Lesson Transcription … [Read more...]
May 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Jazz Standard Lesson 10 – ‘Playing the 3rds’ (JS10)
September 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Jazz Standard 9: Giant Steps [JS9]
This week we are releasing the 9th JGL Jazz Standard Video based around a tune that has proven to be my most popular tutorial on YouTube: John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’. It’s over 25 minutes in length and focuses on two very important concepts that will help you on your quest to conquer this wonderful tune! As usual, we have a text blurb on the basic outline of the video content plus a downloadable PDF of the juicy bits on the video with all transcribed lines in guitar TAB and notation. In this video we examine the famous John Coltrane piece, … [Read more...]
August 1, 2012 by 4 Comments
Jazz Standard 8: 12 Bar Jazz-Blues: ‘Ten Down’ [JS8]
In this lesson we examine the 12 Bar Jazz-Blues. In order to better understand this, we should first examine the common 12 bar Blues form: We find chords (by order of relationship to the tonic or root chord of Bb7) as follows: Bars 1 – 4: | I | IV | I | I | Bars 5 – 8: | IV | IV | I | I | Bars 9 – 12: | V | VI | I | I-(V)| (The V is a turnaround so that the tune can cycle around itself, from the end back to the top). This … [Read more...]
June 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Ten Jazz Standards That Absolutely Every Jazz Guitarist Should Know
Below I have compiled a short list of jazz standards I believe every keen jazz student should learn. I’ve given reasons why I think these particular tunes are so valuable and would love for you to add in your favourites and if you can, write out some reasons why they are on your list. I’ll try and stick to the classics and not choose too many by any one composer, despite having some definite favourites among them. I have mainly focused on the first songs I learned, even though there are hundreds of other tunes that have since been added … [Read more...]
April 5, 2012 by 2 Comments
Jazz Standard Lesson 6: Autumn Leaves [JS6]
Introduction Why did we choose this as our first JGL Jazz Standard? A few reasons – it was the most commonly asked for standard in recent surveys, it was the 2nd jazz tune I learned at school (‘Sugar’, a minor- blues tune, was the first!), it is easy to learn the melody and chords and it has a great underlying chord progression for soloing over. I am a big fan of research – luckily for us jazzers, researching usually just means ‘listening to’ and ‘reading a bit about’ the subject. Find renditions of your favorite guitarists playing each tune you … [Read more...]
November 5, 2011 by 6 Comments
Jazz Standard Lesson 3: Georgia On My Mind [JS3]
I saw John Scofield play a solo version of this on his ‘Funk Guitar’ DVD (although his version was much bluesier) and I really dug his approach to blending traditional blues bends and textures with jazz chord voicings / lines. So my arrangement here is an adaptation of this, again not straying too far from the written original, but with blues inflections and ideas. An important factor in making this work well as a solo guitar piece is finding a way to keep elements of the bass, chord or melody parts in contrast BUT still rhythmically interwoven. So it’s not about having a bass line … [Read more...]
August 17, 2011 by 24 Comments
Jazz Standard Lesson 2: My Romance, Rodgers/Hart [JS2]
A 1935 show tune by Rodgers and Hart taken from the musical ‘Jumbo’. Having played this classic standard countless times at gigs, I felt inspired to write a guitar chord-melody arrangement that kept the original melody and chords fairly intact, with only a few super impositions, passing chords and melodic embellishments used, for added harmonic effect. The ending I wrote is comprised of major triads (2nd inversion) that ascend in wholetone intervals against two pedal tones (the bass note and a melody note, either the tonic or 5th, chosen for simplistic character). Commonly, the tonic … [Read more...]
August 17, 2011 by 9 Comments
Jazz Standard Lesson 1: Corcovado, Antonio Carlos Jobim [JS1]
One of my favourite Jobim tunes, this is best played slow and ‘lazy’. As a guitar solo arrangement, it feels most authentic with the bass note rock solid on the 1 and 3 and any chord comping / melodic stylings played lazily against this steadfast bass rhythm. This relaxed style can be heard on many great Bossa albums (in the vein of the great Brazilian exponents such as my hero, Joao Gilberto) whereby the singer is almost constantly(rhythmically) behind the guitar comp and bass line. I had a great experience of performing this and many other bossa ‘standards’ with Jennifer Zea, … [Read more...]
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