The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #51

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    Quote Originally Posted by lawson-stone
    I did. Still do. Something just never clicks. I've learned maybe 75-100 tunes over the last 30 years, though I can't remember all of them. Many I studied very intensively. I just always sound lame.
    You are making solid progress.

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  3. #52

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    Quote Originally Posted by morroben
    I love the music.

    I love guitars.

    I enjoy a challenge...though I have to keep the frustration part in check. If you don't enjoy the challenge or can't keep the frustration in check, there are easier genres of music you can play. That option is available. But for some reason we don't take it.

    Jazz is just such a deep thing, you're never going to get there. So enjoy the journey.

    If you take a step back and really look at the big picture, you've probably made a lot of progress. For example...



    Seriously Mr Stone...you have improved SO much in the last couple of years. You sound really good. I know it's hard to see when you're inside of it, but trust me, I've been watching.

    And this is probably true of many others in this thread, it's just that Lawson Stone posts a lot of videos and I'm a youtube subscriber.

    And on the rare occasions I can stop beating myself up, it's true of me too. I couldn't play this well a few years ago. I didn't understand harmony as well. It took me longer to learn a tune. My chord melodies were even worse.

    I think most of us are making progress.

    That is such a very kind and encouraging thing to say. Thank you. I think part of why I think my playing is so poor is precisely that I'm learning, and realizing how past playing wasn't what I (then) thought it was. You play as much of Jimmy Raney's lines as I have, and you wonder if you'll ever play bebop!

    thanks again for the very encouraging words. At the moment, it's love for the guitars and how they sound that keeps me going.

  4. #53

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    You are making solid progress.
    Thank you sir. You are one of the people here I consider my on-line teachers.

  5. #54

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    I have never, ever, had any aspirations of being a professional musician. I play purely for the enjoyment, and because I feel the need. For most of my career I was away from home, in places and using transportation that simply didn't allow me to have an instrument available. I suppose a harmonica would have been possible, but nothing bigger, and I just wasn't interested in it. I played some at home, but by the time I got back home from the wilds of far south Louisiana the honey-do jobs had backed up so far that I didn't have much time for music. I regret that, but I had to put food on the table the best way I could, and I don't regret time spent with my family instead of practicing. Now in my mid 70s it's too late to become a rock star, but I have time to play as much as I want, and I do. The wife sometimes complains, but we work it out. The upside of the pandemic is that I don't have to go to the malls for her shopping habit, which rarely resulted in buying anything anyway. She gets pleasure not from buying, but just from shopping. I get pleasure from just sitting and playing guitar. I'm ahead for the time being.

  6. #55

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    Quote Originally Posted by lawson-stone
    I did. Still do. Something just never clicks. I've learned maybe 75-100 tunes over the last 30 years, though I can't remember all of them. Many I studied very intensively. I just always sound lame.
    I wouldn't say that. I think your chord-melody playing often sounds quite good, and you seem to have a knack for putting together arrangements. I think your improv needs more work than your chord-melody playing (much the opposite for me), but I definitely hear improvement; it comes together more often than you give yourself credit for. Being dissatisfied with your playing (paradoxically) is a sign of learning.

    John

  7. #56

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    "I didn't have much time for music. I regret that, but I had to put food on the table the best way I could, and I don't regret time spent with my family instead of practicing." sgosnell


    Hi, S,
    And, you have hit the proverbial nail on the head! A devotee of the Arts needs time and this is exactly the reason why a young person who has dreams of being a "professional" needs to consider his real chances for success and the amount of time he/she needs to gain competency/artistry. If life passes you by, you'll never get those years back. This is why, historically, artists had patrons or chose to live the life of a poete maudit. Today, nothing has really changed. It's a rough road with no real promise of commercial success as some on this forum have shared.
    Many in my generation who played professionally didn't have to make the choice, ultimately, since Disco Music changed the scene forever. It, for me, put the final nail in the coffin in the late 70's for playing live music and making a "living." The jobs disappeared and turntables/DJ's or recorded tracks were the soup du jour in all but a few venues. Today, I have a friend who still does Rock gigs in the bar circuit and is a very good bassist who plays in a 4 piece group that does three one-hour sets and they get $150-$200. a night. That's what we made in the early 70's in the R@B/Soul groups in which I played---fifty years later! Sometimes, I wish I made just $1.00 an hour for every hour spent in a practice room. It would easily buy a nice collection of L5's and luthier-built Classical guitars. Play live . . . Marinero

    P.S. How does this relate to this thread? Simply, that if your goal is to perform professionally, you may gain competence and have no prospects for paying jobs. M


  8. #57

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    [QUOTE=Marinero;1080667]And, you have hit the proverbial nail on the head! A devotee of the Arts needs time and this is exactly the reason why a young person who has dreams of being a "professional" needs to consider his real chances for success and the amount of time he/she needs to gain competency/artistry.[/QUOTE

    And there's the rub -- in order to actually have a career in the arts you have to set aside the those concerns (or be a person who never has such concerns in the first place). No one who thinks about it rationally in terms of prospects and return on investment would do it. The only way is to assume you will succeed and to organize your life around that, and keep going until you either do or can't try anymore.

    John

  9. #58

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    Quote Originally Posted by John A.
    I wouldn't say that. I think your chord-melody playing often sounds quite good, and you seem to have a knack for putting together arrangements. I think your improv needs more work than your chord-melody playing (much the opposite for me), but I definitely hear improvement; it comes together more often than you give yourself credit for. Being dissatisfied with your playing (paradoxically) is a sign of learning.

    John
    Thanks for that encouragement. I think you are right in the last sentence!

  10. #59

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    I am nine years into playing jazz guitar and what keeps me going is the music: listening to it, making it, discovering new sounds that I want to create, then having to go into the woodshed for hours - or days or months - to open another door to make that sound come out of my guitar. Listening to jazz is a huge part of my life. Making jazz allows me to feel like I am participating. Whether it's jamming with a friend, performing, or going to a workshop, jazz gets me out of my comfort zone and stretches me. As a listener and a player, what I hear and appreciate is constantly evolving. I can't imagine life without music.

  11. #60

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    " I can't imagine life without music." 3rdwaverider


    Me, too!

    Play live . . . Marinero

  12. #61

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    The standards. The stock of standards seems to be endless, and I always find a new one to learn, (maybe to often) because I desperately want to get know, play and improvise it.

    So here is a trap: they often say, play what you love, play your heroes. When I started, then advanced a year, I transcribed and played (tried) Bright Size Life, Unity Village, or Guardian Angel and similar... because PM and John McLaughlin were my heroes. Despite those are giant recordings, not optimal to learn a language and suboptimal to progress. Too specific to the artist itself.

    Falling love in standards changed my stuck. Just learning them (the heads I mean) gives an unconcious vocabulary of melody ideas, and get knowing the harmonic patterns give an unconcious understanding what happens in jazz, progress shows up in the form of "side effect" (a hobbyist said)

  13. #62

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    Quote Originally Posted by Marinero
    "I didn't have much time for music. I regret that, but I had to put food on the table the best way I could, and I don't regret time spent with my family instead of practicing." sgosnell


    ... artists had patrons or chose to live the life of a poete maudit...
    C'est le Diable qui tient les fils qui nous remuent .

  14. #63

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pycroft
    C'est le Diable qui tient les fils qui nous remuent .

    Le maître de marionnettes ultime? Do correct me svp.

  15. #64

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    It's fun. That's what keeps me going. Even just hitting one note on the guitar that sounds really good makes me feel great.

    But I try not to have any illusions that I am highly talented or will ever be a great jazz guitarist. Well, since I'm 61, that will certainly never happen. Almost all great musicians began by the age of 10 or so; I didn't begin until I was 20. There is something about brain development in childhood that is crucial to developing musical ability. In fourth grade I got assigned to play the cello, but my heart was never in it (I wanted to play guitar but they didn't have that available at my school) so I did not put the effort into it. Even if I had, it would have paid forward into playing the guitar when I got around to that.

  16. #65

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    I got my first guitar for my 11th birthday. Soon, I will be turning 66. So, 55 years of playing the guitar. My teacher tells me I’m making good progress.

  17. #66

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    To Pycroft and blackcat,

    Although I don't speak French, I loved those quotes. They will become part of my arsenal in the future! Great!

    Play live . . . sin Diablo????? . . . Marinero

  18. #67

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    I simply love the sounds of guitar strings playing notes and chords, especially major 7th chords. Those notes light up the neurons in my brain and changes me...