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Monday
Jan142013

Jazz Guitar Lesson #2: Jazz Guitar Chords

It's 2013 and it's the year of epic guitar! 

To help more guitarists, there will be weekly free guitar lessons posted on the site. These lessons will include:

  • A Video Lesson
  • Audio MP3 Version of the Lesson
  • FREE Downloadable PDF with notated examples & TAB

Every month will alternate between:
1) Jazz guitar
2) Fingerstyle guitar
3) Beginner guitar   

January 2013 is jazz guitar month! The focus will be to help aspiring jazz guitarists learn their craft better. 

If you'd like more tips before next week's lesson, check out my Jazz Guitar 101 page here: http://www.azsamad.com/jazzguitar101

If you missed last week's lesson on walking bass, check it out here:
http://www.azsamad.com/jazz1

Here's the 2nd lesson. Enjoy! 

Audio Version:
 

[Click here to download the 'Jazz Guitar Chords' PDF File]
[Click here to download the 'Jazz Guitar Chords' PDF File]

[Additional Resources]

Jazz Guitar 101: http://www.azsamad.com/jazzguitar101
[Blog Post with PDF] [15 Jazz Guitar Chords You Must Know]

If you missed last week's lesson on walking bass, check it out here:
http://www.azsamad.com/jazz1

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[ACTION STEPS] How can you learn this better?

1) Learn to play the chords on the beat
2) Play the chords in different keys
3) Play the chords with different rhythms & strumming patterns
4) Use the chord shapes in different songs 
5) Write your own songs using some of the chords 

Other songs to check out:
Stella By Starlight
Have You Met Miss Jones
Beautiful Love
The Days Of Wine and Roses
Fly Me To The Moon  

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Wednesday
Dec262012

7 Things For Jazz Guitarists To Practice

Over 14 years of learning Jazz with many amazing guitarists has led me to believe that the essential building blocks of Jazz are the same & once understood can really speed your learning process. Here are the 7 key areas:

1) Melody (single line improvisation and composition)

This includes learning melodies to songs, ii-v lines, melodic etudes, solo transcriptions, licks and composing melodies. The idea here is to develop your personal sense of melody, to develop your melodic vocabulary. For the advanced player, this would also include being able to develop a melody compositionally so that it tells a story.

2) Harmony (chords, voicing and chord progression)

This is the study of harmony from understanding and being able to play intervals to playing larger chord structures and voice-led chord progressions. The idea here is to be able to be fluid when playing more than one note at a time.

3) Rhythm (grooves, time signatures, rhythmic patterns)

This is to develop a strong sense of time, groove and rhythmic energy. Some rhythms will feel heavy and others will make the time float. This includes study of different time signatures, polyrhythms, syncopation and beyond.

4) Improvisation (how to improvise, improvisation practice)

This is the pure study of how to improvise and create music in real time. It may include what Wayne Krantz calls ‘Compositional Playing’ which is music that assembled using certain idiomatic vocabulary (licks, cliches, patterns) or ‘Improvisational Playing’ where no particular vocabulary is attached, just recombination and assembling in real time of certain material, without idiomatic consideration.

5) Songs (learning repertoire, parts)

This is all about learning songs & parts to songs. This is learning the music directly. 

6) Ear Training

Ear training includes many different aspects including:

  a)Transcribing

  • to your instrument
  • to paper

b) Playing by ear

  • by listening to something someone else played
  • from memory

c) Sightsinging

7) Technique

This is the pure study of technique without considering the music. Techniques may be as fundamental of hammer-ons and pull-offs or more involved topics such as tapping, hybrid picking, odd grouping string crossing & string skipping combinations.

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Interested to learn more?

Click Here To Learn More About The Jazz Guitar Masterclass:
http://www.azsamad.com/jazz 

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