Beginning Jazz Guitar Practically

Jazz fans often find beginning jazz guitar a lot more daunting than they expect, but not necessarily because of the actual playing techniques or theory to learn, rather they don't know where to begin.

I had to think carefully about this lesson and what would be the best way to introduce you to jazz guitar.

I think the best thing a beginner jazz guitar lesson can do is not overwhelm you with music theory at this stage, but instead, get you playing something that you can use practically to build on and train your ear to the common voicings used in jazz.

So follow the lesson, diagrams and audio below for a practical guide to beginning jazz guitar!...

First, learn the main jazz chord shapes

Guitar chords in jazz can be thought of as modifications of the basic moveable barre chords you learn for rhythm guitar.

There are two main types of chord shapes with jazz guitar:

• Regular barre shapes that play the full (or fullest possible) voicing of a chord, including all the chord's notes and...
  
  

• "Shell" chords that use only the most important notes to make up the chord (comprising of only 3-4 strings/notes). They provide different voicings for the chord (e.g. lower or higher) and often have more rhythmic versatility.

In the first theory section we'll look at how these regular barre chords are cut down to make shell chords in more detail.

Let's look at some jazz chords below and their shell counterparts...

Beginning jazz guitar - jazz chords

Below, are some typical jazz barre chords.

All the chords are shown at the first 4 frets for example, but remember that they are all movable shapes so you can slide them up and down the fretboard for a different key.

The diagrams have fingering suggestions, so label your fingers 1-4, 1 being your index, 4 being your pinky/little finger.

Click on the diagram to hear how the chord should sound!

Minor 7 on the E String (e.g. Gm7)

Now for their shell chord versions

So here are the cut-down shell versions of the chords above (in the same order). Try and figure out which important notes have been used from the original barre chords above to make the shell chords below.

Tip: to avoid playing the X'd out strings inbetween strings, you need to use your fretted fingers to touch those X'd strings so they will be dampened and won't ring out. This can take time when beginning jazz guitar.

Practice each chord and make sure the X'd out strings aren't being played or sounded.

Minor 7 Shell on the E String (e.g. Gm7)

- The lowest string in the chord is the root note. This note determines what letter the chord is labelled with (e.g. Cmaj7, Gm7)

To learn where all the root notes lie on the fretboard, go here. This will help you with beginning jazz guitar using the chord shapes up and down the neck in different keys (important for the future when you start to improvise).

- These chords are movable up and down the fretboard (both E string shapes and A string shapes).

- Use the fingerings you feel comfortable with, the finger numbers above are only suggestions.

- With the shell chords, to block out those X'd strings, use your fretted fingers and rest them so they just barely touch the X'd string. This will effectively dampen them and stop them from sounding out.

OK, ready to put these into practical use? Let's work on a typical jazz guitar progression...

For beginning jazz guitar in a practical way, we're going to use the chord shapes from above to play some progressions below.

First progression - with the full barre chords starting on an E string shape (Am7)

Follow the tab, and click on it to hear an example with a metronome.

What to do now...

Using the chords we've learned, both shell and barre, try and come up with your own progressions moving those shapes around the fretboard, mixing them up and experimenting.

Of course, there are many more chords to learn beyond beginner jazz guitar, but one step at a time - we'll come to those in your own time.

Thanks for your time and patience, and keep experimenting!