New to playing jazz

[javleme]

Hi everyone!

I just discovered this wonderful forum, and I absolutely love it already!

I've been playing guitar on my own for about two years now, mostly by ear and through tabs. However, I've recently realized I have no idea about music theory, including jazz theory.

I'm particularly looking for recommendations on structured resources—ideally books, courses, or programs where everything comes from one cohesive place, rather than jumping between scattered info. A clear, step-by-step plan on what to learn first (like scales, chords, harmony, etc.) would be perfect for someone like me who's self-taught

Also, if you have any other jazz recommendations or tips, I'd love to hear them!

Thank you!

[alltunes]

Welcome! I have been on a learning journey for many years and the amount of info (often conflicting) is overwhelming.

My humble answer is learn songs…ones you like…one song at a time…really learn it…go onto the next song but always keep working on the ones that came before….and listen to jazz….all the time

If you want a good intro type book:

Amazon.com

[jazzloverfat]

o7

u're in the right place - ask or dig around and u'll find quite a treasure trove of info.
and if you need something that's not easily available, i managed to build up quite a pdf collection so just let me know and i'll gladly share

[SoftwareGuy]

Spend some time listening to everyone. There is much to learn by listening and coming to some idea of what appeals to you.

[garybaldy]

Go to Forum Front Page here. Scroll to JGO Navigation and find the lessons

[AllanAllen]

I liked the Mickey Baker book and there’s a study guide to help you get through it.

Mickey Baker


Whatever you end up doing, go slowly, but never stop moving ahead. You’ll never be able to perfect something before moving on and you’ll forget more than you’ll ever know.

What’s your favorite tune and who’s your favorite player?

[DawgBone]

Put your guitar down and memorize all your major scales, not the patterns, just the notes themselves. All 12 keys. If you entered music theory 101 and didn't know those you would be struggling and very far behind, beginning on the first day. It's not fun but they are the building block of all western music.

[pawlowski6132]

oh brother, here we go. Poor guy.

[DawgBone]

oh brother, here we go. Poor guy.

Not knowing the notes of your major scales is like expecting to convey an idea clearly when grunts, clicks, and squeals are your only way to communicate. Even most decent self taught players have a modicum of understanding. He did ask about theory and the major scales are the core of it.

[JazzPadd]

Hi! It’ll be a wondrous journey!

The advice so far is a fine start.

Get the sounds in your ears.

Learn three common tunes.

Find people to play with.

Above all, have fun!

[brent.h]

Learn these 3 things. Shouldn't take too long (20 mins or less):

1. what a major scale is
2. how to build diatonic chords in a major scale
3. how to categorise the 7 diatonic chords in terms of function (only 3 categories)

Then learn this 1 thing. This might take a while (30 mins).

4. how to play diatonic chords using the 6th string, 4th string, and 3rd string (Freddie Green shell voicings/fingerings)
- why it's important to play smaller chords in jazz
- why sometimes using the 4th and 3rd strings (without the 6th string) is all you need to play chords

---------------

It's far too early for you to get into serious theory and 'jazz theory'. Don't worry about complicated things now like melodies, licks, exotic scales, arpeggios, or bebop just yet. Know the basics I listed above.

Be able to play Freddie Green shell voicings/chords in a four-to-the-bar style to a metronome. I know that this might not sound impressive to you, but doing this will serve you very well down the road. You must play to a click and record yourself. I wish I had started sooner. The sooner you do it, the faster you will progress as a musician.

Don't feel the need to rush through any of this. Put in some good amount of time learning to play in this style for a few weeks or months. Enjoy the slow process. As a beginner, enjoy how manageable this is! (Man, I wish I could go back and do this all over again for the first time because it made me really happy.) Don't stress more complex stuff now. Just work on getting a nice, good sound with solid time; do this and musicians will want to play with you!

Enjoy the fact that you can get started playing in the jazz tradition without soloing/improvising. Don't make the mistake of thinking, "I need to play all that complex chromatic type stuff for my music to sound like 'jazz'." No. Four-to-the-bar is simple but valid jazz and good music.

---------------

Here are some tunes you can apply your Freddie Green skills

1) C Jam Blues
2) Moonglow
3) Lady Be Good

This will keep you busy for many weeks.

Enjoy the learning!

---------------

Edit: Don't underestimate how powerful and musical this style can be. You can make this style sound very harmonically advanced when you get more experience playing. Here's a Japanese guitarist who transcribed guitarist Jim Hall's legendary Freddie Green comping style behind pianist Bill Evans on the tune 'My Funny Valentine':

(slower)

(faster)

Bill Evans + Jim Hall (see 3:08)

Here's Jim Hall talking about Freddie Green and jazz guitar.

[Cunamara]

If you want what is probably the fastest and most efficient way to learn how to play jazz, find somebody who can teach you the Barry Harris method.

I hate to be harsh, but when I listen to videos by many forum members I notice that they don't really sound like they're playing jazz. Their playing is technically correct, but it doesn't sound like very much like jazz. I am in the same boat myself. Why? I have come to realize that my learning strategies for jazz have just been defective for about 45 years. Save yourself a few decades.

Barry's students sound like jazz. Many jazz teaching methods produce "jazz" musicians that don't much sound like jazz. Now, if it is not someone's goal to sound like the jazz tradition then I guess that's fine, but if you're gonna call yourself a jazz musician I think you should be able to play inside the tradition. Barry's method is founded in exactly what jazz sounds like.

[Strat-itis]

The main thing is to continue learning and refining your process. You can learn a lot here. You have to do a bit of playing with others and studying with a private teacher along the way tho in order to get real. Otherwise it just stays as knowledge and you don't make the leap to musical playing.

[GuyBoden]

Only playing the 3rds and 7ths over each chord is one of the first lessons taught to many Jazz beginners, because it gets the sound of the harmony into your ears.

Using only three note chords, the 1st, 7th and 3rd, also is a good Jazz beginners lesson for comping.

(If you want any more examples, let me know.)

See example below:

[AllanAllen]

I hate to be harsh, but when I listen to videos by many forum members I notice that they don't really sound like they're playing jazz.

I feel personally attacked

[James W]

If you want what is probably the fastest and most efficient way to learn how to play jazz, find somebody who can teach you the Barry Harris method.

I hate to be harsh, but when I listen to videos by many forum members I notice that they don't really sound like they're playing jazz. Their playing is technically correct, but it doesn't sound like very much like jazz. I am in the same boat myself. Why? I have come to realize that my learning strategies for jazz have just been defective for about 45 years. Save yourself a few decades.

Barry's students sound like jazz. Many jazz teaching methods produce "jazz" musicians that don't much sound like jazz. Now, if it is not someone's goal to sound like the jazz tradition then I guess that's fine, but if you're gonna call yourself a jazz musician I think you should be able to play inside the tradition. Barry's method is founded in exactly what jazz sounds like.

Name names. What forum members, and whose teaching methods?

[pauln]

...rather than jumping between scattered info.

The Jazz theory world, the lesson plans and methods world, and the practice, rehearsal,and performance stage world, are all literally scattered info!

The whole life of a Jazz musician is all about jumping between scattered info, continuously and forever; even the pros (especially the pros).

It is only when scattered info is internalized over time that it approaches becoming "where everything comes from one cohesive place", but that place eventually emerges from within your own unique mind.

Don't fear scattered info, it's what we live on, it's what we're made of. Welcome and congrats on finding the best Jazz scattered info place in the whole world.

[GuyBoden]

Only playing the 3rds and 7ths over each chord is one of the first lessons taught to many Jazz beginners, because it gets the sound of the harmony into your ears.

Using only three note chords, the 1st, 7th and 3rd, also is a good Jazz beginners lesson for comping.

(If you want any more examples, let me know.)

See example below:

Another good beginners Jazz lesson is playing a note a chromatic note below the 3rd or 7th. These are called approach notes, because they approach the 3rd or 7th note of the chord.

I'll state again that using three note chords, the 1st, 7th and 3rd notes, is a very good Jazz beginners lesson for comping.

Example below:

[mr. beaumont]

Chords and tunes. Arpeggios for every chord you learn. Use your ear as much as humanly possible. Push yourself. Start by learning jazz melodies by ear.

Major scale and major scale harmony. Get that down cold before you start making lists of scales to learn.

[Cunamara]

I feel personally attacked

No reason you should.

[Cunamara]

Name names. What forum members, and whose teaching methods?

I'm not going to name names, because people's playing might be exactly what they intend. I think a number of our forum members don't sound a lot like "jazz" in the sense of the tradition, but that might not be what they want to sound like. In that case it is a simply a matter of personal preference, but because it's a jazz forum the tradition seems apropos. We all have to evaluate our own playing for ourselves: does it sound like how we want to sound? (Sorry for the grammatical mangulation). If it does, carry on.

I didn't mention anyone's teaching methods (other than recommending Barry Harris, whose method is directly within the tradition). I referenced my own learning strategies which have not achieved what I wanted in terms of playing jazz; I can play other stuff well and enjoy doing so, but am dissatisfied with my straight ahead jazz musicianship. When I listen to my own playing in the jazz context, it is not what I want it to be. Therefore my learning strategies for jazz have been defective.

[AllanAllen]

No reason you should.

It’s a bit of internet slang, just meaning I relate to this.

I feel that way about my playing.

I’ve come to accept that I’ll always want more from myself and that’s the journey. That’s the whole thing, play to the best of your ability and strive for more insight.

I wonder if Kenny Burrell heard the masters of A Night At The Vanguard and had self doubt.

[Christian Miller]

I'm not going to name names, because people's playing might be exactly what they intend. I think a number of our forum members don't sound a lot like "jazz" in the sense of the tradition, but that might not be what they want to sound like. In that case it is a simply a matter of personal preference, but because it's a jazz forum the tradition seems apropos. We all have to evaluate our own playing for ourselves: does it sound like how we want to sound? (Sorry for the grammatical mangulation). If it does, carry on.

I didn't mention anyone's teaching methods (other than recommending Barry Harris, whose method is directly within the tradition). I referenced my own learning strategies which have not achieved what I wanted in terms of playing jazz; I can play other stuff well and enjoy doing so, but am dissatisfied with my straight ahead jazz musicianship. When I listen to my own playing in the jazz context, it is not what I want it to be. Therefore my learning strategies for jazz have been defective.

I think this comes down to a difference of paradigm.

Bill Evans famously said jazz 'is not a what, but a how.'

However, it seems to me that Bill Evans was pretty bloody well versed in the 'what' of the music that came from before him, to judge from his early recordings, and I feel that's true of all the progressive players of his generation. We've ended up at the point where the 'how' squeezed out the 'what' in a lot of education. Now, with so much interest in Barry's way of doing things, the pendulum may be making its way back.

I started like many in classes run by musicians deeply influenced by Aebersold, Levine and the chord scale approach. These were good musicians with good intentions. the emphasis was always - to quote Aebersold - 'anyone can improvise!' and the idea of free expression from the get go was an unwritten basic core value.

When I walked into my first Barry class it was a bit of culture shock. Here was an Improvisation workshop where we were doing NO improvisation. Instead, we were being instructed in things to play and how to come up with things to play that sounded like idiomatic bebop. And the whole class was playing these lines back in unison. Old school, almost military at times.

So this is generally what I have in mind when I say - learn jazz and improvisation? Pick one. Maybe in Bill Evans terms - the 'how', or the 'what'?

You don't have to stay on that path for ever, but it's good to know what you are looking for out of the process.

[GuyBoden]

Only playing the 3rds and 7ths over each chord is one of the first lessons taught to many Jazz beginners, because it gets the sound of the harmony into your ears.

Using only three note chords, the 1st, 7th and 3rd, also is a good Jazz beginners lesson for comping (See Chords in example exercise).

(If you want any more examples, let me know.)

See 3rd and 7ths note example below:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another good beginners Jazz lesson is playing a note a chromatic note below the 3rd or 7th. These are called approach notes, because they approach the 3rd or 7th note of the chord.

I'll state again that using three note chords, the 1st, 7th and 3rd notes, is a very good Jazz beginners lesson for comping (See Chords in example exercise).

Approach notes example below:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another good beginners Jazz lesson is enclosing notes around the 3rd or 7th. These are called Enclosures, because they Enclose note.

I'll state again that using three note chords, the 1st, 7th and 3rd notes, is a very good Jazz beginners lesson for comping (See Chords in example exercise).

Enclosures example below:

[jazzloverfat]

Their playing is technically correct, but it doesn't sound like very much like jazz. Many jazz teaching methods produce "jazz" musicians that don't much sound like jazz. Now, if it is not someone's goal to sound like the jazz tradition then I guess that's fine, but if you're gonna call yourself a jazz musician I think you should be able to play inside the tradition. Barry's method is founded in exactly what jazz sounds like.

Two questions for you if you please:

1. What does jazz sound like?
2. What is jazz tradition?