Blog - Jazz Guitar Lessons

Here is a free lesson to learn some 2-5-1 jazz chord voicings in the style of Joe Pass. PDF with tab and Youtube short video available for free (or give what you want) here in the GUMROAD ONLINE SHOP.

Lesson By George Dafnos

This video lesson focuses on a jazz concept created by Barry Harris called "The Chromatic Scale", which is to connect whole steps and half steps with chromaticisms. You will learn how to play the chromatic scale ascending and descending and also hear the related thirds, triads and seventh chords. This technique will be discussed more in details in a future blog article, meanwhile you can also watch Nathan Borton's video to learn more about the construction of this scale.

This free guitar lesson for beginners provides an easy exercise with tab/score and video for practicing the Bebop Dominant Scale. The free related PDF is available at the end of the lesson.

This guitar theory lesson covers a very important topic that any musician must know : How To Harmonize The Natural Minor Scale? In other words, you will learn how to build triads and seventh chords starting on each note of the natural minor scale.

Here is a new free guitar lesson showing how to play the major scale (C major) in thirds. This two-in-one exercise also includes an easy walking bass line built with drop 3 chords. The full transcription with tab/score is downloadable in a PDF format here in the Online Shop.

This theory lesson for guitarists covers one the most common question asked by beginner musicians : what's the difference between a dominant seventh and a major seventh chord.

Lesson By Diego Wasserman

In this video Diego show you 20 jazz guitar lines from Django's recordings played over minor and major 2 5 1 (II-V-I) progressions. He plays them at different tempos and provides a brief analysis showing the scales, motifs and arpeggios used. Two different positions for each lick are also proposed on the fretboard. The idea is to understand how Django Reinhardt approach the famous II V I progression.

Quartal harmony is the way of building chords with intervals of fourths instead of thirds, it's a nice way to modernize and enrich your jazz guitar playing. This post provides an easy exercise for a first approach of quartal playing that is to arpeggiate three-note chords built in fourths, starting on each step of a major scale.

As is the case in many lessons on the website, you'll find a short YouTube video and the link to download the PDF for free, a little further in this article.

This exercise is the third of the serie covering ninth arpeggio practice around the cycle of fourths on guitar. While the previous two lessons dealt with major ninth and dominant ninth arpeggios, this one is about minor ninth arpeggios. As usual you'll find the related PDF transcription for free, here in the GUMROAD STORE.

Hexatonic scales are made of six notes, even if you can get them from any pentatonic scale (by adding one note) or diatonic scale (by removing one note), the most popular are the blues scales (major, minor), the augmented scale, the whole-tone scale, the tritone scale and the Prometheus scale. This guitar lesson with formula charts and diagrams covers them in details and will you help to better figure them out.

Lesson By Thomas Berglund

This video lesson is an easy chord/melody guitar arrangement of Blue Bossa, a very popular instrumental latin jazz tune composed by Kenny Dorham. The video includes a lesson where Thomas shows and discusses the arrangement and also provides tips to make your own arrangements.

This blog post provides a guitar lesson implying a basic jazz line, built with notes from the Ionian mode (major scale), harmonized and transposed in halftone steps. Once again you'll find the free PDF of the lesson transcribed in tab / standard notation in the GUMROAD SHOP and also the related Youtube short video at the bottom.

This short guitar tutorial is about to play a 2-bar line built from a dominant ninth arpeggio pattern around the cycle of fourths. This lesson comes with a short video available on Jazz Guitar Licks social networks  as Youtube, Facebook or Instagram (link at the top of this website). You can also get the free PDF tab in the GUMROAD shop.

Lesson by George Nazos

In this short video lesson with tab, George proposes a guitar lick/exercise in rhythm and picking.  He shows how to use different subdivisions in arpeggios following a 2 5 1 6 chord progression while using substitution for the dominant arpeggios from the altered scale. 

A new free lesson is available for download (or Give What You Want) in Jazz Guitar Lick's GUMROAD store. It's a 24-bar study involving the same major 9th arpeggio pattern following the cycle of fourths. This exercise is a good way to warm-up, untie the fingers and develop the musical ear.

This is a jazz swing backing track (140 BPM) for practicing scales, arpeggios and improvisation with your favorite instrument over a 1 6 2 5 chord progression in Eb. This jamming track is provided by Backing Tracks Channel, it implies four chords that are Ebmaj7 | Cmin7 | Fmin7 | Bb7.