Jazz Guitar Lessons

Here's the video demonstration of Exercise 2. Metronome is set up at 82 bpm on beats 2 and 4 giving me a perceived tempo of 164 bpm. Remember to tap your foot on beats 2 and 4 also and try ...

Okay, hopefully you were coping well with that last lesson. In the previous exercise our physical metronome and internal metronome were playing on every beat in the bar. The premise of the ...

Alright, now the fun begins. It’s time to solo! Just like in the previous lesson the amount of chord changes might be a bit overwhelming at first. So what we’re going to do is in...

Our last chord progression is going to live firmly in the jazz camp. It's still a blues, but it's mainly called a 'Parker Blues'. Named after the famous sax player Charlie Parker, it differs...

Here’s one of the most exciting applications for these shapes: chord melody! This is just a quick improvisation I came up with. You’ll soon discover how much fun it is to mess a...

On to the soloing! This solo consists of several phrases. Some blues-y, some jazz-y. Note how the more jazz-influenced lines are mainly played around the II-Vs and the turnaround bars at the...

Welcome Guitar Players! Over the next several lessons we are going to be looking at possible chord substitutions that can be used over a 'I Vi ii V' progression. To begin with, I want you ...

Now it’s time to get into some actual playing! The repeating form for head and solos is AABA and here’s the original progression (the triangle stands for Major7):   Here i...

Alright, hopefully by now you have this chord progression well under your belt. The melody should be memorized, and all the chord voicings we looked at ought to be flowing when you play them...

Welcome to Part 1 of our tutorial on playing jazz standards. A form is a name used to describe the structure of the song. Two common forms in Jazz Standards are the 'AABA' and 'AABC' form....

Hello! and welcome to the Rhythm Changes. This tutorial will have two ends to it. Right now we are just going to learn a 32 bar solo. The solo will be broken up into two 16 bar segments for...

In this tutorial, I hope to enlighten you somewhat in the ways of improvisation. Particularly on the subject of outlining chords. We will be having a look at several short musical phrases an...

Guide Tones. Part 1 This lesson will contain a lot more discussion about chord tones used than the following, so be sure to read carefully. If there is anything you don't understand please...

As this tutorial is intended to be more of a guide to the various ways we can approach playing through a tune, as opposed to viewing the techniques from an analytical standpoint. I wont be e...

Before we start learning to play some lines and understanding what makes them tick, it is important we understand the concept of guide tones. A good improviser will always be able to 'outli...

Hello and welcome to my first IG tutorial! I'm really excited to share some of my knowledge and experience with you guys. So let's dig right in, shall we? So this tutorial is about Rhythm C...

Hey IG, Welcome to the final chapter of my little Blues series. Be ready to dig into some Charlie Parker style jazz blues playing. Once again form, rhythm, melody and harmony are quite a bi...

Four to the bar swing, otherwise known as 'Gypsy Swing' or 'long short rhythm' is the most commonly used rhythm among traditional Jazz bands. This lesson will be focused on using this rhyth...

Here are the first 16 bars of this solo. Be sure to play it with a steady swing and practice it slowly to begin with. Then up your tempo as you become more comfortable with it. Also, I hav...

What Is This Thing Called Love? A classic tune by the great composer, Cole Porter. In this video I will play a 32 bar solo through the chord changes to this song. Provided below is the ta...

Tonic Substitute The first substitution I want to introduce is called a 'tonic substitute'. It is also known to some as 'two to the right'. In the key of C Major there are 7 chords. That's...

Here’s the same thing played slow. Note how different the time feel in this type of soloing is. This tempo will help you understand the fundamentals of swing in jazz soloing. Now it&r...

Voice leading is something every guitar player should have a basic understanding of, despite what style of music he or she plays. The basic idea behind voice leading is to create some form ...

Bossa style lines. no.1, This one of the first lines I was ever proud to put my name to, It has since become a common tool in my improvisations. It is based on the first 8 bars of the tune ...