One of the biggest problems I see with beginning and intermediate jazz guitarists when they come to me for lessons is that they can play the correct scales and arpeggios in their solos, but they haven’t worked on developing their phrasing, textural concept or melodic development in their practice routine.

Because of this common roadblock, I came up with a fun and easy exercise that you can do in your own routine to help develop your phrasing, melodic development, textural variations and control of the form. The exercise is presented in the video lesson below, which is shown over a Bb blues progression using a Bb blues scale and the 3rds and 7ths of each chord in the progression.

Check this lesson out in your practice routine. It’s fun, easy to do and has a number of benefits that can show up in your playing right away.

Bb Blues Scale

Bb Blues Chords – 3rds and 7ths

Video Lesson

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Jazz Guitar Chords – Jazz Blues Phrasing Video Lesson from Matt Warnock Guitar

Boy was I wrong.

I quickly learned that learning how to play jazz guitar means learning about tone control, melodic development, textural variation, harmonic and melodic development and all sorts of other fun and exciting concepts.

Though I knew that I needed to focus less on speed and more on sounding musical, it wasn’t until I began studying with Montreal guitar guru Roddy Ellias that things began to move in the right direction for me.

When studying with Roddy, we focused on playing very slowly in order to develop a strong connection between the theory I was learning, the music I was hearing in my head and my fingers that were realizing these sounds on the guitar.

Which leads me to today’s Jazz Guitar Practice Tip:

“Building a connection between ears, hands and the mind means spending time each day practicing as slow as you possibly can.”

One of the best exercises I ever did was one that Roddy showed me over scales and when learning Bach 16^th note etudes and bebop heads.

Below I’ve written out this exercise as it applies to scales. If you want to take this exercise to the next level in the woodshed, use the same approach but do each step with the notes to “Donna Lee” or “Confirmation,” which Roddy had me do, and do from memory.

Nothing has tried my patience, been more frustrating and at the same time more beneficial to my playing than this exercise.

So check it out and see what it can do in your playing as you continue your development as a jazz guitarist.

Roddy Ellias Scale Mediation Exercise

The following exercise was taught to me using a nylon-string guitar, but you can use it with an archtop, or even a solid-body if you practice it at a relatively low volume so that the notes fade out in a reasonable amount of time.

• Pick a scale that you want to work on in your practice routine

• Play the scale up and down a few times slowly so that you are sure of the fingering

• Close your eyes before hitting the first note

• Play the first note in the scale and let the note ring until the sound fades away, this can take upwards of 8-10 seconds per note so have patience

• Focus on hearing the note from the attack, to the initial swell to the final fade of the sound

• Try to hear the overtones ringing as the note swells and fades and let your ears really digest what that note sounds like on the guitar

• Once the first note has faded to nothing, repeat the above steps with the second note of the scale

• Repeat these steps up and back down the scale until you have played the full scale in this manner

Practicing this slow in a meditative fashion is extremely productive time spent in the practice room, but it is way easier said than done.

It takes a lot of focus and patience to perform this exercise, but if you can stick with it, even for a few notes a day in the beginning, you can really build a strong connection between your knowledge, ears and hands, which will only serve to propel your playing forward once you get back to normal tempos on a tune.

What do you think of the Scale Meditation exercise? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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1. Jazz Guitar Practice Tip – Rhythm’s the Thing
2. Jazz Guitar Practice Tip – Learn It By Ear
3. How to Practice Major Scale Modes for Jazz Guitar

Jazz Guitar Practice Tip – Scale Meditation Exercise from Matt Warnock Guitar

While playing scales and arps up the neck in all keys can help to open up the neck and teach you about melodic devices, simply running these exercises up and down can quickly become a boring and unmusical part of your practice routine.

I used to feel this way in my own practicing, where I would get the scale fingering down at different tempos and in different keys, but the exercise just felt flat when I ran through these technical ideas in the woodshed.

I would often be day dreaming while I was running up and down each scale and arp since I didn’t have to be mentally or aurally engaged to complete the exercise.

Then in stepped rhythmic variations and these exercises became a fun and much more musical and mentally engaging part of my practice routine.

Which leads me to today’s Jazz Guitar Practice Tip:

“Adding rhythmic variety to any exercise not only makes it more challenging, but more musically interesting at the same time”

What is rhythmic variation?

This is where you take a technical exercise, such as playing a scale up and down in all 12 keys across the neck, and add in a specific rhythmic grouping to play as you work through each scale.

These rhythmic variations could be static rhythms, such as playing the scale with any/all of these rhythmic durations, focusing on one rhythm at a time as you work through all 12 keys:

• Whole Notes

• Half Notes

• Quarter Notes

• Quarter Note Triplets

• Eighth Notes

• Eighth Note Triplets

• Sixteenth Notes

• Sixteenth Note Triplets

You can also add in rhythmic groupings from these durations such as the following, which are some of my favorite and idiomatic to the jazz guitar vocabulary:

• Whole Notes Starting on the & of 4

• Half Notes Starting on the & of 2 and the & of 4

• Dotted Quarter Note + Eighth Note (Charleston)

• Dotted Quarter Notes in Sequence

• Quarter Notes on the &’s of all four beats in the bar

Or any combination of rhythms that you can think of applying to your scale and arpeggio practice routine to add an extra layer of variety to the exercise.

By adding in rhythmic variations such as these, you are not only building a strong rhythmic foundation as a jazz guitarist, but you will raise the level of fun, musicality and mental engagement in your scale and arpeggio exercises, which is a win-win-win practice-room situation.

The next time you find yourself working on scales or arps in the practice room and you’re getting tired of only using one rhythm to work on these technical exercises, try bringing a good dose of rhythmic variety to these exercises. Not only will this raise the interest level when learning scales and arps, but it will raise the level of mental engagement and musicality that you bring to your technical exercises at the same time.

Do you have a favorite way of integrating rhythm into your technical exercises? Please share it in the comments section below.

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2. Jazz Guitar Practice Tips: Being Creative With Technical Concepts
3. How to Practice Outlining Chord Changes for Jazz Guitar

Jazz Guitar Practice Tip – Rhythm’s the Thing from Matt Warnock Guitar

It’s not an easy question to answer really, as it was a long process that led me from playing with a pick to playing completely with my fingers.

Though I had always used my fingers alongside my pick to comp chords, which I preferred over strumming them when I was younger, I had never played jazz with my fingers until my senior year at McGill.

After much struggle and deep thought on my playing and where I wanted to go with it, I made the tough decision to ditch my pick and move to playing fingerstyle jazz guitar.

Though the decision wasn’t an easy one, and there were many days I had wished I’d stuck with the pick, over time it has shaped me as a player, and allowed me to expand my harmonic and textural approach to playing, as well as defined my sound and style as a jazz guitarist.

So, to answer that question in more detail, here is a brief recap of how I ditched my pick and became a fingerstyle jazz guitarist.

Outpicking My Ears

I had always wanted to play fast. I was a big fan of guys like Al DiMeola, Pat Martino and Allan Holdsworth when I was coming up, and so I began to equate speed with musicality when it came to creating solos.

But the faster I could play the more I realized that having chops for chops’ sake was having the opposite effect on my playing, making it less musical.

After assessing the situation I realized that because I was focused on speed in my playing, that my fingers were running the show, and that my ears were not being allowed to participate in my creative output because they simply couldn’t keep up with the pace my fingers were setting on the fretboard.

Because of my focus on technique during my development, my chops had grown at a much faster pace than my ears could handle, so my ears were way behind in regards to development compared to my technique.

After realizing this, and realizing that I wanted to put more focus on different textures, melodic development and space in my playing, I decided I needed to make a big change in the way I approached the guitar in order to break out of this pattern.

But the big question remained, “How was I going to give my ears a chance to grow to the level of my chops?”

Letting My Ears Catch Up

After pondering this question for some time, I decided that the best and quickest way to get my ears and fingers on the same playing field was not to speed my ears up, but to slow my fingers down.

So, I looked at what was the source of my speed on the guitar, decided that my pick was a big reason why I could play so fast, and decided that the best way to level the playing field was to get rid of the pick.

I know that sounds drastic to a lot of people, and believe me it was to me as well.

I was basically starting over on the instrument from a picking-hand perspective, though I did have a few years of classical guitar training as a teenager to fall back on, which helped at first.

By switching from playing with a pick to playing with my fingers, I immediately brought my chops down to a much slower level, since my fingers were underdeveloped at the time and I couldn’t play all of the patterns and speed tricks that I could with a pick.

The effect of this decision was immediate.

My picking and lines become much slower and shorter with a larger focus on motivic development in my jazz guitar solos.

As a result my ears were able to become involved in my creative output, creating a bond between my ears and fingers that changed my playing from then on.

I began to hear lines in my head as I was playing them, which later grew into me hearing lines in my head before I played them.

As my ears began to develop alongside my finger-picking technique, they began to direct my playing in ways that I hadn’t anticipated, and all for the better.

I could start to hear directions, such as hearing a line moving up or down the neck.

I could hear whether I wanted to play a chord, double-stop, octave or single-line.

I could hear whether I wanted to play a scale or arpeggio line, a chromatic or diatonic line, all of the things that my ears couldn’t tell me before when I was totally focused on playing the guitar with my hands.

Though I had many, many tough days early on trying to figure out how to play jazz guitar with my fingers, being able to allow my ears to guide my playing was well worth any struggle I had in the beginning.

And after sticking with my fingers for a number of years, not only was I able to gain back most of my speed, at least to a level that I wanted, but there were some very nice side effects that popped up unexpectedly along the way.

Tyler Ross and Matt Warnock Performing on Globo TV Photo: Paulo Fihlo

Basslines, Chord Melodies and Chord Solos

As I began to explore fingerpicking in a jazz context further, I started to explore different players in more depth that either used their fingers, or played in a slower, more melodic vein that I wanted to adopt into my own style at the time.

This opened my ears up to some amazing players such as Lenny Breau, Ed Bickert, Jim Hall, Ted Greene, Ralph Towner and many more.

In this process, I not only expanded my record collection, but I was really drawn to how these players used chords, double-stops, triads and other textures in their solos as a way of creating intensity and interest in their playing.

So, besides bringing my ears into the game, I also began to dig deep into learning how to chord solo, play in a chord melody style, and a little later on learn to walk basslines and comp behind singers and other soloists.

Not only did my ability to play chord solos as well as walk and comp expand the variety of textures that I brought to my performances, but it allowed me to work in a number of musical situations that had previously been closed to me since I had been primarily a single-line player.

I began getting calls to play duo shows with singers, since I could handle the harmony and basslines behind the vocalist and then perform chord solos and bassline-chord solos during my improvisational sections.

I also began to get work playing solo gigs and later on solo concerts, which is something I had never been able to do when I played with a pick.

So, ditching the pick not only helped me to integrate my ears into my playing, but it expanded the textures that I played with, which in turn opened up many doors in my career that had previously been closed to me due to the single-note focus in my playing.

Though it was an unexpected consequence of playing with my fingers, I will definitely take it as it allowed me to perform in solo and duo concerts around Canada, the US and Brazil in recent years, and these experiences have in turn furthered my development as a player.

Fingerpicking in a jazz context isn’t for everyone, and it shouldn’t be or else everyone would sound the same.

But, for me at least, switching from a pick to my fingers was a pivotal moment in my career as a jazz guitarist.

Though I had big doubts in the beginning, it turned out to be one of the best choices I have made during my development as a player.

What are your thoughts on the subject? Do you have any experience with fingerpicking in a jazz style? Please share them in the comments section below.

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Why I Play Jazz Guitar With My Fingers from Matt Warnock Guitar

He asked me to play a tune with him, just an easy standard, something like Take the A Train, and so I pulled out my Realbook and put it on the bandstand.

He promptly grabbed the Realbook off the stand and dropped it in the trash can with the comment, “You won’t be needing this.”

At the time I didn’t know what to do. I had always learned things from books, tunes, licks, solos, chords etc. And here I was expected to play a tune I didn’t know with a top-rate player and I couldn’t read the chart!

Though I was thrown off by not having the chart in front of me, I was pleasantly surprised when we started to play and I was able to pick up the chords from hearing him play, and later the melody line as he played it once I got the chords under my fingers.

This was a huge lesson for me on my journey to learning how to play jazz guitar.

Not only did I realize the importance of having good ears when put into a tough musical situation like this, but when I brought this approach of learning by ear into my practice room, I found that the licks, solos, tunes etc. that I learned by ear stuck with me much longer than the ones I learned from a book.

Which leads me to today’s Jazz Guitar Practice Tip:

“It’s quicker to learn from the page, but it’s more beneficial in the long term to learn by ear.”

Now this is easier said than done, but below is an exercise that you can take into your own practicing in order to bring a stronger focus on your ears in the woodshed.

Jazz Guitar Ear Training Exercise

Here is a fun ear training exercise that I like to do in my own practice routine as well as with my students.

• Pick a lick from one of your favorite jazz guitarists that you want to learn.

• Listen to that lick until you can sing it along with the recording.

• Sing the lick on your own until you are fully comfortable with it.

• Find the notes to the lick on the guitar using your voice as a guide.

• Go back to the recording and play the lick on guitar with the record to check your work.

• If there are wrong notes repeat the above steps until you have all the notes of the lick correctly on the guitar.

• Put on a backing track for the chord(s) the lick is used over on the recording. For example, if the lick is used over a ii-V-I in C major, then put on a Dm7-G7-Cmaj7 backing track.

• Improvise over the backing track using the lick from the recording. Starting with repeating it exactly as it is on the record, then varying it to make it your own.

• Vary the lick by adding notes, taking notes away, changing the rhythm, adding concepts such as side-stepping and chromatic approach notes etc.

• Take this new understanding of the lick, as is and with your variations, and integrate it into your solos over a tune that you know or are working on in the practice room.

By learning a lick in this manner you are not only getting it under your fingers, but you are bringing your ears into the learning equation.

As well, you are completing the process of taking a lick from a recording, getting it into your ears, then your hands, and finally using it in an improvisational context, using variation to make it your own.

This is a great way to build your ears as well as your jazz guitar vocabulary at the same time.

And, when you learn something by ear, it is much more likely to stick in your playing than if you had learned it from the page.

What do you think of this approach to learning jazz guitar by ear? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Jazz Guitar Practice Tip – Learn It By Ear from Matt Warnock Guitar

You sit down in the practice room to get some time in on your guitar. You have a list in front of you of material that you need to work on, but instead of starting with the newest and most difficult material, you noodle for a while or run through material that you already know.

I have a good friend, Dr. Brad DeRoche, that has a great saying that uses whenever he finds himself noodling or playing easy material in the practice room, he calls it “serenading himself.”

This serenading is common and we all do it from time to time, or for many of us more often than not (present company included).

But, imagine where you would be in your development if you started every practice session by working on something you can’t yet play, rather than running over material that you already have under your fingers and in your ears.

This idea leads me to today’s jazz guitar practice tip:

“True growth as a guitarist comes from addressing the things that are uncomfortable to us in the practice room.”

With that in mind, here is an exercise that you can do on your own, if you don’t have a private jazz guitar teacher to guide you and show you where you should be putting your focus in the practice room.

I use this approach all the time, and though it can be painful to listen to yourself back on a recording, it is one of the best ways to immediately know what you should be focusing on in the woodshed.

Exercises for Self-Analysis

• Record yourself playing a technique, tune or concept that you are working on in the practice room.

• Grab a piece of paper and pen and then listen back to the recording.

• Make a list of all the things that you think are going well for you in the recording.

• Make a list of the things that catch your attention as needing more work in the practice room.

• Start your practice routine by working on items from the second list, the things you can’t yet play.

So the next time you find yourself in the practice room noodling or running over stuff that you can already play, ask yourself, “Is this material helping me achieve my goals as a jazz guitarist?”

Though it is always harder to work on material that you can’t already play, you will never regret spending time working on new and tricky concepts in the practice room.

Especially down the road when those concepts that you think are hard today, become the easy material in your future playing.

Do you have a practice tip for integrating new material into your routine? Share it in the comments section below.

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Jazz Guitar Practice Tips – Addressing Problem Areas Successfully from Matt Warnock Guitar

Known as Freddie Green chords, these three-note voicings are a worthwhile addition to the chord vocabulary of any jazz guitarist. As well, his sense of rhythm, which was often rooted in a steady, quarter-note pulse, helped to define the sound of the Count Basie Big Band, and set the bar for future generations of rhythm guitarists as far as consistency, groove and swing were concerned.

In this article, we will explore three different chord etudes written out over an F Blues chord progression, using voicings found in the playing of Freddie Green.

These voicings will contain three notes, the root, 3^rd and 7^th of each chord in the blues, and will be written out in a steady, quarter-note pulse reminiscent of Freddie Green’s style.

Each etude in the article will get progressively harder, so if you are just starting out with these chords or with jazz guitar, feel free to begin with etude one and work your way down from there.

For the more experienced players, it’s worth reviewing these chords in the first etude and then dig into the more challenging chord studies that follow.

Click to download the PDF examples of all three etudes from this lesson.

Practice Tips

Memorize all of the chords in each level of the progression as you work through them.

Work these etudes at a wide variety of tempos with and without a backing track and/or metronome.

Transpose these etudes to different keys.

Practice strumming each chord, plucking with pick and fingers as well as plucking with just your fingers. Or, strumming with your thumb to add more tonal variety to each exercise.

Write out your own Freddie Green chord etude over this, or any other, key of the blues.

Put on a backing track and mix and match items from each etude to create one of your own on the spot.

 Introductory Level Freddie Green Chords

The first etude on the PDF is an introduction to the Freddie Green chord concept written out over a blues in F chord progression.

Here, the goal is to focus on shifting from the three chord shapes, F7-Bb7-C7, as well as really nailing down the quarter-note rhythm as you move through the blues form.

If you want to take the rhythmic aspect a step further, you can add slight accents to beats 2 and 4 of each bar, to line up with the hi-hat in a swing feel and help give the chords a sense of forward motion in your phrasing.

Intermediate Level Freddie Green Chords

In this etude, you will begin to explore the full jazz-blues chord progression, as well as add in a chord sub in bar 4 that is commonly used in this style. You are still sticking to root-position Freddie Green style chords, but you will be moving around the neck a lot more than you did in the first etude.

Watch the chords in bars 11 and 12. Here, each chord is only 2 beats long, so there are two chords in each bar. This might be tricky to get under your fingers smoothly at first, so take your time and feel free to work it at a very slow tempo until you are more comfortable with this turnaround.

Advanced Level Freddie Green Chords

In the final etude, you will be adding in inversions of Freddie Green chords as well as a number of half-step chromatic approach chords that fill in most of the beats in the 12-bar blues form.

Since there are so many chords in this etude, take it slow and work it phrase by phrase if you need to. The goal is to get each chord moving smoothly from one to the next, not working on getting it to fast tempos right away.

Remember, focusing on the rhythm and really nailing the time and groove will make these chords sound that much better, so going slow and playing this etude with solid time is much more preferred than rushing through it.

Freddie Green chords are a great addition to any jazz guitarists’ chord arsenal, and having a strong understanding of how to apply these chords to a jazz blues progression is also an essential tool for any guitarist that is learning how to play jazz guitar.

Explore these three etudes in your practice room. Take it slow and work through each one at your own pace. Though it may take some time to get all three under your fingers, it is well worth putting the time in to get them down and inject a bit of Freddie Green into your comping and chord soloing.

Do you have a favorite way of practicing Freddie Green chords? If so, please share it in the comments section below.

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Jazz Guitar Chords – 3 Freddie Green Chord Etudes from Matt Warnock Guitar

But, what often happens is that we run an idea through 12 keys in multiple positions, and then are physically and/or mentally burned out and either don’t have time or aren’t in a good creative space to improvise with this material.

Since the goal when learning any new idea on the guitar is to create music with it, such as learning scales and arpeggios to improvise over our favorite standards in the jam room or on the bandstand, I always make sure that anything I learn, or teach to my students, is immediately applied to a practical, improvisational situation.

This gets those creative juices flowing and allows us to see the practical application of technical material right from the get go.

Besides, making music and improvising is fun!

Here is what I have done in my own practicing and what I tell my students whenever we learn a new chord, scale, arpeggio, lick or pattern in our lessons.

Today’s Jazz Guitar Practice Tip

“When learning new material, get it under your fingers and then improvise with it. Improvising is a learned skill that needs to be practiced.”

So the next time you learn a new scale, arpeggio, lick pattern or chord sequence, get it down in one key and then make music with it in that key.

Here is a quick rundown of how I would do this with a new scale fingering in C major.

• Learn the scale fingering in 1 key, starting with C major.

• Once the scale is memorized, improvise with the scale without any time or form.

• Improvise with the scale along to a metronome to introduce the concept of time.

• Put on a Cmaj7 backing track and improvise with the scale along to the vamp.

• Put on an Am7 backing track and improvise with the scale along to the relative minor chord.

• Put on a Dm7-G7-Cmaj7-Am7 backing track and improvise along to a ii-V-I-vi progression with this scale.

• Learn the scale in a new key and repeat this process.

By applying these exercises to new concepts that you learn in the practice room, you are not only getting the technical side of the item under your fingers, but you are training your improvisational skills and getting your ears hearing this concept over harmony at the same time.

A true “triple-threat” practice experience.

How do you introduce improvisation into your practice routine with new concepts? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

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Jazz Guitar Practice Tips: Being Creative With Technical Concepts from Matt Warnock Guitar

I remember being completely intimidated when I first started learning to play jazz guitar. It was a whole new world with new notations, new chords, new rhythmic ideas, and even new slang words (it’s still the only genre I’ve found where people say something is “bad” when they really mean “good”).

Even in Finale, the program I used to transcribe my ideas, it suggested using a different font for when you’re writing jazz instead of classical.

It felt like I was being forced to throw everything I had learned out the window and start fresh.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

At the most basic level, the same overall principles guide each world – you’re still playing the same 12 notes over the same types of chords in the same types of rhythms.

If you approach it by looking at the common elements between the genres, you can then take the foundation you’ve created in rock, make a few tweaks, and already be well on your way to mastering jazz.

So with that in mind, I want to show you a few examples of rock patterns you probably already know, then show you how by making only a few simple changes, you can begin to use them when practicing jazz guitar.

Spicing Up the Blues Scale

To start, let’s take a blues scale pattern with a triplet feel.

Now, let’s move only the G on the 3^rd string up to an A. If you look at the first 6 notes, you’re now outlining a Dmin7 chord, so you can use this line over a ii-V-I progression.

As you can see, as far as everything else going on with the picking and the attack, it’s the same exact line. But by changing only one note, this pattern can now be played over minor chord changes.

Transforming a Rock Embellishment

For a different example, try out the below line. This is a fast flurry of notes that can be used as an embellishment in any rock solo (to see this in action, listen to Paul Gilbert, who uses this often in his solos):

What’s great about this line is that while it only embellishes a small set of notes, it occupies a lot of time and space in the measure.

In this next example, this line is serving to outline the Dmin7 chord, before moving into G7 arpeggio.

One additional fact about this line is that because it’s so fast and has so many notes, it really builds tension for the whole passage.

Once this tension is built, you can slow down over the G7 and CMaj7 chords to give the listener a break.

The reason why I like this is because it lets you run out of the gate strong where you feel the most comfortable, and then lets you slow down as the changes fly by, so you can keep grounded without the listener suffering.

Playing strongly where you’re in command, and slow down where you’re not.

Using 3-Note-Per-String scales to Your Advantage

Finally, I wanted to show an example using a 3-note-per-string scale, like this one for D Dorian.

I like 3-note-per-string scales because they are easy on your hands, and they naturally outline chords (typically, your ear will latch onto the lowest and highest note played on any string, with the notes in the middle serving as passing tones).

By taking basic 3-note-per-string patterns, and using this fact that the highest and lowest notes will outline chords, you can create lines such as this one.

As you can see, you’re taking the same fingering patterns that you’ve already learned with 3-note-per-string scales, but now using them to your advantage to play over changes.

Here’s a bonus trick – to make it even cooler, you can add an additional chromatic passing tone into the line, like this.

What I want you to take away from this lesson is not just these three ideas (although feel free to steal them and throw them in your solos).

The larger idea is that you’ve already learned tons of different lines across many different styles in your playing.

There’s no need to compartmentalize the different lines into different genres or styles, or completely abandon lines because they may not fit into what you’re playing at the moment.

Instead, look for the basic elements that define the style you’re playing in (for instance with jazz, the greater emphasis on accenting chord tones), and then re-approach the music with these elements in mind.

This will allow you to attack any song with a much larger set of already existing ideas, ultimately making your lines and solos more interesting and diverse.

Do you have a way of blending your rock chops and your jazz guitar playing? If so, please share them in the comments section below.

About the Author

Joel Cornell runs a guitar lesson blog online, focusing on rock and metal playing for advanced guitarists. In his blog, he talks about new ways to approach rock soloing, non-traditional song forms, and advanced rock techniques such as tapping. You can find more information on him at Joel’s Guitar Lessons, or follow him on Twitter @jsguitarlessons.

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How To Use Your Rock Chops to Play Jazz Guitar from Matt Warnock Guitar

In the following Reference Page, I have written out the most commonly used scales and modes that guitarists will run into as you further explore the realm of jazz improvisation and harmony.

Each section shows how to build these scales and modes, as well as which chords you can use them to solo over, and where applicable, what triads and 4-note chords are built from that scale or mode.

Click here to download a printable PDF of the Jazz Guitar Scale and Mode Reference Page.

Here is a guide to the terms used below under each scale and mode, as well as the shorthand symbols for the triads used when applicable.

Legend of Terms

Intervals: The intervals used to build each scale or mode

Triads: The triads built from each note in the scale or mode

4-Note Chords: The 4-note chords built from each note in the scale or mode

Used to Solo Over: How to apply each scale or mode to an improvisation

Triad Shorthand

M = Major (R 3 5)

m = Minor (R b3 5)

D = Diminished (R b3 b5)

A = Augmented (R 3 #5)

And without further ado, here is the Jazz Gutiar Scale and Mode Resource Page

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Modes of the Major Scale

The most commonly used and learned scale system; the Major Scale Modes offer a plethora of melodic and harmonic material that is found in countless jazz tunes, from the traditional to the modern era alike. It is therefore a must-know scale system for any jazz guitarist to have under their fingers, in their ears and applied to their solos.

To read more about this scale system check out my article “Modes of the Major Scale and Their Application”

Ionian

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Ionian Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 3 4 5 6 7 R

Triads: M m m M M m D

4-Note Chords: Maj7 m7 m7 Maj7 7 m7 m7b5

Used to Solo Over: Maj7 Chords

Dorian

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Dorian Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 R

Triads: m m M M m D M

4-Note Chords: m7 m7 Maj7 7 m7 m7b5 Maj7

Used to Solo Over: m7 Chords (m6 color)

Phrygian

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Phrygian Resource Page

Intervals: R b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 R

Triads: m M  M m D M m

4-Note Chords: m7 Maj7 7 m7 m7b5 Maj7 m7

Used to Solo Over: m7 Chords (m7b9 color)

Lydian

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Lydian Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 3 #4 5 6 7 R

Triads: M M m D M m m

4-Note Chords: Maj7 7 m7 m7b5 Maj7 m7 m7

Used to Solo Over: Maj7 Chords (Maj7#11 color)

Mixolydian

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Mixolydian Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 3 4 5 6 b7 R

Triads: M m D M m m M

4-Note Chords: 7 m7 m7b5 Maj7 m7 m7 Maj7

Used to Solo Over: 7^th Chords

Aeolian

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Aeolian Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 R

Triads: m D M m m M M

4-Note Chords: m7 m7b5 Maj7 m7 m7 Maj7 7

Used to Solo Over: m7 Chords (m7b6 color)

Locrian

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Locrian Resource Page

Intervals: R b2 b3 4 b5 b5 b7 R

Triads: D M m m M M m

4-Note Chords: m7b5 Maj7 m7 m7 Maj7 7 m7

Used to Solo Over: m7b5 Chords

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Modes of the Melodic Minor Scale

The modes of the melodic minor scale, though containing more tension notes than the major scale modes, is an essential group of melodic and harmonic material that has been used in countless classic solos by jazzes greatest improvisers. It is therefore a must-know scale system for any jazz guitarist to have a strong hold of in their hands, ears and minds.

To learn more about this scale system check out my article “Modes of the Melodic Minor Scale and Their Application”

Melodic Minor

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Melodic Minor Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 b3 4 5 6 7

Triads: m m A M M D D

4-Note Chords: mMaj7 m7 Maj7#5 7 7 m7b5 m7b5

Used to Solo Over: m7, m6 and mMaj7 Chords (mMaj7 Color)

Dorian b2

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Dorian b2 Resource Page

Intervals: R b2 b3 4 5 6 b7 R

Triads: m A M M D D m

4-Note Chords: m7 Maj7#5 7 7 m7b5 m7b5 mMaj7

Used to Solo Over: 7Susb9 Chords

Lydian Augmented

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Lydian Augmented Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 3 #4 #5 6 7 R

Triads: A M M D D m m

4-Note Chords: Maj7#5 7 7 m7b5 m7b5 mMaj7 m7

Used to Solo Over: Maj7 Chords (Maj7#5 color)

Lydian Dominant

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Lydian Dominant Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 3 #4 5 6 b7 R

Triads: M M D D m m A

4-Note Chords: 7 7 m7b5 m7b5 mMaj7 m7 Maj7#5

Used to Solo Over: 7^th Chords (7#11 color)

Mixolydian b6

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Mixolydian b6 Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 3 4 5 b6 b7 R

Triads: M D D m m A M

4-Note Chords: 7 m7b5 m7b5 mMaj7 m7 Maj7#5 7

Used to Solo Over: 7^th Chords (7b13 color)

Locrian Natural 9

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Locrian Natural 9 Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7 R

Triads: D D m m A M M

4-Note Chords: m7b5 m7b5 mMaj7 m7 Maj7#5 7 7

Used to Solo Over: m7b5 Chords (m9b5 color)

Altered Scale

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Altered Scale Resource Page

Intervals: R b2 b3 3 #4 #5 b7 R

Triads: D m m A M M D

4-Note Chords: m7b5 mMaj7 m7 Maj7#5 7 7 m7b5

Used to Solo Over: 7^th Chords (7alt color)

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Other Common Scales and Modes

The following scales and modes are members of other scale systems besides the major and melodic minor groups, but are nonetheless important to get under your fingers, as they can be used to navigate many of the common chords and chord progressions that you will encounter as a jazz guitarist.

Major Pentatonic Scale

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Major Pentatonic Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 3 5 6 R

Used to Solo Over: Maj7, 7 Chords (Maj6, 13 color)

Minor Pentatonic Scale

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Minor Pentatonic Resource Page

Intervals: R b3 4 5 b7 R

Used to Solo Over: Maj7, 7 m7 Chords

Major Blues Scale

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Major Blues Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 b3 3 5 6 R

Used to Solo Over: Maj7, 7 Chords

Minor Blues Scale

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Minor Blues Resource Page

Intervals: R b3 4 #4 5 b7 R

Used to Solo Over: Maj7, 7, m7 Chords

Major Bebop Scale

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Major Bebop Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 3 4 5 #5 6 7 R

Used to Solo Over: Maj7 Chords

Dominant Bebop Scale

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Dominant Bebop Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 3 4 5 6 b7 7 R

Used to Solo Over: 7^th Chords

Minor Bebop Scale

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Minor Bebop Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 7 R

Used to Solo Over: m7 Chords

5^th Mode Harmonic Minor

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my 5^th Mode Harmonic Minor Resource Page

Intervals: R b2 3 4 5 b6 b7 R

Triads: M m D m D A m

4-Note Chords: 7 Maj7 Dim7 mMaj7 m7b5 Maj7#5 m7

Used to Solo Over: 7^th Chords (7b9b13 color)

5^th Mode Harmonic Major

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my 5^th Mode Harmonic Major Resource Page

Intervals: R b2 3 4 5 6 b7 R

Triads: M A D M D m m

4-Note Chords: 7 Maj7#5 m7b5 M m7b5 m7 mMaj7

Used to Solo Over: 7^th Chords (7b9 color)

Half-Whole Diminished Scale

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Half-Whole Diminished Resource Page

Intervals: R b2 b3 3 #4 5 6 b7 R

Used to Solo Over: 7^th Chords (7b9#9#11 color)

Whole-Half Diminished Scale

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Whole-Half Diminished Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 b3 4 b5 b6 6 7 R

Used to Solo Over: Dim7 Chords

Whole-Tone Scale

Learn how to play this mode on the guitar by visiting my Whole Tone Resource Page

Intervals: R 2 3 #4 #5 b7 R

Used to Solo Over: 7^th Chords (7#11#5 color)

Related posts:

1. Modes of the Major Scale and Their Application
2. Beyond Basic Pentatonics: Introducing the Maj7#5 Pentatonic Scale

Jazz Guitar Scale and Mode Reference Page from Matt Warnock Guitar