Comments on: Discover this "Secret" and Dramatically Improve Your Jazz Guitar Playing

By: André Rodrigues

André Rodrigues — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:35:45 +0000

I agree with what i’ve just read - i must say i don’t usually go for all that «i’ve discovered the secret» stuff, and initially i thought your article was one of such kind - but it was very honest -
i was one of many «wanna bes» that gave up the guitar years ago - out of frustration - now i’m giving it another go, quite similar to this aproach, i might add - and i’m happy with it - at 35 i know it takes time to learn a language, even if you already have some technical ability -
keep it up, i’ll be visiting you. Greetings from Lisbon and thanx very much!

By: Kelly Unger

Kelly Unger — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:43:45 +0000

Awesome! Don’t ever delete this website, so I won’t have to Scr Lk.

By: fede

fede — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:52:22 +0000

Excellent article, the best i´ve ever read about jazz improvisation. Simple, well written and very good examples…it generated on me a “truth” effect. Thank you!!

By: Leon

Leon — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:27:01 +0000

John, I’m glad you got some benefit from reading this article. As far as building your vocabulary goes, like I said there’s no substitute for listening and transcribing.

If it’s too fast, just use software that will slow down the song while retaining the pitch. A good program is “Transcribe!” Check it out at http://www.seventhstring.com

I plan on doing a longer transcription article in the future.

As far as my setup goes, hang tight I’ll post an article on that, too. But the short answer is I use an archtop jazz guitar through a reverb unit to a mixer. I run the mixer out to my interface(MAudio Projectmix) and finally to my laptop which runs Protools.

I know that sounds complicated but it’s not really. There are many simpler ways you can do it.

I hope this helps. Stay tuned to the site for future articles on these subjects.

Leon

By: John

John — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:17:54 +0000

I’ve been looking around for about a month on information on learning to play solo jazz guitar, and this is about the most lucid explanation I’ve read so far. I’ve been working on scales, modes, and arpeggios - and I think I need to keep doing this - but this article brings it all together in a very clear way.

I have two questions. The first is: Where would you suggest I find more example phrases like these to start building my vocabulary? I’ve been listening to Jazz players like Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and Pat Martino, and I’m getting a feel for it, but I find that the phrases and chord progressions are just too fast for me to be able to figure them out by ear at this point.

Also, can you tell us a bit about your guitar and amp setup? You’ve got a great sounding Jazz tone, and so far I am not able to achieve this sort of sound, so I’d like to know a bit about how you get it.

Thanks a lot for putting this up and enabling folks like me to learn a bit of Jazz guitar!