Hi, my name is Dirk Laukens and I teach jazz guitar.

I grew up with the music of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, but soon after my first guitar teacher (Jo Cassiers) introduced me to the jazz standards So What and All of Me, I got hooked on jazz.

This led me to start studying jazz guitar full-time, first at the Jazz Studio (Antwerp, Belgium) and then at the Royal Conservatory of Music, also in Antwerp.

Dirk Laukens

My guitar teachers at that time were Hendrik Braeckman and Martijn van Iterson. I also followed guest lessons and workshops by John Abercrombie, Jesse van Ruller, Kenny Wheeler, Barry Harris, Maria Schneider, and many more.

In 2003, I started Jazz Guitar Online as a means to document my lessons at the Conservatory. This grew out to the biggest and most popular jazz guitar website it is today, and a thriving forum with over 65,000 members.

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have feedback or questions about all things guitar-related, I’m here to help!

My Current Gear

Gibson ES-175 (1973)

After years of playing Ibanez, Heritage, and Epiphone, I found my workhorse guitar in this 1973 Gibson ES-175.

Fender Telecaster Vintage White

Fender Telecaster

I use this Fender Telecaster for more pop orientated stuf. A versatile guitar at a great price.

Fender Tone Master Twin Reverb

Fender Tone Master Twin Reverb

This digital version of the Fender Twin Reverb has the classic sound of the Twin at half the weight.

TC Electronic HOF 2 (Reverb)

The HOF is a great and inexpensive reverb pedal with a lot of possibilities and a great sound.

Thomastik JS112 Jazz Swing

I have been using these flat wound strings since forever because of their great sound and low tension.

Blue Chip BC Jazz 60

BlueChip BC Jazz 60

They ain't cheap, but I have yet to find a pick with the same sound and control as these BlueChips.

My Latest Lessons

Smile (Charlie Chaplin)
Chord Melody Jazz Guitar

Smile (Charlie Chaplin)

Charlie Chaplin, famous for making people laugh, was also good at making music. He composed “Smile” for his last silent movie “Modern Times” in 1936 with the help of composer David Raksin. The first phrase of the melody is identical to a phrase (Cavaradossi singing “Quale occhio al mondo può star di paro”) in the

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Alone Together for jazz guitar
Jazz Standards

Alone Together

Alone Together was composed by Arthur Schwartz in 1932 and featured in the Broadway musical Flying Colors. In this lesson, you will learn how to play the melody mixed with chords. Alone Together has a bit of an unusual form because it has a length of 44 bars instead of 32 as is usual with

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Duke Ellington & John Coltrane - In a Sentimental Mood
Jazz Standards

In a Sentimental Mood

In a Sentimental Mood is a famous jazz standard composed and recorded by Duke Ellington in 1935. In this lesson, you will learn the melody of In a Sentimental Mood and a solo over its chord changes (with some Emily Remler vocabulary mixed in). The original recording and many other recorded versions are in F

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Bob Dylan - Time Out of Mind
Pop Songs & Iconic Guitar Parts

To Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan)

Make You Feel My Love was written by Bob Dylan for his album Time Out of Mind (1997). The song became a bit of a modern standard and was covered by more than 450 artists including Billy Joel, Garth Brooks, and Adele. Creating guitar instrumentals of pop songs is a good exercise in reharmonization, phrasing,

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Nature Boy
Jazz Guitar for Beginners

Nature Boy

Nature Boy was written by eden ahbez (his real name was George Alexander Aberle) in 1947 and recorded by Nat King Cole in 1948. Cole’s recording became a no 1 hit for eight weeks and sold over a million of copies. In this lesson, you will learn how to play the melody and chords of

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Jazz Guitar Chords

Fly Me To The Moon Chords

Fly Me to the Moon is one of the most famous and recognizable jazz standards ever. In this lesson, you will learn how to play the chords and chord progression of this popular song. In the chord study below, you will mostly learn basic jazz guitar chords and voicings such as minor 7, major 7,

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Blue Bossa Guitar Chords
Latin Guitar

Blue Bossa Guitar Chords & Rhythm Pattern

In this lesson, you will learn how to play the chords of Blue Bossa and a bossa nova rhythm pattern. One of the most common non-swing rhythms that jazz guitarists often play is the bossa nova groove. but learning how to play an authentic bossa or samba groove on the guitar can be tricky. To

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Jazz Guitar Chords

Autumn Leaves – Easy Jazz Guitar Chords

Autumn Leaves is a timeless jazz standard recorded by numerous jazz legends, making it a must-know tune for any aspiring jazz guitar player. In this guitar lesson, you will learn a beginner-friendly chord arrangement of Autumn Leaves. This arrangement mainly uses drop 2 and drop 3 chords, two kinds of basic chord shapes that are

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Dizzy Gillespie Groovin' High
Jazz Standards

Groovin’ High

Groovin’ High was written by Dizzy Gillespie in 1946. The standard is probably his most famous composition and one of the first famous bebop recordings. In this lesson, you will learn how to play the melody of Groovin’ High. Groovin’ High is based on the chord structure of a 1920s song called Whispering, which was

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Charlie Parker - Billie's Bounce for Jazz Guitar
Jazz Blues Guitar

Billie’s Bounce

Billie’s Bounce, one of the most iconic jazz standards from the bebop era, was written by Charlie Parker in 1945 and is one of his most famous songs. The original recording featured Charlie Parker (alt sax), Miles Davis (trumpet), Dizzy Gillespie (piano !), Curley Russell (bass), and Max Roach (drums). The story goes that Billie’s

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Jazz Blues Guitar Patterns
Jazz Blues Guitar

Jazz Blues Guitar Patterns

One of the most common chord progressions in jazz is the blues progression. A “straight” 12-bar blues usually has three 7th chords (I IV V). In jazz, we add more chords to this progression, such as II V I progressions and a more complicated turnaround. Jazz blues also features a different kind of phrasing and

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What a Wonderful World
Chord Melody Jazz Guitar

What a Wonderful World

What a Wonderful World was written by Bob Thiele/George David Weiss and recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1967. It was a hit in the UK, but not in the US because Larry Newton (the president of ABC Records) didn’t promote the song on the grounds that he didn’t like it. In this lesson, you will

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Moon River jazz guitar arrangement
Chord Melody Jazz Guitar

Moon River

Moon River was composed by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer for the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). The song was written for Audrey Hepburn to sing (real) while she accompanies herself on the guitar (not real). In this lesson, you will learn an easy chord melody arrangement of Moon River. Mancini won the Grammy Awards

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Georgia on my Mind jazz guitar version
Chord Melody Jazz Guitar

Georgia on my Mind

Georgia on my Mind was composed in 1930 by Hoagy Carmichael, who also made the first recording of the song with his orchestra featuring Hoagy on vocals, Eddie Lang on guitar, and Bix Beiderbecke on cornet (his last recording session). In 1960, Ray Charles recorded his famous version, which was a number one hit all

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Grant Green Besame Mucho
Latin Guitar

Besame Mucho (Grant Green)

Besame Mucho, one of the most popular songs of the 20th century, was written in 1940 by Mexican songwriter Consuelo Velázquez. The bolero is inspired by the Eusebius theme from the first movement of Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor (opus 54). The most famous jazz guitar version of the song was recorded in

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Ronny Jordan So What
Jazz Standards

So What (Ronny Jordan Version)

Ronny Jordan’s acid-jazz cover of So What (composed by Miles Davis) was the first single of the late English jazz guitarist. It was released in 1992 on his debut album The Antidote and was a worldwide hit. In this lesson, you will learn how to play Ronny Jordan’s version of So What, including the melody

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Fly Me to the Moon
Jazz Standards

Fly Me to the Moon

Fly Me to the Moon was written by composer Bart Howard in 1954 and recorded by singer Kaye Ballard in the same year. The song was originally titled “In Other Words” until Peggy Lee, who made the song popular after her performance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1963, convinced Bart Howard to change it

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Blue Bossa
Jazz Standards

Blue Bossa

Learn how to play one of the most popular bossa nova songs ever, Blue Bossa.

In this lesson, you will learn the melody, the chords and how to improvise.

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All of Me
Jazz Standards

All Of Me

All of Me was written in 1931 by Seymour Simons and Gerald Marks and has since become a popular jazz standard, especially among gypsy jazz guitar players. The song is suitable for beginners because of its slow harmonic movement (most chords last two bars). In this lesson, you will analyze the chords of All of

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Jazz Standards

Days of Wine and Roses (Solo Study)

Days of Wine and Roses was written by Henry Mancini in 1962 for the movie of the same name. The song has since become a jazz standard and popular among jazz guitarists with recordings from Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Lenny Breau, Bill Frisell, Jimmy Raney, John Abercrombie, Howard Roberts, and many more. The most famous

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The Flintstones Theme for Guitar
Jazz Standards

The Flintstones Theme

(Meet) The Flintstones is the theme of the ’60s television series The Flintstones (from season 3 on) and is one of the most recognizable theme songs ever. It was composed by Hoyt Curtin in 1961 and recorded with a big band and the Randy Van Horne Singers. In this lesson, you will learn how to

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Band in a Box lead sheet window
Jazz Guitar for Beginners

Band in a Box Tips & Tricks

PG Music’s Band in a Box is well known among jazz musicians as intelligent automatic accompaniment software that makes it easy to produce backing tracks on the fly. I have been using BIAB since the late ’90s and while the earliest versions only used MIDI, the modern version of the program uses recordings of real

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Dr. No James Bond
Pop Songs & Iconic Guitar Parts

The James Bond Theme

In this second installment of “Iconic Guitar Parts”, we’ll have a look at one of the most recognizable movie themes ever, the James Bond Theme, featuring the famous guitar riff played by Vic Flick. Written by Monty Norman and arranged by John Barry, the James Bond theme song was recorded in 1962 for the first

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Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise
Jazz Standards

Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise

Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise was composed by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II in 1928 for an operetta (a kind of light opera) called The New Moon. Artie Shaw’s recording of Softly (1938) brought the song into the jazz world and made it into the popular jazz standard it is today. In this

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Jazz Standards

Take The “A” Train

Take the “A” Train, composed by Billy Strayhorn in 1939 and first recorded in 1941, was the signature tune of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. The title refers to the then recently opened A subway line that ran from Brooklyn to Northern Manhattan. The chord progression of Take the “A” Train is loosely based on another

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Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Jazz Standards

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore is a classic swing standard written by Duke Ellington, who recorded it with his orchestra in 1940 (under the title Never No Lament). Two versions of the song became a number one hit in the US R&B charts in 1943, the Duke Ellington version and a cover by The Ink

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Jazz Standards

Stompin’ at the Savoy

Stompin’ at the Savoy is a swing-era jazz standard written by alto saxophonist Edgar Sampson in 1933, although it is often credited to Benny Goodman, whose recording of the song peaked at number 4 in the 1937 hit charts. Stompin’ was the theme song of the Savoy Ballroom’s theme band, led by Chick Webb. In

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Miles Davis Solar
Jazz Standards

Solar (Miles Davis)

Solar is a jazz standard made famous by Miles Davis. The song was actually composed by jazz guitarist Chuck Wayne in 1946 under the title “Sonny”. In this lesson, you will learn how to play the melody of Solar and how to solo over its chord changes. The studies in this lesson expose you to

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Bang Bang (Nancy Sinatra)
Pop Songs & Iconic Guitar Parts

Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) – Nancy Sinatra

Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) was written by Sonny Bono and originally released by Cher in 1966. Also in 1966, Nancy Sinatra recorded a cover version of Bang Bang, featuring the iconic tremolo guitar part played by Billy Strange. This version of the song regained popularity in 2003 when it was featured as

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Mr. PC Jazz Guitar Lesson
Jazz Standards

Mr. PC (John Coltrane)

Mr. PC is a popular minor blues standard in C, written and recorded by John Coltrane in 1959 for his album Giant Steps. In this guitar lesson, you will learn how to play the melody and how to improvise a solo over its chord changes. In case you were wondering, the initials P.C. stand for

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