Aspiring jazz guitarist...where should I start?

[thekicks]

Hello TGP, thekicks here. Been playing guitar for about 10 years with very little advancement in skill thanks to school and the like. But come May, I graduate from nursing school and I might actually have a little free time!

So I want to learn the jazz guitar. I'm listening to a lot of Wes Montgomery and Sondre Lerche and I cannot get enough of that smooth silky sound. I'm sure the best way to start is with a book of jazz chords (I know, if I don't know them by now, it will be a little rough).

Does anyone have any suggestions for a particular book or DVD they found helpful?

Also, any pointers on how to set up my gear would be greatly appreciated! I've been doing mostly indie and alt rock with my stuff and am pretty clueless on how to EQ stuff any other way.

I play a MIM Standard Telecaster with GFS neovin pure vintage pickups, through a Egnater Rebel-20 head and a really bad cab that I need to replace the speaker in. So that's just about it! Can't wait to soak up some wisdom!

[guitarjazz]

Originally Posted by thekicks

Hello TGP, thekicks here. Been playing guitar for about 10 years with very little advancement in skill thanks to school and the like. But come May, I graduate from nursing school and I might actually have a little free time!

So I want to learn the jazz guitar. I'm listening to a lot of Wes Montgomery and Sondre Lerche and I cannot get enough of that smooth silky sound. I'm sure the best way to start is with a book of jazz chords (I know, if I don't know them by now, it will be a little rough).

Does anyone have any suggestions for a particular book or DVD they found helpful?

Also, any pointers on how to set up my gear would be greatly appreciated! I've been doing mostly indie and alt rock with my stuff and am pretty clueless on how to EQ stuff any other way.

I play a MIM Standard Telecaster with GFS neovin pure vintage pickups, through a Egnater Rebel-20 head and a really bad cab that I need to replace the speaker in. So that's just about it! Can't wait to soak up some wisdom!

The Mickey Baker Jazz Guitar Vol 1 seems to be a starting place for many. It's not complete by any means but it is arranged in such a way as you can go through the lessons step by step.
As soon as you can you need to start learning tunes. Get the Jamey Aebersold Maiden Voyage play-along book/CD and learn all those tunes. The book contains a guitar supplement to help you with chords. Also get Barry Galbraith Guitar Solos (blue cover) and start learning some of those tunes...maybe start with Darn That Dream.
Don't be shy about copying anything on those recordings you like. That's the time tested method.

[monkmiles]

I think a fantastic beginning jazz intro is a 2 dvd set by Mimi Fox called Jazz Anatomy. It covers the main jazz tune forms, some basic comping concepts, and some soloing concepts...all in an easy to follow format that focuses on playing through tunes.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Anatomy-2.../dp/B002LYPLAM

A basic EQ/tone recomedation would be to use your neck pickup and roll your guitars tone knob down some. Perhaps start at 5 (half way) and tweak from there. Start with your amps EQ flat (probably half way) and set it clean.

[dewey decibel]

You're going to get a million responses for books and videos (which is cool), but I don't think that's necessarily telling you what you need to learn. It's actually pretty simple, you need 3 things; an understanding of music theory, a way to apply that understanding to your instrument, and a repertoire/vocabulary.

I think it's important to keep these things separate as you learn them. For instance many guitarists learn theory on the instrument. The learn a scale pattern and think, "ok, now I know this scale", but in reality they just know the pattern. Show them another pattern in a different position and they won't realize it's the same notes. Don't be one of those guys.

Learn some music theory and learn how the guitar works. Most people can sit down at a piano and make sense of it, you need to get to the same place with the guitar.

On top of all this is your vocabulary. How you work on this is simple, you do a lot of listening and a lot of playing. In the end what you're listening/playing should guide your learning of music theory and the instrument.

Like I said, it's simple. But that doesn't mean it's easy. Good luck!

[Melodic Dreamer]

Originally Posted by dewey decibel

You're going to get a million responses for books and videos (which is cool), but I don't think that's necessarily telling you what you need to learn. It's actually pretty simple, you need 3 things; an understanding of music theory, a way to apply that understanding to your instrument, and a repertoire/vocabulary.

I think it's important to keep these things separate as you learn them. For instance many guitarists learn theory on the instrument. The learn a scale pattern and think, "ok, now I know this scale", but in reality they just know the pattern. Show them another pattern in a different position and they won't realize it's the same notes. Don't be one of those guys.

Learn some music theory and learn how the guitar works. Most people can sit down at a piano and make sense of it, you need to get to the same place with the guitar.

On top of all this is your vocabulary. How you work on this is simple, you do a lot of listening and a lot of playing. In the end what you're listening/playing should guide your learning of music theory and the instrument.

Like I said, it's simple. But that doesn't mean it's easy. Good luck!

One of the best post ever. Great advice right here!!!

[jb70]

dvd's:
john abercrombie- jazz guitar improvisation (http://www.abstractlogix.com/xcart/p...roductid=21251)

scott henderson- jazz/rock mastery (http://www.amazon.com/Scott-Henderso.../dp/0739045067)

books:
mick goodrick- the advancing guitarist (http://www.amazon.com/The-Advancing-.../dp/0881885894)

jon damian- guitarists guide to composing and improvising (http://www.amazon.com/Guitarists-Gui...3506341&sr=1-1)

bert ligon- comprehensive technique for jazz musicians (http://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-...3506383&sr=1-1)

there are a few others but these are good to start with

[jb70]

p.s. make sure you work on your reading too

[arthur rotfeld]

I wrote a book out on jazz guitar chord voicings. I think it came out well, if I may say so myself. It's brief, yet fairly thorough, and can get you up and running fast.

For some reason the wrong cover is displaying:

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Chord-V...3506986&sr=8-1


Regarding tone, just go for what you like. There are "typical" jazz tones, but almost anything could work.

[thekicks]

I really appreciate the responses! I will definitely work on my theory and do a lot of playing when I get the time. The books and DVD suggestions are great and I'll read up on them, too.

[JonR]

TUNES - you need to learn some tunes! Get a Real Book - there are several available but this is probably the best to start with:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Standards-Re...3507355&sr=8-1
This is your bible.

Of course, you need to know your fretboard completely, and all your 7th chords: in various shapes and inversions, including rootless voicings. It's better to know enough theory (and enough fretboard) to enable you to construct them, rather than looking them up in books. But of course if you need to do that, well you need to do that!

Essential chord types:

maj7
7 (dom7)
m7
m7b5
dim7

Less essential but still important:

altered dom7 (7#5#9 etc)
7#11

Just get away from the technique books as soon as you can, and into reading melodies, and listening to jazz to copy some licks and phrases.

Forget about gear and tone. It's about building a vocabulary, understanding the songs (how melody and chords work together), getting the feel, especially the approach to rhythm and phrasing.
The question is not "how did he get that sound?", but "why (and how) did he choose those notes?"

[pats]

Jimmy Bruno has an online course that was very effective for me.

[Blues Power]

i tried taking the blues and R&R approach and just play what i heard off the CD.
hey that always worked fine for me with classic rock and albert king

I had to start my jazz lessons off at the top b/c im thick headed and been playing 30+ years and though i knew it all. (R&R never gave me a problem)
so started working on Sophisticated Lady version by Larry Coryell

i got the opening progressions of the song down afer a few hours of cussing and qot quickly lost after that, and very discouraged.

i qucikly learned that i would need some basic backround first b4 i tackled into the world of jazz.

[JonR]

Blues is actually a good grounding for the jazz attitude at least. It teaches you about feel and swing, about the importance of improvisation of a personally expressive kind, and about "less is more", space, not overstating things. (Rock is much more about laying it on thick, filling all the space with sound. Jazz is the opposite to that.)

But jazz is a whole lot deeper harmonically, of course; that's usually the stumbling block when moving from blues or rock in to jazz. So yes, you need some kind of study to learn about chord construction, functional chord progressions, modulation, substitution and reharmonization, etc etc. The important thing- while you're doing that - is not to forget the simple things like melodic phrasing and rhythm. Jazz doesn't HAVE to be complicated. Or rather, you need to know a lot of stuff, but you don't have to put it all into your playing every time.

[FatJeff]

+1 on the Jimmy Bruno institute for beginners. I was a member there for about 6 months and found it very helpful. I've also heard that the Micky Baker books are great, although I've never used them myself. There are huge threads over on jazzguitar.be that deal with these books, and there's also an online group somewhere that studies these books together. That might be good to get into.

I don't think anyone has mentioned ear training so far. Incredibly important. You need to start identifying intervals & chord qualities by ear as soon as you can. There's no other way to really learn tunes or solos, IMNSHO. As a part of that, you should start listening to all sorts of jazz (not just guitarists!) to get the sounds into your head. Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Hank Mobley, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughn, Clifford Brown are all names that come to mind.

I think this article sums things up pretty well. After 3 years of jazz guitar immersion, and trying just about every book/DVD/quick-fix scheme/methodology out there, all of the points made in the article ring true to me. http://jazzadvice.com/where-to-start...improvisation/. Take a look and use it as you will.

[JSeth]

I'd suggest really listening, REALLY LISTENING to a lot of songs from the acknowledged "Masters" of days past; not just guitar! Everything from Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Art Tatum, up through Miles and Bill Evans and Jim Hall... just soak it all up, get it in your soul (as Charles Mingus said!), and begin to appreciate the legacy of this wonderful music!

The Mickey Baker Book, Vol I... the opening page (lesson 1) is filled with some wonderful jazz chords and voicings... that lesson alone is worth the price of the book! Some of the chords are called by different names, nowadays, but you will sort that out as you go along...

I agree that you will want to immerse yourself in Modern Diatonic Theory; that will assist greatly in understanding why tunes sound the way they do, why they "go" where they go, and what you can apply to them to produce certain feels and sounds of your choosing.

Although scales are not playing music, in my world, they will help you gain the facility to play lines, in tempo; something about working with a metronome at very slow speeds gives us the ability to increase the speed quite easily... once you have the "feel" of a 16th note pattern (or triplets or...) ingrained in your soul and brain, you will start to hear those "feels" over any number of harmonic changes...

Certainly, get into playing tunes! Go for a lot of the older "standards", as quite a lot of modern jazz comes from them... a lot of Charlie Parker's tunes, for example, were "take-offs" of pop songs of the day. Having to play those songs, time after time, brought out different interpretations, and those interpretations have become standards in and of themselves! The popular songs of the 20's, 30's 40's and 50's were really lovely tunes! Unfortunately, the melody was frequently paired with lyrics that were incredibly inane, but that's for another discussion! Cole Porter and Lorenz Hart are 2 examples of great lyrics, however...

Good luck! It's a lot of fun and a genre one can study and play for a lifetime!