Best Resource to Learn Jazz Guitar Improvisation?

[fingerstyler]

Okay, I'll step into this even though I'm still in the learning process myself. I doubt there's one magic thing, but to me the single most important thing is transcribing.



But I believe you have to do many things:


* singing what you play

And, eventually, playing with others. But for me this doesn't fit until I have my act together better.

I don't know if it works this way for others but I also play drums and when I was younger studied privately with Alan Dawson. He used to stress singing the melody line of the tune while soloing. This helped to organize relevant ideas. Singing what you play and singing what you are not playing or singing what the band is playing.

[MarkRhodes]

I enjoy the posts about singing. I've sung in a choir and got a lot out of that. Singing is wonderful in its own right. I'm all for it. But when musicians talk about 'singing what you play' (or 'playing what you sing') it's not singing so much as humming.

Here is Herb Ellis talking about it:

(He talks about this around the 0:50 mark. Later, he plays and you can hear him do it.)

Others Herb says did this: "all the guitarists I know, that I like." (Specifically, Joe Pass, Wes, George Benson.) He also mentions Oscar Peterson and bassist Ray Brown (-who is the bassist on this lesson). He also says many horn players do it but you can't tell because they have horns in their mouths.

In short, although it is wonderful to sing, it is not necessary that one be a good singer (or even a competent back-up singer) to do this. It's about helping get the music inside you out on your instrument.

[targuit]

Frank Vignola is a mighty fine player, and yes, he terms this stuff in the video "licks". What happens for me is the following. I actually just play along with this kind of melody. In other words, if we were trading fours as a call and response, I can play the notes (phrases? licks?) he plays, but more like mimicking a vocalist singing or purposely crafting a spontaneous 'response'. This is not hard for me, but it has nothing to do with 'stitching together' or 'deconstructing' licks. I just hear the music as phrases.

What I do, however, when playing a guitar solo or comping or chord-melody, is focus on certain notes that some call 'target tones' as points of tension or resolution of the line, and also as a way of accenting the rhythms and groove and 'taking a breath'. So I sing mentally or scat aloud. When scatting, I use syllabic fragments like "dah bah doo dah ...doo bee doo doo". Vocalese.

In fact, when I want to create a comping guitar track, I always sing the melody (as a singer would aloud) and just play around it on guitar. Singing the melody allows to me to play counterlines.

[Axentric]

I really like this discussion and I think it's a very important one in order to find practical methods to learn jazz improvisation. I've put together a (free) web application that I've created as a part of my own learning process that maybe can get you started in the most simple, but at the same time advanced, way. Check it out and hopefully you'll also find it useful. For your information it's made in Flash so in order to use it via an iOS device you have to install a web browser that supports Flash ex. Photon which can be found in the App Store. Otherwise you can always use your computer and/or other mobile devices with Android or Windows.
Here's the URL in question: axentric.se