How To Play Jazz Guitar – Part One

How To Play Jazz Guitar - Part One

Fear is a common trait amongst guitarists. You may be sitting at your computer right now thinking, “He’s insane, what could there possibly be for me to be afraid of besides the odd poke from my guitar string?” The fear I’m speaking of has nothing to do with a physical fear, rather, the fear of trying something that you know you’re not good at.

The perfect example of a genre that evokes the most heart retching fear out of many guitarists is the thought of playing jazz guitar. There are so many different chords that have names many of us can’t even pronounce, coupled with flawless technique, lightning fast speed, sense and feel of emotion and knowing the theory behind it all. Who wouldn’t be a little freaked out?

It’s one of the few areas of music that encompasses so many individual disciplines. Now the question remains, “Why on earth would I want to learn something like this?” The beautiful sounds set aside for a moment, the answer is quite simple: To build your skills.

If you stop and think about this situation for a second, you’ll realize that it really doesn’t hurt as much as you think it does. Practicing a chord like Em7-5 or A9+11 really isn’t as bad as you may perceive it to be. In fact, it’s really just a weird name and that’s all that separates it from a more popular chord like E minor or A minor.

I won’t lie, if you want to get serious about your guitar and learn these skills you will get frustrated and it won’t be easy. The good news is I guarantee that you will improve with practice and most importantly, no one can hear you if you practice quietly in your bedroom!

Every professional musician I have seen or heard knows this material, whether they use it or not. The techniques spill over from other genres that we have covered and the things you will learn from jazz are easily applicable to all kinds of styles.

Before we really start to lay out the foundation, I want to make two more points. First and foremost, don’t expect to sound great right away. You may progress faster than most or slower. Either way, you have the potential for greatness if you choose to practice it and learn it.

Secondly, I can’t describe how large the genre of jazz guitar is. We could spend two years with one lesson after the other teaching you the things you need to know but unfortunately we don’t have the time for that at the moment.

Take this lesson as an index to any household manual. We’ll give you the getting started tips and list off the things that you should consider learning. This will hopefully build the interest and get the neurons firing.

A classic jazz guitar

Without further a due, let’s move onto the basics of jazz.

Making the bridge from what you don’t know to what you know.

The best way to learn jazz guitar is to simply break it down into baby steps. You have already seen quite a bit of the material we’re about to talk about, it was just in a different form. First let’s recap on the top three areas that make a jazz player rock.

1. They know their chords.
2. They know their scales.
3. They have impeccable rhythm.

…So far we’re on the right track. We’ve covered chords and how to learn new ones, we know the basics of scales and we have done some rhythm. No, we’re not experts in these categories but it’s what you need for the foundation.

What we’re going to do now is expand on each of those categories. In todays lesson, we will take a more in depth approach to scales.

Jazz Scales

So you think you know your scales? This will take you to a completely new level, I guarantee it. The number of scales that can be used in Jazz guitar are astonishing. However, the same can be said for various other genres of music as well.

Looking at what we already have available to us, there are plenty of options we can utilize that will allow you to branch off of familiar scales that you already know.

Before your ego gets too bloated, there is more memorization ahead (after all that comes with music.) One thing many beginners, and even intermediate guitarists fail to realize is that the keys that Jazz guitarists play aren’t unusual from the keys that we play on a regular basis.

Jazz Legend Django Reinhardt

What’s the difference? They utilize their fretboard to the extent that they can play any note that is within that key anywhere on their fretboard. In essence, they “own” the notes.

They accomplish this task by using scale “Positions.” Every scale has five common positions that are numbered from one to five. Look at them as fingering patterns (which can be categorized under the same number as the position.)

You can play these fingering patterns all over your guitar neck, therefore allowing you to hit every note on your fretboard that is in that particular key.

Every scale type has its own set of five different positions that can be shifted to cover every note. A great example of this would be an A Ionian scale (known to many as the major scale) which has five different positions in different locations on the neck. You can shift this position up two frets and locate every position available for the B Major scale.

Now here’s the catch, you cannot use that same fingering pattern for anything other than Ionian type scales. If you were to play a mixolydian scale, you would need to learn the five new fingering patterns to play the scale in its five positions on the fretboard.

The most common position/pattern, and the one that you have seen most frequently on this lesson is the first position. Here is an example of what a first position scale will look like:

A Major Ionian Scale

…In this case, the key is A Major (Ionian.) Take note of the fingerings. You will use that finger to recreate another scale in the Ionian mode that will be in the first position. To do that, let’s first visit all of the various five positions, where they are located, the patterns, and the fingerings.

F Major (Ionian) scale Positions

For our purposes today, we will take the F Major (Ionian) scale and locate all of its positions and fingerings. Let’s examine all five positions of the F Major scale:

First Position:

F major Ionian First Position

Second Position:

F Ionian Scale Second Position

Third Position:

F Ionian Scale Third Position

Fourth Position:

F Ionian Scale Fourth Position

Fifth Position:

Ionian Scale Fifth Position

…Notice how every position and every fingering pattern is different? This may seem like a lot right now, but you have really won 1/7 of the battle.

If you have taken the time to begin to memorize your notes as we have talked about in previous lessons, you should know your low E string inside and out. Every one of the above positions are linked to knowing these notes and frets.

Let’s say I was playing my F Major (Ionian) scale in its third position. However, we want to change keys and play the E Major (Ionian) scale in its third position. All we do is simply move down (or up depending on what key you want) from the key we are currently on.

Since we are on the fifth fret, we go down two spaces and land on our E Major scale which is on the third fret. We can keep the same fingering and pattern, just move it all down two frets. Then you have your E Major scale in its third position.

Jazz Guitarist Jimmy Bruno

Use the above examples as reference points to figure out the other scales. For instance, we know that if we want to play our F Major scale in the second position, it starts on the third fret of our low E string. Figuring out the same scale position for a different key is as simple as counting up or down the fretboard by twos.

The reason why you count by twos is because every fret is equal to a semitone and there are two semitones between each whole tone (Ex: A to B is one whole tone.)

Now you have 35 new scales to practice just by learning the five positions and applying them to every Ionian scale. Pretty cool stuff eh?

In the next part of this how to play jazz guitar series we’ll discuss modes and how to put it all into practise.

Written by Elmore Music

Unfortunately there are relatively few dedicated jazz guitar courses available however Chris Standring’s “Play What You Hear” home study jazz guitar course is well worth checking out and Elmore Music have released a very reasonably priced jazz guitar course.

Read ‘How To Play Jazz Guitar – Part Two‘