The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

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    I wanted to play the guitar in high school, but I really struggled with my ear, even tuning the thing was a nightmare. Eventually I gave up. Fast forward 50 years and I thought it was time to try again. Life was simple I could strum a few chords, had a couple of licks and even got a digital tuner. All was bliss until I heard some solo jazz chord melody tunes on youtube, wow what is major 7 chord and it sure sounds nice. So down the rabbit hole of theory and trying to learn jazz. Realizing how badly my sense of relative pitch was I started looking for ear training. Being an app savvy guy I found a couple for my phone. Well, that was beyond humbling and after a short while gave up. Now for the part I wish I would have known. I saw a video about relative pitch and the gentleman (Adam Neely) said we need something to compare the sound too. Out came the apps again, only this time instead of trying to select the right note out of thin air I would start hitting notes on the guitar, same procedure at trying to determine which interval was larger. Voila, things started to click, not only am I getting better at finding the note, but it really helps with intervals. I know most everyone on the forum is far and away superior to my level, but if your lurking here as I do and struggling with pitch grab your app and your guitar. Hence the word relative, amazing what you can learn in a lifetime lol. I live in a very remote area so a teacher is not an option, too bad may have saved me some time and frustration.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Ralphy I am not a teacher, just a player. But i think you are going the right way using your ears first. There were no university jazz studies, or CDs or DVDs or youtube when the greats came up. You’re going to get a ton of opinions here telling what to do. Just keep using your ears. And i wish you the best of luck and above all have fun!
    jk

  4. #3

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    Yeah I think it’s just practice. Busking melodies by ear every day, however painful it may be at first, is a simple and valuable practice activity. Start with nursery rhymes, Happy Birthday etc, simple pop tunes and move onto jazz standards, Beatles etc.

  5. #4

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    It's time on the instrument. You can watch tv and play along with all the background music.

    The one thing I'd add is that I've noticed that I can play things I can't name. That is, I can hear a phrase and then play it accurately -- even though I can't name the notes or intervals without starting over and thinking hard.

    My point is that, for melody, the linguistic piece (naming a note or interval) is not essential to the playing piece. They seem to be two different brain systems.

    I find chord recognition to be different. If somebody plays a wrong chord, some musicians have the skill to immediately know what it was and what it should have been. Even though I can imitate melody, I can't do that. I'll know it's wrong, but I can't name it or play it.

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ralphy
    I wanted to play the guitar in high school, but I really struggled with my ear, even tuning the thing was a nightmare. Eventually I gave up. Fast forward 50 years and I thought it was time to try again. Life was simple I could strum a few chords, had a couple of licks and even got a digital tuner. All was bliss until I heard some solo jazz chord melody tunes on youtube, wow what is major 7 chord and it sure sounds nice. So down the rabbit hole of theory and trying to learn jazz. Realizing how badly my sense of relative pitch was I started looking for ear training. Being an app savvy guy I found a couple for my phone. Well, that was beyond humbling and after a short while gave up. Now for the part I wish I would have known. I saw a video about relative pitch and the gentleman (Adam Neely) said we need something to compare the sound too. Out came the apps again, only this time instead of trying to select the right note out of thin air I would start hitting notes on the guitar, same procedure at trying to determine which interval was larger. Voila, things started to click, not only am I getting better at finding the note, but it really helps with intervals. I know most everyone on the forum is far and away superior to my level, but if your lurking here as I do and struggling with pitch grab your app and your guitar. Hence the word relative, amazing what you can learn in a lifetime lol. I live in a very remote area so a teacher is not an option, too bad may have saved me some time and frustration.

  7. #6

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    There's the notion that it's always best to have everything come from your musical mind and not your fingers for it to be inspired or not sound theoretical.

    However, I don't see anything wrong with playing something with your fingers that you assembled from theory or a source other than an aural one and then checking it with your ear. Did that sound good or not? If it didn't, then don't continue just moving your fingers in that way. Find something else that sounds good whether it was conceived aurally or not. Don't be so hard on yourself.

  8. #7

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    Hey!
    The trouble with ear training is that there are so many different things in different ways you can do. And one phone app only does a few things in a few ways.
    It seemed easier to write some scripts than to spend time and money for searching for what I thought was useful.
    Check my link for some web apps