Well, I'm really trying to learn to play jazz since I want to continue playing guitar into college. I'm making reasonable progress reading chord charts and sheet music, but when it comes to improvising solos over the changes I feel completely lost. For example, my band wants to cover "All of Me" and when the time comes for me to solo I just can't make anything sound good. In blues you get a set groove and chords which lend themselves to soloing very well. In jazz you're over here, but when the chord changes a second later you have to be over there, and then in another second you've got to be back over here again, and you have to tie them all together so that it doesn't sound like you're jumping around everywhere.

I've tried changing between scales, but it sounds like I'm thinking too much about what the scales are when I play (because I am). I've tried playing the melody, but I can't do much with it. My go to things for articulation are bending and heavy vibrato, which are generally frowned upon in jazz like two handed tapping is in blues. I've spent the last two years developing a really bluesy style, and I just find it incredibly different to play like I've never heard Albert King. Which is not a bad thing, I want to learn new things. I guess I'm just completely stumped. I kind of know what I want to sound like playing jazz, I know a decent amount of theory and intellectually I know what I want to do, but my fingers feel like they're blind, if that makes any sense.

Maybe someone who had to start learning jazz from square one can help me on this. I'm just frustrated because it's like being a beginner again. I don't know where to begin to learn jazz improvisation.

Edit: And just to be clear, this is something I really, really want to learn how to do. I'm just frustrated with myself because I can't seem to make it happen at this point, but it's not something I'm going to give up on.

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you can play jazz Texas, this first video is standard stuff and I'm sure you'll be jamin' this tune after a few spins.
"ALL OF ME"
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSolarcoas ... RU8CjjE054
Wes technique is great and you will know this song for sure, it will give you a tune to practice Wes without it being like practice.
Wes Montgomery - Windy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBGZgyl72_g

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

From what little I know,jazz soloists draw heavily from modes....at least that's what I've read in a book I have on the subject....I learned the modes years ago but they seem very odd to me,much like most jazz.

Here's a link to a web site that is devoted to Jazz Guitar. It has a lot of useful information including a number of forums that include:

* Getting Started - A place for beginners to hang out and ask questions.
* Comping, Chords & Chord Progressions - Discuss anything related to chords.
* Improvisation - Talk about how to improvise, scales, arpeggios, ...
* Chord-Melody - talk about chord-melody style guitar playing in here.
* Theory - All about music theory...

http://www.jazzguitar.be/

Hope you find something that helps!

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"I don't trust nobody, not even myself" - Willie Dixon

Hi TGS,

That's a familiar feeling you describe... sadly, I'm still subject to it after more than twenty years! Not enough serious practice on my part. I started out learning from a jazz guy — I borrowed the Berklee correspondence material from him (I... can't remember if I ever returned it ) and struggled valiantly for a few months. Listening back to fragments that were recorded then and looking over the box of jottings gathering dust in the garage, I realise that I was more proficient than I gave myself credit for; probably more so than I ever will be.

First... you can (and should!) use all your pentatonic knowledge. Check out John Scofield if you haven't already; he's a master when it comes to making those blues "boxes" perform previously unheard tricks. When you need to play "outside," the quickest (and conveniently best-sounding) way for a blues player is to slide your blues scale around by a semitone either direction, and resolve it to the fret position where you "should" be. Quick and dirty formula for tension and release, as the more you skate in the "wrong" positions the more relieved your audience will be when they realise that yes, you do know what you're doing!

Modes are indeed important, but for solo purposes they work best when the tune has some sort of modal vamp designed for the soloist to go nuts over. If you say to yourself "Hmm.. D min7, G7, C maj7... that'd be D Dorian, G Mixolydian followed by C Ionian.." by the time you're done the relevant bars will have passed you by, and the realisation that you could have stayed in C major (or better, A minor pentatonic!) will produce a wince of self-contempt that will unsettle your audience.

So, first, identify the portions of your song that stay in one key for a while. In jazz standards, II-V-I progressions are often a giveaway, or I-VI-II-V. They will allow you to stick to one scale for a few bars, and to concentrate on playing the right note(s) within that scale to follow the changes. Just as you'd do when playing the blues.

Learn the inversions and arpeggios of all the main chord types. I can't stress how important this is. As with anything else, you will end up with some favourites and mostly forget the rest, but you have to have looked at them all at some point. Some visual material would help here, I know; I'll have to see if I can dig some up. The advantage of this is that you will always be able to "outline" the progression you're playing, and it's your choice how you colour it in. You will also see that most of the time, the note you want is right next to the note you're on — not at some distant point on the fretboard that you're panicked about grabbing. You need to be familiar with Maj7, Min7, Dom7 and Min7b5 chords, their inversions and their arpeggios. Diminished is handy, too, but you already know those from what I recall.

When the fretboard is starting to look a bit more orderly to your mind's eye, you can add all those bends that you've been wanting to use... just make sure you bend to where you want to be melody-wise rather than bending because it's under your fingers and it's a familiar-feeling thing to do. That G/B string unison bend won't sound so great if it's not on a tone found within the chord you're playing over. I often anticipate a note by bending up to it from one fret down for a bluesy feel. Actually, I probably do that more than I should... I could call it a "style," but it's probably a habit.

Guide tones..! Forgot about those, as they become second nature after a while. Map out the locations of the 3rd and 7th degrees of the chords of your song. They're the most important notes to hit in most cases, as they are the ones which will be needing to resolve up or down. As far as I know, one set of guide tones will not be more than two frets away from the next, and is often only one fret away. Do it with a blues I-IV-V and you'll see what I mean. You could hammer those for twelve bars and everyone would marvel at your conviction and rootsiness.

Sorry if this is all a bit vague. It's a broad area, jazz. Heh. I will try to come up with some material to support my assertions, but I'm a bit busy these days studying to teach (in a different area, those who have read this far will be pleased to note )

But do check out Scofield for evidence that blues, funk and jazz are all part of the same family. Best of luck, TGS, you'll be knocking them out in no time as usual — 'cos you're not afraid to do the work!

If you feel like a beginner, play like a beginner. Play simple, just focus solely on the changes. Once you can play the changes without thinking about it too much then you can throw in the embellishments. You say your fingers feel like they're blind, funny because I remember a guitar teacher I had had me wear a blindfold and made me change tunings so I couldn't go with the same fingerings. If you have the theory and thought process down, it's just the feeling you need to get, which is the hardest thing in jazz. It's why I still suck at it and why my cousin who plays trumpet is a beast. Just know that frustrating feeling you have is good, it's usually a sign you're learning (Usually, some people like me get frustrated and don't learn #$%$) ^^

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

The most important thing is to listen to and be aware of each chord you are playing over. Jazz uses a 2,5,1 progression whereas your blues use a 1,4,5 structure. Try recording a simple two chord progression such as Dm7 to G7 and practice playing over it. That's in Cmaj so you should know that one. After you get used to listening and making the change you can add another chord to the mix such as Cmaj7. Practice playing over that and listen to each chord as it comes up. Try to name the chords in your head as you play over them, that always helps me.

If you listen and know what chord you are playing over at any given time you will be able to play over progressions that change key signatures also. The trick to that is knowing your diatonic modes. Changing keys within a solo can take some practice but you will get it if you learn those modes and become comfortable moving between them. You could play the above progression in the key of Cmaj entirely or you could play Fmaj(the relative major to Dminor) over the Dm7, then go to G mixolydian (also Cmaj.) over the G7, and then play right out of Cmaj for the maj7 chord. It just takes some basic music theory and a lot of practice.

To sum it up, listen to the progression you are playing over, know where you are at all times and let your ear lead the way. Good luck and hope this helps.

Sing it, then play it.

I have found, while practicing (especially jazz), to first sing/hum/scat a phrase, then play it for the same length of time a breath would last. It also helps the melody to develop to sing it first.

Phrasing in jazz is all based on breathing--either by the vocalist or the horn players. Guitarists have the advantage of not having to catch their breath (in a literal sense), but they often forget to phrase as if they have to inhale. Some of the greatest improv solos in jazz have been small snippets and stabs by Miles or Coltrane, played in short phrases with very few notes.

Also, if you can play the chords/rhythm line, you can improv by just playing some simplistic single-string versions of the chord progression on top of the (other) rhythm instruments (even go back to your "rudimentary" position one fingerings and just play the root notes of the progression as a starting point).

Someone to listen to for jazz progressions/solos is Willie Nelson. Yes, he's an Outlaw Country star, but he back-phrases (both vocally and guitar-wise) in a jazz mindset. His playing is not as simple as he sounds, but it has the phrasing to copy.

I like how you said you were trying to play like you never heard Albert King, but your hero (and mine) SRV mixed the divine Mr. King's licks with Kenny Burrell's spirit for his jazz excursions and that worked out pretty cool in my book...

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

The notes for the melody and fills are in the chords.

For example in the key of C :

Intro and release like - F / Fm / C / A7 / D7 / G7 / C / G7

then verse part -

C / E7 / A7 / Dm7 / E7 / Am7 / D7 / G / G+
-----------------------------> *
here you could run down Am dropping bass like
Am/Ab - Am/G - Am/Gb - Am/G

Hope that helps!

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Don't leave home without it!

Thanks for the replies, y'all were helpful.

Well, it's not that I'm having trouble with theory or understanding how to play over changes, or modes, or anything like that. Intellectually, I get it. The trouble is that my fingers don't. I'm used to letting them go where ever they want and not thinking about it. Now with jazz, I have to think about it. And really, I used to have to think when I started learning blues too, but I think I just took to blues faster. It's kind of hard when the only thing which is blocking me is the fact that I have to take some time to think when I'm playing and the fact that the technique is different. I feel like I'm on the brink of making something happen, but it's not there yet. Basically, it's like learning guitar again.

I had another lesson where we focused mainly of rhythmic and melodic ideas and I'm not as frustrated as I was when I first posted. I think I just realized it's not going to happen overnight and that I'm going to have to put some serious practice in. But everything's there, it's just plowing through the beginning of it which will be the tough part.

I'm going to transpose a few jazz guitar solos by some of my favorite jazz players to help with the technique part of it. And I'm going to think more in terms of what my ear's telling me to play when I try to improvise too, as opposed to "this shape goes here, that shape goes there".

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That's basically what my jazz instructor told me in a nutshell.


I wouldn't even be in this position had it not been for SRV introducing me to people like Kenny Burrell or Wes Montgomery. I really love anything that straddles the lines between blues and jazz and mixes the two. But I also want to play stuff that jazz "purists" would consider to be jazz, in addition to what blues "purists" think of as jazz. That way I'll have my bases covered in college, and possible jazz gigs in the future... And then I can sneak in an Albert King lick here and there regardless of what purists think...

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