Recently it occurred to me that for beginners, it can be tough to tell what separates "jazz guitar" from something that simply borrows from the style. If Maroon Five puts a major 7 chord in their song, and I played it on guitar, would it be now...
A few weeks ago we published a blog post titled "Soloing on Static Chords", all about what to do when you have to solo over long one-chord sections. But what happens in the opposite case - when you have a flurry of difficult chords to solo on in...
First off, what's a double stop? On guitar, the term "double stops" means two notes played simultaneously. Another way to think of them is as intervals: thirds, fourths, sixths, and so on. Guitarists including Johnny Smith, Jim Hall and others...
Bossa Novas and Brazilian tunes sound oh-so-good. Tunes written by Jobim are almost ubiquitous, with classics like "Girl from Ipanema" and "Desafinado" being favorites for jazzers and non-jazzers alike. If you've ever tried to play one though,...
Let's face it. You'll never be at a jazz jam session without someone calling a tune with a few (or a lot) of ii-V-Is in it. Would it even be a jazz jam session if they didn't? And, there's a good chance that tune might even be Solar! On that...
How to Improvise and Play Chords on the "I Got Rhythm" Chord Progression -- One of the Most Common Progression in Jazz Oh, we've all heard it. The so-called "Rhythm Changes," as it is commonly known, is a set of chord changes based on George...
