I find that when I’m working on jazz I tend to prefer using my fingers instead of a pick. Is that ok? – Nicholas It’s totally OK if you prefer using your fingers instead of a pick, and there are plenty of great players throughout jazz history that use a pick, or they use their … Read more
Welcome to our guide on major scales for guitar. Major scales are a foundational skill in all styles of music, and they’re absolutely essential if you want to be able to play jazz guitar. Major scales are your main source for understanding music theory, creating melodies, understanding chord progressions, and improvising. You could even say … Read more
Major pentatonic scales for guitar are the easiest and fastest way for you to get started playing solos and sounding good right away. It’s almost like having a shortcut to sounding good when you play solos. I remember when someone finally showed me this scale, it was like a lightbulb finally lit up in my … Read more
Honestly, knowing the notes on the guitar fretboard was something I took for granted at one point. When I started learning jazz guitar, I didn’t know that it was important to know the notes on the guitar… I just did what my teacher told me to do. This led to me “just knowing” where the … Read more
Drop 3 chords for jazz guitar were actually one of the first things I really learned. And as it turns out, they’re a pretty great first set of chords to know. My very first jazz guitar teacher showed them to me as a part of his own movable chord system (which had another shape in … Read more
You don’t need tons of complicated chord shapes to play jazz guitar… although that’s what you’re going to find with most jazz guitar books and lessons out there today. Do a quick search for “easy jazz guitar chords” and you’re gonna find a big list of chords to learn and memorize… and it seems like … Read more
Imagine you’re trying to learn how to juggle. Would you start out by trying to juggle three balls at once? Probably not, because that’s way too much to handle at first. You’d start with one, focusing on its movement, trying to get the arc just right, and making sure you’ve got the fundamentals of the … Read more
It can start to seem like there’s way too much you need to learn before you can even really start to play a solo. It’s overwhelming. But it really doesn’t have to be that way. There’s an easier way to get started and still sound great playing over backing tracks, or with a band. You … Read more
Practicing jazz guitar can be a time consuming activity. There is so much material to cover, and so many skills to develop, it is easy to feel like you’re behind or stuck. Because of this, it’s a normal assumption that you need to practice for hours on end to get good. Long practice sessions and … Read more
In college, I was constantly chasing the “next thing” that would improve my jazz guitar playing – another chord voicing, a new improvisation concept, the one simple trick that would make things easier. But eventually, I ran into a wall. Things weren’t getting any easier… in fact playing jazz was just getting more complicated the … Read more