I remember quite clearly the first day I heard Pat Martino play. It was a rendition of the 60’s pop song Sunny. Although the melody was instantly recognisable, the improvised lines which Martino played amazed me and added a whole dimension of excitement to the song. It was simply tasty to my ears.
As I listened to the song, all sorts of questions came flooding into my head. How did he play those lines? What was his picking technique like? What were his thought processes when improvising these licks? What was his practising routine like? How did he become so good? Little did I know, this chance encounter with a Pat Martino track would change my life forever as I embarked upon a journey to answer these questions.
And boy, what a journey it has been! Learning jazz guitar isn’t easy. And I am by no means a jazz guitar master. I am a still a student and I believe in being a student for life. In jazz guitar, I don’t think you really can get to the point where you can put down your guitar and proclaim that you know everything. That would be impossible, as the subject of jazz is simply too vast.
And being a subject this vast, learning jazz guitar certainly isn’t easy. I mean…where do you start? What licks should you learn? What chords do you have to know? There will be a lot of questions and a lot of answers. Unfortunately, there will be many answers for the same question (depending on who answers them). Today, I would like to share with you some tips on how I got started in his wonderful but perplexing genre of guitar.
Tip 1 – Listen to Lots of Jazz
Listening in my opinion is the most important step in getting started in jazz guitar. Long before the advent of the internet and books with audio CDs and guitar lessons, old jazzers like Pat Martino and Wes Montgomery would learn by listening. In order to become a jazz guitarist, you must immerse yourself in jazz music. Get yourself familiar with the sound of jazz. Jazz is so diverse that one style of jazz can sound very different from another. For example, compare jazz fusion to bebop or gypsy jazz. You may find that you like one particular sub-genre better than others. For example, when I first got started, I was addicted to jazz fusion. Later on as my playing matured, I found myself Continue reading »
I’m a huge fan of the major 7th substitution over minor chords. Simply substitute the major 7th arpeggio starting on the minor 3rd of the minor chord and you’ll get wonderful sounds of the 7th and 9th notes, which in my opinion are very modern and futuristic sounding. The following lick demonstrates this by using a C major 7th arpeggio over an A minor chord.
Click here to listen to the lick. Continue reading »
Apologies for the lack of blog updates…been travelling around Beijing for the past few days, tasting the city’s best cuisines : ). In continuation from my minor 2-5-1 licks series, I’d like to share with you a nice lick which uses an major7th arpeggio over the m7b5 chord and a healthy dose of chromatics to create tension.
To download the tab files, you will need to install Guitar Pro. Click here for a free download of the trial version.
Click here to hear the lick.
Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now will know that I’m a fan of melodic guitar players – i.e. guitarists who can also write good songs. A lot of jazz guys have the chops but few have ability to write songs that would make me want to play them in my car. Lee Ritenour, along with guys like Pat Metheny and Larry Carlton, are guys whom I would consider fairly melodic players. Some may criticize them for their poppy approach at times but I let’s face it…we all like a bit easy listening some times to cool down from all the technical stuff once in a while. Here’s one of my favourite chilling out songs by Lee Ritenour, called “Is It You”. There’s very little guitar playing apart from the odd fills but it’s just so tastefully written and arranged that I have to share it with you : )
Following on from my major 2-5-1 licks series, I would like to share with you some of my favorite minor 2-5-1 jazz guitar licks. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the minor 2-5-1 concept, this chord progression is found in many jazz standards and the ability to improvise it is a must for all budding jazz guitarists. The chords are built upon the 2nd, 5th and 1st degrees of the natural minor scale with a small alteration of the 5th chord to make it into a dominant 7th chord for greater tension. In the key of A minor (or C major as some might like to think of it), the chords are Bm7b5, E7 and Am7.
Here are three minor 2-5-1 jazz guitar licks in the key of A minor. To download the tab files, you will need to install Guitar Pro. Click here for a free download of the trial version.
Minor 2-5-1 Jazz Guitar Lick #1
Click here to listen to the lick.
Click here to download the Guitar Pro tab file.
