Description
Have you been curious about jazz guitar but find it too complicated and pretentious? Me too!
SOOOOO many scales…….
SOOOOO many chords…….
And they play in some weird ass keys for guitar like Db major and Eb major.
Then everybody tells you that Joe Pass, Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery, and others don’t think about what they’re doing and that it’s all by feel.
IT’S A LIE!
If you don’t believe me, I double dog dare you to try and improvise over Giant Steps by John Coltrane
Now let me explain……
Before I tell you how you will actually learn the secrets to this genre that was the inspiration for country, blues, rock, and yes even some metal.
Once you learn these techniques you can tackle anything!
But first……
Why Is Jazz Guitar So Hard To Teach???
First, you probably are not that familiar with the standards.
I know this was the case when I first getting into Wes Montgomery, and had no idea what the melody was that he was improvising off of.
Then, if I did know, I had no idea how the harmony was working because they changed keys a lot, and used lots of chords that were outside the key.
Back to Wes, this set me back a long time when I looked at his chord solos…..
And then, whenever someone does try to explain it, they just give you some altered chord licks or tell you to use the bebop scale.
WHAT?!?!
How does that explain anything that Pat Metheny or Al Di Meola or Joe Pass is doing!
And then the inevitable conclusion is that you must go to a conservatory and hope you don’t run into the guy from Whiplash…..
But then I thought…..
Wes didn’t do that. Joe Pass didn’t do that.
Django definitely didn’t do that and he’s probably the most influential jazz guitarist ever.
So what must you learn in order to break down their solos???
What Skills And Concepts You Need To Be A Proficient Jazz Guitarist
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You have to learn the ii-V-I duhhhhh, but lots of people skip over how to make it sound truly jazzy, which involves….
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You need to learn what interval sounds to focus on creating, and what scales with which chords will help you create these sounds. I’ll tell you a few now: lydian dominant, altered scale, mixolydian, and the diminished. However it won’t do any good if…..
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You need to learn how diatonic harmony works, and gain some knowledge of what notes are in what chords. Jazz chords boil down to three types: maj7 sounds, dominant 7 sounds, and minor 7 sounds. If you’re still not up to date on how to make these harmonies, or where they appear in major and minor scales, then navigating all the ii-V-I’s will be very difficult.
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Then ultimately you must use all these ideas to express the melody of the tune in a way that’s musical.
Doing this involves diving into standards, wrestling with the chords, and really learning the melody, amongst other things.
And I mentioned some scales but there’s several I’ll teach you in my course that you already know….
Here’s The Scales I’ll Teach You How To Use
You will be shocked how effective the minor and major pentatonic scales will be in Jazz.
You see, jazz guitarists don’t simply play A minor over an Am chord. No they’ll play things that don’t seem to go together, yet they make an incredible sound because of the types of notes they become….in that context.
So yes, I’ll teach you a few modes like the Dorian mode and the Mixolydian mode.
Then I’ll show you how the altered scale, whole diminished, lydian dominant, and harmonic minor scales work too.
Now you can go to a site like all-guitar-chords.com and see all the patterns. I’m not claiming I have some pattern that you haven’t seen before….
I’m hoping to give you an in-depth understanding of the harmonic possibilites when using even the simplest scales like pentatonics.
This way, you’ll have several tools you can use no matter what chord in any standard that you come across!
Here’s The Chord Progressions I’ll Teach You How To Jazz Up, Literally
And here’s what I do that’s very different from other courses…..
I help you APPLY this stuff to standards!
Long ago I bought a Jazz Fake Book, and was utterly intimidated by how to use it.
That’s because I didn’t understand the keys, the key changes, the exotic maj7#11 chords, or how the melody went with any of that.
I’ll go over several jazz standard songs like Autumn Leaves, Stella By Starlight, All The Things You Are, and even Giant Steps so that you can have the skills and concepts necessary to tackle any standard you come across.
And Here’s Everything We Will Go Over….
Don’t Worry, the YouTubers who do cover Jazz got this wrong and made it too complicated….
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How to use popular jazz interval extensions like the flat 9 or #11
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Over 60 jazz exercises to help you see the connections between these chords, scales, and intervals and ultimately start using them!
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A breakdown of 10 of the most popular jazz standards
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The most common ways to superimpose or “substitute” chords and scales over each other
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What polychords are and how it influences the sound of Jazz
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4 of the most common harmonic chord moves that are not ii-V-Is
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In-depth yet simple discussions of the most common jazz scales like diminished, whole tone, altered, lydian dominant, and more
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The secrets of chord soloing like Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery
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4 basic jazz rhythms you must start using if you don’t want to turn all of this into a metal jam
