The Practical Jazz Guitarist

Learn the essential tools and skills for playing jazz guitar.

This practical guidebook will help you master the theory, technique, and conceptual framework for how to play jazz: comping chords, soloing, and playing with expression, facility, and good hand health. The accompanying recording provides demonstrations of key technical concepts with play-along tracks to help you develop phrasing and location concepts on the fingerboard. It also provides examples to train your ear with call-and-response exercises similar to what you might be asked to perform at an audition or jury. A unique section on audition preparation for colleges and professional music programs, with an extended interview with Berklee College of Music’s director of admissions, will help you advance in your career.

You will learn to:

• Use and organize scales, modes, triads, tertian-based chords, and quartal structures to create an emblematic jazz harmonic context
• Create and play guitar-friendly jazz chord voicings, and use them in context
• Navigate jazz progressions and song forms
• Fulfill the different roles a guitarist performs: soloist, accompanist, and ensemble member
• Explore concepts to improvise a solo and “make” the changes, develop appropriate “comping” techniques for accompanying soloists or playing in an ensemble
• Audition successfully, understanding what is likely to be required at an audition and what the judges are typically looking for in awarding admission and scholarships
• Improve your ear by practicing the CDs call-and-response and enclosed ear-training exercises