Jazz Guitar Lessons
in Improvisation

This section of the website covers everything you need to get started in jazz improvisation or improve your current abilities. The jazz guitar lessons on this page focus mainly on single-note lines. You'll find plenty of material including scales, arpeggios, soloing concepts, playing through chord changes, etc.

If this is your first visit, I recommend looking at these jazz guitar lessons in order. The nuts and bolts of jazz are covered at first and they're then explored from different angles ... especially "the jazz guitarist's perspective" if you know what I mean! ;-)

Once you're familiar with jazz improvisation tools, concepts and ideas, it is highly recommended to apply them by soloing a lot on actual jazz tunes.

Always remember : be musical and melodic in your improvisations! A bunch of chord changes and neat ideas won't cut it if the final result does not SING and SWING ...

Have fun and make good music!

Jazz Guitar Lessons : Improv Basics

• The Major Scale
  
  This is the universal foundation of music. This lesson covers the scale and basic theory. Then you should also see Melodic Minor and Harmonic Minor scales.


• Learn the Fretboard
  
  Know your guitar neck now! Take five minutes and eliminate the guesswork. Simple and effective method. No more fishing for the next note!


• Jazz Scales : Three Basic Choices
  
  So, which one should you use to improvise over this or that chord? Find out here! Beginner's guide covers major, dorian and mixolydian scales.


• The Chromatic Scale
  
  ... is like our musical alphabet. Learn it on the fretboard with these 2 *great* technical exercises for jazz guitarists.


• Videos
  
  See the free videos section for more lessons...

Jazz Guitar Lessons : Essentials

• Jazz Improvisation Series : how to improvise using...
  
  Three different lessons focusing on the use of scales, arpeggios and chord tones (aka guide-tone lines) in jazz improvisation. Many written out examples with PDFs.


• Positions, positions, positions
  
  Second only to knowing all the notes on your fretboard comes position playing. This series of SIX lessons will get you playing "by positions" in no time...


• On Not Sounding Like Scales...
  
  Start generating your own *interesting* melodic lines. In this lesson, you'll learn to be creative with simple materials such as scales and arpeggios (and avoid sounding like a textbook).


• Jazz Guitar Licks
  
  Learn from the masters with genuine licks. Page 1 for blues and II-V's (generic), Page 2 (from specific major II-V's) and Page 3 (from specific minor II-V's)


• Transcriptions
  
  A collection of solos transcribed and notated by yours truly. Learn licks straight from great, historically significant jazz solos.


• Videos
  
  See the free videos section for more lessons...

Jazz Guitar Lessons : Beyond

• Jazz Chord Cycles
  
  Learn to play in all keys using cycles, starting with the cycle of fourths, of course. Next, take a look at some diatonic cycles.


• Diagonal Scales
  
  Are you aware of scales, patterns and positions already? Wanna break out of the boxes? - This diagonal way of perceiving scales and arpeggios can change your playing and hearing tremendously.


• Jazz Performance Ear Training
  
  The most important jazz guitar lessons develop your hearing abilities. Ear training done daily will drastically improve not only your ears, but your playing also...


• Advanced Bebop Scales
  
  Variations on the Barry Harris (legendary bebop pianist) practice models. Scales with 1, 2 and 3 passing tones. Great bebop exercises including TABS.


• Lee Konitz's Ten-Step method
  
  Legendary saxophonist shares his improvisational secrets. Simple and effective method for generating unlimited amount of solo lines from the tunes' original melodies. Unleash your creativity!


• Videos
  
  See the free videos section for more lessons...