Hi everyone - new member from Ireland

[taraguitar]

Hi everyone - I thought I'd join this forum to try and get up to speed on Jazz guitar and Jazz in general.
Brief history - Metal in my teens, Rock in my twenties, Blues in my thirties and now jazz beckons for this decade !
I hope to learn as much as I can here and if you have any pointers for a Jazz newbie I'd appreciate it. I'll share my progress (or lack of) from time to time.
Thanks all
T

[FatJeff]

Welcome! Best bet is to get yourself a teacher. What's your background in terms of music theory?

Also, this site (not the forums, but the main site) has a ton of information on jazz in its various forms. Take a look and as always, post questions here.

[taraguitar]

Thanks - I've a good handle on most jazz chords shapes - just beginning to understand the theory behind chord naming (e.g. Why a Dm7b5 is a Dm7b5!) - I can read sheet (basic to intermediate level) and tab.
The kind of things I don't have a clue about is why different scales work with certain chord progressions and what a melodic minor scale is and when would you want to use it.
Looking forward to my Jazz journey

[derek]

Welcome to the group. To answer your chord question, the minor7b5 aka -7b5, or half diminished, is the 7th chord in the major scale. So if you start with the C major scale, and create chords, that is stack in 3rds, you get 7 different chords to go with the 7 different notes in the scale. When we do this, it is called the harmonized major scale, because we take each note and harmonize it, by adding notes in 3rds, ie., root, 3rd, 5th, 7th. Here is the harmonized C major scale.

CMaj7, Dmin7, Emin7, Fmaj7, G7, Amin7, Bmin7b5. Each of these chord types has a formula.

Maj7= R, 3, 5, 7
Dom7= R, 3, 5, b7
Min7= R, b3, 5, b7
Min7b5= R, b3, b5, b7

If you play these chords in order, it sounds like a major scale, only with chords. Hope that helps.

[pierre richard]

welcome here...

much here to learn...take your time,it's not a race and we all do not have 4 - 6 hours of time to devote to our beloved instrument...

time on the instrument...pierre

[taraguitar]

Thanks Derek and Pierre Richard for your help and encouragment and I agree - it's not a sprint !

[Uli]

Originally Posted by taraguitar

Brief history - Metal in my teens, Rock in my twenties, Blues in my thirties and now jazz beckons for this decade !
T

It's amazing how many of our decade are represented here - Maybe we should open a thread about Jazz and the Midlife Crisis.

Welcome and Greetings from another Island,
Uli

[FatJeff]

Originally Posted by Uli

It's amazing how many of our decade are represented here - Maybe we should open a thread about Jazz and the Midlife Crisis.

Welcome and Greetings from another Island,
Uli

That's funny. I do kind of think of my interest in jazz having to do with my midlife crisis. Moving on from the simplicities of my young adult life.