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Tips for Jazz Guitarists

Before you pay money for Jazz lessons, you first need to learn how to play your instrument in general. If not you will be paying top money to a top level pro to learn how to do things that anyone could have taught you. Likewise, if the person is a top level player but not a good teacher he or she might even think it beneath him or her to teach you certain basic things. In this case, you have a teacher trying to teach a confused and bewildered student how to play Coltrane when the student can't even control his or her pick, and the teacher blaming the student's poor progress on lack of practise and/or ability !!! Sadly, this is very common.

So in a nutshell, before you even think of studying with a Jazz teacher here is what you need to learn...

STEP 1

• how to tune your guitar (in an accurate and efficient manner.)
• how to set up and care for your guitar
• how to hold your guitar and control the pick
• how to play very basic scales (for example major and chromatic) with nice fingering and pick control
• how to play basic patterns and melodies with proper pick control and basic fingering.
• how to play basic chords.
• some basics on reading tabs, sheet music and very basic music theory.

This can be taught to you by almost any type of guitar player (classical, rock, pop, blues, etc.) and you should consider it bare essentials. If you can't do this like its second nature, you're probably wasting your time studying with a Jazz teacher.

STEP 2

After this some of the next step can be done with a Jazz teacher in the early stages, but actually comes before learning Jazz. In the case of students at this level, I sometimes suggest that they check in with me for lessons, but continue to study with a regular guitar teacher. Ideally, the guitar teacher can liason back and forth with me so we can coordinate our lesson plans ! ! ! In some cases, if the student has a lot of friends who also play guitar and is good at figuring things out on his or her own, I am able to teach them myself.

At Level 2...

• You must be able to read the frets (without thinking !)
• You should be able to site read melodies from simple tunes. Simple Jazz Melodies are good for starters. (Learn to play the melodies by site reading them, not by studying tab arrangements.)
• You should be able to do chord arpeggiations (major, minor, major 7th, minor 7th, dimished, augmented, half dimented) straight up and down the fret board.
• You should learn basic II V I progressions.
• Your articulation skills should be developing !

Once you've passed this stage you are ready for the next stage of the game. This is the point that you are actually begining to study Jazz.

Step 3

At this level focus is on...

• More emphasis on site reading simple Jazz melodies from fake books.
• Learning how to play (comp through) the 12 bar blues form.
• Learning how to comp through II V type standards without using tabs.
• Start working on melodies and solo ideas.
• You should be moving towards the point that you can start to learn from lead sheets and recordings, but this does not mean you are there yet !

You should also be listening to Jazz Guitar and classic Jazz recordings on an intensive basis and studying up on the history and players of your instrument.

At this point it is worth studying with a Jazz Improv Specialist. A Jazz improv specialist does not necessarily play the same instrument as you do, but can guide you on how to accompany, ad lib and meet the demands of playing in a wide variety of ensemble situations on your instrument. If, however, you find it difficult to apply the lesson material to your instrument you should stop the lessons temporarily and return to studying with a regular guitar teacher. In other words, focus first and foremost, however, on learning to play your instrument, then worry about improv.... much of what you want to know will come naturally once you have mastered the basics of your instrument.

p.s. Please note : Some guitarists never actually need to study with a guitar teacher or Jazz improv teacher. The purpose of a teacher is to help you when you need guidance, coaching or are stuck. In other words, if you are having problems that keep popping up, won't go away and aren't sure where to turn, you should pay for lessons. But if you are capable of learning by playing out, listening to recordings and watching and talking to other players, you can do that too. Usually a combinations of lessons and self learning to varying degrees works with most players. The key point is that if you are going to take a lesson with someone, it means that they owe you 1) answers to your questions. 2) their undivided attention ! 3) they should offer you a lot of motivation, encouragement and make you feel as if they have a genuine belief in your abilities. If you don't feel yourself getting this stuff, jet !

Click here for an article about how to play guitar in a Jazz organ combo.