Jazz Theory Resources by Bert Ligon VS Jazzology by Robert Rawlins

[JonR]

Originally Posted by gingerjazz

Hey jonr ,after reading through,thinking through,watching tuition videos and talking to other jazz musicians and disregarding what does not seem to work for me,i have pretty much distilled every thing down to what you say above,but you say it so much better than i ever could.Peace.

Thanks. That's pretty much how I arrived at it myself: years (and more years) of just playing the stuff, spotting patterns, distilling it down.
It's like starting with a 1,000 piece jigsaw: aaaargh what a mess! But each tune you learn to play is like giving you a few of those pieces joined together. The next tune joins some other pieces, or those first pieces in a different order (that still works).
Eventually you start to see the big picture, and the whole thing gets simpler. Any missing pieces, it's clearer where they might fit.

Three-word lesson: LISTEN AND COPY. (Judge results by ear.)

That happened to work for me (hard as it was at the beginning). (No one told me, I just had no alternative.) It can take longer than having lessons - years, decades - but it's impossible to go wrong that way, because you're following in the footsteps of the greats. And reading books may or may not help (you need to be lucky finding the right book for you).
Naturally you might make mistakes copying a tune - but either you spot them by ear (and work out how to correct them); or you don't, in which case they can't be very significant. (Those kind of mistakes are like details you can polish up later, as your ear and technique improves.)

[gingerjazz]

You speak the truth my friend,i really like that saying that everything you ever wanted to know about jazz guitar is right their in your cd/record collection.As you rightly point out who wouldn't want to learn from Wes or Charlie christian.Oh well gotta go now got a lesson booked with django.Peace.

[JonnyPac]

Great posts. I dig where this is going. Have a happy new year!