Late last year, Matt Walsham (a talented guitarist based in Auckland who manages imports for New Zealand’s largest music goods retail chain, ‘The Rockshop’) called me and said ‘man, have I got a guitar for you to try out’. Knowing how much I loved playing jazz and how important tone, control of sound, build quality and appearance were to me, (aren’t all guitarists vain…?!) – Matt lined up a ‘Godin 5th Avenue Jazz’ for me to put through its paces.

LOOK

I immediately loved it, after playing it for only a few moments in the shop. I’d been given the

I often find when considering the ways in which we learn how to play jazz, that the notes we choose are not always the most important element of our playing, nor the phrasing or rhythms used. In fact upon discussing the jazz-learning-pathway with some of the great musicians who have inspired me, I’ve found that the biggest catalysts in their own musical development were often moments of ‘conceptual’ enlightenment; at a gig or clinic, during a lesson or even in a non-performing environment, where

1. What are some things you feel that beginning compers are not aware of or forget to think about?

Volume, dynamic, time keeping, listening to the musical environment, interaction with the band

2. Can you pin point some characteristics you like in a good comper?

Someone who: feels good to play with, is sympathetic to the ideas that soloist / vocalist /

This is great for simplifying voicings of complex chords onto the fret-board of the guitar, being a notoriously hard instrument to ‘visualise’ chords on. If you spend some time studying these shapes and relationships you’ll be able to voice chords and lines along much simpler to ‘see’ and play chordal positions, by thinking of the primary triads or 7th chords at the top of the voicing; rather than trying

FINGERING:

In terms of fingering, I will occasionally use my neck-hand thumb to play lower notes (most often the root) in order to free up the neck-hand fingers to play more extensive chord tones, or to create a ‘platform’ (with the thumb and first finger), along which the other 3 remaining fingers can then embellish musical ideas. While I do not recommend this – as it is probably bad technique – I certainly don’t

I extracted 8 concepts for improvisation from my transcriptions of these two great players and then composed the concepts into my own lines (as written ‘soli’) over newly composed harmonic progressions.

The effect that this had on my playing was massive! I really struggled with playing the same ideas over and over and so this approach helped me think of new ways of playing my (rather stale!) vocabulary, rhythmically, harmonically and melodically. Please feel free to download the PDF of my studies (Transcription, actual study text and

I extracted 8 concepts for improvisation from my transcriptions of these two great players and then composed the concepts into my own lines (as written ‘soli’) over newly composed harmonic progressions.

The effect that this had on my playing was massive! I really struggled with playing the same ideas over and over and so this approach helped me think of new ways of playing my (rather stale!) vocabulary, rhythmically, harmonically and melodically. Please feel free to download the PDF of my studies (Transcription, actual study text and

In essence I extracted 8 concepts for improvisation from my transcriptions – not the actual notes these great musicians played in their solos, but the underlying ideas or principles – polyrhythmic groupings, chordal super imposition, patterns, displacement etc – and then composed the concepts into my own lines (as written ‘soli’) over newly composed harmonic progressions.

The effect that this had on my playing was massive! I really struggled with playing the same ideas over and over and

Here is this months update. We been quietly working away at a whole bunch of new content here at JGL. Here is a breakdown on the content that is now available.

Tonight’s blog is on Rhythm Changes (yes the old nemesis!), with great text content, pdfs (Premium Only) and video tutorials:

http://jazzguitarlegend.com/jazz-guitar-rhythm-changes-explained/

• Need help with your ear training? Here’s a few basic tips, complete with a video tutorial!:

http://jazzguitarlegend.com/ear-training-101-jazz-guitarists/

• Want to get better at playing up tempo tunes, bebop or two beat changes? Check out our blog:

http://jazzguitarlegend.com/bebop-soloing-general-guide-beginning-jazz-student/

• Here’s a list