tracks."
- Liz Morales, Business Owner
"To any young at heart and aging and aspiring jazz pianists, I would like to recommend Doc Watkins "Conversational Jazz" piano course.
After seeing what Doc had developed, a conversational approach to learning, and having been involved in education all my adult life I knew this was the best way of gaining an understanding of something new. I decided to try the course knowing that if it didn't fit and being budget-conscious I would get a refund.
Today over a year later I can play jazz tunes, not like Bill Evans or Oscar Petersen of course but at an early intermediate level. And I am able to appreciate Evans and Petersen and others like the Doc to a much greater degree. To boil it all down, Go for it and keep Swingin’!”
- Frank Syster,Retired
ABOUT DOC WATKINS
Doc Watkins is a pianist, vocalist, producer, bandleader, and the owner of Jazz, TX in San Antonio. He co-hosts the weekly radio show, Live at Jazz, TX on Texas Public Radio. He's also the creator and host of The Doc Watkins Show, an online television broadcast created in 2020.
A typical year for Watkins involves over two hundred live shows with multiple groups under his name, and so far he has released nine albums, covering multiple genres including Classical, Jazz, Blues, and Texas Swing.
Watkins received his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Music Performance from the University of Texas at Austin, and moved to San Antonio, TX in 2006. He has toured extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, Russia, and Europe, and has performed twice at Carnegie Hall.
In 2016, Watkins opened his own music venue, Jazz, TX, and performs there regularly with his groups. Deeply committed to the heritage and tradition of Texas music, he includes a wide variety of styles at Jazz, TX including Jazz, Blues, Texas Swing, Salsa, and Folk music.
Watkins currently resides in San Antonio with his wife, Jessica and their four children. He is a self-declared enthusiast of Texas BBQ.
Say Hello to
CONVERSATIONAL JAZZ
A proven, step-by-step 8-week course to give you the tools you need to begin playing jazz right away.
This course will gives you a solid foundation of the most fundamental principles in jazz ,the way I learned it.
The goal is to teach you how to think for yourself within this music, build chords, improvise your own solos, and learn new tunes for years to come.
New material released each week will provide you with fresh and stimulating content to keep you moving throughout the course.
Here's how the curriculum breaks down
Chapter I
Chords and Building our Foundation
In this chapter, I’ll take you through the most fundamental building blocks to playing jazz chords. These essential building blocks will provide the basis for everything in the course
Chapter II
Putting Chords To Work: The 12-Bar Blues
In this chapter, we cover the history and structure of the 12-Bar Blues. We talk about how the blues influenced Jazz, and how you can use early blues recordings to influence your Jazz playing.
Chapter III
Melody and Improvisation
In this chapter, we begin to deconstruct the process of improvisation in the jazz style. I’ll give you several tools and approaches to start creating your own solos right away. Backing tracks are provided, so you can play along with a real rhythm section.
Chapter IV
Melody and Improvisation: Part II
We’ll continue to build on the previous chapter, and discuss some more options for how to improve your improvisation.
Chapter V
The Bass Line
In Chapter 5, we dig into the left hand, and explore various ways to cover the bass. I’ll show you how to create your own bass lines, play stride piano, and more.
Chapter VI
Autumn Leaves
In this chapter, we explore a new tune: The classic Jazz Standard “Autumn Leaves.” We’ll start with the history of the tune, and I’ll teach you the fundamental steps to approaching ANY new jazz standard.
Chapter VI
Autumn Leaves Part 2
We’ll continue to build on the previous chapter, and I’ll give you additional tools to use for building jazz solos.
Chapter VIII
Autumn Leaves and Playing Ballads
No course would be complete without a discussion of playing ballads. In this chapter, we’ll explore “Autumn Leaves” at a slower tempo, and discover some new tools to play ballads, whether with a rhythm section, or solo piano.
The Conversational Jazz Course has helped over 500 students achieve what they never thought possible: To sit down at the piano, and explore their favorite jazz tunes, whether at a cocktail party, or the comfort of their own living room.
Give yourself an “ on-demand Jazz Teacher” to help you exactly learn jazz from the ground up
500 + Students Enrolled
What Doc Watkins has created is something truly remarkable. He breaks down so many barriers for the classically trained as well as those new to piano. A great course in every way and I HIGHLY recommend it.
_
Kenneth Thompson
Founder and CEO, Musical Arts Center of San Antonio
Lifetime Access
You keep lifetime access to your course, including video lessons, Q&A calls, and all downloadable resources to support your learning. And if you're not satisfied with the course, read my unbeatable guarantee in the FAQ section below. 
My Crazy Satisfaction Guarantee
I’m so confident in the Conversational Jazz Course that I’m willing to offer an unconditional, money-back guarantee for 30 days. If the course doesn’t work for you, just send me an email at [email protected] and I’ll refund 100% of your money.
It’s that simple.
THIS COURSE IS FOR YOU IF:
♪ You've taken some lessons in the past, but always wanted to get into jazz.
♪ You're a classically trained musician, but never learned to improvise.
♪ You've got some chops, but it's been a while. You're ready to get playing again.
♪ You've always wanted to play jazz, but didn't think you had it in you. And you've reached the point where you're sick and tired of self-doubt (that was me).
THIS COURSE IS NOT FOR YOU IF:
❌ You like to do things the hard way and you want to master all the concepts before actually touching an instrument.
❌ You’re a total beginner, with literally no knowledge or experience (this isn’t a learn-to-play-piano course)
❌ You’re Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, or a total jazz STUD who’s already won multiple Grammys.
If you want to start playing jazz RIGHT AWAY this is the course for you.
Most jazz courses are highly academic and dry, whereas mine is fun and natural, This course is completely based on experiential learning.
You don’t even realize you’re learning it is so much fun.
I’ve tried other jazz courses and taken lessons in the past, with little to no success. What makes your course different?”
I’ve heard this from countless students over the years. My philosophy is simple, but quite different from most programs you may have encountered. In a single phrase:
Experience first. Then comes understanding.
Sadly, most jazz programs spend weeks (or months) focusing on understanding the theory behind the music before one is allowed to apply these principles to real-life experience. The conversational jazz course is different because we learn by doing, much like you learned to speak as a child. This allows positive feedback to occur from Day One and makes the learning process faster, and much more enjoyable.
Below are some other questions students have asked before enrolling.
Do you offer a guarantee?
Is this course for me? How can I know?
What all is included in the course? How long is it?
How much time will I need to spend practicing?
What's the end goal of the course? How far can I really get in 8 weeks?
I've never done an online course before. How "techy" do I need to be?
Is the course only for pianists, or does it apply to other instruments?
Is this course suitable for kids?
ADDITIONAL COURSE FEATURES
Course Delivery
Each lesson will be posted in our private online studio (you'll receive access after registration), where you can watch and learn at your own pace. The videos are short and easily digestible so you'll have plenty of opportunities to practice what you learn as you go along.
New Content Each Week
To keep you moving at a steady pace, we'll release lessons one at a time. This will give you time to work out the concepts and ask any questions that come up along the way.
Full access to the Q&A archives
You'll receive full access to the Q&A archives, featuring an additional 20+ hours of Q&A sessions with Doc. In these videos, Doc covers hundreds of common questions related to learning jazz.
Lifetime Access
You keep lifetime access to your course, including video lessons, Q&A calls, and all downloadable resources to support your learning.
What Doc Watkins has created is something truly remarkable - great teaching that works from the first lesson and gives you a lifetime of material. It is fun, inspiring, exciting, instructive and it WORKS!
He brings down so many barriers for the classical trained as well as those new to piano. He goes into the history and ethos of the music which helps you play it and also enjoy listening to jazz even more. It is a great course in every way and I HIGHLY recommend it.
Kenneth Thompson - Piano Instructor and CEO of Musical Arts Center in San Antonio, TX
