Jazz as we know it now grew from a form of music that was passed directly from musician to musician without too much theory being involved. Jazz guitar theory is a collection of ideas and traditions that has grown over the decades of jazz playing.
The original jazz players did not need theory. They needed to know their guitars well enough to be able to provide part of the rhythm for other instruments in the band or to play solos if they were needed. The nature of guitar playing in jazz bands varied over the years and depended on whether the guitarist was in a big band or a small group.
Jazz guitar theory is the product of the need for jazz players to communicate musical ideas to one another. To pass these ideas on a guitarist needed to be able to read standard musical notation and, as jazz playing became more sophisticated, he needed the technique to play the exotic barre chords that became the norm in jazz guitar music.
A part of jazz theory is what we could loosely call traditions of jazz – ways of approaching music that have become standard practice for jazz players. None of these traditions is set in concrete, but the use of the electric archtop guitar has become widespread over the years as is the use of barre chord voicings rather than open chords.
If you learn jazz guitar theory you will learn to rely on the seventh and third notes of a chord and how interest can be added by the use of the ninth, eleventh or thirteenth notes. These notes may be totally foreign to the original melody the guitarist is improvising over, but jazz players have the work of guitarists from previous generations to draw on when they make use of these unusual voicings.
A big part of jazz guitar theory is the types of techniques used to express musical feelings. Jazz guitar players have their own strumming patterns and chord progressions that may vary greatly from the ways of playing the original genre they might be interpreting. Also, although rock and blues guitar players of the past thirty or so years have left their mark on jazz, there is a tendency among jazz guitarists to use electronic effects rather sparingly.
To examine the basis of jazz guitar theory we need to be aware of the founders of modern jazz playing, like Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall, Barney Kessel, Joe Pass and Herb Ellis as well as the founders of guitar tradition like Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian. Jazz guitar theory has been shaped by modern players who have departed from tradition, such as John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola and Pat Metheny.
By: Ricky Sharples
Learning jazz chords online can be confusing and frustrating to
say the least. Just when the budding jazz guitarist thinks
they’ve stumbled onto something along comes another version of
the same song with a completely different set of chords.
For our present discussion, we’ll limit our observations and
suggestions to learning jazz chords online, however a quick
browse through any well stocked sheet music store will reveal the
same issues that any aspiring jazz guitarist must learn to
overcome.
The choice of chords the guitarists selects has a significant
effect on the soloist’s choice of notes in their solos and
presentation of the melody.
There’s an endless list of possible chords, chord inversions,
chord substitutions etc. that can totally blind side the newbie
jazz player. In fact, the task is often so overwhelming that the
avalanche of information swamps the guitarist with an enormous
amount of stuff they do not have to learn.
So,before trotting off to another jazz guitar website in search
of the lost chord, here’s a few things to think about to pin your
ear on straight!
Focus your jazz studies on specific objectives: a great idea is
to learn the chord changes to “jazz standards”.
Jazz standards are tunes that working musicians are likely to
encounter at any time. Too often, guitarists with a rock or
country background wishing to move into jazz don’t know the tunes
that are the common currency of players in all styles of jazz.
Here’s a sample list of 20 jazz standards:
1. Autumn Leaves
2. All The Things You are
3. All Of Me
4. Ain’t Misbehavin’
5. C Jam Blues
6. I Got Rhythm
7. Have You Met Miss Jones
8. Out Of Nowhere
9. I Cover The Waterfront
10.Satin Doll
11.Misty
12.Summertime
13.St.Louis Blues
14.Watch What Happens
15.Lullaby Of Birdland
16.Sweet Georgia Brown
17.Georgis
18.Take The ‘A’ Train
19.Stormy Weather
20.There Will Never Be Another You
There are many books that show how to use chord substitutions,
but if the basic chord changes are not known, substitutions and
embellishments often confuse the improviser and the listener.
When the musician is learning jazz guitar chords online, it’s
essential to learn the basic set of chords for the jazz
standards.
Chord substitutions to basic chords are usually determined by the
melody notes and the style of music being played.
The point is that guitar players can become totally absorbed in
jazz chord manuals that teach chord substitution etc., without
firstly learning the basic set of chords.
Keep in mind that while the melody of a jazz tune is usually
presented in an accurate manner in standard sheet music, the
harmonic changes are rarely suitable for a jazz performance.
Once the guitarist learns the skills of being able to uncover the
basic chord changes to jazz standards, they can then re harmonize
the harmonic background many different ways to reflect the way
they wish to present a particular piece of music.
Understanding how to strip back the chords also helps the
guitarist see many similarities in the small number of chord
templates that thousands of jazz tunes are composed over, which
helps us remember tunes.
I repeat, The essential skill to learn is to be able to ’see’
(de-code), and ‘hear’ the basic set of chords.
The purpose of learning the basic set of chords when you are
learning jazz chords online is to help the jazz player learn the
basic changes and allow the player to add embellishments and
substitutions on a solid framework.
By: Mike P Hayes