Learn Jazz Guitar

Many of you may not have heard of Nick Colionne. He’s a smooth jazz guitarist that plays in a similar style to that of Norman Brown and George Benson. Check him out at www.nickcolionne.com.  But I would say that in some ways, he’s much more influenced by Wes Montgomery than Norman.
I recently stumbled across an [...]

Here are few videos of Bireli Lagrene, an amazing European jazz guitarist who came to prominence in the 1980s. He is mostly known for his mastery of the Django Reinhardt gypsy jazz guitar style. But as you can see below, he has mastered the straight-ahead bop style as well.  Here’s what Wikipedia has to say [...]

Just wanted to let you know that I added more jam tracks to the jam tracks section. 
I’ve updated the drums on all of the tracks.  The tracks use a real sampled drummer.  I must say it swings really hard for a machine.  Very realistic.
Click this link to go there directly: Jam Tracks
The main [...]

Recently, a visitor to my site asked me the following question:
“My Instructor wants me to sit in with a group of guys at small gig. I don’t think i’m ready for this because I still make too many mistakes.  I respect your wisdom so what do you think?”
I’ve decided to answer this question publicly for [...]

I’m a real big fan of Latin jazz and it’s great to hear awesome jazz guitarists like George Benson play in this style. Here are a few videos showing him play 3 Latin tunes in a smooth jazz guitar style: Brazilian Stomp, Affirmation and El Mar.
1. Brazilian Stomp, a tune he recorded with Earl [...]

Some of you have asked that I produce a transcription of the solo that I played in this video here:
http://www.learnjazzguitar.com/2008/02/27/just-friends/
I’m happy to report that I have completed the PDF chart for you to download.
Here’s what you get:

Standard Notation – An accurate transcription of all the notes that I played in that solo.
Tablature – I show [...]

The first video in this lesson demonstrates how to play a 2-5-1 phrase in the key of F. Gm7-C7-FMaj7. The concept that I used to create this phrase is the same as with the phrase that we learned last time. I’m basically using a Gm7 arpeggio and then transitioning to a diminished substitution to the [...]

In the following video, I show how to play a nice 2-5-1 phrase in the key of C. Dm7-G7-Cmaj7. The ii-V-I progression is the most popular chord progression in all of jazz. It’s critical that you learn how to play over this progression. Take you time with this lick. Rhythmically, it might be a little [...]

I decided to create a video presentation giving more of a detailed overview of the structure of the Norman Brown lesson series. It will give you more of an idea of what to expect.
Let me know if you have any questions. Part 1 of the series should hopefully be posted this weekend if I can [...]

In one of my previous posts, I made an important point that jazz is in fact a language and it’s important to learn that language from master jazz musicians by listening to them regularly.  So, going forward I’m going to be focusing on some of the language of these musicians.  We’ll take some of their [...]