Jazz Guitar Basics: How Does a 12-Bar Blues Become a Jazz Blues?
A jazz blues is the basic 12-bar blues with the same three anchors — I in bar 1, IV in bar 5, V in bar 9 — plus a quick IV, a ii-V in bars 9–10, and a 1-6-2-5 turnaround played twice as fast.
Jazz Guitar Mindset: Why Did Miles Davis Tell Herbie Hancock Not to Play the Butter Notes?
Miles Davis's advice to Herbie Hancock wasn't a ban on the 3rd and 7th — it was permission to leave them once they live in your ear. Here's what that means for how you learn jazz guitar.
Use Them Over a ii-V-I in a Solo?Jazz Guitar Upper Structures: How Do You
An upper structure doesn't work as a single chord — it works inside a chord change. Here's how to hear Dm7–G7–Cmaj7 as Fmaj7, Fmaj7♭5 and Em7, and why the guide-tone line has to come first.
ation Tips: How Do You Play Blues Sounds Over Blue Bossa’s Minor ii-V-I?Jazz Guitar Improvis
A standard like Blue Bossa is full of blues sounds if you know where to put them. Play C minor blues over Cm7, then shift to F minor blues across the ii-V — and let one note, B natural, tie it all together.
Jazz Guitar Chords for Beginners: Do You Need to Memorize Every Chord and Tension?
You don't need to memorize every jazz chord and tension to start. Learn one connected system — shell voicings on a ii-V-I, then the guide tones inside them — and reuse it on every tune you play.
Wes Montgomery Guitar Technique: Why Does Playing With the Thumb Sound Different From a Pick?
The same hollowbody guitar sounds noticeably different under the thumb than under a pick, and most of a jazz guitarist's tone lives in the hands. Here's what thumb technique, heavy strings and a clean sound really change.
Jazz Guitar Improvisation Tips: Why Does Your Tempo Run Away on Fast Tunes?
A tune that starts at 256 can easily finish near 300. Here's why jazz guitar tempos run away on fast standards, and a simple routine — fix the tempo, know the slow version, and check your last chorus — that keeps you in control.
How Do You Learn Jazz Guitar Without Relying on Tabs? Connect Every Shape to Your Ear
Tabs aren't the problem — playing a shape your ear has never heard is. Here's how to keep the shortcut that makes guitar easy while making sure every shape you play is connected to a sound you can actually hear.
Why Does a Jazz Guitar Teacher With No University Post Still Livestream Every Sunday Night?
There was no faculty position waiting, and for a long stretch there was barely an audience — some nights just three or five people, sometimes none at all. Here's why the stream kept happening anyway, and what 'passing it on' turned out to actually mean.
Why Does a Ballad Ending Chord Sound Like a Tritone Substitution That Isn’t One?
The #ivm7b5 chord you hear right before a jazz ballad resolves isn't technically a tritone substitution — but it shares the exact same upper-structure triad as the tonic 6 chord it comes from, which is why it behaves like one anyway.
Why Do Your Comping Chords Sound Empty Compared to Your Solo Lines?
A bare triad sounds full and confident in a solo line, but hollow the moment you use it to comp behind yourself. The missing ingredient is the guide tones — the 3rd and 7th that actually tell your ear which chord you're on.
Why Do Jazz Guitar Teachers Make You Play Only Down-Picking First?
Down-picking only, for months or even years, is not old-fashioned discipline for its own sake — it is how you build one consistent attack before you ever add a second direction. Here is why jazz guitar teachers withhold up-picking, and how Wes Montgomery's own technique proves the same point.
es a Jazz Guitarist Actually Do All Day?Wes Montgomery Said He Never Practiced. So What Do
Wes Montgomery said he didn't practice, he played — and for Wes it was true. For the rest of us the honest routine is simpler than you'd guess: transcribe, then learn tunes in layers, forever.
How Did Wes Montgomery Build a Solo? Single Line, Octaves, Chord Solo — One Arc on Gone with the Wind
Wes Montgomery's solos climb in three layers — single line, octaves, chord solo — and land back in chord melody. Transcribing that whole arc, not one chorus, is what teaches his technique.
ange a Pop Song as Jazz? Hear the Melody in the New Groove FirstHow Do You Arr
To arrange a pop song as jazz, hear the melody inside the new groove before you touch a chord. Drums set the genre, but everything moves with them — and bebop and funk are closer than you think.
How to Unlock the Fretboard for Jazz Guitar Improvisation (Without Scale Boxes)
The most effective way to unlock the fretboard for jazz improvisation is not more scale positions — it’s one diagonal two-octave shape that covers the whole neck and works as both tonic and non-tonic. A free online jazz guitar lesson.
Is There a Secret Method in Private Jazz Guitar Lessons? No — The Path Is the Same, the Coaching Isn’t
Private jazz guitar lessons don't hand you a secret curriculum — the path is the same one in any good course. What a teacher adds is diagnosis: pointing at the one thing you should fix this week.
Why Does Your Own Playing Sound Stale to You? You’re Its Most Frequent Listener
Almost every jazz player dislikes their own playing, and the reason is arithmetic: you hear yourself more than anyone else does. Here is what actually moves you out of a slump.
Guitar? Three Upper Structures Over One ii-V-IWhat Is Superimposition on Jazz
Over Cm7–F7–Bbmaj7 the band plays those chords and you play Ebmaj7, F# minor and Gm. That is superimposition: your harmony sits on top of theirs, and the melody decides which tensions are allowed.