Jazz Guitar Lessons
You will find in this section the latest jazz guitar lessons: methods, videos, PDFs, Tabs, transcriptions, licks, music theory, exercises, chord and scale diagrams, published on the blog and on the website. The content is regularly updated with fresh articles, so don't hesitate to subscribe to the newsletter.
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Guitar Chord Construction - Theory And Basic Shapes - Essential Guide
- By Stef Ramin
- On 01/18/2020
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
This lesson explains how chords are built and how to play them on guitar using common positions. This will help you understand, identify, build and play one of the most important types of chords.
All the shapes proposed in this tutorial are movable and playable anywhere on the fretboard. So, try to play them in all twelve keys.
To simplify learning, the voicings used in this course ensure that the root is always the lowest note, either on the sixth, fifth or fourth string. In other words, there are no chords with third, fifth, seventh or any other note in the bass.
Don't hesitate to create your own chord positions. In the meantime, take a look at the following essential chord shapes proposed below, classified into four distinct categories :
- TRIADS
- (major, minor, augmented, diminished, sus4 and sus2).
- SEVENTH CHORDS (aka tetrads)
- (maj7, min7, dom7, m7b5, dim7, minMaj7, maj7#5, 7b5, 7#5).
- SIXTH CHORDS
- (maj6, min6).
- EXTENDED CHORDS
- (min9, maj9, 9, 6/9, 7#9, 7b9, m11, maj11, 11, m13, maj13, 13, 7b13)
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What Is The Minor II-V-I Progression - What Scales And Chords To Play Over It
- By Stef Ramin
- On 01/02/2020
- 0 comments
The minor II-V-I sequence is equivalent to the major II-V-I sequence, but played in minor harmonic key. It is a must know for any guitarist who wants to learn to solo over tunes in minor keys.
You will find minor II V I progressions in many jazz tunes as Autumn leaves, Blue Bossa, Black Orpheus, Stella by Starlight, The nearness of you, I love you, Speak low, Soul eyes, Valse Hot, Along came Betty, Stablemates, Are you real, I'll remember April, I hear a rhapsody, In your own sweet way, Nuages and many more.
This guitar lesson for beginners explains what is the minor 2 5 1 progression, what scales and what chords you can use over it.
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Intervals on Guitar - How They Look On The Neck - Shapes and Theory
- By Stef Ramin
- On 12/23/2019
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
Whether simple or compound intervals are a very important part of music theory. Knowing them allow understand how scales, arpeggios and chords are built. Intervals are useful tools to visualize the notes and understand their relationships on the guitar fretboard. This lesson with downloadable pdf, guitar shapes and theory will help you better figure them out and play them on guitar.
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Harmonization of the Harmonic Minor Scale - Guitar Shapes & Theory
- By Stef Ramin
- On 12/15/2019
- 3 comments
This lesson dedicated to the harmonic minor scale explains how to build drop 2 and drop 3 seventh chords from it. This action which consists in stacking notes in interval of thirds starting on each tone of a scale is commonly called "harmonization".
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Wave (A.C Jobim) Guitar Chord Melody Transcription With Tabs
- By Stef Ramin
- On 12/12/2019
- 0 comments
This lesson provides an easy chord melody arrangement for guitar with tablature, standard notation and chord shapes of the bossa nova latin jazz tune "Wave" by Antonio Carlos Jobim.
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John Scofield Solo Transcriptions - 10 Licks
- By Stef Ramin
- On 11/27/2019
- In Licks & Transcriptions
- 0 comments
A new lesson (with YouTube video, analysis and tabs) intended for all jazz, blues, groove enthusiasts and John Scofield fans is now available for free on the website. It contains 10 John Scofield jazz guitar licks transcribed from one of his solo in the tune "Little Walter Rides Again" live at live at Estival Jazz Lugano 2007 with MMW trio (John Medeski, Billy Martin and Chris Wood). They show how Sco used to mix pentatonic scales, blue notes and altered tones.
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Diatonic Arpeggios and Scales - Guitar Chart Infographic
- By Stef Ramin
- On 11/10/2019
- 0 comments
This infographic printable for free provides diatonic arpeggio and scale shapes for guitar practice. It shows the relationship between arpeggios and modes of the major scale.
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Guitar Arpeggios Guide For Beginners - CAGED Charts and Theory
- By Stef Ramin
- On 11/02/2019
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
Arpeggios are the backbone of jazz improvisations, they are easy to learn and play. They are very popular in all styles of music (rock, metal, blues, pop) because they allow to easily outline the harmony and create fluid lines.
It is very important to understand what are arpeggios and how to use them into your jazz guitar solos. This guitar lesson provides the most important arpeggio shapes that any beginner jazz guitarist must know.
In the first part, they are classified into seven qualities : major 7, minor 7, dominant 7, half-diminished, diminished 7, Major 7#5 and minMaj7 using the CAGED system, one of the best methods for learning scales and chords on the whole of guitar neck.
The second part of the lesson shows the arpeggios within the main families of scales namely, major (diatonic), harmonic minor, melodic minor and harmonic major.
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Printable PDF Guitar Method - 40 Minor Licks With Tab and Audio Files
- By Stef Ramin
- On 10/26/2019
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
A new printable PDF method is available for download. It contains 40 Dorian jazz guitar patterns with tab, standard notation, audio files, theory and numeral analysis. The licks are suitable for beginners, they are built from the Dorian mode and designed to be played over minor chords. Many theoretical concepts are discussed (arpeggios, diatonic substitution, triad pairs, passing tones, etc)Package Details
- 1 Printable PDF file (High resolution).
- 40 Mp3 audio files (High quality).
- 1 Jazz Backing Track.
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10 II V I Jazz Guitar Licks For Beginners
- By Stef Ramin
- On 10/25/2019
- In Licks & Transcriptions
- 0 comments
The II-V-I sequence is the most common chord progression played in jazz music and a must know for any guitarist who wants to learn jazz language.The II, the V and the I (chords and scales) are constructed based on the corresponding second (II), fifth (V) and first (I) step of the major scale.
In this guitar lesson you will learn what's the 2 5 1 progression and how to play easy jazz lines over a 2-5-1 using the most common scales found in jazz music.
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Miles Davis Lines Transcribed For Guitar on YouTube
- By Stef Ramin
- On 10/14/2019
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
A new video is available on the YouTube channel. It contains 10 easy Miles Davis lines with analysis, audio files, standard notation and tabs overlayed transcribed from Solar, Vierd Blues and Tune Up.You can also check out the free full course about those 10 Miles Davis licks for guitar.
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Blues Progressions For Jazz Musicians - 11 Forms With Analysis & Audio Files
- By Stef Ramin
- On 10/06/2019
- 0 comments
Jazz blues progressions are very common in jazz music however, there is a lot of twelve-bar blues variations based on the typical form. You will see in this lesson how to incorporate major and minor II V I sequences and turnarounds in order to make evolve a basic blues progression. Each chord changes chart contains roman numeral analysis to facilitate transposing them in any key.
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Diatonic Guitar Dyads - Lesson With Shapes - Music Theory
- By Stef Ramin
- On 09/29/2019
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
What is a Dyad?
A dyad is a two-note chord, a pair of notes played at the same time. These two notes are separated by an interval. Considering there are different types of intervals, there are therefore different types of dyads.
What's an Interval in Music?
An interval is the distance between two notes. It can be melodic or harmonic.
Is a Dyad can be considered a Chord?
A chord must contain, at a minimum, 3 notes. As its name implies a dyad is made of only two pitches. So, a dyad is considered as being an interval, not a chord.
What's a Diatonic Scale?
A diatonic scale is built with of half and whole steps. The term diatonic comes from the ancient Greece. In western music a diatonic scale is based on five whole steps and two half-steps that can be ordered in many specific ways. The best known is the diatonic major scale based on the formula W - W - H - W - W - W - H which means Whole-Step | Whole-Step | Half-step | WholeStep | Whole-Step | Whole-Step | Half-Step.
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10 Jazz Guitar Intros and Endings with Tabs and Audio Files
- By Stef Ramin
- On 09/27/2019
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
How to Play a Jazz Intros and Endings on Guitar?
There are mutliple ways of taking an intro or ending a jazz tune, the truth is that you can play whatever you want. You can start from the V of the key, simply play the last 4 or 8 bars of the tune, try to incorporate a turnaroud and its several variations, the list is long....You''ll find in this lesson 10 jazz guitar progressions with tabs, standard notation and audio files that work both as intros and endings for any jazz standards in C major. Altough all these exercises are in the key of C major, it is possible and very important to transpose them in any key. The general purpose of this lesson is to adapt these lines to your favorite tunes.
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17 Essential Jazz Guitar Scales
- By Stef Ramin
- On 09/14/2019
- In Scales & Arpeggios
- 0 comments
What Scale to Choose for Improvising?
One of the most common question a beginner asks when he wants to start improvising on guitar is : Which scale to choose over which chords? However, there is a lot of scale and a lot of chord, it is easy to get lost. That's why it is important to make the relation between them, trying to understand what is the appropriate scale that fit the chord and vice versa.
This guitar lesson provides the seventeen most important scales with shapes and formulas to know for improvising over the most used chord types in jazz music (major, minor, dominant and diminished).
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36 Ways of Playing a Dominant 7 Chord on Guitar - Beginner to Advanced
- By Stef Ramin
- On 07/30/2019
- 0 comments
Dominant 7 chords are one of the most important chords to know, they can be found in many styles of music as blues, funk, pop and of course in jazz music. In this lesson we will see how dominant 7 chords are built and how to play them on guitar using 36 different voicings and shapes.
