Learn Jazz Guitar Basics: A Comprehensive Guide
Many musicians are drawn to jazz because of the emotional connection they feel with the music of jazz greats. However, many shy away from it, feeling it is too difficult or out of reach. This article breaks down the process of learning jazz guitar into manageable categories, demonstrating that anyone can learn jazz, regardless of their current playing level or the amount of time they can dedicate to practice.
Choosing Your Jazz Guitar
You can play jazz on any guitar; however, some guitars are more popular in jazz. Traditionally, jazz guitars are hollow-body guitars, closer to acoustic guitars than solid-body guitars like Gibson SGs or Fender Strats. Hollow-body guitars, also known as arch-tops, resonate better than solid-body guitars and have a deep, warm tone, but this can lead to feedback issues.
Semi-hollow guitars, like the Gibson ES 335, are a hybrid, offering a versatile tone with fewer feedback issues. Solid-body guitars, such as Telecasters, also have their place in jazz, while steel-string acoustic guitars and nylon-string classical guitars are used in styles like Bossa Nova.
Mastering Essential Jazz Chords
To start learning jazz tunes, you’ll need to know some basic 7th chord shapes to begin internalizing jazz harmony and playing them on your instrument. The ultimate goal should be to know all 7th chord voicings for all chord qualities and in all inversions.
Most jazz tunes are made from four jazz chord qualities: major 7th (maj7), dominant 7th (7), minor 7th (m7), and minor 7th flat 5 (m7b5). If you learn these jazz chords, you can play nearly any jazz chord progression.
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Understanding Chord Qualities
Let's explore Cmaj7, C7, Cm7, and Cm7b5. Cmaj7 is built from a C major triad with a major 7th interval between C and B. To learn C7 on the same string group as Cmaj7, change all the Bs to Bbs.
The difference between a C7 and a Cm7 is that a Cm7 has a flatted third. To create a Cm7b5, flatten the 5th of a Cm7. By following this process, you can play four voicings for each of the essential chord qualities (maj7, 7, m7, m7b5) for C.
Practicing Jazz Chord Progressions
After learning some jazz guitar chords, the next step is practicing jazz chord progressions! Root position 7th chords aren’t as physically practical on the fretboard as other voicings. For an added challenge, try playing the same diatonic chord scale, but keep it in one area of the neck using inversions. There are many variations of this exercise.
Many jazz standards are written entirely with ii-Vs that move around different tonal centers. When referring to ii-V-Is, we are referring to chord relationships. Everything relates to the I, or tonal center. With diatonic ii-Vs, the ii chord is minor (hence the lowercase Roman numeral), and the V chord is major (hence the uppercase). ii-Vs don’t have to be diatonic. Sometimes, the ii chord is dominant and would be written like so: II to show that it is major. Let’s go through major ii-Vs in all 12 keys.
Applying Chords to Jazz Standards
After getting familiar with major and minor ii-Vs in all twelve keys, apply the jazz chords you’ve learned to actual jazz tunes. For example, in "All the Things You Are," the tune starts on the vi chord in Ab. You’ll notice a major ii-V to Ab in the first line (Bb-7 - Eb7 - Abmaj7). The second line has a minor iiø-V (D-7b5 - G7b9) but resolves to C major. Check out this article to get deeper into the i-V-I progression.
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Comping Techniques
You likely don’t want to play whole notes for each measure when comping in the rhythm section. The way George Benson might comp rhythm on a blues will be quite different from how Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny, Jim Hall, or Mike Stern might comp one. There is also the question of which jazz style you should try to emulate and internalize.
Jazz Improvisation Fundamentals
Jazz improvisation is more than just solos. In the beginning, nearly every guitar player starts by learning pentatonic scales. These five-note scales sit well on the fretboard, are usually played two notes per string, and are a staple of guitar basics. Understanding how scales and chords relate in different keys will help you supercharge your jazz guitar improvisation skills, which we will cover in the next big section. Check out our article on understanding musical modes for more information.
Understanding Musical Modes
Below are diatonic (meaning from one key) triads (meaning three-note chords) in the key of C major. The notes in blue start on E and end on E. The notes in green start on G and end on G. So, hidden within the key of C major, there are seven scales. The following guitar scale diagrams show you all seven modes of C major in two octaves, starting on the big E string. These are isolated scale shapes. If you want a comprehensive breakdown of modes and how to apply them to the fretboard, check out the Inner Circle’s Jazz Guitar Accelerator Course.
Soloing Strategies
Experienced jazz guitarists make improvisation seem like magic, but there are fundamental rules that all jazz players follow to play convincing solos. Jazz improvisers use chromaticism to add color and momentum to their jazz lines. The major bebop scale above has a chromatic passing tone between A and G, or the 6th and 5th scale degrees. Early bebop pioneers like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie didn’t formally “decide” on the rules governing bebop scales.
Enclosure figures target important chord tones like the root note, the 3rd, the 5th, and the 7th by first playing the adjacent notes. Above, we see three enclosure figures. The first one targets the root note (C) chromatically by first playing B and Db. The second one targets the third (E) diatonically by first playing D, then F. The important chord tones that distinguish one chord quality from another are the 3rd and 7th. Instead, it is an exercise to get your brain thinking about chord tones as you play in time. As before, we are using “All the Things You Are” for the harmony. You can also practice playing through the chord progression using shell voicings or shell chords.
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Another way to approach improvisation is to think about the tonal centers of a tune rather than the individual chords. This helps you chunk together how a tune changes as you move through the form. You should listen to various versions of All the Things You Are and learn how other players have approached the changes. Here is a video to get you started with playing over the ii-V-I chord progression.
Chord Melody and Influential Guitarists
Another staple of jazz guitar is the chord melody. You should know the following guitarists, but this list is incomplete.
Resources for Further Learning
If you found our beginner jazz guitar article helpful and want more, you must check out the Inner Circle. TrueFire's Learning Path is an accelerated, hands-on study plan of video guitar lessons designed to advance your guitar skills.
One of the most important aspects of learning how to play guitar is making sure that you're working on lessons that are suitable for your current level of play. you're not pushing yourself to learn something new. TrueFire's Learning Paths are progressive; starting at absolute beginner and ending at what we consider to be an advanced level of play. If you're an absolute beginner, start at the very beginning. Note! Use the collapse/expand button on any of the sections in your Learning Path to design your ideal uncluttered view. Ready to get started?
Build a strong foundation in jazz guitar by learning essential harmonic language, chord-scale relationships, and improvisation techniques. While it's important to have an understanding of the licks and runs that top jazz players use to define their own style, it's essential for any guitarist who wants to succeed in the genre to know the chords, scales, and harmonic language that these great players are actually referencing.
Jazz Guitar 101 provides the basics behind the jazz language: effective chord/scale usage, reharmonization, approach notes, arpeggio substitutions, melodic tension through the manipulation of harmony, rhythm, and melody, and improvisation techniques over jazz chord changes. Through the use of transcriptions and slowed-down examples, you'll study the styles of some of the most influential jazz guitarists over the past 50 years (including Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, John Scofield, Mike Stern, and Pat Martino). The course utilizes video, MP3 tracks, and written notation to infuse these techniques into your playing as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
Completion of Guitar Chords 101 and Guitar Scales 101 or equivalent knowledge is required. Students should have at least two years of playing experience and the ability to play various scales and chords on the guitar. Students are required to record video while performing with a backing track for their assignments. Students are required to capture their instrumental performance, as well as monitor audio output. After enrolling, be sure to check out our Student Deals page for various offers on software, hardware, and more.
Jazz Guitar Survival Guide
For over a decade, I spent a week or two every summer teaching at a jazz camp in eastern Washington. It was an intense camp, with lots of playing. They didn’t have time to learn every little detail about what they were playing. I started looking for fast, simple ways to give them the information they really needed, without burying them in basic theory. Over time I pieced things together and came up with a simple, effective formula for learning jazz guitar. In the end, I created a handbook that gave these students quick access to the skills they would need throughout the week. It can give you quick access to the information you need, whenever you need it. It quickly became a cornerstone of my teaching in private lessons, clinics, camps, and workshops. I put this book together with busy students in mind. My entire goal is to put you on the fast track to being a better jazz guitar player. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to look up a new scale or chord, and having to read through pages of theory explanation first. That’s why I take you straight to the good stuff - how to play the things you need to be able to play. The music theory that is included in the book is baked right into the lessons - so you’re learning theory without even thinking about it. It’s not a step-by-step method. Jazz Guitar Survival Guide is full of easy-to-understand diagrams and examples to help you learn as fast as possible. There’s a reason this material has worked so well for so many students over the years. “Wow, this is awesome. Jazz Guitar Guide makes it easier for you to learn jazz guitar fast.
Practical Tips for Beginners
The main problem is that no two musicians are alike. This creates quite a lot of head-scratching and soul-searching. Music is not like, say, the human body. Go to the gym, meet the personal trainer. You're out of shape (oops!). You'll do pretty much the same exercises as most out-of-shape people do, provided they have the same training / weight loss goals. Workout a few weeks, re-assess your shape. Unfortunately, with music, it doesn't quite work that way. Too many gray areas. Too many subjective ideas … and valid perspectives are everywhere. Oh, how complicated your are making my life, you RIGHT brain. Practice what you enjoy in Jazz. Joe Pass? Mike Stern? Gypsy stuff? Fine by me! Simply gravitate towards your main interests. And I believe you should do that from DAY 1, don't wait. Tackle only what you can. It is not useful to create unrealistic practice plans for yourself; you'll be creating unnecessary expectations. (i.e. Set the ball rolling by giving yourself a push at first. The gym analogy again! Create a positive environment and scheduling for your practice. This helps motivation tremendously! If motivation does not come easily at the beginner (or in general): get a teacher! Being accountable is one of the most powerful force in the universe. If you have children, you know exactly what I mean. Use Jazz recordings, as much as you can. Listen, listen, listen … And during your practice, try to pickup parts of recorded Jazz that you like. Use your sense of habit (momentum), once the ball is rolling. It is very natural for humans to do so. Always remember that progress is achieved in small steps … and improvements only show in the long term! The turtle wins the race. Stop the overwhelm. Skip the endless scales.
Jazz can be intimidating - the songs, the musicians, the clubs - but it really doesn’t have to be. The truth is, playing jazz standards or sounding “jazzy” simply isn’t that hard. In fact, learning bar chords (a staple of rock guitar) is probably harder than learning to play some of the most popular jazz chords.
Shell Chords and II-V-I Progressions
Grab your guitar and try out this ▵7 (AKA major7 or maj7) chord voicing below. The numbers on the strings (7 & 3) refer to the intervals you’re playing in relation to the root note. The R stands for “root note” and tells you how to find the right fret to start on. The chord shapes you’ll learn today are called shell chords. The other notes are the 3rd and 7th intervals and define the quality of the chord (major vs. minor & dominant 7 vs. You already know the blue maj7 chord. Play the red shape on the 3rd fret. Play the purple shape so that the root note is on the 3rd fret. Play the blue shape so that the root note is on the 1st fret. Each roman numeral represents a different chord. In the key of C major… II = Dm7 because it's the second chord in the key of C major.
Analyzing a Jazz Standard: Solar
An early version of the tune was written by jazz guitarist Chuck Wayne. This type of evolving nature of songs, borrowing from one another, and the fact that different people recorded the same tune explains why lead sheets of jazz standards sometimes come in different versions. The following II-V-Is are all in Solar. Step 1: Play the bass notes. Before you try to play this song using chords, figure out the order of the root notes on the guitar fretboard. Step 2. Here's the full chord progression. Remember, the II-V-I's below all occur in Solar. One after the other. The same three chord cluster, just different root notes (and therefore different frets). See? Jazz isn't so hard! Step 3. Try playing the chords along with the video. It'll help you figure out how long every chord lasts. There are different routes you can take from here. learn what a minor II-V-I looks like.
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