[Blackbird86]

i've heard this style of jazz guitar before a couple of times that sounded really sweet. it was like some smooth, mellow, jazzy stuff. i was wondering if anyone know what kind of chords/scales i should learn to be able to pick up this style of play. i hope i'm not being too vague here. ...let me find a youtube example. here, this franky the genius guy plays kinda the sort of stuff i'm talking about: http://www.youtube.c...kythegenius#p/a. i'm just basically looking for a list of chords and scales and maybe some theory/pointers on how to put them together, or something.


also, if anyone knew of a good resource on chord progressions, especially progressions that involve more than just major scales. i'm basically looking for some theory stuff that i can learn so that i can basically make up my own stuff.

-thanks

[ninjato]

Well what the guy was doing in that vid was in essence a chord melody.

Personally Joe Pass is the one I'd listen to for that kind of stuff but that is a little advanced for me even.
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=aWa6aChSf1w

I am just coming around to enjoying chording all the jazz tunes I know and making them clean. Solos for Jazz I can wait. I'm just not there yet like I am w/ the Blues based stuff.

The best bet is to get a REAL BOOK (current latest is 6th edition)
It's got 90% of the most popular Jazz standards out there. It is going to look like this:

http://i197.photobuc...NewPicture1.jpg

As far as learning progressions.....If you are fluent w/ chording, just keep learning songs from the REAL BOOK. I find that a much more pleasurable way of learning chords than just some "progression". You do have to get your head away from "the blues" stuff somewhat and think more in a "major/minor" idea more akin to classical music.

I mean we can sit and talk II V I progressions or I vi II V ...etc but that is just so dry IMO.

I use this site
www.chordc.com
to help me work out all the chords in a REAL BOOK tune.

You can also look at Chris Juergensen's site (he is also a member here and logs in once in a while).
http://chrisjuergensen.com/
and look at his lessons/writeups. Again, regardless which way you go, it requires a bit more work than many are willing to put in.

I also find using one of these really helps and makes learning jazz tunes fun.

This post has been edited by ninjato: 04 November 2009 - 09:48 AM

[Blackbird86]

ha, i actually got that exact looper pedal for xmas last year, but i lost the instructions and still can't figure out how to work the damn thing. how do you make that thing work? i have an amp, a mic with phantom power (for acoustic)...i just can't get the damn thing to work. any advice?

[ninjato]

Here is a link to the manual in PDF format.

What do you need to know? The pedal is pretty straight forward.

http://media.zzounds...b639bd5fac3.pdf

[Blackbird86]

thanks for the link man. i looked at the instructions a week or so ago and have been using the damn thing every day since. i don't need to have a friend play chords for me to solo over anymore. can just loop them myself.

i kinda figured out jazz stuff. i recorded some crap i play and it all really sounds smooth jazz. lol. i guess it's been on my mind so long that it's how i play regardless. but i've discovered that if a chord progression works with major chords, it works with maj7 chords. and that the pentatonic goes well over the maj7 chords to make a pretty cool jazzy sound. 9 chords sound pretty jazzy too, but i haven't really experimented with soloing with them or even making too many progressions with them yet.

i know all 5 pentatonic modes and i've got the flatted 5th blues notes almost completely memorized. i saw a website that showed how you could add notes to the pentatonic to make a sort of modified major and minor scale i think they called them melodic minor pentatonic and ionian pentatonic modes...there were 5 of each, just like with the normal pentatonic 'cept it was the pentatonic ones with like i said, just a couple added notes, like with what is done to make the blues scale. sounds a lot easier to me than memorizing 10 completely new scale modes. i plan to start looking into finding that site again so i can try learning that.

[ninjato]

thanks for the link man. i looked at the instructions a week or so ago and have been using the damn thing every day since. i don't need to have a friend play chords for me to solo over anymore. can just loop them myself.

Just a word of warning w/ the looper pedals.

It makes you get very lazy in practicing your chords and you spend a lot of time soloing. I can go on a solo for over an hour on some progressions to the point that it puts me in a trance like state. I actually have to force myself to stop because the loops "keep going" hahahahaha.

Check out the chords for "Misty"...you'll like that progression.

[AcousticSmash]

You should listen to John Coltrane, while he isn't a guitar player, his work over many many years is the definition of ever changing jazz and some of his material is very much smooth jazz, especially the recordings he did with Duke Ellington. For some musicians, Coltrane created smooth jazz and that it died with him, which I am not sure I agree with that theory or not but songs like In A Sentimental Mood and A Love Supreme are staples of jazz and in my mind define what smooth jazz really is, music that isn't loud and busy. I am not too familiar with much jazz guitar, especially the theory, though I listen to several players including Tal Farlow, Lenny Breau and Mike Stern. Most of the jazz I listen to is very much big band related like early fusion, swing, bebop, cool jazz and avant-garde, guys like Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman and Dizzy Gillespie.

[ninjato]

You should listen to John Coltrane, while he isn't a guitar player, his work over many many years is the definition of ever changing jazz and some of his material is very much smooth jazz..............

Check out some of Coltrane's tunes we do

http://www.soundclic...nsembleFall2009

[Blackbird86]

thanks for the link man. i looked at the instructions a week or so ago and have been using the damn thing every day since. i don't need to have a friend play chords for me to solo over anymore. can just loop them myself.

Just a word of warning w/ the looper pedals.

It makes you get very lazy in practicing your chords and you spend a lot of time soloing. I can go on a solo for over an hour on some progressions to the point that it puts me in a trance like state. I actually have to force myself to stop because the loops "keep going" hahahahaha.

Check out the chords for "Misty"...you'll like that progression.

i checked out misty and i honestly don't think i've played more than a couple of the chords in the song before. it'd probably take a lot of dedication for me to get that down and honestly i don't think i have the patience for that, but i did like the sound of a lot of the chords in the song and might have a go at experimenting with some of those chords to make my own stuff. i've been looking for a list of jazz chords for a while and haven't found anything, but those all sounded about what i'm looking for.

the way i've been looking at guitar since i started playing all the time is this: i treat it like a toy rather than something to dedicate myself to and drill myself with, so it's fun for me rather than being a chore. granted, i won't be learning as fast as some of the more dedicated players 'cause i only try to learn whenever the hell i feel like doing that, but doing it any other way essentially means i won't touch my guitar more than a couple times a month...whereas with the toy angle i play a couple hours every day.

thanks for the warning on looper pedals but i don't think i have much to worry about. i've been sorta just naturally switching back and forth between focusing on chords and focusing on lead stuff pretty well. i don't plan on playing any gigs either. so it doesn't really matter. as long as i'm enjoying myself. (i get stagefright...plus, i'm really not very good)

my lead knowledge is limited enough i guess that i can't really keep going forever with any given loop. i mean, there's only so much you can play the pentatonic and blues scales before it starts getting annoyingly redundant and you have to switch the rhythm in the background so the lead stuff played is in a different mood/rhythm and whatnot.

You should listen to John Coltrane, while he isn't a guitar player, his work over many many years is the definition of ever changing jazz and some of his material is very much smooth jazz..............

Check out some of Coltrane's tunes we do

http://www.soundclic...nsembleFall2009

good stuff man.

acoustic: yeah, probably should check out some of those jazz musicians one of these days.

[Nater11]

Grant Green is the man when it comes to jazz guitar. Check out Innervisions.

[AcousticSmash]

You should listen to John Coltrane, while he isn't a guitar player, his work over many many years is the definition of ever changing jazz and some of his material is very much smooth jazz..............

Check out some of Coltrane's tunes we do

http://www.soundclic...nsembleFall2009

That was pretty good, and I tend to be pretty critical of how jazz bands play tunes as some just wreck great songs, but there are some well done tunes there.

I actually played a concert with a couple of songs by Coltrane today, we did Naima and Giant Steps which came out pretty well, did Dizzy Atmosphere by Dizzy Gillespie as well and that song will always challenge me as a horn player, it's not so much the amount of notes either but more the tempo that gets me, same with Giant Steps which is written in 4/4 time but is actually played in 2/2 and that throws me off.

And I am always looking for new stuff to hear, I have really enjoyed Mike Stern's work on a couple of discs that I have and John Maclaughlin is another amazing jazz player that I really like, even at his age he can really tear it up and does some very interesting stuff. An essential I think for anyone playing jazz guitar or keyboard is In A Silent Way by Miles Davis which features John Maclaughlin on guitar, Wayne Shorter on soprano saxophone and both Joseph Zawinul and Chick Corea on keyboards, as well as Miles Davis. So you have some of the real greats of jazz, especially the fusion scene which exploded because of those guys and their music, playing together. Gil Evans used to carry some pretty hip guitar players as well, during his tours promoting the Jimi Hendrix cover album he had some amazing guys playing guitar.

[ninjato]

You should listen to John Coltrane, while he isn't a guitar player, his work over many many years is the definition of ever changing jazz and some of his material is very much smooth jazz..............

Check out some of Coltrane's tunes we do

http://www.soundclic...nsembleFall2009

That was pretty good, and I tend to be pretty critical of how jazz bands play tunes as some just wreck great songs, but there are some well done tunes there.

I actually played a concert with a couple of songs by Coltrane today, we did Naima and Giant Steps which came out pretty well, did Dizzy Atmosphere by Dizzy Gillespie as well and that song will always challenge me as a horn player, it's not so much the amount of notes either but more the tempo that gets me, same with Giant Steps which is written in 4/4 time but is actually played in 2/2 and that throws me off.

And I am always looking for new stuff to hear, I have really enjoyed Mike Stern's work on a couple of discs that I have and John Maclaughlin is another amazing jazz player that I really like, even at his age he can really tear it up and does some very interesting stuff. An essential I think for anyone playing jazz guitar or keyboard is In A Silent Way by Miles Davis which features John Maclaughlin on guitar, Wayne Shorter on soprano saxophone and both Joseph Zawinul and Chick Corea on keyboards, as well as Miles Davis. So you have some of the real greats of jazz, especially the fusion scene which exploded because of those guys and their music, playing together. Gil Evans used to carry some pretty hip guitar players as well, during his tours promoting the Jimi Hendrix cover album he had some amazing guys playing guitar.

I HATE "Giant Steps". It's just not melodically pleasant for me.

Right now Road Song, Blue Bossa, and Wave are my 3 favorite tunes to play.

[AcousticSmash]

I don't like it either because it's annoying, wasn't really a big fan of Coltrane's progressive style at times, Giant Steps was one of those songs.