The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
    I think I'm going to do this.
    Some players who don't play a zillion notes include: Paul Desmond, Hank Mobley, Stan Getz, Jim Hall (on ballads).

    There's value in having a good teacher. One aspect of this value is that the teacher will help you stay focused on an approach.

    Getting advice on-line is the opposite of that. There are great players who learned in very different ways and give very different sorts of advice. In my experience, theory (a poorly defined term) is one of the more difficult subjects. Some players/teachers seem to feel that learning more theory is the solution to a wide variety of problems. Others, not so much.

    My recommendation, to get started, is based on simple theoretical concepts like tonal center and chord tones and then making melody with those concepts. With just major scales and their modes you can get started and, actually, play good solos on a lot of tunes.

    Then, you learn the sounds of other notes -- and there's more than one way to do that. By then, you'll have an idea how you want to go about it.

    As far as playing the sounds in your head, I guess there's even a divergence of opinion on that. My view is that my goal is to be able to imagine a good line and play it instantly. If I'm getting bored with the results, which happens, then I look to recordings and/or theory for ideas.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #27

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    Yea... Do you have any examples of your playing. Not classical or memorized pieces... just playing over basic Chord patterns or simple tunes. Do you know how to comp, not just punch out simple vanilla chords.... how to comp in a jazz style. If you post something.... I can easily tell you what to work on. Don't worry about getting something worked out of perfect.... just playing. I can tell ...Your obviously not a kid... so I'll skip the babysitting etc... It usually takes about 6 months for each different skill and understandings of how to play in a jazz style.

    There's some great advice above... but you need more than basic technical skills to play at the speed of jazz. It's difficult to get from books.

  4. #28

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    Some players who don't play a zillion notes include: Paul Desmond, Hank Mobley, Stan Getz, Jim Hall.
    Yeah, I like listening to the horn players who don't play a zillion notes for inspiration on melody phrasing and to cop some ideas. Like the guys you listed and Miles or Chet.

    There's value in having a good teacher. One aspect of this value is that the teacher will help you stay focused on an approach.
    I'm taking lessons with Tony Monaco. It's awesome compared to messing around in the dark on my own.

    Getting advice on-line is the opposite of that. There are great players who learned in very different ways and give very different sorts of advice. In my experience, theory (a poorly defined term) is one of the more difficult subjects. Some players/teachers seem to feel that learning more theory is the solution to a wide variety of problems. Others, not so much.
    I like studying theory ideas. Some people don't like it, but I think it's very beneficial. You just have to apply it musically and use your ear and judgement to guide you and appraise how successful the results were.

    My recommendation, to get started, is based on simple theoretical concepts like tonal center and chord tones and then making melody with those concepts. With just major scales and their modes you can get started and, actually, play good solos on a lot of tunes.
    I started jazz in 04. Bass was my 1st instrument, then I picked up piano and guitar. Now I'm focusing on Hammond.

    As far as playing the sounds in your head, I guess there's even a divergence of opinion on that. My view is that my goal is to be able to imagine a good line and play it instantly. If I'm getting bored with the results, which happens, then I look to recordings and/or theory for ideas.
    I agree. I think you definitely can't go wrong if you can play the ideas in your head. And you can look to recordings or theory to supplement this. My opinion is you want to be able to hear or conceptualize ideas and then execute them. There's a lot of stuff that guys play that they probably didn't totally hear up but that sounds really good.