Chords for 5 Jazz Guitar Tips That Will Save You Years Of Practice

In this video I'm going to go over five tips that were game-changing for how I learned jazz so that
you can benefit from them as well.
When you're in the process of learning something like playing jazz
then a part of it is just hard work and then there are these moments that really change the way you
think about something and help [A] you progress a lot faster.
[F] My name is Jens Larsen, learn jazz,
make music.
When I started [B] playing jazz I spent months practicing before I [Ab] could finally play a
solo on two jazz standards.
I chose to start with Stella by Starlight and There's No Greater Love
and both of those are pretty horrible choices for a beginner.
Way too many chords and complicated
progressions.
Luckily I was pretty stubborn [G] so I just kept on going until I could make my way
through the [Cm] song.
This was before mobile phones and grunge was still hip so there are no [Bbm] videos
you'll have to settle for a dramatic [Eb] reenactment.
_ _ [D] _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [G] At this point in [C] time I was barely able to
improvise over the [Gm] progression and [Cm] I had to work hard to find something to play on each [F] of the
chords which is also what I [C] focused on and that had a very bad effect on how the solo sounded.
Phrases didn't really connect, there was no longer story [E] or development in it.
[C] _
This [Ab] actually remained
a [Bb] problem for quite a long time.
I [Eb] did not find [F] a way to fix it until [G] more than a year later
when I was taught to play changes so that you were thinking [A] of where [E] you needed to go, [A] what
target notes to play towards.
[Gb] _
_ [Gm] _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] This way of thinking made the solos [A] have a much more [C] natural flow
and made the melodies [G] a lot stronger and [C] that is something that's very important with [B] most things
in [E] music.
Think [Abm] ahead, make sure you are ahead of where you're playing.
So play towards the target
notes, see the voice leading taking you to the next chord or learn to read ahead if you're
sight reading.
It will make your life easier and make you sound better especially in terms of soloing
if you combine it with the next tip that I'm going to cover.
I have a video on how you can apply this
to learning to solo over changes and you can check that out, there's a link in the [Ab] description.
While I was studying in Copenhagen and playing jazz standards in the street, I also had the luck to go
to a week-long Barry Harris workshop [C] in The Hague at the Conservatory and one of the things that I
took away from that is also a cornerstone in how I teach and one thing that I think is really
overlooked [E] in learning jazz on the guitar.
Usually when we [Ab] think about arpeggios then there are these
position boxes that show us all the notes of for instance a minor 7 arpeggio in a given position.
Now this way of learning them is good for being [N] able to see the notes on the fretboard but it
almost completely fails at helping you learn how to incorporate them into your playing and use them
to play jazz lines.
There's a much better way to practice towards that.
The exercise that Barry told
me to practice was to play all the arpeggios in the scale not as separate [Ab] boxes that don't naturally
[Bm] connect to the rest of what you [Bb] use when [C] you're soloing.
[G] Most of the time [Dm] the chords [C] will change
but the scale [F] stays the same [G] and when you make lines you're not only using arpeggios so having
[Cm] them placed in the context of the scale will make a lot more sense and working on this [C] exercise
also gives you something that's much closer to the way arpeggios are typically [G]
used in bebop inspired
[Eb] lines which is usually as a one octave melody not as a complete position in several octaves.
[C] My most
viewed video on the channel digs into this and how you can use it to make some great [A] bebop inspired
lines and you can check that out there's a link in the video description but you probably also
want to check out the rest of the video and especially the last tip which is probably the
answer and the advice that I give the most [G] online.
[Gb] _ _ _ _ _
It is actually [B] pretty simple and you don't want
to make it too [C] complicated.
In a way I was lucky that I could read sheet music because of my
classical lessons because that helped me figure out some things from reading transcriptions that
I would have had a hard time figuring out by ear in the beginning.
One of the things that really
fascinated me when I was starting to listen to Charlie Parker was how the solo would sound
different from moment to moment.
This was very different from what I was [Eb] used to with most of
the blues and rock solos that I've been listening to where [Ab] most of the time everything stayed in one
scale across the [Ebm] chords.
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ [Ebm] _ _ _
[Ab] _ _ [Gb] Not [Ab] really playing melodies that were following the changes that
closely.
In the beginning [N] playing simple and clear solos will help you really get that connection to
[Cm] the chords and that may seem different from how you [C] think about _ complicated jazz with extensions,
_ alterations and upper structure triads _
[A] _ _ [D] _ but you want to hit those [Ab] thirds and fifths and get that
to make sense so that later you can choose to be [C] vague or clear depending on what you want in your
solos.
So keep it simple and make sure that you can hear the chords [Am] in your solo.
The people I
[Cm] checked out before getting into jazz probably offered me a shortcut when it came to this.
When
you first start learning chords on the [C] guitar then everything is based on grips which is a practical
and visual way to learn chords [G] but when it comes to playing jazz harmony then [Am] that approach is maybe
not that useful.
[F] In jazz [Ab] connecting the chords across the bar line with both melody and voice
leading [G] is much more important and you'll realize that the chord voicings are [C] something that you can
[F] change and mess [E] around with, something [C] you can use creatively and get [Bb] to fit together, turning them
[Gm] into beautiful music.
[Db] This will open up your comping and your [Am] fretboard to a [G] sea of possibilities
[B] and not just a few grips.
_ _ [E] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [E] _
_ _ [Cm] _ _ [D] _ _ [Eb] _ _
[E] _ _ Before I got into jazz I was checking out a lot of [Dbm] Hendrix and Steve Ray
Warn and both of these have [Eb] more of an open [E] way to work with them [Ab] which include improvising with
the chords [C] and not just playing the same voicings all the time.
_ I already thought of chords as
something you could change and move around which in hindsight made the transition to jazz comping
a [Eb] lot easier since that's exactly how that works.
The last tip is probably the advice that I give
the most as an answer online and also the most effective way to learn [Cm] jazz.
But before we get to
that maybe you have another tip that really [C] changed things for your playing or you don't
agree with any of this let me know about it in the comments.
At the beginning of the video I talked
about how I spent a long time learning two songs that were actually a bit too [G] difficult and that
in hindsight [F] being stubborn and powering through to get those [Cm] two songs down even if it sounded
pretty badly [Gm] was very [Db] useful.
One thing that I see very often [Ab] especially now that there is more jazz
[C] educational material available is that it all stays [A] too superficial.
You practice some licks and
exercises but it doesn't really [C] become a part of your playing and maybe you don't even really focus
on learning songs and that's a huge [Am] mistake.
[C] Think of it like this if you only learn a few things
but make sure to be able to use them on all the [B] songs you know [Ab] then you'll sound better and play
great solos on all those songs which is pretty much everything you can play.
If you learn something
that you can't put to use on any songs then what are you really spending [N] time on?
For me learning
those two songs and later spending a lot of time playing songs in the streets was a huge help in
getting to use everything and in that way really getting better.
That first song is worth really
pushing through and of course if you want some help in getting through that you can check out
the jazz guitar roadmap which is about exactly [C] that process of really getting a song down.
With all
the exercises that you're told to do and ways of learning very specific things can also mean that
you get a little bit detached from the actual music.
Just like playing the songs is the way to
really learn to use what you practice then often it's a very good idea to also find the things to
start practicing [Db] in the music that already exists and of [C] course the way you do that is by transcribing
solos.
That way you get insight into what arpeggios go where, how they [Bbm] sound and how to use them.
[Cm] This also helps you to not go down [Bb] strange rabbit holes like [F] using all the [Db] diatonic arpeggios [C] on all
the chords or [G] other _ [D] strange time [C]-consuming unrealistic [G] goals that I've seen people waste
time on.
If you're new [B] to transcribing solos and want [Gm] some recommendations for [Db] great but easy
[Gm] solos to learn so that you can ease into it [Fm] then check out this video where 10 of [F] my friends on
[Db] youtube recommend some [Eb] really great jazz solos to check out [Em] that will boost your [Db] playing, your