Jazz guitar gets kind of a bad rap for being too complicated to learn. And when it comes to playing jazz guitar solos, I actually kind of get it – especially the way that it’s usually taught.
Most of the time, the advice you get about playing solos in jazz is overly technical. There’s a lot to cover, and you usually get a lot of information thrown at you all at once.
Jazz guitar teachers tend to want to get straight into dealing with the nuts and bolts of playing changes. They’ll give you techniques to learn, exercises to do, and maybe have you work on transcribing solos by ear.
But even good jazz guitar teachers don’t always answer the question “but how do I know what to play?”
Sometimes students end up feeling like they’re not playing anything musical. After all the work they put in, it can feel like they’re just playing scales. Or plugging in licks. Or running through arpeggios.
Playing solos starts to feel more like an exercise than something creative.
But there’s a less technical approach you can use to get better at playing jazz guitar solos.
It’s simple, fun, and it doesn’t take forever for you to feel like you can actually play something. Plus, I think it’s a lot closer to what the “old school” players would have done.
Check out my top (simple) tips for playing better jazz guitar solos below.
Learn Melodies
Whenever you’re playing solos, you’re creating melodies. One of my jazz guitar teachers would call playing solos “on the spot composition.” He was always thinking about creating a nice melody as he played.
One mistake a lot of people make is spending all their time learning “stuff” to do. Imagine working through all of your scales and arpeggios, day after day.
And practicing licks to use over certain chords, or learning transcriptions of your favorite jazz guitar solos. You’d definitely know all kinds of things to do when you’re improvising.
But then… what if you still had trouble connecting the dots when it’s time to play a solo. It would be super frustrating, right?
But that’s something that’s all too common in jazz education. Some people know all the techniques, but can’t stop themselves from “just playing exercises” when it’s time to play a solo and improvise.
The Melody Is The Answer
But luckily, there is one super-easy answer to this. And it’s really simple: spend more time learning melodies.
Start by learning the melody of the song you’re working on playing a solo on. Learn it in all 5 of the major scale patterns (or natural minor – if it’s a minor key tune).
By focusing on learning this melody, you’ll be filling your ears with some of the best sounds you could play over that set of chord changes. And you’ll be priming your fingers to find all kinds of “safe spots” to land.
Once you can play a melody from memory, listen to different versions of the song, recorded by different players you like.
You’ll start to catch little differences in how people play that song – and you’ll start to come up with your own way of playing it. You’ll learn how different players can play the same melody – and sound completely different. Even though it’s the same song.
The more melodies you learn and internalize like this, the more success you’ll have with improvising your own melodies when you play solos.
Practice Improvising
One of the hard truths about playing jazz guitar solos – you just have to do it. You can’t know how to play a solo or improvise without trying it out. No matter how many theories you learn or licks you study… eventually the rubber has to meet the road.
Sure – your first solo isn’t going to sound magical. But neither did anyone else’s. But you only develop the skill by trying to do it.
One thing I’ve noticed with my own students is that they like to have the right answer first – before they try to play a solo. They want to sound good right away, and know how to do it before they take a shot.
Unfortunately, that’s just not how it works. Improvising and playing solos is a skill you have to learn by getting your hands dirty. If you’re struggling with how to get started improvising, try this:
Start small – changing direction as you play with your scales. The goal is to build up your ability to make the smallest creative decision: “Do I want my next note to sound higher or lower?”
With some people, this is enough to get started. You’ll probably even find that you learn your scales way better once you start doing this.
As you get more comfortable or want a bigger challenge, try adding in jumps or skips as you go. Now you’re improvising – you’re creating little melodies. And that’s what you’re doing when you play a solo.
Along with this, spend some time just playing the jazz guitar chords of the song. You’ll start to get the sound of the chord progression into your ears.
Try to Copy Things You Like
Right off the bat here, I want to say – I’m not talking about transcribing solos or learning licks. These are both common pieces of advice, and they’re great for students who are a little more advanced.
What I’m talking about is taking a phrase you like in a solo and trying to play something “kind of like” that phrase in your own playing.
This shouldn’t be a huge effort – there has to be a solo that you just can’t stop yourself from humming or whistling as you do the dishes. That’s where you start.
And if there’s not… pick an album and listen to it on repeat until you get those sounds living in your ears!
Just Get Close
When I say to play something “kind of like” the phrase you like, that’s exactly what I mean.
We’re not looking to play it exactly correct – that won’t even be possible for a while. We’re looking to play something “in the spirit of” what you heard Wes Montgomery or Joe Pass play.
Did the thing you liked go up or down in pitch? Was it getting louder or softer? Were there any rhythms that were catching your ear?
Once you have an idea of what is going on, try to play something similar to that in your next solo.
You’re not working it out or rehearsing it – just taking a stab at it in the moment. You won’t get it right, at least not right away – so don’t sweat it.
But you will start to be able to get close, the more you try.
Think of it like a little kid starting to learn to talk. Kids don’t sit and study words for hours before trying to talk. They just make noises and try to communicate with you. And they babble. Just trying to copy the sounds they hear.
And that’s exactly what you need to get comfortable doing – just babbling and trying to get your point across. You’re just trying to do it on your guitar.
Keep It Simple
It’s important that you resist the urge to overcomplicate jazz guitar solos. In general – the more you’re thinking, the less you’re listening.
And if you’re not listening to what’s going on around you, you might be playing an amazing solo – but not realize that you’re off by one measure.
Or if you’re not listening to yourself, you might not realize that your volume is way too high. Maybe your tone is off. Or you might not actually know what your solo sound like.
All of this happens if you’re thinking too hard when it’s time to improvise a jazz guitar solo.
You see, a lot of the common improvisation advice is pretty good at getting students sounding better relatively quickly. Playing arpeggios, lines, or licks for each chord is a good way to make sure you’re playing “the right stuff” as you go.
But it also leads to many people thinking way too hard – and starting to feel like they aren’t playing anything creative.
This is part of why I like to have people use the key center approach these days.
In a nutshell, the key center approach is figuring out a core scale you can play over several measures, rather than trying to address each chord of the song individually. It works great – it just takes a little more homework, and a lot more listening to get it right.
When you reduce things down like this, you can focus on playing melodies and actually use your ears more as you play.
Play More Jazz Guitar Solos
One of the simplest ways to get better at playing jazz guitar solos… is to play more solos. It’s an obvious answer, and borderline unhelpful. But it absolutely works.
You get better at the things you do the most often. So if you want to play better solos, you need to play more solos.
Sure, there’s a little more to it than that. You have to know your scales, arpeggios, and melodies. And eventually you’ll want to learn more of the details.
But all of this stuff can be learned and practiced in the context of playing solos. So why not just do that more?
- Use IrealPro
- Get together with friends
- Join a community group in your area
- Take a class on jazz improvisation, or sign up for a jazz band
Just get yourself playing more solos – the more you do it, the easier it will get for you
That’s the real trick – the more you improvise and play solos, the better you’re going to be at it.
Conclusion
Playing jazz guitar solos doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need to spend hours learning licks, transcribing solos, or memorizing every kind of arpeggio to play a jazz guitar solo.
(Although if you really want to be a professional, or you’re in school for jazz, you’re going to need that stuff. No way around it)
But you can start playing better jazz guitar solos pretty quickly by following some simple steps. Learn your melodies (lots and lots of melodies), practice actually improvising, copy the things you like, keep it simple, and play solos more.
Put this advice to work in your playing today, and you’ll be playing better solos before you know it!
What is your favorite way to work on your jazz guitar solos? Let me know in the comments!