Newbie needs help designing a beginners plan

[pamosmusic]

Look OP, here is your next three years of work. If you have 30 minutes, spend 15 minutes on each half.

Single Notes: Get each step up to 120bpm on the metronome before moving on
1. Learn The CAGED shapes in 1 key
2. Apply the shapes in all 12 keys
3. Run the shapes in 3rds
4. Run the shapes in triads
5. Run the shapes in 7th chords

Chords/Comping:
6. Learn the basic chords section on this link
7. Apply these grips to the songs you learn, don't get focused on learning every grip and every extension, focus on learning tunes.

What songs to learn? Double sided answer, you should absolutely focus on learning the songs you like, but Autumn Leaves and Blue Bossa will get called at EVERY jam session you could possibly go to without an invitation.

If I had to do it over, I would do it this way. There's plenty of options for video lessons, great teachers here on the forum.

Yeah a teacher can help break this up into manageable chunks etc, and particular scale fingerings might be different on the margins, but if you’re comfortable doing this stuff on your own, this is pretty much what you’ll get from everyone.

Except that I’m a hardcore shell voicings partisan. Come for me.

[Tal_175]

Look OP, here is your next three years of work. If you have 30 minutes, spend 15 minutes on each half.

Single Notes: Get each step up to 120bpm on the metronome before moving on
1. Learn The CAGED shapes in 1 key
2. Apply the shapes in all 12 keys
3. Run the shapes in 3rds
4. Run the shapes in triads
5. Run the shapes in 7th chords

Chords/Comping:
6. Learn the basic chords section on this link
7. Apply these grips to the songs you learn, don't get focused on learning every grip and every extension, focus on learning tunes.

What songs to learn? Double sided answer, you should absolutely focus on learning the songs you like, but Autumn Leaves and Blue Bossa will get called at EVERY jam session you could possibly go to without an invitation.

If I had to do it over, I would do it this way. There's plenty of options for video lessons, great teachers here on the forum.

At least a version of it.

There should be a jazz guitar entrance examination. Until students pass that examination, they shouldn't worry about anything else. I mean if they are serious students. Otherwise, yeah, learn Autumn Leaves and you're good to go.

The exam would be something like:

- The student is given the chord progression of a randomly chosen standard. They should be able to play quarter notes connecting chord tones always hitting the nearest chord tone when chords change. First ascending up the fretboard until they reach the 15th fret then descend back continuously.

- The student is given a melody and a chord type and chord function. They will be asked to harmonize every melody note while staying within the harmonic function of the chord type on strong beats.

- The student is given a melody note, a bass note and a chord quality. They will be asked to create and play an acceptable four part voicing of that chord quality combing the bass and melody and using appropriate middle voicings. The chord can be have tricky extensions as the point of the test is to see if the student understands chord construction, chord function and able to visualize intervallic relationships on the fretboard.

- A basic reading test.

They don't even have to worry about scales if they can do all of the above reasonably quickly. Otherwise, without reaching a certain level of fluency with the fretboard harmony, they will be aimlessly beating around the bush for a long time.

[rpjazzguitar]

[QUOTE=AllanAllen;1394440]Look OP, here is your next three years of work. If you have 30 minutes, spend 15 minutes on each half.

Single Notes: Get each step up to 120bpm on the metronome before moving on
1. Learn The CAGED shapes in 1 key
2. Apply the shapes in all 12 keys
3. Run the shapes in 3rds
4. Run the shapes in triads
5. Run the shapes in 7th chords

Chords/Comping:
6. Learn the basic chords section on this link
7. Apply these grips to the songs you learn, don't get focused on learning every grip and every extension, focus on learning tunes.

What songs to learn? Double sided answer, you should absolutely focus on learning the songs you like, but Autumn Leaves and Blue Bossa will get called at EVERY jam session you could possibly go to without an invitation.

If I had to do it over, I would do it this way. There's plenty of options for video lessons, great teachers here on the forum.[/QUOTE

Perfectly valid approach. Probably the majority of players have done a version of this.

That said, I never heard of CAGED until long after I learned the fingerboard. I don't think well in shapes and I've never been able to deal with diagrams of dots on a fingerboard grid. It's not like I don't know any shapes, and I do use a few, but mostly, I think a completely different way. I'm not suggesting that the way I did it is better (I'm not even explaining it). Rather, I'm just pointing out that there are a lot of paths up this mountain.

Here's the OP:

"I want to focus om building a feel for rythm and playing to backing tracks and metronome and then learn some easier solos, heads and comping that i can play to records."

With limited time and no teacher, I'd cautiously recommend the following.

1. learn the standard "jazz chords" in 12 keys.

2. To do that, it's helpful to first learn the fingerboard. You write the chord on the grid and circle the root. Then you memorize it in 12 keys.

That's all you need to comp along with intermediate level backing tracks and many recordings.

3. For soloing, scat sing something and figure out how to play it. This is a fundamental skill in improvisation.

And, copy solos from records. Best to start with players who don't play a lot of notes. Paul Desmond and Hank Mobley come to mind first.

[AllanAllen]

I don't think OP has a good goal, and having no idea where they are at with foundation, I thought a two pronged bottom up approach was best.

Also, just giving them a time frame and a short list to illustrate, this stuff is easy to talk about and explain, but takes a long time to put into action.

[Smoothsailor]

Thank you for all the input.

I havent really made a concrete plan but i have started to focus on learning by focusing on one song per month.

Januari i was focusing on "autumn leaves". Learning the melody (single note), a chord melody arrangement and then comping (different ways to comp)

February i was studying Take Five. Comping, learning the melody and the paul desmond solo so that i can play along to the record. ( im a bit sloppy at 100% speed by i can do it okay at 80%).

Im going to read thru all this and think about more technical aspects.

Any more song suggestions?

[Smoothsailor]

To be more concrete with my level i would describe it as a total beginner. I have 30 years of listening and loving music.. but only 10 months of playing.

My goal is just to learn more (not to ever performe) and to able to play along to the music i love.

[pamosmusic]

Take Five is a popular one, but actually super tough. Maybe not really a beginner tune.

You might try Bag's Groove, Sonnymoon for Two, and C Jam Blues.

Blues is the most common song form you'll run into and those are the most common keys in that order (F, Bb, C). Miles's solo on Bag's Groove also happens to be iconic.

[AllanAllen]

If I understand, he’s already finished Take Five.

Great work OP! Post a clip in the just the melody thread!

[pamosmusic]

If I understand, he’s already finished Take Five.

Great work OP! Post a clip in the just the melody thread!

Yeah gathered that … just making the point that the first tunes you think of are not always the tunes that make sense to learn first.

He was asking for next tunes and blues tunes are a great next place to look.

Back to the OP I’d be very interested to hear what you learned in the transcription

[AllanAllen]

Yeah, blues tunes are great because you learn a head and that can be sliced up into lines pretty directly.

[wolflen]

Blues it is...Miles...All Blues

[AllanAllen]

Blues it is...Miles...All Blues

I play something off Kind of Blue at almost every gig.

I really like to play All Blues slow and mellow and just play my guitar like I’m crying in the shower. You can see people lean in to that one.

[Al Haig]

Thank you for all the input.

I havent really made a concrete plan but i have started to focus on learning by focusing on one song per month.

Januari i was focusing on "autumn leaves". Learning the melody (single note), a chord melody arrangement and then comping (different ways to comp)

February i was studying Take Five. Comping, learning the melody and the paul desmond solo so that i can play along to the record. ( im a bit sloppy at 100% speed by i can do it okay at 80%).

Im going to read thru all this and think about more technical aspects.

Any more song suggestions?

That's actually a really good program. Just add some mechanics of how to create single note material from scratch: scales, arps, intervals, chromatics. Can work in some harmony but it's ok to focus on single note for now as long as you're doing the lil chord melody arrangements.