Jazz Blues Guitar Lessons
The histories of jazz and blues have a lot in common. Both originated in the African-American communities at the beginning of the 20th century in the southern United States. Since then both evolved in similar manner developing with the music facilities and interactions with other art forms. Both are expressive music genres and focus on life processes and experiences. In terms of musical structure, jazz has significantly borrowed from the blues. The blues chord progressions have acted as a dominant platform for a lot of jazz improvisation. So, if you have developed curiosity to find out how the two relate musically, going for jazz blues guitar lessons will be great.
The understanding of jazz becomes significantly easier if one learns the basics of blues first. Two most commonly used scales in the blues music are the pentatonic scale and the Mixolydian scale – with the added blues notes. When someone refers to the blues scale, it normally means the pentatonic minor scale with a b5 (or blues) note. It is this blues note that creates a certain tension, which provides the “blues” touch the music.
Mastering these scales will prepare you to understand the foundations of jazz in a better way. The first step towards learning jazz will be to learn some new chords. The most common chords in jazz are the seventh chords rather than the basic minor or major chords. You will need to develop command over the five basic types of the seventh chords. Your jazz blues guitar lessons will teach you how to master them.
For playing solos, the basic guitar techniques are hammer-ons and pull-offs, bending strings, palm muting, etc. For jazz blues music, you will also learn how to mix scales; for example, the Mixolydian scale with the blues scale.
Practically all jazz guitarists have some blues in their repertoire. Over the period of time, many different sets of blues progressions have evolved – from the original blues to the modern variants such as bebop and Coltrane blues changes. Listening to both blues and jazz from different periods can provide you valuable insight about how artists have been improvising. This will also motivate you to think in terms of various elements of music and to use them to create good music.
The jazz blues interface offers you a tremendous opportunity to test your musical creativity. It also offers you a great channel to vent your feelings and emotions in melodious ways.
By: Paul Gian