If I Started Jazz Guitar In 2023 Then This Is What I Would Practice

Some of the most practical and sensible advice I've seen on the internet. Already recommended you to friends and aspiring jazz guitarists. Wow!

Very very good advice. Thank you.

Start with holdsworth. Work backwards from there

Many helpful suggestions as always, Jens. I think doing interval training is helpful for ear development. my ear is so-so at best. using a so-so ear trying to transcribe bop lines is virtually impossible. I can't read music, except for slow, simple lines and I'm not motivated to work my my reading skill. I'm not really interested in becoming a good jazz or bop player. My interest is primarily becoming a competent player in several genres. I think becoming a good guitar player in any genre has become much easier once the internet arrived. Now it's not unusual to see and hear people in their teens and twenties who have incredible skills. One huge, simple lesson I learned over the years is never pick up your guitar without having a specific music element to work on. If you place guitar in hand without a plan, or goal, you'll end up wasting time noodling, and I did my share of that!

I spent 20 years not learning guitar. So i gave it up and got a violin teacher, and now im learning more on how to play guitar than ever, and its just bleed over from violin stuff lol

Jens i have just discovered your channel. Have to say just a fantastic teacher/player. I dont necessarily agree 100% with everything you say or even your "taste" BUT your approach is so entertaining, engageing and well thought out. So many players from all genres can take something away from your lessons. I know for instance Don Rich from Buck Owens band was really a jazz player...you wouldn't know from the records but the poly rythyms give a hint. Jazz offers something to all genres in my opinion. Just such great lessons though Jens . Boss stuff right here.

Good breakdown of information and tactics for learning jazz in "modern" times, Jens. I would humbly recommend finding hard-to-find online snippets of jazz greats - like Dexter Gordon, Joe Pass, Wes, Bill Evans, Kurt Rosenwinkel -- practicing before concerts -- where some of their jazz phrases are stated in a more relaxed atmosphere. Helps (me) to understand the construction and timing of jazz language.

Jens you're great, thanks dude.

My experience for what is worth: 1) selecting the guitar (you are different, but common theme is that they need to be "special" for the "true" jazz tone and hence expensive and/or time consuming). 2) nomenclature (pretty hard to get those letters and numbers, which are hard and require to learn theory and not to mention finger dexterity). 3) Multiple players = multiple flavors. 4) Selecting an amp or not (seems, the latter). To me, it requires a teacher.

I think in a lot of ways it is easier but we have to remember guys like Bird and Wes when they were coming up this was the pop music of the day. They didn't have all the distractions that we have with cell phones or trying to learn other styles and they were forced to used their ears and put in serious time wood shedding also if this was how you feed your family you will find a way to make it happen!
And even with these guys the hardcore theory aspects came later. Bird was taught to read music I heard in an interview but at first he was a slow reader like anyone else. It didn't come easy for him he had to drill it!

I am an old geezer now but if I could turn back the clock I would pick my 5 favorite players and study them, try to get inside their heads to learn how they approach a song. I enjoy listening to several different players for a variety of reasons....speed being the least important. Taste and melodicism are what's important.
I think it is also important to listen to clarinet and vibraphone players....they seem to be the masters at melodic improvisation.

Thanks for the lesson. I used to play guitar by ear. It was very painful and calloused my ear lobe. Watching this video has taught me to use a plectrum instead and NEVER, NEVER the ear! Thank you.

Thanks Jens for reaussuring me about my intuitive insistence to figure it out as much as possible by myself plus focus on learning songs.I still kinda suck but am progressing independently & faster now! The most painful part is over, the awkward helpless phase!! 🎉🎉🎉

What I usually practice in my jazz guitar studies is blah bah dee bop, ska dah lee dah bah bah doo.

Fantastic and thank you.

You're a great teacher Jens. Everything you said in this video is spot on and what I tell my students.

Pharcyde :)

Another amazing lesson and funny snap shots!!!

I don’t understand any of all the theory in your videos. But, by watching your videos, I still got the desire to play some jazz guitar 😍 Maybe because you’re Danish, and I love the sound of your guitar and playing. 😬

Hey, thanks so much for this & your other vids- super helpful for me getting into this since I never had a jazz teacher. As far as enjoying the music, I'm trying to figure out what I should learn- I've thrown on a Real Book playlist on Spotify and not a lot of it has really clicked with me, I like modern Japanese jazz bands like Mouse on the Keys & Fox Capture Plan, and mostly listen to a lot of metal with jazz aesthetics(?) is maybe the best way to put it. Musicians like Plini, David Maxim Micic, Owane. I'm writing my own music in that style but don't have a great process, and I want to improvise and solo which I feel totally lost on, never properly learned scales or arpeggios. Do any of you have suggestions- should I try to learn jazz standards the way's described here and then modify it to accomodate more of the rock and metal influence? Maybe I should also just learn the songs I like by ear and try to reverse engineer what makes them work, but I worry about not knowing a particular vocabulary and instead trying to piece a bunch of stuff together... Any suggestions for that kind of genre-crossing in learning?

I go back to the 60s and 70s, and to me, the difference between then and now is that music is becoming more like science than art. And we know that great art wasn't made via a curriculum, great art is inspirational. One of the reasons a lot of 'great' players are self taught. Now, I don't think it is bad to learn your instrument, but like John McLaughlin once said, "learn everything, then forget it".

I reckon this bloke is one of the finest guitar teachers ever, doesn't matter what style, he cuts through the bullshit and keeps it simple. That's the key to all guitar playing, simple chord voicings and find the melody on top.

The single best way to learn are two apps: Jazz Guitar by Ear and Jazz Guitar Chords by Ear. Thank me later

Your platform is always improving, thanks for the reminders.

Sometimes ( l was lucky; l’ve heard jazz & loved it since l was an embryo). Piano is my first instrument, then guitar. But I digress! Sometimes l think you have to be born into it like me; my DAD was a jazz purist (!) no trad or 3rd stream. A good teacher is ESSENTIAL l think. And l do love theory. Is there something wrong with me. I love my books, so much information ( l’ve got those David Baker books too 😆) books you dropped in the Garbo! 😆)lt’s good to listen to other instruments. Sax lines for guitar, etc… it’s endless. You NEVER STOP LEARNING!!! THANK YOU JENS. Have a TOP CHRISTMAS WITH YOUR FAMILY & FRIENDS. Thanks for YOUR GIFTS for my noggin too!! 🎸🎹✨🎅🏽🎄

"Barely an inconvenience". Oh really?!

Re: the Real Book: I thought the 6th ed had fixed many of the errors in the 5th?

I love the video and have made about all these mistakes along the way. I have been studying the roadmap course and I can tell you it is a great study and there is allot of music in there. I'm pretty slow moving from lesson to lesson because I develop every skill till it becomes natural music and the can take some time. I like playing with a metronome and I always like the click because i can center my groove around it. I only play exercises long enough in mourning to get my brain working or to program a new skill. Then I improvise almost everything thru singing and instinct....I agree listening to jazz is good. I'm a beginner with playing standards but after I learn and can sing the melody it makes playing the song more effective at lines that highlight the chords and the melody. There is so much music in those seventh Chord shapes and breaking them into bits and pieces of Meledy its incredible. When i was in college I was into kick boxing and like music there is a time for practicing techniques but when you get in the ring you just do it and let your training allow you to become free to flow as in playing improvised music.

That sounds like a lot of work! Lol

Did he say Joe Pass is boring?... I wish most players were that boring.

Know that there are players who teach and teachers who play. I’ve never heard anyone talk about a Barry Harris record.

If you want to learn Jazz Guitar in 2023 then use modern music learning tools.

The music theory tool chain (DAW) in 2023 is well known to many interested in music at the University level and include: A Midi Keyboard controller (just a keyboard interface), an app like Cubase running on a computer, and a USB 3.0 Audio Interface for your Guitar (no need for an amp, just plug directly into the audio interface) and Microphone. For notation and other specific help (piano (music) notation to tablature) there are many different plug ins for the app. I think the learning approach is much like a music composition class for a Bachelors in music at University in 2023 for a freshman, where everyone starts learning music theory on the keyboard (piano keyboard) first (you don't really have to be good at playing the keyboard, you can just place notes and chords and align them in time and key with the software, time align to tempo and play).

In the beginning it is easier to visualize notes and chords on a piano keyboard than a guitar fingerboard, or any other non keyboard instrument. The advantage when using the music software is you can learn to read music notation as you learn theory, and you can move between music notation and guitar tablature (called TABs). You can then transpose what you learn on the keyboard to the guitar and vice versa. Pat Matheny, for example, composes on keyboard first and he was doing this well before the more advanced computer music apps. You can play (loop) chord phrasings on the computer app using the keyboard and then play your to different chord changes and lead on the guitar to understand tone, voicings, harmony, chord structure while at the same time learning to read music, understand tempo and the time signature (click track) is always available to keep time. From this point you can move on to learning how to play the chord progressions on guitar, and accurately place the changes in time. Essentially, you are building your own musical foundation in what you do. You will learn music theory, chord progression, harmony, tempo, reading music notation, relating it to TAB and learning your guitar.

What I am talking about is nothing new. Even before the modern tools many musicians would put together a simple DAW to help with learning their instrument and even understand recording production. This has evolved to a modern starting point when learning music theory.


Once you get proficient with the modern tool chain, you can take a custom guitar arrangement perfected using the app and then printout the final music notation. No need to write it by hand. You can also output all of the different instruments in your composition to prepare for a studio recording session. Then when you start to record you will have "charts" but also the electronic midi files for each one of the players as a starting reference.

i dont see the point of the video really

The problem is how transferrable is what you are practicing to actual improvisation. Lots of people are thrown off the Deep end like huehue just play mixolydian over the 2-5-1. This is shit information, outlining the changes, working in adding enclosures, moving the licks across the 12 Keys, triad pairs, melodic cells etc etc etc are MUCH more useful exercices. The closest to actual music what you are playing is, the better. I would even go as far as to say its better to think: oh ok over the 5 ill play this arpeggio or this pentatonic phrase than thinking in actual scales.

Thanks for this clip. It adds up to what I have concluded. I started playing just under 2 years ago in my 60s. My feelings were that I was overloaded with sites that told me how to skip elements of learning to almost find a video game cheat pathway through learning.

I have a fantastic teacher who structures all I do and keeps things tightly focused for me and we work together on specific online courses as long as they fit into the dire tion of wjat we need to do in order to make sensible progress. The truth is I often feel the grim reaper is going to get me before the guitar skills fairy but like it or not, as with anything worth learning there are no shortcuts. I have also grown to appreciate the journey of learning is just as valuable as the destination. When all said and done who ever feels they have arrived at mastery of anything. Your clips are insightful, often over my head and skill sets but drive me in the right way.

Hi Jens,
I think the advice you give here is excellent. I'm an older player, very advanced at rock and blues playing but I've never really been able to advance into jazz in the past because of the approach that i took. I've been educated in theory for decades and u have all of the arpeggios, chords and scales. However, every time I've approached jazz in the past, ive always focused mainly on coming at it and trying to dive into it without actually having the jazz standards, the vocabulary of the music, learning the songs and melodies. After watching one of your videos this morning i chose some standards and I found a number of versions and listened to them, vocal versions too. I then came back to your video and by the end of today i had a complete song learned. It's a start.... thanks again!
Will

I think one of the biggest things that is overlooked in practicing is groove, feeling the groove. No sense playing the right notes if you can't groove with one consistently. I feel when I am grooving, I just play so freely and I don't need to think as much. It's difficult to play everything in groove when learning, but I think it's worth the effort. Cuz then, even practicing sounds like music. Still just a beginner though! Thanks for the video :)

An A.I. tool that can tell me the notes being played in a song would be great

Thanks for the insights, Jens. I believe the information highway has inverted the problem of “not enough resources” to “too many resources.” And the deceptively alluring promises of “shortcuts to success” are dead-end traps. You, and, okay, a “couple” of others, are the north stars for focusing on what’s important and how to sequence learning jazz. Thank you, again!!

Hi Jens, I stumbled upon your channel last month. I have been playing the guitar for 15 years and despite being very inspired by Miles and 'Trane, jazz guitar has always been just out of reach for me. Your videos have really helped me begin making sense of the form and how I can actually make music and play jazz changes. I'm so pleased you mention Grant Green, who is my favourite jazz guitarist.

I enjoy studying and practicing alone.

what do you mean there are wrong chords in the real book?

[insert angry comment]

Excellent advice and presentation. One of the best online tutorials is Sandra Sherman she is a superb teacher and excellent Jazz Guitarist. A lot of guys present a lot of chords and licks but do it far to fast for even capable guitar players to follow it. Totally agree listen to Jazz know how to play the chords the noodling can come later.

Is it easier to learn Jazz these days? Yes and no. The thing I keep hearing as I listen to greats such as Pat Martino, Jimmy Bruno and Pat Metheny is to learn it in all 12 keys, whatever it is. Metheny said during his Beato interview that he was asked if he could play something in all 12 keys, but was then told - don't. The point was that while comprehensive knowledge is good, what is "gooder" is actually playing. If one has the means to then survey Jazz playing through the years and see if anything appeals and it is OK if nothing does. There's no point in learning Jazz when you'd rather be playing another style. For goodness sake play and if you have the time and gumption, and learn it in all 12 damn keys! Just kidding. At the end of the day, if you have the means and wherewithal then take a swing at it or add some swing to something you already know. Have fun with it.

«Chords are never set in stone» is a very jazzy thing to say

Perhaps its harder? People want a sound or to be like a hero but forget to make music and have their own feel and sound. What i like about jazz is the improv. Stop trying to draw disneys dumbo, and draw your own animal?