[Tarby777]

Hi all,

UK poster here. I've been lurking in this forum for a little while and this is my first post.

I've been playing guitar for 30 years or so, but I've only really started to tackle jazz in the past couple of years. Previously, I played a lot of rock, blues and acoustic fingerpick-y stuff. I'm at a point now where I feel I've got some understanding of the absolute fundamentals of jazz theory and I certainly know a lot more chords and chord shapes than I did a couple of years ago, but I don't feel that my improvised single-note stuff is really sounding jazzy yet.

I slur notes, I throw some Wes-style octaves in, I approach notes chromatically, I play "outside" with some success, I've got a handle on the whole swung-quavers-and-occasional-triplets thing... but I'm having a lot of trouble un-learning all the stuff I played before I got into jazz. I mean, despite hours of practice every week, I still don't feel that jazz is my natural playing style... I have to think a lot about it, and I fall back on the licks I learnt from books a lot... I don't feel like there's a great deal of my OWN jazz inside for me to tap into, if you know what I mean. The shapes that fall under my hands naturally (and therefore, the improvisation ideas that come from them) tend to come from the music I used to play.

I guess what I'm asking in a rather long-winded way is, is there anyone else on the forum who came to jazz guitar after trying just about every other style first, and if so, did you feel like this for a time? Did you break through?

TIA
Tarby

[jesusfreak86ca]

I may not play Jazz guitar but I am coming from a guy who knew nothing about improvising at all. I'm a drummer, but being a jazz major now at university I also have to do Vibes. The misconception about jazz is that it's harder than other styles of music. Yes it is harder but the theory is no different than other styles.

When improvising a good idea is to have a note in which you have as your arrival point. (before trying to go in and out of chords). A good idea is the Root 3rd or 5th of the Tonic (or chord that you are on). If playing in Bb you can play only Diatonic and it still can sound like jazz. If you want I can scan some worksheets from my class and attach them later.

[MJ_Avalanche]

I still have a long way to go with Jazz. But it is one of my focuses here at university. I can tell you from my own experience that learning to play with your own style comes from three things: Listening, playing, and studying with guys who have been in the business for years. I've kind of noticed that no one person has their own style. Everyone has borrowed something from someone. It's the combining of those things that you learn from the great players, and books and instructors that get to develop your "own style" as it were.

To be perfectly honest, Jazz was about the third style I got into and started learning. I started with Ska, then moved to P&W, and I've been on Jazz for three years now. I never had much trouble getting the feel. It's been kind of natural. But definately some of the finer points have not come easy. Just keep working at it, man.

Shoot me an email on my website (see my sig for the link) if you wanna chat Jazz sometime.

Peace,
~Mike