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I sit my on my hands under my butt reading these posts.
But what is the most grand goal?
When you want to impress the world and become the next best jazz-star, then hm, ok.
Or..
What exactly do you want?
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06-12-2026 01:07 PM
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06-12-2026, 02:51 PM #77JazzKatua Guest
Learn-by-example; learn from simple but GREAT solos you like.
Chet Baker couldn't read music, but he's ONE of the BEST Jazz players EVER!
So get a teacher as many "advised"?! Not necessarily IMHO!
Practice and play what YOU believe in and not necessarily others tell you WHAT to do.
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06-12-2026, 02:56 PM #78JazzKatua Guest
"get your picking in order now, or it'll never be"
Picking is a personal matter; you're saying your picking is like 'absolute'...
I'd like to see yours then.
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What?
Originally Posted by JazzKatua
Picking is a personal matter -- so get it in order. Whatever it looks like, it needs to be together.
My old guitar teacher used to say "amateurs think about the left hand; pros think about the right."
These were classical lessons, but the same applies. I have a whole document filled with lines from Wes on Misty with the picking notated. What I chose for a given passage is personal and doesn't matter within certain parameters, but THAT I chose something is enormously important and something that 99% of guitarists (no, not exaggerating) overlook.
So many things that guitarists complain about in the abstract (my time sucks, I'm just not confident, I sound like I'm noodling) come down to your picking being absolutely sure of what it's doing on the next note.
105% with Mr. B on this one.
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wes montgomery - misty - Score.pdf
in case you were curious
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All great advice. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
On the picking issue -- I have found that the left hand is easier than the right. Getting picking together early, however you're going to approach it, makes sense. Don't ask me how I know.
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I agree that picking is important but Mr B's statement isn't entirely true I feel, since it suggests that there is a limited time span in which to get it sorted out ('now or it'll never be').... Originally Posted by pamosmusic
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stop being reasonable. this is neither the time nor the place. Originally Posted by James W
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Yeah, im saying my picking sucks and im going to be 47 in a month. Originally Posted by JazzKatua
I could have figured shit out when I was 20 and could practice 5-6 hours a day. But I was lazy. Now it's what it is, unless I want to stop playing music and devote the much smaller time I have to play to work on picking.
But hey, if you want to see how I play, I've only posted, I don't know, a few hundred videos here over the years.
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There are certain things that seem to be a lot easier to learn when young.
For example,
Internalizing rhythmic feel.
Reading standard notation.
And, probably, picking.
My first teacher didn't mention it, my second teacher had me doing Chuck Wayne style (economy) and my third teacher had me do Warren Nunes style (mostly alternating). My fourth teacher thought my picking was awful, but concluded it was too late to change. You'd think I'd be adept at both economy and alternating, but what actually happened was becoming adept at neither. So, I think Mr. B's advice is wise. And, despite what he thinks of his picking, I think his stuff uniformly sounds great.
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I’ve been applying these picking drills to my metronome practice. Never too late to try.
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Four pages into this thread already, I'm gonna assume that someone -- or, more likely, multiple someones -- already suggested Originally Posted by onezeho
My main question: looking at the full picture, where should I focus right now? Keep pushing through Barry Harris even when it feels like too much? Shift toward ear training and transcription? Work more on rhythm? Or is there something more fundamental I'm missing altogether?
Get Yourself A Personal Instructor.
Someone you sit down with in the same room face-to-face and talk about/play music, from the most basic archetectonic level to the most cerebral/emotional level, and everything in between.
Get yourself a real teacher. Now. Not a youtube influencer, not a PDF that some friend of a friend who studied with a guy who studied with Charlie Banacos gave you... a real live in-person music teacher.
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Guilty as charged.. Originally Posted by Bob_Ross
When I finally found a teacher that I KNEW would be able to help me..
Lesson one went like this ...
Hi what do you want to learn?
Ah..Jazz.
OK what do you mean by jazz?
And there it was..the question I had no answer to,
So he played some diatonic progressions withe very tasty chords that out lined songs that I grew up on that were
sung and played by "jazz musicians" so I said..Yes..THAT.
And we started my learning Harmony and Theory and Chords and their inversions and some basic chord melodies (TUNES) and why they worked.
Up to this point I had been playing rock and blues for a number of years and thought I was fairly good. Hell..I knew how to play an A13 chord!
The OP has only been into "jazz" for 6 months according to his thread title..I dont think he is quite ready for Barry Harris harmony.
Yes a teacher that can show him what he needs to learn in order to fulfill his musical goal. All else seems to be just good intentions.
This thread is a composite of many students first steps into learning a difficult subject with many giving advice
on how to learn it.
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Sounds like you're being overly ambitious about transcribing. Try to play the phrases you like, don't worry about writing them down, you won't be able to accurately notate phrases you can't play. Originally Posted by onezeho
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Overwhelmed by advice? Let me give you some advice...
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I must be more of an amateur than I was 10 years ago because I am obsessed with my left hand these days haha Originally Posted by pamosmusic
If you study Wes as he played it, it becomes a matter of arranging the left hand fingering around what the thumb wants to do.
Much of the articulation of swing feel comes from the left hand too.
Anyway, I do wonder if the Tristano guys were right and students should focus on pure downstrokes. If you can do that, you are ahead on alternating. Also pure downstrokes does help with swing.
You won’t be able to play at burning bop tempos (until you get the slurring down) but students don’t do that anyway for a while.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I agree, however, if you're going to entirely deconstruct your picking technique - versus just refining it - you must be willing to sound like warm or lukewarm dung for quite a while (cold dung is not as bad 'cause it's in vogue now). Old habits are hard to break and you may have to go cold turkey on them. Originally Posted by James W
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True - but, speaking personally, those old habits weren't up to much anyway... I didn't so much deconstruct my picking technique as just start doing something very different. I started doing circular picking (which for people who don't know, is picking where the main motion is from the thumb and index finger) around the beginning of July last year and I can see in some videos after that that I still resort of movement from the wrist out of habit... but after several or more months in and the technique I was practising (circular picking) started being more embedded. It is true I have had the luxury of being able to practice several or more hours a day which helps... Having said that, before July last year I was still coming from a fingerstyle classical background so I felt I was at a ground zero crossroads of a place with my right hand technique anyway... Originally Posted by Mick-7
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06-13-2026, 07:54 PM #94JazzKatua Guestyou think Pat Martino does this or other great guitarists? "Always slur that way"?! Originally Posted by GuyBoden
I would then say; Don't do it!
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As I mentioned in a previous post, there's no shortcut, no "do this and you'll instantly transform into a monster jazz player."
That's the main reason "rules" like "always slur in a certain way" make me cringe.
The other reason is that when I am playing, I'm thinking about the musical idea I want to realize. I'm not thinking about the number of notes per string, whether I started the phrase with an upstroke or a down stroke, whether I'm slurring on upbeats or not... I simply don't have time for that.
Another reason is that I pick almost every note, due to my desire to develop the ability to do strict alternate picking at a high level ala Pat Martino. Nobody ever says that Pat doesn't swing because he's not slurring. Full stop.
That's not to say that I never play legato. I have worked hard on that technique as well, and I use it when I want a certain sound, or to navigate passages that are difficult to execute with strict alt picking.
End rant. Again, OP, it's good to marinate in all of these ideas (along with a lot of listening) and try things out, but don't drown in rules, advice, theory, and ten-minute videos from YouTubers. Find some way to get some personal instruction. You find ways to buy gasoline, food and shelter... find a way to take lessons. You won't regret it. What you will regret is how long you waited to do this.
I'd also underscore the advice that many others have already given: learn tunes. Even if you just memorize them without understanding them, you'll internalize vocabulary, phrasing and concepts.
That's the simple way out of the forest: listen to a lot of jazz, learn tunes that appeal to you, and take guitar lessons.
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06-14-2026, 01:58 PM #96JazzKatua GuestInteresting you mentioned Wes, since Wes had no 'pick'ing. It was downward with his thumb and it worked for him. So not sure why you 'pick' Wes as an example for 'picking'... Originally Posted by pamosmusic
Your old guitar teacher's quote: "amateurs think about the left hand; pros think about the right."; I tend to think about BOTH hands. Left serves Right and Right serves Left in my case.
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Wes practiced when his wife was sleeping. Playing with the thumb was the only way. Originally Posted by JazzKatua
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Playing with the thumb is still "picking."
What i mean is get your house in technical order before you have a chance to ingrain bad habits. Bad habits are tough to break, and take time. If I decided I wanted to break mine now, I'd need to devote much if not all of my limited practice time to do it. I've learned to cope with my limitations, but there are things im just never going to be able to do.
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So ...one zeho ?
Do your understand how the fretboard works? A 12 fret repeating pattern.
Scales, arp. positions and rhythmic skills etc... are standard beginning skills and tools that help you develop your musical skills of playing the guitar.
They also help you understand, organize and be able to repeat what you hear and play on the instrument... without having to memorize everything.
You mentioned you have scales etc... in ? one position.
Can you without thinking play Gmaj scale in all 7 positions? (maj scale and modes)
Same with arps.
Just trying to see where your at....
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I think first you need to ask yourself where you want to be. Even a good teacher will ask you that. That will define your learning path. Originally Posted by onezeho
Hello everyone. I'd appreciate some advice, but first I'd like to provide a little context about my musical background and where I am right now
I'm 25. I picked up guitar at 16, but for a long time it was just a casual hobby - strumming chord-based songs, picking things out by ear, improvising with no real system. I only started taking it seriously about 2-3 years ago
For a while I got pretty deep into music theory - YouTube channels, reading, trying to wrap my head around harmony. My theoretical knowledge grew, but my actual playing didn't keep up. Until fairly recently I'd barely touched scales, positions, ear training, or rhythm work in any structured way.
About six months ago I made the switch to jazz. I started listening a lot and realized this was the direction I wanted to go. I worked through Jens Larsen's material - shell chords, basic jazz concepts - and for the first time started taking the metronome seriously
From there I moved into standards: Take Five, then All of Me. Working through those made it very clear how weak my rhythm was, so I spent a lot of time on the metronome, triplets, and swing feel. The swing thing eventually clicked in a way I didn't expect - not through any explanation, but physically. At some point the triplet eighth just settled into place and I felt it from the inside. That was probably the biggest single moment for me these past few months
Right now I'm working through Chris Parks' Barry Harris material. I've got the major scale in one position down - triads, thirds, chords, up and down - and I'm working on chord tones, chromatics, and the diminished 6 scales. But I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. There's a lot coming at once and it's getting hard to hold it all
The gaps I'm aware of:
- Ear training, especially transcribing - melodically I can get somewhere, rhythmically I fall apart
- The connection between what I hear, sing, and play
- Understanding the function of notes within the harmony
- Improvising through chord changes
- Feeling free inside swing when actually playing
- Fretboard knowledge
My main question: looking at the full picture, where should I focus right now? Keep pushing through Barry Harris even when it feels like too much? Shift toward ear training and transcription? Work more on rhythm? Or is there something more fundamental I'm missing altogether?
For example: Do you want to play acoustic rhythm in a TradJazz band? Do you want to play in a Gypsy Jazz Band? Do you want to be a member of a Bebop band? Just play solo guitar playinmg standards? Do you want to be the next Mike Stern?
Sure, all of those prolly have something in common but, they also have their specialty learning paths.
What does success look like? I'm reached my goals when I'm___________
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