The First 3 Months of Jazz Guitar Recently you were bit by the jazz guitar bug. Things will never be the same. Welcome to a rich musical history with more possibilities than any of the rock and blues music you've been playing in the past. I'm going to walk you through the first 3 months of jazz guitar so you don't end up going down the wrong path. Lots of guitar players get a quick jolt of fascination with jazz, but it ends up being a frustrating waste of time. We can't let that happen to you. The journey begins with listening to jazz music. You might have the urge to start shopping for guitars and practicing scales, but I must ask you to slow down for a moment. This will be a journey that takes DECADES. The fastest path to becoming happy with your sound is to first form an idea of what you want your sound to be. I'm going to give you all the resources to start imagining your sound. Here's a Spotify playlist and a YouTube playlist that include all the jazz guitar players you need to know the sound of. You should spend at least 50 hours listening to these playlists to get your bearings. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWV8SP2WsR9MK https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhlfXB8hdjpZTxYajW4MsVeCbKhWVbG9Z You'll notice there's a few different subgenres of jazz guitar included. As you listen, you will find yourself gravitating towards some of these sounds and away from others. Skip the songs you don't like. You'll quickly figure out what sound you're going for this way. For simplicity, I will break it up into a few subgenres. Early Jazz guitar - Before there was bebop there was swing music and Charlie Christian was the first guitar player to popularize single note solos on the guitar. Django Rheinhart was also active in this period, and his gyspy jazz style is still played all over the world today. The guitar also had a small role in big band music as part of the rhythm section. If big band is the sound you like, Freddy Green is the player to study. The Golden Age - During the 50s and 60s, jazz guitar was a popular and widely respected art form. To this day, the most listened to jazz guitarists are from this era, including Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Barney Kessel, Jim Hall, Kenny Burrell, Johnny Smith, George Van Eps, and early George Benson. “Straight Ahead Jazz” is still being played today by players such as Peter Bernstein, Pasquale Grasso, and Ilya Lushatk. Bossa Nova - All jazz guitar players should become familiar with songs from Antônio Carlos Jobim, including the album “Getz/Gilberto,” where João Gilberto plays a nylon string guitar. Solo jazz guitar - Joe Pass and George Van Eps popularized the idea of a jazz guitarist playing solo. Who needs a band when you can play the melody, chords, and bass all by yourself? This genre of jazz guitar remains popular among guitar players today and there are still background music gigs available at cafes and events. Jazz Fusion- in the late 60s and 70s jazz fusion became popular and guitarists were at the forefront of this mixture of jazz and rock music. Solid body guitars, chorus pedals, and distortion pedals are popular with fusion players. Prominent jazz fusion players include Pat Metheny, Al Di Meola, and John McLaughlin. Smooth Jazz - Jazz guitar became mainstream once again in the 80s with the popularity of smooth jazz. Smooth jazz uses the same tones and archtop guitars from the Golden Age, but with modern touches such as keyboard string pads, rock or RnB drum beats, and bass guitars instead of upright bass. Norman Brown and George Benson (mid 70s and later) are popular smooth jazz guitar players. Modern Neoclassical Jazz - The newest breed of jazz guitarists have incorporated 20 th Century classical music theory into their music. Solo guitar is popular with these players and their audience. They also play in small trio or quartet groups. Modern Neoclassical players include Julian Lage and Jonathan Kreissberg. Take a few weeks to listen to these subgenres and decide where your taste lies on this spectrum. There is no right or wrong, it comes down to what your heart wants more than anything else. Pick the 3 guitar players you like best and start listening to their albums. Remember when you started playing rock and blues, and you knew the sound of every note of “Layla” and “Smoke on the Water?” It's a good idea to have some jazz songs or albums where you know every note on the same intimate level. This will make the music more instinctual when you try to play it. Come back to this document when you've done a good amount of listening. And make sure you REALLY want this. It's going to be very difficult and you won't sound very good for the first few hundred hours of playing. Now that you know what you want to sound like, it's time to start learning the technical side of jazz guitar. Here's a list of things everyone new to jazz will need. It will take a few months to work through all of these, so take your time. Major scale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLJPjrcoBp8 Dorian Mode (minor scale) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efvoYp7Xhqs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muhnpgYlJe8 CAGED System https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_evZVxGvAQ CAGED System for Jazz Guitarists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi2Ffyw9fFc Major 7 th Chords https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CXNgi6wLxk Minor 7 th Chords https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q57qfKDk458 Dominant 7 th Chords https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzABVV2QjPM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvo_KQ7WVUU All the technical stuff can get tedious, so balance it out by learning a few songs. If you can play one bossa, one swing, one blues, and one ballad you'll be on your way. Here's 4 easy ones to learn. Using these videos, you can learn to play jazz standards by reading notes, tab, or just your ear. Out of Nowhere- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdtgW7FwzaU Wave- https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=vDdiqixtses&list=PLKeF3auxBf5ywNZ33Xy0QJlhsSVJ9DvRb&index=5 Cool Blues- https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=WvbuNkBqai0&list=PLKeF3auxBf5ywNZ33Xy0QJlhsSVJ9DvRb&index=8 Misty- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz1UkbrRs-c When you're ready to learn more songs, the main two sources for charts are “The Real Book” and iRealPro (chords only). At this point you might be wondering how to improvise over jazz standards. I would suggest you take your time on this topic and don't rush into it, as this is a complex subject that can become overwhelming. If you'd like to dabble in improvising, first check out the idea of functional harmony, which is where you play ideas over a series of chords instead of trying to change scales every single time there's a new chord. Functional harmony https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=msmdbxsjmvI&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcFos2UqNPDOSrsKq13v6kL0 That's it for the first 3 months of jazz guitar. At this point you might be thinking that you're gonna play around with jazz a little or use it to enhance for your rock or blues playing. I must caution you that jazz guitar is a never ending rabbit-hole. It's unlikely you'll stop at “improved blues.” For most of us jazz guitarists, it becomes a life long obsession. Consider yourself warned. -Casey Mahoney https://www.youtube.com/@CaseyMahoneyJazz