Jazz Festivals » Jazz Guitar Lessons

How To Play Jazz Guitar – Become a Smooth Jazz Guitarist

admin2 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:44:22 +0000

Jazz is an excellent language of communication for discerning guitarists. Jazz guitar has its own unique style and form of guitar playing. It is also a very popular form of music that you can play. Then if you let your creativity take over you can even create your own jazz licks. You can definitely emulate the likes of Joe Pass, Charlie Christian, George Benson, Wes Montgomery and many other great guitarists if you devote yourself seriously into practicing and learning jazz guitar. You can get paid lessons or you can even learn jazz guitar online. All you need is a guitar and determination!

First Thing First

The first step on the way to learning jazz guitar is that you should have a good jazz guitar. Although if you have opted to take guitar instructions from a music school which may have guitars for their students, learning to play jazz guitar is a demanding discipline and to be proficient, you need to be practicing at home also. One important point in getting a guitar for yourself is that instead of shopping for a cheap jazz guitar, you should buy a guitar, which has good sound characteristics, has excellent aesthetics and is durable. It is always advisable to buy guitars from reputed guitar manufacturers. They may not come cheap, but they are worth the money you pay for them.

Jazz Guitar Lessons

You can explore many avenues if you wish to learn how to play jazz guitar. You can learn jazz guitar online, as there are many websites that have free online jazz guitar lessons. You can opt for an electric guitar or learn acoustic jazz guitar. There are also many people who are willing to give guitar lessons to ardent students free. You can explore your locality to see if you have some guitar enthusiast who can teach you the basics of jazz guitar.

Learn Jazz Guitar Online

The goodness about online jazz guitar lessons is that they are accessible to you 24/7. You can have access to them at all times, night or day. There are many good online jazz guitar instruction sites where you will learn the basics of jazz guitar, basic and advanced chord construction theory, guitar licks and riffs. Although online guitar lessons should not be a substitute for one-to-one guitar instructions, if you can access to a good jazz guitar instructor, they are excellent for people who are short of time and money.

By: Max Cane

Jazz Guitar Lessons – The Easy Internet Solution

admin2 — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:07:50 +0000

One of the biggest problems when it comes to learning a new skill is time. Most of us have many daily commitments that cannot be neglected. Your dream may be to grow into a skilled jazz guitar player but your schedule may not allow for regular classroom sessions. You do not have to give up on your plans for jazz guitar lessons. Instead, consider the more flexible alternative. You can get just as much quality information and helpful tips from online jazz guitar lessons as you will with a one-on-one class.

The other attractive aspect of taking jazz guitar lessons online is the lower cost. Many companies offer full programs for a flat fee. These are often self guided but come with a wealth of helpful resources to keep you going. Many also include a format for support, such as chat rooms, forums or a website with a help area. That way you can get assistance if you feel ’stuck’ at any point.

Rather than worry about getting to your music class on time, going to school on the internet can save you time and money in travel. Even if the weather is bad or you are running short on time, you can still work through each lesson. With self guided jazz guitar lessons, you can pick up your instrument at any time. Even if you prefer to play late at night or early in the morning, an online program can allow you that flexibility. You will never have to worry about an instructor’s hours of operation coinciding with your work schedule.

Some potential students shy away from the online option for fear of not obtaining as much high quality learning as you do in a class room. With the development of the internet, you can rest assured that nothing will be overlooked with online jazz guitar lessons. Even if you would like to work with an instructor, many now offer video conferencing options so you can still get a classroom education without actually going to the school. That also means you can attend classes with instructors from all over the world.

There are a few negative aspects to taking jazz guitar lessons online. First, you must stay motivated and be able to stick with a schedule on your own. When you go to a class, your instructor might keep you on track but with self guided learning, it is all up to you. For some people this is no problem but others may find it a bit daunting to keep up. Second, you must be capable of researching on your own and finding answers when things get tough. Without an instructor right there with you, you will have to acknowledge when you are having difficulty and take action to find a solution or clarification.

Jazz guitar lessons are more obtainable than you might think. Even if your schedule is filled to the brim and you are short on cash, you may find the online environment can still work for you! Even if you only wish to supplement your classroom sessions, many companies offer programs for any skill level!

By: Liam Gibson

Hearing the Song in Jazz Guitar – Memorizing Tunes

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:15:27 +0000

If you’re serious about learning to play jazz guitar, you will need to memorize a few standard tunes. Many people already know this, and the first place they head to is to a fakebook. They’ll try to learn some tunes that way and wonder why their playing ends up being rigid.

We don’t want to say that a fakebook isn’t a great tool, but there are other ways to learn that we would like you, as the jazz guitar player, to open yourself to. For example, you can always learn some of your favorite tunes by listening to them over and over and then learning to play them during your jazz guitar lessons or practice time.

- Hear the song. One way to learn a tune for your gypsy jazz guitar is to listen to a tune over and over. Keep listening to it until it becomes so embedded in your mind and heart that you’ve memorized the tune even when it isn’t playing on a CD. Doing this will help you replay the song and harmonize it in different chords and transitions.

- Once you’ve got the tune memorized, find the tune on your fretboard. If it helps, you might also consider hooking up jazz guitar amps to help you hear and give it a more “real play” feel to your practice. Sing the tune and try to figure out the notes going back and forth until you’ve learned the tune. Don’t be concerned about playing it in the right key, just be concerned with learning the play the tune. Remember to add in learning the chord changes and you might also want to add in your own substitutions for the tune.

As you’re learning to play jazz guitar this way, you’re also learning to hear the song and replay it on your jazz guitar. If you stick to the music sheets, you might find that you’ll have a harder time feeling the music and putting some “soul” into it.

While your play might be technically correct, it will still lack the essence of the song. You decided to become a jazz guitar player because you somehow connected with the music, not because you wanted to be a technically great player.

If you learn how to hear a song and then recreate it, you’ll be taking yourself through an important learning activity that sets the foundation for your improvisations and solos down the line. You see, you’ll need to learn how to hear the music naturally before you begin doing improvisations.

Imagine how you’d feel if you were able to learn a new tune this way. You’d feel pretty motivated to stick with your jazz guitar learning and you might even be inspired to delve deeper into the art of playing jazz guitar.

By: Logan Young

All About Learning to Play Jazz Guitar

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:36:27 +0000

Let’s get rid of one myth right here! One common myth floating around is that jazz music is complicated. Some people have the idea that it can only be learned by unraveling the deep mysteries of the inner being – like it’s some sort of mystical experience that requires years of learning theories, scales and chords. That thought alone is overwhelming and as a result, we need to refocus our attention to one thing – keeping it simple.

If you seriously want to become a better jazz guitar player, then keeping it simple is all you need to get where you want to go. Start with the basics. You already know that you’ll need some knowledge of jazz guitar scales and chords. You’ll also need a mentor or a teacher who can help you develop your talent and skill and lastly, you’ll need to begin developing confidence in your playing ability (this means practicing what you’ve learned). For the new player, these basic activities will help you progress in your learning and soon, you’ll be looking for the intermediate and advanced teachings in jazz guitar!

The first step to learning how to play jazz guitar is to invest in some jazz guitar lessons. In the basic type of lesson, you should be learning the different scales and chords from a teacher who isn’t trying to impress you with his or her blinding knowledge and ego. Instead, find a teacher who keeps it simple so that you can grow as a student.

Know that you have to invest some time into your playing and practice! One of the players I met used to avidly videotape his playing the gypsy jazz guitar so that he could improve his playing technique. Another woman I met used to listen to a melody over and over again until she had it solidly in her mind. As she listened to the melody, she attempted to memorize it and recreate it on her guitar. In fact, she’s memorized a lot of tunes that way. A few years ago, I knew of a student who used to go over the lesson he just learned for hours, and I literally mean hours, until he knew it inside and out. I think he was just looking for an excuse to play, though, because even after he knew the lesson, he didn’t quit.

Before you get out there and start buying your jazz guitar amps and other gear, consider if you’ll have the time to do the basic things you need to do to learn all about playing jazz guitar. Set your learning and practice habit up for success by keeping it simple and you will reap the results of your investment!

By: Logan Young

Improvising a Song on your Jazz Guitar

admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:06:43 +0000

1) Know the genre you want to learn for improvisation.

One of the best ways to find out the genre that appeals to you is by listening to a few styles (i.e. jazz, blues, rock, folk, country, pop, etc.). The ones that stick in your mind are the ones to start off with. Like with anything you learn, learning becomes easier when you’re interested in it. As you listen to the various styles, one thing to keep in mind is that the blues genre relates to most all the other genres. For that reason, if you learn to improvise in the blues genre, it will ultimately end up helping you improvise across all the genres.

2) Build up a foundation of jazz guitar licks and riffs.

Successful players have built up a memorized library of licks and riffs. During their jazz guitar lessons, they have absorbed and practiced these licks from a variety of sources so that when it comes time to perform solo or lend an improvisation, they are ready to practice and apply what they have learned. Improvisation becomes easy because they know how to blend tunes on their gypsy jazz guitar.

3) Knowing the scales is the foundation for improvisation.

No jazz guitar player can improvise without knowing their instrument and how to craft the melodies together. When learning to play jazz guitar, you can’t ignore this important step. You don’t have to learn all the scales. In fact learning just a few scales like the major scale and the blues scale will be sufficient for a lot of improvs and solos. For example if you can see a lick in and filter it through the major scale, you’ll have mastered what makes a jazz guitar player a jazz guitar player and your audience will appreciate your talent and effort!

4) Transcribing tunes are a great source for improvisations.

Transcribing involves learning a tune by ear and then working it out in different chords if you choose. Transcribing really helps any serious player and should be a regular part of their solo practice. It involves trial and error practice where you’ll discover what works for you and what doesn’t work.

5) The best part is hearing yourself play.

Inspire yourself during your improvisation by recording yourself (you might also consider hooking up jazz guitar amps). When you listen to the recording, you’ll be able to hear even better the areas that need work. At the same time, you’ll also hear the areas that work very well and demonstrate the progress you’ve made as a jazz guitar player.

Improvisations and solos are like a string of musical ideas that you have gathered along the way through your learning career. You’ll get these “musical ideas” by learning and mastering the scales, learning to key licks and riffs and by transcribing tunes that you enjoy. You’ll soon see your creativity and skills take off!

By: Logan Young

How to Play Jazz Guitar – Become a Smooth Jazz Guitarist

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:27:24 +0000

By: Max Cane

Online Jazz Guitar Lessons

admin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:52:11 +0000

There are many websites offering online jazz guitar lessons, but before choosing it is important that you are ready to play jazz guitar. Many budding jazz guitarists specialize too early and find themselves lacking in technique when they come to the more complex aspects of playing jazz.

If you have not had proper formal training in guitar before, it is important that you register for a course that first takes you through the basics, even if you believe yourself to be a good guitarist. You must be well versed in the basic chords, keys, scales and perhaps even be able to play harmonics – both natural an artificial. What you need to know will be determined by the scope of the jazz guitar course.

It is probably better for you if your online jazz guitar lessons were part of a fundamentally more extensive course in playing guitar, that takes you from the basics of your instrument right through the progression of strumming, chords, scales, fingerstyle and so on in way that trains you in a holistic manner to be able to play any genre you choose, and so that jazz is simply an extension of your course.

By learning guitar that way each technique will be mastered before you progress, and no assumptions are made. The problem with a one-off jazz guitar course is that it will not be suitable for all skill levels. Some will lack basic techniques needed to follow the course, while others will already have inbuilt bad habits. Yet others might find a particular course too elementary, so it is important that you are able to adjust the course to suit your personal needs.

As a very minimum a jazz guitarist should understand chords, keys and their relationship with each other. A knowledge of tempo and time signatures is essential, as is knowing how to play harmonics that are widely used in playing jazz. Once you are accomplished in these techniques you will be ready to learn jazz, with its many voicings and jazz rhythms. You will learn about the circle of fifths which geometrically represents the relationship between the twelve pitch classes of the chromatic scale in pitch class space: if this is gobbledygook to you then you need a good jazz guitar course that takes you from the basics through the intermediate stages to real jazz guitar theory and practice.

There’s no good learning how to play if you don’t understand the theory, since only then will you be able to be innovative. Even players that learned by ear eventually had to learn some theory, and scales and pitch are extremely important components of practically all music, let along jazz guitar. So what is the best way to learn jazz guitar, and where do you find the best courses?

Online is best, and you have a choice between one-off courses supplied on DVD or a membership site where you pay monthly for ongoing lessons. What are the benefits of each? Without a doubt, the DVD is the cheaper option because you only have one payment to make. In the same way, a single football ticket is cheaper than a season ticket, but which is best value? A DVD gives you one course of lessons and that is it, whereas a good membership provides you with a series of lessons, not only in your chosen genre, but any style of play you want to try.

A good membership site will offer you a choice of guitar teachers, and will update their course from time to time. They can also offer pages of chord diagrams, scales, songs to play to and backing tracks to play along with. You don’t usually get this with a DVD. Not only that, but if you feel like trying some of the classical techniques while learning jazz, you are not just restricted to online jazz guitar lessons, but can try out some of the other lessons as well.

You can try some of the classical guitar techniques, have a look at what heavy metal are teaching and might want to introduce some blues into your jazz. You can do all that with a good membership site, but not with a DVD. It’s a no-brainer really, and you can start at the very beginning, get rid of your bad habits, and progress through the stages until you are an accomplished jazz guitarist. Many people choose to do that – to start all over again with the right techniques.

So if you are looking for online jazz guitar lessons be honest with yourself regarding your current ability, and if you need a few beginner or intermediate guitar lessons first, then an online membership site will likely be your best option.

By: Andre Sanchez

Jazz Guitar Lessons Review – Play What You Hear by Chris Standring

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:25:01 +0000

The Purpose of the Play What You Hear jazz guitar lesson program is to teach the student to, dramatic pause, to play what they hear.

Seriously, the author, Chris Standring, makes a great point that many guitarists learn to master the fretboard through visualizing shapes and patterns. The unfortunate result is that solos improvised in this manner can sound contrived. Chris goes on to say that he believes that many guitarists often have no idea that they do not hear what they play.

About The Author Chris Standring

In the Authors own words, Chris Standring is a contemporary jazz recording artist, after spending 15 years as a touring sideman and studio guitarist in London and Los Angeles. He has recorded for several record labels as an artist including Sonic Images, Instinct Records, Mesa/Bluemoon Recordings and more recently Trippin n Rhythm/V2 records. Chris is successful in the USA as well as the UK, his homeland, and performs there in concert venues annually. His music also appears on many compilation CDs.

Who Will Benefit Most From This Jazz Guitar Program?

Play What You Hear is geared for intermediate guitar players that have at least a basic knowledge of the guitar fretboard as well as some ability to read music.
This instructional course has been designed for enthusiastic bedroom guitarists, college and university music majors as well as working professional musicians who want to refine their jazz skills.

Is This Jazz Guitar Course For Acoustic Or Electric Guitar Players?

Most of the audio examples use an electric guitar but the course is appropriate for acoustic guitars as well.

The Lesson Format

Most lessons contain a written explanation, written music and tabs and audio examples. When appropriate an additional play along version of the audio examples with a back-up band is also included.

Computer Compatibility:

This program, in both the CD and instant internet download versions, will work with all Macintosh or Windows PC operating systems.

The Contents of Play What You Hear

The Physical Parts

(1) CD Bonus #1 Jazz Guitar Talk: Great jazz guitarists discuss what it takes to play great. Bonus #2 Chord Finder and Ear Trainer Bonus #3 Guitar Codex – Find any scale or chord in any key and see it displayed on a fretboard diagram along with clickable audio. Bonus #4 Guitar Decoder – Play a series of random notes and the decoder will tell you the name of the chord they form. (2) Printable PDF files of all the lessons for convenient reading away from the computer.

The Lesson Categories

Melody Harmony Playing Over Changes Phrase Development And now to the music – example jazz standard sequences

The Negatives:

The Play What You Hear Jazz Guitar Instructional course does not include video. While this is a little disappointing I believe that with intermediate level skills and above this is much less critical.

If you only have a desktop computer then you are bound to practice at that desktop in order to hear the audio portion of the lessons and to use the built in tools. However, included on the CD are printable versions of all the guitar lessons for viewing away from the computer.

The Positives:

The author is a formally educated musician yet is also an in-the-trenches performing and recording guitarist. When I received this course Standring had a Jazz guitar song in the top three on the Jazz charts. In other words, he not only knows this stuff but he lives it too.

While this course is packed with lots of jazz theory lessons it strives to go beyond just learning more stuff. This Chris Standring CD emphasizes playing at a much higher artistic level.

The guitar lessons on CD are extremely well organized and therefore easy to navigate.

There are over 300 well produced audio examples that really bring the written word to life.

Many of the audio examples have an alternate play along version where you play the lead part to a back up band. This nice touch provides a realistic band experience.

The price is especially reasonable considering the significant volume of information included and Chris Standrings experience and standing in the Jazz community.

The Price Analysis:

The CD Version and The Instant Download Version are both priced at $97 USD, as of this writing, and include all of the items mentioned above. The contents of both versions are exactly same.
Play What You Hear by Chris Standring contains the equivalent of 6 months to one year worth of guitar lessons if you were to space them out as if you were taking lessons from a local guitar instructor. A local instructor typically will charge anywhere from $20 to $50 per weekly lesson. Your minimum cost at only $20 per lesson for 6 months would be at least $520.
The choice comes down to:

The Play What You Hear DVD Jazz Guitar Program at $97 or A local instructor at $520 to $1040.

Guarantee:

Satisfaction guaranteed or 100% money back including shipping. There is no shipping charge on the instant download version.

The Bottom Line:

This Jazz guitar course offers a way to significantly increase the knowledge and tools at your disposal for improvising solos in almost all situations. But I love the fact that This course does not stop there. There are many guitarists that are technically or rather mechanically developed but few ever cross over into the realm of the artist.

This course does an excellent job of presenting this concept in an easy to understand format at a very reasonable price for such a specialty instructional course taught by a Jazz leader. It is for these reasons that I can easily recommend the Jazz guitar lessons instructional course called Play What You Hear by Chris Standring.

By: John Mackinnon