Voice Leading on Jazz Guitar: Why the Guide Tones Follow the Melody
On jazz guitar, voice leading works because usually only one note moves between chords — and that moving guide tone lines up with the melody. Here's how to see it and practice it on standards.
Jazz Guitar Improvisation Tips: How to Transcribe So Your Ear Actually Grows
Your ear only hears what it already knows — which is exactly why transcription, even when you get it wrong, is the fastest way to grow. Here's how to transcribe jazz guitar so your ear expands instead of staying stuck.
Means ‘Compliment’: How to Comp Behind a SoloistJazz Guitar Comping M
The word 'comping' comes from 'compliment,' not 'accompany.' Your job is to react to the soloist, not to wallpaper the background. Here's the on-beat / off-beat practice ladder that builds responsive comping.
Jazz Guitar Comping: How to Lock Your Quarter-Note Swing With the Bass and Drums
Good jazz guitar comping means locking your swinging quarter note to the bass and drums, not playing flashy chords. Learn the Freddie Green four-to-the-bar approach and the role of the guitar in the three classic jazz trios.
Voice Leading Guitar: Why a Chord Changes When Only One Note Moves
A chord doesn't change because every note changes — it changes when a single note moves. That one idea, practiced through triad cycles and circle-of-fifths shell voicings, is the heart of voice leading on guitar.
Jazz Guitar Improvisation Tips: How to Keep the Melody in Your Ear While You Solo
Great jazz solos stay tied to the melody. Learn how to play a tune's melody in low and high registers — like Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell — so it never leaves your ear mid-solo.
Chord Melody Guitar: Why Playing the Melody in the Middle of the Neck Sounds More Like Jazz
When you play a jazz standard's melody on the first two strings, it sounds thin. Mid-register melody — the Wes Montgomery territory — sounds like jazz. Here is why, and how to move there.
Jazz Guitar Improvisation Tips: Why the Original Melody Should Stay in Your Head While You Solo
If your improvisation drifts away from the song, you're not soloing — you're playing a different tune. The fix is to keep the original melody humming inside you while you play, and here's the exact mechanism that makes it work.
Voice Leading Guitar: How to Play Counter-Motion Over Descending Chromatic Changes
When the chords descend chromatically — Dbmaj7, Dbm7, Cm7, Bbm7 — most intermediate players run out of ideas because every voicing wants to slide down too. The professional answer is counter-motion: when the harmony goes down, you take the line up. Here is how that works on the fretboard.
Swing Rhythm Guitar: What Wes Montgomery’s Thumb Technique Actually Needs
If you've spent any time learning jazz guitar, you've almost certainly heard the same piece of advice: Wes Montgomery played with his thumb.
Jazz Guitar Improvisation Tips: A 5-Part System to Master Jazz Blues
Jazz blues is one of the most rewarding areas of jazz guitar — and one of the most poorly approached by intermediate players. The common entry point is a pentatonic scale over a 12-bar form, maybe a blues scale for extra color.
Hearing Harmonic Rhythm: How Dominant Function Drives the II–V–I
If you’ve been playing jazz guitar for a few years, you already know what a II–V–I progression looks like. You can name the chords, you can find them on the fretboard, you can probably improvise a passable line over them in a familiar key.
Jazz Guitar Improvisation Tips: How Transcription Connects Everything You've Learned
Shell voicings, drop 2, II–V–I — you've learned the concepts separately. Transcription is what connects them. This guide explains why analyzing real solos (like Benson on Billie's Bounce) reveals how jazz harmonic vocabulary actually works in practice.
What a Structured Jazz Guitar Course Actually Looks Like
If you search for "structured jazz guitar course for beginners," you will find a lot of courses that look organized. There are units, modules, week-by-week schedules, neat little checklists.
How Down Strokes Create Swing — The Intermediate Player's Guide to Groove
Alternate picking is efficient — but it works against jazz swing. This post explains why consistent down strokes are the foundation of authentic groove in the Wes Montgomery tradition, and gives you a simple protocol to rebuild your technique from the ground up.