At the very beginning I started by adding extra notes to the pentatonic, and to the chord shapes I was playing. It was only later that I learned what they were called. The theory only exists to document what's going on, and communicate to other players. The "arpeggio to fit the chord" approach still grates on my ear.Originally Posted by jim222
It's tempting at first to stick to the tried and tested notes, and find a scale or mode that works across all or most of the chords in the song. this approach has its place. It's much more exciting for the listener to do the opposite, and only play the notes that are unique to the underlying chord. The ultimate answer is to know what sounds you want, and use them regardless of whether the scale or chord theory says that they belong, but that does take a little time ... and I'm still not there yet.
Roland
India '08: http://mrspoppadum.blogspot.com/
I was reading an old interview with(jazz guitarist - albeit a jazz guitarist who often played a les paul through a marshal stack) Sonny Sharrock (it would be old as he has been dead a while) and he had a lot of complaints about how jazz players get stuck in trying to learn harmony whereas he felt they should be getting the feel and learning the melody.I probably know more about neuro surgery than I do about playing jazz guitar but if you wanted my best guess as to how Django actualy did do it I would say he learned the melodies before he learned the harmonies.
Breeding mammals with insects is my personal bugbear.
Django was definitely a melodies & arpeggios player, and had an incredible ability - he could play anything. Avoid getting lost in the modes of melodic minor and other such theoretical back waters - understanding it will not help playing jazz one bit. Following the changes and feel is the key. Listen to the greats as much as you can.
Try out some Ronnie Jordan - he uses a lot of pentatonic motifs - they sound great, what's different from blues is the timing - he'll synchopate the notes. Also it's important to totally disregard the guitar players in Jazz to get a stronger sense of the roots of Jazz - try some Coltrane or Coleman, some early Miles - I see it as a failure to explore jazz and stick with one instrument - most of the greats were inspired by other instruments and it leant to their originality.
Jazz is not a difficult musical style to enjoy listening too - just take your time. Grant Green, Lalo Schifrin are all on the cusp of Jazz and R&B so a natural progression. Wes Montgomery, George Benson all fit into a blues kinda groove.
Since it's a large territory there are loads of boarders with other styles - Western Swing from Country Music, Jazz Punk from Punk, Jazz Funk from Funk and Rock, Lift Music from Classical, Gypsy Jazz from Kletzmer... choose one route in, explore the hinterlands find yourself listening to another genre as a result, entirely by accident and figure if you want to head back to.
Playing jazz is 99% to do with listening to jazz. It's evolved massively and it's necessary to follow that evolution, some extent. There is no point (to my mind) in learning about II-V-Is or tritone substitutions unless you've heard a song involving them - to give it context.
To be fair nearly every jazz tune uses 2/5/1s, nearly 100% of ones with lyrics.
Agreed but there's precious little point learning them without knowing tunes first.
After all there are 251s and 251s
There are some really interesting looking courses on Truefire on either taking other styles in to more jazz-like territory or just plain old beginning Jazz.
123 Jazz and the follow-on Next Steps Jazz look interesting and not daunting, although might be pitched too low for you.
http://truefire.com/jazz-guitar-lessons/
Red ones are better.
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