Jazz is a highly intelligent musical art form which rely's much upon having a "black belt" in music theory at its academic level through to pure intuition once you've mastered it. In other words the idea is that learning all the theory of jazz chords, chord alterations, jazz chord extensions, mode, altered jazz scales and so forth will get you playing jazz guitar but to master it you need to forget all you've learned and let your ear be the guide. It's a complete circle. You'll find that taking jazz guitar lessons can be quite demanding and require you to practice a great many hours indeed however if jazz guitar is your passion and what you feel called towards then you'll be happy to do it all and then some right? It's all about finding your pre-chosen direction on guitar.
Much of learning jazz guitar revolves around being able to improvise. Jazz musicians in general are all expected to be able to improvise solos and melodic or harmonic content on the spot of any standard they are given. In order to do this you need to have spent thousands of hours studying the structure of chords and experimenting with all the possible scales and modes which could be played over each one. You also need to have learned these so well that you are able to change from one scale to another, or one mode to another instantly with the jazz chord progression no matter where you are on the neck. If you're taking jazz guitar lessons then you'll be doing this with a lot of theory to help explain it however the really lucky jazz guitarists are simply born with a natural ear for it so they can bypass much of the theoretical learning and simply play jazz guitar naturally. Chet baker would be an excellent example of a jazz musician who really had very little idea about music theory yet could play jazz perfectly simply because he had a natural ear for jazz music.
Some of the greatest Jazz Guitarists include
Pat Metheny
Joe Pass
John Scofield
John McLaughlin
Stanley Jordan
Charlie Christian
Wes Montgomery
Django Reinhardt
George Benson
Kenny Burrell
Pat Martino
Charlie Byrd
The Jazz Guitar Sound
The sound of jazz guitar is typically very clean and without distortion. The treble frequency is kept low which creates a super mellow and 'hip' guitar tone to improvise with. You'll also quickly discover that jazz guitar melodies are highly sophisticated being that they pay close attention to the chord structure underneath and explore many surprising melodic possibilities against that chords intervallic construction. Jazz melodies also take advantage of wide using wide intervals as this suits the 'harmonic exploration' sound, pop guitar melodies are more logical and in step while jazz is completely free.
Jazz Guitar Chords
Jazz deals much in the circle of 5ths and using the tension and energy of dominant chords with all their extensions to create a harmonic playing field of infinite possibility to solo over. Great use is made of secondary dominant chords also known as chromatic harmony. A jazz guitarists knowledge of guitar chords is usually much deeper and expansive than your typical rock or blues guitar player. Altered dominant chords such as C7b9 or Bb7#9 and half diminished chords are commonly used as these kinds of chords contain multiple tritone's (also known as augmented 4ths or diminished 5ths) which carry energy (or dissonance) that can be resolved in multiple different directions. This freedom of possibility within jazz harmony allows for many surprises to the ear in jazz chord progressions. The music will frequently resolved in unexpected directions. The use of tritone's, altered chords and the cycle of 5ths in the hallmark of jazz harmony and actually goes all the way back to when Wagner was breaking new harmonic ground with his famous "Ring" cycle of operas. The real key behind creating beautiful harmony is correct voice leading.
Another popular tool for musicians is the world of jazz chord substitutions and comping. It's a jazz technique which opens up the harmonic possibilities into a never ending world.
Jazz Guitar Scales
While a blues guitarist will stick to pentatonic scales over the entire progression, a jazz guitar player will often change scales with every new chord to mirror the harmony being played underneath. This is difficult to do and requires and extensive knowledge of jazz guitar scales and modes. Just as jazz introduces extra chromatic notes to chords which create altered chords so to does it do this will scales to create jazz altered guitar scales. These tones are not strictly within the key but rather 'sound right even though they are wrong' because they word against the altered chord underneath. While a b5 in blues may be used only sparingly taking jazz guitar lessons will actively encourage you to to alter notes with your scales shapes. The trick is that you can alter or use any note at all so long as you're able to bring it back into resolution using a note either within the chord or within the key. The bebop scale, melodic minor and lydian dominant are classic examples.
Jazz Guitar Improvisation
Jazz guitar phrasing is something which blues guitarists will already be very familiar with - it's a swing feel, also known a shuffle feel in blues. Triplets feature highly in this typical jazz rhythm and bossa nova so it's very important that you learn how to phrase within a swing feel and practice your guitar scales both straight in 4/4 but also in a swing rhythm of triplets too. Alternate picking is commonly used to play jazz scales on guitar but in recent times the rise of economy picking has become more popular. It feels very different to use economy picking if you're used to alternate picking and both have their advantages. With economy picking, or sweep picking, it's easier to play guitar chord arpeggios very fast and you also get a smoother "cooler" tone. Ideally you should be able to play both ways however it's a subject which is a bit beyond guitar lessons for beginners.
The best advice to beginners when first learning how to play jazz guitar solos is to use jazz standards such as "Stella by Starlight" with chord melodies and stick closely to the chord tones for improvising short jazz guitar licks. You'll never play a wrong note in jazz guitar so long as you're within the chord tones underneath you and from this foundation it becomes easier to break out little by little without feeling overwhelmed by the sheer possibility of what's available to play.
Finding Jazz Guitar Lessons
There are online beginner jazz guitar lessons however the the quality can vary so be sure to visit a wide selection of websites before buying into any video jazz guitar lessons. The best jazz guitar teachers are normally found working within well respected music schools where it should be possible for you to sign up for a jazz guitar course. I would also recommend that you start to invest in books and jazz guitar DVDs as the ability to teach yourself to play jazz is highly liberating and rewarding. When you combine jazz guitar lessons with a teacher and learning from books, jazz guitar tabs and solo transcriptions on your own you'll have the best of both worlds.
