A lot of people wonder how to practice jazz guitar efficiently. In fact, getting the most out of your practice time is usually one of the first things my new students ask me.
And it makes a lot of sense. There’s a lot to learn in jazz guitar – and most of us have a limited amount of time to work with. It’s just how it goes.
So it’s natural to want to make sure you’re practicing in a way that helps you make the most progress you can.
Practicing jazz guitar efficiently is about getting the most improvement out of the time you’re able to put in.
There are different approaches to this, and every player has to ultimately decide what works best for them.
Some people like to write out detailed schedules to make sure they cover everything they need to work on in every practice session.
They’ll sketch out a schedule – something like: 5 minutes major scales, 3 minutes maj7 chord shapes, 10 minutes ii V I lines…
Honestly, I find that pretty stressful (And I used to do that all the time). The more strict I try to make my own practice sessions, the more I tend to put off doing them.
A few years ago, I figured out a different approach to efficient practice – one that is a lot more relaxed and flexible. You can read about my morning coffee routine to learn the specifics of what I did for my own practice.
But some people do better with some loose guidelines they can make their own. So I put together a list of 5 tips you can use to help you practice jazz guitar more efficiently.
5 Tips to Practice Jazz Guitar Efficiently
Focus On Your Technical Skills
Most of the stuff you want to be able to do can be boiled down to just 3 guitar-specific skills: chords, scales, and arpeggios.
If you dig deep enough into any material you’re struggling with, you can probably trace the source back to a problem in one of these skills.
For example:
If you’re struggling to learn smooth voice leading, you probably need to work on your chord vocabulary. If you don’t know enough chords, it’s hard to connect them smoothly.
If you’re having trouble learning melodies, you could probably use some work on your scale patterns. Melodies come from scales. If your scale patterns aren’t automatic, you’re going to have to work a lot harder to learn and remember melodies.
Trying to get better at playing changes? Arpeggios have most of the answers you’re looking for. Your arpeggio patterns are going to help you connect one chord to the next in your solo lines.
Over and over I’ve found that if I’m struggling with something in jazz guitar, one of these fundamental skills is the answer.
As much as we’d like it to be more complicated than that – it really isn’t. You just have to look for the areas of your playing that aren’t as solid as you’d like them to be, and work on them.
Pick One Thing to Focus On
Resist the temptation to spread yourself too thin in your practice time. A lot of people learning jazz guitar tend to feel like they’re somehow behind – and they need to do extra work to catch up.
I know this because I often felt this way – and I’ve taught a lot of students who had this feeling too.
But it’s important for you to understand 2 things:
1 – It’s not true. You’re not “behind” and there’s no way you can be better today than you are right now (except with a time machine…)
But you can be better tomorrow than you are today.
2 – You’re not going to get good overnight by trying to cram all of jazz into your head in a few weeks or months. It’s just not something you can cram for – it takes time for this stuff to sink in.
So pick the one skill you really want to “move the needle” on, and work on that for a while.
Spend a week on chord shapes, or a few days getting your major scales under your fingers. Ignore everything else.
Just put most of your effort into developing this single skill for a period of time, and then move on to the next thing once it’s a little bit better.
I shift these topics myself on a cycle – chords, scales, arpeggios, chords, scales, arpeggios… so I never get burned out, and I can keep all of my skills moving forward.
And I’m never working hard on more than one thing at a time.
Don’t Spend a Ton of Time “Warming Up”
Let’s face it – most of us have limited time to practice. Sure, it would be nice if we could sit around playing guitar all day, but that’s just not the case most of the time.
So don’t spend most of your limited guitar time doing “warm ups” to get your fingers moving. Get straight to the stuff you need to work on.
Now, if you’re in music school, you need to spend a lot of time practicing. You’ve got the time to work on a lot of technique drills at that point – so do it.
But if you’ve got a job, family, other hobbies, etc – don’t waste your time warming up.
Instead, jump into the skill you’re working on that day – but take it easy for a little while. Your fingers will get warmed up, and you’re jumping right into the practice that matters to you.
It’s a win-win.
Most days, my warm up is taking my “scale pattern of the day” and improvising with it freely for a few minutes.
Or playing through a tune rubato style – out of time.
I’m getting my fingers and mind in gear, but also doing something that is moving me forward on the material I’m actually working on.
This is a lot more interesting than spending my time on a series of exercises I’m just doing to “get warmed up” before my actual practice begins.
Use Jazz Songs as Practice Tools
Don’t just play through exercises, unless:
- You have a lot of time to practice
- You’re just getting started – and don’t have the tools to play tunes yet (you’ll get there!)
Outside of these 2 scenarios, I’m not sure “just doing exercises” is a good use of your time.
Instead, pull exercises from the tunes you want to be playing (or need to work on). Find a tune you want to work on that uses the concept you’re trying to learn.
Trying to make smoother chord changes? Isolate 2-4 measures of a song you like and try to change chords through that section – over and over again until it feels good.
Trying to create interesting melodies in your solos? Put on ireal pro and loop a section of the song you’re working on to really get the feel for it.
Trying to connect chord changes with arpeggios? Take 2 chords in a song and loop them over and over. Play in slow motion so you can really see where your next note should go.
The jazz songs you want to be able to play anyway will help you generate countless exercises to improve your playing. So don’t just play exercises – create your own with jazz songs you want to learn anyway.
Listen to a Lot of Jazz
If you want to sound like you’re playing jazz, you have to listen to a lot of jazz. So much jazz. Almost too much jazz. If you have it in your ears all the time, you can’t help but have it creep into your playing.
For example – 2 of the biggest things people love to overthink in jazz guitar are rhythms and phrasing. But if you’re listening to jazz regularly, there honestly isn’t too much to think about.
If it’s in your ears, it will eventually be in your fingers.
Keep your favorite jazz albums playing all the time. In the car, when you’re doing chores, when you’re working (if possible). Just be listening to it all the time.
Get to where you can hum along with parts that you like. Or can’t help but whistle your favorite solo when you go for a walk.
Once you have these melodies, licks, and rhythms in your head – it will be almost impossible to not get them to come out of your guitar.
My first great jazz guitar teacher gave me a 2 step process:
- Hear something you like
- Next time you play, try to do something kind of like that
It’s simple, but it works. You just have to do it. Over and over again. Keep listening, and keep trying it out.
Conclusion
Practicing jazz guitar efficiently is about making the best use of your time. Getting the most bang for your buck as far as the time and effort you put in – and what you’re able to do at the end of the day.
If you focus on improving your fundamental skills, you’ll be ahead of a lot of people. The best stuff isn’t fancy or tricky – it’s the basics done really well.
Resist the urge to overcomplicate things. Do your best to remember that the answers are in your ears and under your fingers.
Don’t spend too much time doing “warm up exercises” – just get going and take it easy until your fingers warm up.
Use jazz songs as your template anytime you need to create an exercise for yourself. Remember – you want to play these songs anyway – so you might as well use them to generate practice exercises for yourself.
Listen to jazz all the time – or as much as possible, anyway.
These tips are going to help you get the most out of your practice time, and keep you improving your jazz guitar skills.
What are you working on right now? Let me know in the comments!