Use THIS Formula To Play Jazz Blues Like A Pro
Your favorite jazz blues solos are not just based on the arpeggios and scales that most of us spend years learning. That’s…
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Lessons, licks and ideas for jazz guitar. New posts every week.
The Most Important Arpeggio For EVERY Jazz Chord (It Will SKYROCKET Your Playing)
Most guitarists spend hours practicing arpeggios that never work in solos. The problem isn't that they don't know their arpeggios. It's that…
The 3 Jazz Soloing Skills Every Pro Uses (But Nobody Teaches)
Everyone will tell you what scales to learn and arpeggio positions to practice, but nobody teaches you how to turn them into…
Learning Jazz Chords is POINTLESS Without THIS
Spending hours every day memorizing chord shapes is pointless if you still can't turn them into music. Jazz guitar is not just…
Everything You Need To Learn For Jazz Guitar (In Order)
Learning jazz guitar can feel like drowning in options — 1000 of things to practice and no idea what actually matters. You…
If You Skip These 3 Things, Jazz Chords Will Always Feel Hard
Memorizing more chord voicings doesn't help you actually play songs. The problem isn't the chords themselves — it's that you don't know…
3 Simple Jazz Licks I Wish I Learned Early On (Most Miss These)
Do you feel like you know all the scales and arpeggios, but your solos still sound nothing like jazz? You've put in…
5 Jazz Licks That Make Any Guitar Solo Sound Like Jazz
What makes a solo sound like jazz is not just what notes you play. It is as much about how you play…
Jazz guitar is hard until you focus on these 3 things
Most guitarists try to practice 20 different things to get better at playing jazz, and that’s why they find jazz so overwhelming,…
What a Jazz Pro Sees On The Fretboard (That You Don’t)
The way you've learned to organize the fretboard makes it harder to play jazz. And even if you know all the scales…
The EXACT System Pros Use To Sound Great On ANY Chord
When Wes Montgomery described how he thought about soloing, he said 'It's a sound' — but that's the opposite of how most…
Everyone Learns Jazz Guitar Wrong (Here's What Actually Works)
Learning fewer scales actually makes you a better jazz guitarist. But Most players don’t realize and stay stuck, spending months or even…
This Boring Scale Exercise Will Save You Years (But Most Skip This)
Practicing arpeggio positions is a huge waste of time. This single “boring” scale exercise connects your chords, scales, and arpeggios — it's…
Everyone's Jazz Chords Sound Bad Until They DO THIS!
Nobody wants to jam with a guitarist who can't comp. And in the beginning, everyone sounds bad playing chords. But there are…
Why Do Some Jazz Guitarists Get Better So Fast? (when most don’t)
Why Do Other Guitarists Get Better Fast? Do you look at other jazz guitarists and feel frustrated that they are getting better…
Jazz Blues Navigator
How To Play Authentic Jazz Blues In 10 Weeks Make years of progress in less than 3 months with a little-known pro…
You Don’t Need 100 Jazz Chords. You Need This Simple System
Knowing more jazz chords won't make you sound better. And yet most players are drowning in chords that they want to memorize…
What NO ONE Teaches About Playing Jazz
Are you tired of spending hours on online jazz lessons that never improve your playing? That's because there's one thing almost nobody…
The SIMPLE Jazz Chords That Every PRO Guitarist LOVES
Pro jazz guitarists almost never play the big chords. And if you've been taught jazz guitar the traditional way, nobody probably told…
Just Practice Like THIS Every Day
Ever feel like you practice for hours, but you just don't get any better? Well, the fix is just one simple tweak…
The ONLY 5 Chord Progressions You Need To Play Jazz (That Nobody Teaches)
Did you ever look at a jazz chart only to get overwhelmed with lots of complicated chords? After years of teaching, I…
The One Barry Harris Rule That Changed Everything
The One Barry Harris Rule That Changed Everything Barry Harris has one rule for practice that turns your boring scale exercises into…
Jazz Guitar Isn’t Hard. It’s Misunderstood
Here’s what everyone gets wrong: Jazz guitar isn’t nearly as complicated as people make it. It’s misunderstood, and the real issue is…
The 3 Most Important Arpeggios For Jazz
You only need 3 arpeggios to make your solos sound like real jazz, but most students never learn them and get stuck…
The Jazz Chord Rules Every Pro Knows But Nobody Teaches
Did you ever look at a jazz chart and think, “I have NO idea how to play this?” I’ve been there too,…
Give me 8 minutes, I’ll save you 2 years of jazz guitar trial and error
The #1 reason your solos sound nothing like the jazz greats is that you’re only focusing on WHAT notes to play, but…
This "Boring" Triad Exercise Will Save You Years! (But Most Ignore It)
This triad exercise is the key to nailing the jazz sound in your solos, but like most players, I ignored it because…
This Simple Soloing Exercise Changes Everything
This Simple Soloing Exercise Changes Everything Are you stuck with solos that never really sound like jazz, no matter WHAT you try?…
I Wish I Practiced Jazz Chords Like THIS – Stop Wasting Time
Most jazz players spend hours memorizing shapes only to find that they still don't sound right in their playing So in this…
5 Licks That Will Help You Understand Jazz Guitar
Did you know there are 5 licks that explain 99% of Jazz guitar? Most jazz beginners get stuck with endless scales and…
This Barry Harris Exercise Will Save You Years (But Most Ignore It)
Are you spending hours on scales and arpeggios, but your solos never sound better? I certainly did, but a masterclass from Barry…
The ONLY 2 Dominant Scales You Need (Keep It Simple!)
Does Jazz guitar feel like a competition about who knows the most scales? You only need 2 dominant scales for 95% of…
3 Jazz Guitar Rules All Pros Know But Nobody Teaches
Are you playing all the right notes but still stuck with solos that NEVER sound like jazz? There are actually 3 jazz…
The Secret Jazz Chord Every Pro Jazz Guitarist Loves
There is a secret jazz chord pros use to add color and movement to their comping without memorizing 1000s of shapes. And…
The 3 Most Important Notes In Jazz ALL The Pros Use Them
Most jazz beginners think you need to memorize 1000s of chord grips to play jazz, but that’s just not true. I struggled…
I Wish I Learned Jazz Scales Like THIS – Stop Wasting Time
Most Jazz beginners spend hours on scale practice that doesn’t help them play better solos. I used to do this as well,…
The Jazz Solo System That Pros Use But Nobody Teaches
There’s a part of jazz practice almost nobody talks about—and it’s the reason most beginner solos don’t sound like jazz at all.…
3 Exercises To SKYROCKET Your Jazz Playing In 2026
Do you feel like your jazz solos just don’t sound like real jazz? I used to get stuck playing the right notes…
The Biggest Misunderstanding About Learning Jazz Solos
The way you think about learning solos from famous jazz artists is wrong, and that is because you have been given bad…
Make Sure You Practice Jazz Chords Like This in 2026
Do you spend hours practicing jazz chords, only to feel lost when you try to play a song? I wasted months practicing…
How Joe Pass Makes Jazz Chords Simple & Easy
Do you feel overwhelmed when you look at the sheet music of a jazz song with lots of difficult chords? I used…
Why Barry Harris' Approach Is So Much Better Than Bebop Scales
I am sorry, but I hate Bebop scales! And if you are stuck playing solos that sound mechanical and boring, Bebop scales…
Make Sure You Learn These 3 Things First – Jazz Guitar
Do you feel overwhelmed by the 1000s of things you are told to learn as a Jazz beginner? The most difficult part…
Practice Your Jazz Chords Like This Every Day (It will SKYROCKET Your Playing)
Are you stuck trying to memorize difficult jazz chords but can’t get them to sound right in a song? There is a…
I Wish Every Jazz Beginner Learned Soloing Like THIS!
Most Jazz beginners hit a wall with arpeggios and end up playing solos that sound like exercises. I kept running into this…
Satin Doll – Beautiful Chord Melody For Jazz Beginners
Chord Melody Like Joe Pass Did you know that there is an easy way to learn chord melody, even if you're a…
I Wish I learned Arpeggios Like This (Beginner's Guide)
The #1 reason you're struggling to make arpeggios sound like Jazz is because you’re leaving out the most important exercises. After teaching…
3 Basic Jazz Chord Exercises That Will Change Your Playing
Do you spend hours practicing new chord grips, but your comping still sounds flat and lifeless? I used to waste hours practicing…
Autumn Leaves – 5 Levels Of Beautiful Jazz Chords
Have you played through the chords of a song and thought, "Why doesn't this sound right?" The problem isn’t the chord shapes—it’s…
5 Jazz Guitar Exercises That Would Have Saved Me Years
Are you practicing jazz for hours without getting anywhere? I wasted years trying to figure out what to practice until I discovered…
The Most Important Scale For Jazz
jazz is NOT about learning 100s of scales; one scale does 90% of the work. After teaching Jazz for almost 20 years,…
This Amazing Jazz Lick Changed My Playing Forever
Here’s a bold claim: One short lick can save your jazz solos from sounding like an endless row of notes. When I…
I Wish I Learned Jazz Chords Like This – Stop Wasting Time
Like most jazz beginners, I started out making jazz chords much too complicated, a mistake I also see 90% of my students…
The Most Important Lesson I Ever Had (Jazz Beginner)
Wrong Exercises For Jazz Most jazz guitar beginners waste years on the wrong exercises—I certainly did. Until a masterclass from Barry Harris…
Why They Sound Better Than You Every Time!
There is a reason your solos don't sound as good as those of Wes Montgomery and George Benson. And no, it's not…
3 Techniques Jazz Beginners Don't Spend Enough Time On
Are you wondering how you can practice for hours, but your playing still doesn't sound like jazz? Most beginners miss three essential…
Guest on Sixty Scales and the Truth Podcast
Had a lot of fun hanging out with Niels and talking guitar, education and YouTube! Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_RRufnxjZc
Make Sure You Practice Like This Every Day! – Jazz Guitar
Ever wonder how pro jazz guitarists actually practice? Most students repeat the same exercises and end up never making progress. So in…
The Most Important Arpeggio For Jazz (It Will SKYROCKET Your Playing)
I know it sounds hard to believe, but in Jazz, one type of arpeggio is like a shortcut that will skyrocket your…
The Simple Jazz Chord Trick That Pros Use But Nobody Teaches
Ever wonder how jazz pros add melody, movement, and color to their chords, while yours feel clunky and hard to use? This…
THIS Makes Your Solos Sound Like Jazz (Better Than Any Scale)
Have you ever felt that even if you know which scale to use on a chord, you still can't play something that…
The Jazz Skill ALL The Pros Use But Nobody Talks About
Do your jazz solos sometimes sound like random notes strung together? I remember really struggling with this until I learned this powerful…
3 Simple Habits Every Jazz Guitar Beginner Needs To Learn
Do you feel like all your practice is not getting you anywhere with playing jazz? Most beginners miss a few simple habits…
How Jazz Beginners Turn Basic Ideas Into Pro Solos
Why do beginner jazz solos always sound boring and predictable? The issue isn't talent—I’ve coached many guitarists who've quickly transformed basic licks…
Master Jazz Blues Comping With This Proven System
Most people think jazz comping is all about learning tons of chords, but memorizing endless inversions won’t get you far. What you…
The 5 Best Exercises When Learning Jazz Guitar
Figuring out what to practice when you're learning jazz guitar is overwhelming. There are thousands of exercises to work on — and…
3 Simple Rules For Learning Jazz Chords (That Most Miss)
The first time you look at the chords in a jazz standard, it looks like a mix of random letters and numbers.…
Stop Playing Scales (Practice This Instead!)
The Scale Problem! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46obaNY9KYo&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcHSnzPpyjVahVzrwupkP-2V&index=1 Most Jazz beginners listen back to their solos and think: “I don’t sound like Jazz—I’m just running scales.”…
Chord Melody: Make Sure You Do THIS! (the 2-note method)
Chord Melody is one of the most beautiful and fun ways to play Jazz guitar. You're playing the whole song: melody, harmony…
This $100 Amp Proved Me Wrong!
What Makes An Amp Great? I have to admit, I was completely taken by surprise by how much I've come to rely…
5 Jazz Licks That Turn Beginners Into Pros
It's not enough to just play the right notes. Like me, you probably found that out the hard way. Let me show…
Jazz Chords – I Wish Every Beginner Would Watch This!
You’ve probably already figured out that playing jazz chords is about more than just memorizing diagrams. When you listen to Joe Pass,…
5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Learning Jazz Guitar
You might be wasting time while you’re practicing, and Jazz Guitar is already hard enough. My own practice sessions had some huge…
Altered Scale Make Sure You Learn This First!
Throwing in a surprising altered lick can add tension and a cool outside sound to your solos—but for many players, the altered…
The Jazz Chord System That Pros Use But Nobody Teaches
Jazz chords often seem incredibly complicated. Most online lessons will tell you to memorize endless inversions and diatonic chord exercises, but that won’t…
Make Sure You Practice Jazz Blues Like This!
Jazz Blues is an amazing sound! It was one of the first things that got me interested in Jazz, and I still…
This Simple Jazz Chord Exercise Will Change Everything
This way of practicing jazz chords and comping will help you develop your skills in chord melody, rhythm, and voice-leading. But it…
Which Semi-Hollow Guitar Is The Best? (I Was Wrong)
I am not sure Guitar prices make a lot of sense if you look at it like this. These are all instruments…
The Soloing Exercise That Changed My Life
There is one exercise that, once you learn to play it, will make your playing sound 1000 times better! Why? Because working…
The Most Powerful System For Jazz Chords
Drop 2 voicings are one of the most powerful tools for comping, chord melody, and chord solos. But if you learn them…
3 Powerful Pentatonic Tricks No One Talks About
You’re not getting everything out of the pentatonic scale! Let’s take every guitarist’s favorite scale and explore some amazing sounds—not only for…
5 Jazz Guitar Exercises That Would Have Saved Me Years
Learning jazz guitar is overwhelming. There are so many things to practice, and if you focus on the wrong ones, you can…
The Hidden Skills Behind Great Jazz Guitar Technique
Jazz guitar technique is a complicated story! You’ve probably seen incredible players with amazing technique, but if you look closer, there isn’t…
Chord Solos In Easy Mode (Play It Instantly!)
"Instant Chord Soloing" sounds like a big promise, right? When you think of a jazz chord solo, you probably picture thousands of…
The BEST part of Bebop Explained!
A huge part of the Jazz and Bebop sound comes from using chromatic notes but only if you do it the right…
The One Skill Jazz Beginners Aren’t Spending Time On
Do you ever feel like your solos just don’t flow, even though you know what to play over the chords? I had…
This "Stupid" Triad Exercise Is More Powerful Than You Think!
When I started playing jazz, I learned to find the right notes fairly fast, but everything I played felt stiff and without…
Make Sure You Practice This As A Jazz Beginner
Starting with jazz guitar can feel overwhelming. There are so many things to practice, but most of them won't actually help you…
3 Jazz Chord Exercises That Will Change Your Playing Right Now!
Jazz Chord Skills! You need to know how to comp, especially if you want to get called for jam sessions and gigs—soloing…
Triads: The Secret to Better Jazz Phrasing and Rhythm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OXpmOLBpp0&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcHn3-s_TZJhyenMUGHecPQ4&index=1 Many beginner Jazz guitarists are stuck playing boring solos with long rows of 8th notes. I remember how frustrated I was…
How to Practice Jazz Guitar Smarter (and Save Time) in 2025
Very often, the advice you get online is not helpful if you want to learn Jazz. A problem I see again and…
3 Simple Ways To Create Chord Melody Arrangments (Jazz Beginner)
One of the most fun things about Jazz Guitar is chord melody. I am sure you can imagine what it feels like…
This Simple Solo Is Much Better Than You Think!
The Power Of Simplicity Most people think jazz is complicated, but that isn't always true. This solo is a masterclass in simple…
Want to Learn Jazz Guitar? Don’t Ignore This Skill!
The Practice Problem Is this how you practice? Working on soloing? Find a song in iReal and start playing. If you want…
3 Things You Need To Understand About Jazz Chords
Jazz guitar and especially jazz chords can feel like a maze of endless options , and many beginners feel overwhelmed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMvtN1pyUgA&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcGzaHzXwlLgi67N-dGjI_lq&index=1 Having…
Is It Better To Learn Jazz Without Music Theory?
I would never have imagined that I would make this video, but lately, I have seen too many students wasting a lot…
The 3 Most Important Arpeggios For Jazz
Not Chord Tones, Not Positions! It's a bold claim, and you are probably wondering if I am going to say maj7, dominant…
What ANY JAZZ GUITARIST can learn From Joe Pass
Joe Pass is one of the most influential jazz guitarists to ever pick up a guitar. He was incredibly skilled, so it…
Don't think ALL The Chords! – Jazz Progression Secrets
Jazz Chord Stress Syndrome When you are getting started learning to play Jazz, and especially the first time you try to play…
3 Mistakes Self-Taught Jazz Guitarists ALWAYS Make
You know this: The problem is not notes, scales, or arpeggios, but all your solos still sound bad. This is surprisingly easy…
The Biggest Jazz Beginner Struggle And How To Overcome It
Struggling To Sound Like Jazz! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h7ZLe_PYkU&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcGsyfc3OWR8YTIVnlmTpTy6&index=1 When you start learning jazz, many of us learn a lot about what notes to play…
The Easy Jazz Chords Every Beginner Should Start With
When you are just starting to explore Jazz and Jazz chords, it is easy to get lost in complicated chords that are…
Make Sure You Practice Like This Every Day!
When it comes to learning Jazz, soloing, or comping, the best way to practice is to build your practice around songs. Let…
Jazz Chord Craftsmanship
Jazz Chords Are Something You Enjoy The most fun part of playing Jazz is being busy with chords and harmony. It is…
3 Exercises That Will Make Your Jazz Solos Sound Pro
I am sure you know how scary and horrible it can be to listen to one of your own solos, even if…
The Jazz Scales You Need To Know (in Order)
Scales Are Not Everything Scales are important in Jazz, but you don't need that many. Knowing thousands of scales and modes without…
Autumn Leaves – Beautiful Chord Melody For Jazz Beginners
Chord melody is one of the most fun things to play. And it is pretty mind-blowing that you can take a song…
3 Things That Will Save You Years Of Practice!
You want to learn Jazz guitar, but you don't want to waste practice time, so let's start with some things you should…
Start With Simple Jazz Chords, But Do This!
A big mistake that a lot of students make when they start learning Jazz chords is learning chords as different grips but…
Jazz Chords: Every Type of Passing Chord You Need To Know
Adding passing chords is one of the best ways to make your comping and chord progressions more interesting, and you can explore…
Why Is This A Jazz Chord Secret? It Sounds Amazing!
Chromatic Notes – But For Chords https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9S6RZAWoQw&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcE8ctKYp2SFQzJRJPZbxGTO&index=1 One Note! It is just moving one note, but it opens up so many things!…
Use This Exercise To Get The Most Out Of Arpeggios!
One of the biggest problems you have learning Jazz is that practicing arpeggios as exercises does not help you make them sound…
A Beautiful Warm-Up For Jazz Chords
Playing Jazz chords is one of the most fun parts of Jazz, but the exercises are often boring and uninspiring. The most…
Make Sure You Learn These 3 Things First – Jazz Guitar
Learning Jazz guitar is overwhelming and chaotic when you are starting out. There are 1000s of things to learn, and the most…
Why Patterns Are Always Better Than Licks – Parker's Strategy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP-wpC0axP0&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcG8RlWYwb6FdJYg69QQIsBi&index=1 I love Charlie Parker's playing. To me, he really IS the Mozart of Jazz, and phrases like this clearly demonstrate that:…
5 Jazz Chord Techniques You'll Use Every Day!
You will sound 100 times better if you focus on what you can do with the chords you already know, instead of…
7 Excuses That Stop You From Learning Jazz Guitar
I am sure you watch great Jazz guitarists and listen to all the great music, and of course, you also want to…
3 Important Skills You Need To Work On Every Day
It is complicated to figure out what to practice, there are so many options and you have to watch out that you…
Fretboard Navigation – Stop Wasting Time On The Wrong Exercises
I get comments on like this very often: There are 1000s of lessons online that talk about learning the fretboard, but you…
The 5 Mistakes Beginners Make Learning Jazz Chords
The best thing about Jazz Guitar is probably the chords! The feeling of taking a progression and then turning it into beautiful…
It Is The Sound That Is Important! – Altered Scale
Altered Scale Is A Sound Like most students, you probably find it difficult to learn using the altered scale because it seems…
7 Reasons The Major Triad Is The Most Important Arpeggio
Triads are often underrated! You try to get away from using triads because they are too simple and boring. It becomes about…
Jazz Chords – The 7 Comping Rhythms That Really Matter
Even if you are like "Guitar George" and know all the chords, that won't get you anywhere if you don't have some…
The Cheapest Jazz Guitar On Amazon 🤔
The Cheapest Jazz Guitar On Amazon 🤔 In this video, I'm taking you on a ride as I unbox this budget Jazz…
Intros – The BEST place to explore Jazz Chords
As you know, It is a lot of fun to play Jazz chords and check out beautiful progressions, and the best place…
5 Lazy Ways To Make Your Jazz Solo Sound 10x Better (In 8 minutes)
Imagine if there were 5 short licks that you can already play that would make your solos sound 10x better! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGGjgUL1oF0&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcEPGHqH6f3FGAL9mGNqX-Ys&index=1 If…
How To Solo Over Chords – Think Like A Pro!
The "Random Phrases" Solo A big part of why a solo sounds great is the flow. (example 1) But it can be…
Jazz Chords – The 3 Rules That Make You Sound Pro!
I am incredibly lucky that I get to jam with great musicians, and one of the reasons for that is something that…
5 Theory Tricks That Will Save You Years Of Practice
Music Theory can seem very scary for a Jazz beginner, and you will come across people insisting it is bad for your…
12 Things NOT to Do When Starting Jazz Guitar (By a Jazz Guitarist)
As a Jazz guitarist and teacher then let me help you avoid a few things that a LOT of Jazz beginners get…
Jazz Beginners: Grant Green Is The Most Important Guitarist To Check Out!
The Most Difficult Skill To Learn You want to sound like Jazz. That's the goal! You want to be able to take…
The 5 Mistakes You Make Soloing Over Static Chords
Are you just playing notes or are you playing a solo and making music? Often when solos are on one chord then…
3 Things To Get Right For Great Guitar Technique
There are two types of guitar players, which one are you: Do you like to practice exercises, and develop your technique or…
5 Things That Ruin ALL Jazz Beginner Solos
The Roadblock This is such a common roadblock when you are just getting started with Jazz: You are practicing scales and arpeggios,…
Basic Music Theory For Jazz
Grasping the fundamental principles of music theory is like unlocking a treasure chest of sonic possibilities. Take jazz, for instance, where deciphering…
Challenge: Who Has The Most EPIC Jazz Chords (with Rotem Sivan)
Intros and Vamps With Beautiful Jazz Chords At NAMM, amidst the clamor of the event, we retreated to my hotel room for…
The Basic Music Theory You Need As A Jazz Beginner
Having the basics down in music theory is an incredibly powerful tool. If you are playing Jazz then interpreting chord symbols can…
10 Simple Jazz Chord Tricks That Will Make You A Better Player In 2024
Don't Be Boring! You don't want to sound boring! Sometimes the obvious thing to play is a II V I, maybe you…
The Ultimate Jazz Chord Guide – 12 Most Important Voicing Types
What you can do with Jazz Chords is pretty incredible! I am sure you already know that if you click on this…
Your First 5 Jazz Licks (Beginner's Guide To Arpeggios)
Everywhere you look a Jazz teacher is telling you that you should practice arpeggios if you want to play Jazz, but it…
The Massive Misunderstanding About Modulations
The problem is that you probably don't know what a key is, and it is a LOT more than you think! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gWVSazHaZs&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcFozQj9I_92-sY0EY8h5Syl&index=1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gWVSazHaZs&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcFozQj9I_92-sY0EY8h5Syl&index=1…
Jazz Beginners: 7 Habits That Keep You Stuck Forever!
There are a few habits that you need to quit if you don't want to be stuck as a jazz beginner forever.…
3 Basic Jazz Chord Exercises That Will Change Your Playing in 2024
When you think about Jazz Chord Exercises then it is probably about learning new chords, but it is more important is that…
7 Skills Jazz Beginners Don't Spend Enough Time On
One of the biggest mistakes Jazz Beginners make is to practice a lot but not develop the skills that really will get…
$800 Pickups in a $400 Guitar – Is it Worth It?
Pickups: Are They Important for the Sound? Does it matter what pickups you use? I was kind of just planning to do…
One Of The Best Lessons I Ever Had (Jazz Beginner)
This concept really changed the game for me, which was pretty lucky because some of the early Jazz guitar lessons I had…
Unlock The Mysterious Sound Of The Minor Subdominant Chords
Let's talk about what is probably the most beautiful chords in Jazz. https://youtu.be/mLknv2XF-Yw?si=nRgZh7LY99_m9QwU When I was first getting into Jazz, the basic…
The 10 Jazz Guitarists That You Need To Know
Listen To Jazz! Listening to jazz is an important part of learning jazz and also one of the things that can speed…
The One Thing You Wish You Could Improve In Your Jazz Playing
What Is The Magic of Wes and Benson? I am pretty sure that you have listened to Wes Montgomery or George Benson…
3 Ways To Make Simple Jazz Chords Sound Amazing
Few things in the world sound as great as Jazz Chords, but learning a few grips doesn't mean that you get them…
5 Jazz Guitar "Rules" That You Should Break (The Pros Do)
Jazz Rules! Are there rules for Jazz? When you are learning something, it is nice to have simple and clear rules so…
Cookin' Great Jazz Licks With Basic Exercises – 5 Step Process
The Mysterious Recipe In the beginning, Jazz improvisation can seem mysterious, but just like food, there is actually a recipe you can…
One Of The Best Exercises For Jazz Chords (and most fun)
An Amazing Nerdy Chord Exercise This exercise is probably one of the best ways to really explore and discover beautiful Jazz harmony…
II V I – Who Has The Best Approach For Jazz Beginners?
Your II V I Approach Is Wrong Your approach to II V I progressions is probably wrong, and that is getting in…
Jazz Chord Secrets Every Jazz Beginner Should Learn
You know how this feels: You are playing a song and then the chords look like completely insane (Db7(b9,b13,no5) and your brain…
Why You Struggle To Learn Jazz Standards: A Method That Works
Don't Start With The Realbook This is NOT how you learn a new jazz standard. Not if you really want it to…
Why Their Jazz Blues Solos Always Sound Better Than Yours
Jazz Blues is surprisingly simple. The Lines are a lot simpler than you might think and probably stuff you already know, you…
Why Barry Harris' Approach Is So Much Better Than Bebop Scales!
Bebop IS Modern Jazz I hate Bebop scales, in fact, I never liked that approach to soloing because it always took away…
3 Reasons A Guitar Teacher Is The Fastest Way To Learn
I don’t think this discussion is specific to learning Jazz, a few weeks ago, I had a guy in the comments talking…
The 3 Guitarists I Wish I Checked Out As A Jazz Beginner
There is a downside to how we teach Jazz now, on one hand, it is very efficient and helps internalize important skills,…
This Guy Doesn't Need a "REAL" Jazz Guitar To Sound Amazing!
Overlooked But Incredible Guitarist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9JTlrpfquM&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcEiaGCYhD091dR_7U0vDsQm&index=2 Whenever the topic of "real jazz guitars" and "jazz tone" comes up, then I always have to…
The Best Exercise For Jazz Guitar – Advice From 7 Online Teachers
There are some amazing lessons available online, and I feel really proud to be in a community of so many great teachers…
How To Make Jazz Chords Sound Amazing – 7 Recipes 😎
Jazz Chords Are Like Cake! Beautiful Jazz Chords are chords like this: rich-sounding chords with lots of colors and extensions, they are…
The Most Important Thing To Learn From Wes Montgomery
Wes is Amazing! Pretty much every Wes Montgomery solo is a lesson in phrasing, and they are all small works of art…
The Biggest Misunderstanding About Jazz Chords And How To Quickly Fix It
The way you think about Jazz chords is most likely wrong, and that is because you have been taught to think about…
I Wish Every Jazz Beginner Could Watch This!
You Are Practicing Arpeggios Wrong Everyone on the internet and every guitar teacher you ever met probably told you to practice arpeggios.…
Save Your Chord Melody Playing With These 3 Tactics!
Chord Melody like you hear it with Joe Pass or Barney Kessel is a beautiful part of playing Jazz guitar, and it…
Masterclass in Spain 10th of July
Masterclass at MUSIKARTIS – 10th of July 2023 – 18:00-20:00 Send me an email if you want to reserve a space! info@jenslarsen.nl…
This is A Perfect Jazz Solo! – Why Scofield Always Gets It Right!
I might touch on a few unpopular opinions in this video, but Scofield NEVER fails to impress me, even when he is…
Why They Sound Better Than You Every Time!
What is the difference between a good solo and a great solo? And what are some of the skills you want to…
5 Concepts Jazz Guitar Beginners Must Understand To Learn Faster
I think you should learn from my mistakes, so in this video I am going to go over 5 things that really…
This BEST Jazz Blues Solo For Bebop, Blues and Brilliant Phrasing
It's George Benson, so it is usually pretty solid! This solo is certainly no exception, and it is from probably my favorite…
The Real Reason You Are Not Getting Better At Jazz
You don’t want to only play other people’s licks in your solos. You want to improvise, that is the point of Jazz!…
Can I Write More Interesting Pop Chord Progressions With Triads?
You can easily make a lot of interesting and surprising, short chord progressions that still have a beautiful natural flow, so I…
How Joe Pass Makes Jazz Chords Simple & Easy
Joe Pass: "First of all, I'll tell you, If I have a II V, Forget the II." So this isn't exactly how…
Fake Counterpoint And Jazz Chords: Both Beautiful and Practical
This way of playing chords is incredibly fun, and I love how it sounds, at the same time I am not sure…
Jazz Comping – A Difficult Conversation With Aimee Nolte
Comping is one of the most fun parts of playing Jazz, but comping with both a piano and a guitar is incredibly…
I Wish I Could Play Fast Jazz Solos Using This Approach
We NEED to talk about this because it is outrageous that people lie to us like this. I am sure you have…
Important (beginner) Jazz Advice: 5 Easy Jazz Standards To Start With
Learning Jazz songs is incredibly important, I am sure you have heard me and many others say that again and again. But…
I Wish I Had Checked Out This Guy! His Solos Are Jazz 101 On Guitar
This is one of the best people to check out if you want to develop pretty much everything you need to learn…
5 Scale Exercises That Make It Easier To Learn Jazz
Scale Exercises are the source of a lot of problems. I remember running into this myself when I was starting out and…
Amazing Chord Melody Without Any Chords? So Beautiful That Nobody Cares
It is not often that you come across someone who manages to re-invent a style like this into something both beautiful and…
The Best Way To Start With Jazz Chords: 2 Positions
For most of us, certainly for me, then what was first interesting about Jazz chords was how they sounded different and had…
If I started Jazz Guitar In 2023 then this is what I would practice
The problem with learning Jazz Guitar is not finding the information, you can find everything explained and almost everything written out on…
Is Your Improvisation Practice a Waste of Time? (And How to Fix That)
When it comes to practicing then it we often have a very clear idea about scales and exercises which you can easily…
5 Simple Tricks That Make Jazz Chords Even More Beautiful
Most of the time what makes Jazz chords great is that you don't just play chord grips, you can add things around…
This is Missing In Your Comping and Nobody Is Teaching It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur8BTz7N69g&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcE9pxX7LBZZftC2k7zkz1T_&index=1 When it comes to comping then you have lots of books and online lessons on learning chord voicings, and voice-leading, but…
Which One Is The REAL Jazz Guitar?
I did something terrible, and it was sort of by accident. Originally, I was not going to talk about this. It was…
The Mistake Everyone Makes Learning Jazz Guitar
A problem that comes up all the time with my students and Patreon supporters, and certainly also something remember from learning myself…
This Jazz Blues Solo is Perfect And Nobody Is Talking About It
Like me, you probably transitioned from playing some sort of Blues or Rock into playing Jazz, and often one of the first…
3 Ways To Fix Your Chord Progressions To Be More Interesting & Beautiful
I always loved that Jazz Harmony is full of amazing chord progressions that have a natural flow but still contain some surprising…
The Biggest Problem With Scale Positions and How They Can Ruin Your Progress
You have probably already realized that it is important to practice the right things so that you don't waste time, and one…
5 Of My Favorite Bebop Shortcuts To Fix Your Jazz Phrasing
When I was still just getting into playing Jazz, before I moved to the Netherlands, then I often found it very frustrating…
The Problem With My Vintage Gibson
I often get asked why I don't play my Gibson ES175 more often, and in general, not everyone understands why I mostly…
How To Use Outside Playing – A Few Secrets And Some Important Advice
Sometimes you have to solo on a single chord for a longer time, and it can be hard to keep things interesting,…
3 Goals That Block Your Progress Learning Jazz Guitar
Like me, you probably played guitar for some time before you became interested in learning Jazz. In a way that should make…
The Most Important Scale For Jazz
"Scales Are NOT going to solve problems" I think sometimes when you want to learn Jazz then it is too much about…
Make Your Jazz Chords Sound Amazing (for normal people)
When it comes to adding fills and embellishments to your chord melody arrangements and comping then when you are listening, it can…
3 Reasons You Will Regret Not Working On Chord Soloing
Once I started getting interested in Jazz and Jazz guitar then it didn't take long until I heard some of the first…
The Most Beautiful Jazz Chords And How You Use Them
Sometimes you get a little bit tired of playing chord progressions that all sound like this: And you want to hear some…
The Best Advice I Ever Had For Playing Fast Tempos
Playing fast tempos is always a huge challenge on guitar! Technique is probably the first thing that hits you as impossible to…
Pentatonic Chords are Magic! Amazing New Way To Use The Scale!
This way of turning the pentatonic scale into chords is surprisingly easy and already built into the way we play the scale,…
Why Chord Substitutions Are Holding You Back!
To me, this is one of those things that can really open up how you work with chords and help you create…
Stop Being Lazy With Your Triads (Jazz Guitar Secrets)
Triads are only 3 notes but you can use them in so many ways for both comping and solos. If someone asked…
You don't NEED a Guitar amp!
I stopped using real amps 12 years ago and, I never looked back, It works really well, and I am far from…
How The Pros Think About Chord Progressions (and you probably don't)
If you are trying to learn Jazz and especially the first time you are looking at how to learn a Jazz standard,…
Why Barry Harris has the Best Method for Chromatic Notes
In my experience, the best way to learn to use chromatic passing notes in your solos is using Barry Harris Chromatic Scale.…
The Diminished Chords – Why They Are Great!
There are 3 types of diminished chords that I use all the time. They are great for a lot of things and…
The 5 Skills That Make You Great At Comping
The most fun part of playing Jazz is playing with others and in the band shape the music together while you are…
No Bending In Jazz, Please!
I guess this might be a hot take on the topic of bending in Jazz, but this is a really common question,…
The Basic Jazz Chords That You Can Expand into Amazing Sounds
Wouldn't it be great if you had some Jazz Chords that are easy to play so that you can use them to…
How Chord Melody Will Help You Master Important Skills
I think that the most beautiful way to work with Jazz harmony is to work on chord melody, the type of playing…
3 Stupid Mistakes You Should Avoid When Learning A Jazz Standard
I had started really spending time practicing scales and arpeggios and even gotten them to where I could use that in my…
Is Reading Music Important For Learning For Jazz?
Joe Pass couldn't read music Wes Montgomery didn't know music theory Guthrie Govan never used a metronome John Abercrombie didn't transcribe other…
Jazz Chords – Drop2 is a Powerful Tool
I always loved playing Jazz Chords, mostly because you don't just play the chord. You can change it and add your own…
The Real Secret About Chromatic Phrases And Great Jazz Licks
Chromatic Passing Notes are such a powerful part of the Jazz sound! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzX2cgNOvxA&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcHdgL7UNnq5G6gzDuEJMtq8&index=1 One of the few times that I had a…
Jazz Chords – Easy To Advanced in 5 Levels
The most fun thing about Jazz chords and comping is that you can improvise with the chords and create your own sound…
This Solo Exercise Changed Everything
"This was fixing two of the things that I wanted to improve in my playing, and I also discovered two new things…
5 Things That Stop You From Learning Jazz
I often see comments from people who are completely blown away by how complicated and difficult Jazz seems to be. I can…
7 Guitar Skills That Pay Off Forever
Some skills are more difficult than just learning a new lick: or a chord voicing, and you want to keep working on…
The Truth About Avoid Notes and Target Notes
There seems to be some confusion about what avoid notes and what target notes are when it comes to improvisation even mixing…
Overlooked Barry Harris Wisdom That Is Amazing Advice For Jazz
In the late 90s when I traveled from Copenhagen to The Hague to follow masterclasses with Barry Harris at the Royal conservatory…
Most Important Skills For Jazz Chord Tones on a II V I
A difficult thing when you are starting Jazz is that the chords are flying left and right while you have to keep…
Jazz Chords – You Can Make It Simple And Unlock Amazing Sounds
A few years ago I was teaching a student and in the lesson, we were talking about Jazz Blues comping. He was…
3 Music Theory Exercises That Actually Help You Play Better
The worst thing that you can have when it comes to music theory is that you have your music theory knowledge over…
Get Scale Practice Right And It Will Boost Your Playing
Scale practice sounds, dry and boring and more than anything else about moving your fingers on the instrument in a way that…
10 Levels of Turnarounds – Unlock Amazing Jazz Chord Progressions
Jazz harmony is a huge topic, and learning to understand and analyze chord progressions can seem like an impossible task, but if…
How to Make Jazz Chords Sound Great For Any Progression
I am sure you have looked at a chart with jazz chords and asked yourself, why do they play a m7(11) chord…
Bebop Without Scales And Why You Need This Skill
Bebop, but then without Scales. What makes a great Bebop line is the flow in the melody that keeps it moving forward, …
5 Licks That Will Help You Understand Jazz Guitar
When I started listening to Jazz and trying to play it then a huge part of what I found exciting about it…
Triads – You Are Missing 3 Skills In Getting The Most Out Of Them
Triads are essential building blocks in the strongest solos and melodies, and you want to make sure that you not to miss…
Minor Chords – Unlock Some Beautiful Jazz Chords In Your Music
When you play chords or if you are writing songs then you reduce the harmony to chord symbols like Dm7 Bb7 Cmaj7.…
Is This Jazz Guitar Method Fantastic and Terrible At The Same Time
Jazz solos are not improvising every single note, we use building blocks to construct phrases, similar to how words are used to…
What Is Effective Jazz Practice And Are You Wasting Your Time
Even if you are practicing for years to learn Jazz then you may still not see a lot of progress, and there…
An Amazing Exercise For Jazz Chords (And Your Playing In General)
https://youtu.be/5DlCT5F9VRc Jazz Chords can seem like these mysterious grips with difficult names. They sound beautiful but you don't really know what is…
This Is Ruining Your Jazz Solo – A Powerful Bebop Breakthrough
You have a problem if your Jazz solos sound too much like this: https://youtu.be/UmbNOyErF4w In a way, this should work because a…
Great Jazz Tone On A $250 Amp?
In this video, I am going to try to get a good Jazz tone out of this amp, which is my son's…
3 Things that Ruin Your Jazz Practice And Stops Your Progress
We all want to play fantastic lines in our solos! But one of the worst things you can do if you want…
Jazz Chords And The Best Way To Think About Them
It is very important that you stop thinking in separate grips and start seeing how patterns are actually variations of the same…
My 7 Best Jazz Licks with Only Four Notes
You are probably thinking 4-Note Jazz Licks! That doesn't make any sense! But actually, those 4-note licks are very important! They are…
The 10 Bebop Skills You Want To Master
I think it is time you test your Bebop skills so you know where you are at with your solos. For some…
5 Habits To Help You Learn Jazz Faster
You don’t learn to play Jazz Guitar in 20 minutes, it is a process and a set of skills that you build…
New Beautiful Jazz Chords With This Powerful Triad Strategy
The best way to learn something new is to build on things that you already know. That way it is much easier…
10 Classic Charlie Parker Licks That Will Make You A Better Player
If you want to learn to play Jazz, then nothing is more useful than checking out Charlie Parker, but you can learn…
A Simple Jazz Blues Approach That Makes You Sound Better
You already know it: It is not nearly as important what notes you play compared to how you play them. That is…
3 Reasons Wes Montgomery Is Amazing And Worth Checking Out
Wes Montgomery is the father of modern Jazz guitar, but it was not because he played with his thumb or used octaves.…
For Any Jazz Lick You Need To Understand These 3 Things
In a lot of lessons on playing Jazz then chord progressions are reduced to scales and then that is the only way…
5 Reasons You Fail To Learn Jazz Standards And Simple Ways To Fix Them
The way I learned the first two Jazz Standards when I was starting out is almost a perfect example of how to…
The 5 Types of Dominant Chord You Want To Know
There is ONE mistake that you don't want to make when it comes to improvising over chords because that will hold you…
An Overlooked Skill That Will Give Your Jazz Solos A Massive Boost
It is funny how sometimes a single solo that you hear can really change the way you think about music and what…
The Great Thing About Pentatonic Scales For Jazz And How To Use Them
You can create fantastic Jazz licks using Pentatonic Scales! This lesson will give you some great examples and exercises for that! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgc4hsaTWxA…
From Basic Jazz Chords To Beautiful Comping
You probably already know how beautiful Jazz chords can sound and how great Jazz players just seem to flow through the progression…
The Great $400 Guitar I Used On 5 albums
This is a REALLY cheap guitar and it was my main guitar for quite a long time. I used it on several…
Jazz Blues – How To Solo Only Using Triads And Why It Is Powerful
Why would you want to play a Jazz Blues just using triads? When you have one triad per chord then that is…
These Scale Exercises Are Immediately Great Jazz Licks
You want to use the things that you practice, so if your scale exercises are already solid vocabulary or solid licks then…
The Most Important Music Theory And How It Helps You Play Better
If you know some Simple and Basic Music Theory but you know it well, then you can use that to understand most…
Jazz Beginner – 5 Myths That Waste Your Time
There are a lot of things that you need to learn as a beginner with jazz guitar, but sometimes you come across…
How To Write Great Jazz Vocabulary And Learn From Charlie Parker
Sometimes I like to challenge myself to find new things to play in solos, and one way I do that is to…
3 Reasons Your Comping Sucks and How To Fix It
Usually when people talk about comping then it is about what chords to play, extensions and voicings, but that is not at…
A Simple Way To Make Amazing Jazz Licks On A Single Chord
Whether you are trying to add a little Jazz flavor to your solos or working on getting your Jazz solos to sound…
Which Jazz Skills Do You Need To Play a (GREAT) Solo? (beginner To Advanced)
I always dreamt about getting to that point where you are free to improvise a great jazz solo over a chord progression.…
The 5 Bebop Facts That Will Help You Learn Faster
Bebop was not invented on guitar, and some of the ways we usually learn things on the guitar works against learning to…
5 Easy Solos to Learn By Ear and Boost Your Jazz Guitar Skills
Learning to play Jazz is a huge challenge, and when I started out then I spent a lot of time working out…
What Really Makes Your Jazz Solo Sound A Lot Better
Sometimes everything you play sounds the same and it is uninspired and predictable. There are only so many arpeggios and scales, so…
5 Levels of Walking Bass And Chords – A Great Comping Approach
Ever since I heard Joe Pass play walking bass and chords behind Ella Fitzgerald, I was completely sold and found that to…
10 Patterns That Sound Great On A C7 Dominant – Beautiful Sounds
Some of the things that I really like to play in my solos are not just an arpeggio or just a scale…
An Amazing Recipe For Jazz Guitar Licks Everyone Should Know
Jazz is often made more complicated than it needs to be. And whether you are setting out on a journey to explore…
Jazz Phrasing – The 3 Simple Things That Will Make You Sound Better
I am sure you know this feeling: You are playing the right notes, the arpeggios, chromatic passing notes but it still doesn't…
5 Jazz Guitar Tips That Will Save You Years Of Practice
In this video, I will go over 5 things that were game-changing for how I learned Jazz so that you can use…
How To Play Outside – A Few Great Jazz Solo Secrets
This lesson will show you 5 different ways that you can play some beautiful outside things on a static m7 chord, not…
Make it Easy To Learn Jazz Standards – Important Chord Progressions in Minor
In this lesson, I will go over the most important harmonic building blocks in a minor key, which will help you learn…
How To Explore Jazz Chords – A Better Approach
I very often get asked: "How can I learn to remember all those chord shapes?" and the answer to that is maybe…
The 5 Reasons You Are Not Getting Better At Jazz Guitar
A part of playing what is fun about Jazz is that you keep getting better at it and enjoy the new things…
3 Important Exercises for Jazz Guitar Beginners To Get Started
You need many skills if you want to play Jazz, and some of them can be hard to find good exercises for,…
Why You Need To Learn Bebop Themes If You Want To Play Jazz
Learning Jazz Guitar you probably already discovered that some skills are a lot more difficult to internalize and also hard to improve…
Stay Inspired In Your Practice – A Solid Jazz Solo Survival Guide
If you check out the solos by great Jazz players then you will probably find that they don't really play other scales…
5 Easy Jazz Solo Exercises That You Want To Know
A huge part of playing Jazz solos is following the chord progression. Learning how to solo over chord changes can seem difficult,…
Guitar Practice – Top 5 Super Useful Apps
You want to make the most of your limited practice time, and there are a lot of useful apps out there which…
The Two Reasons Triads Are Amazing For Jazz Solos
Usually, you connect Jazz with chords with a lot of extensions and alterations. But Triads are still an amazing resource that you…
Pentatonic Scale In Jazz – Exploring An Important Sound
These videos will show you how to develop Jazz lines and use them on Jazz Chords and Progressions so that you can…
How To Go From Scales to Great Jazz Phrases
You are practicing scales so that you know what to play in your solos, but, like me, I am sure that you…
The Solos You Want To Learn By Ear To Play Better Jazz Guitar
This video is coming out of the worst advice that I see given on the internet, maybe not the worst advice but…
Jazz Chords – A Simple But Amazing Solution You Want To Know
One of the great things about Jazz Chords is that if you learn even just a few basic jazz chords then you…
A Simple Jazz Solo Skill You Want To Master
There is a skill that you can develop in your playing that will really help you play jazz solos, and this is…
A Better Focus For Alternate Picking – Getting The Exercises Right
This lesson will give you some more efficient alternate picking exercises and strategies for guitar. Most lessons on getting a better right-hand…
Bebop Magic – One Of The Best And Most Difficult Things About Jazz
One essential part of Bebop lines and melodies that you need to check out is octave displacement. It is a simple technique,…
Chord Melody – 5 Beautiful Methods You Want To Know
Chord Melody and Jazz Harmony are beautiful things to explore. In this collaboration with the incredible Rotem Sivan, he shows us how…
7 Easy Jazz Standards In Minor You Need To Know
Most Jazz songs are in a major or a minor key, and Minor songs are a great place to learn several things…
The Best Triad Exercises – How To Get The Essentials Right
Working on triad exercises is a great way to get more things you can play in your solos, but is also a…
The 3 Bebop Licks You Need To Know
Obviously, you are not going to learn to play Bebop by just studying 3 licks, but if you want to add that…
How To Make 4 Chord Vamps That Sound Great
Whether you need chord progressions for your own song or an intro for a song you are learning, you want to be…
3 Things That Make You Sound Better Comping A Jazz Blues
When comping sounds great then it is actually not because of the chords you are playing. It is more about all the…
Jazz Beginner Mistakes – How To Learn Scales
When I started playing Jazz then I came from improvising mostly with the pentatonic scale, playing phrases, and licks in the scale…
The Most Important Melodic Minor Modes In One Song
Melodic minor is a beautiful and important sound in Jazz which you want to have in your vocabulary, but it can be…
Jazz Blues – You Need To Know Triads!
If you had any doubt, why Triads are amazing in your solos then you just check out this video and see how…
Jazz Reharmonization – How To Make Great Variations of a II V I
There are some really beautiful variations and reharmonizations of a basic II V I progression that you can check out and start…
What Really Makes It Sound Like Jazz?
You already know that just playing the pentatonic scale doesn't really make it sound like a great blues lick. There are other…
Jazz Chords – From Easy to Advanced in 5 Solid Exercises
It is easy to get lost in difficult Jazz chords that you don't have control over and can't use when you are…
Beautiful Jazz Chords That Make You Less Boring
Do you get bored listening to yourself playing chords? Let's look at some 3-note jazz chords that change things up a bit…
Comping – How To Add Movement To Static Chords
Often you come across songs where you are comping a static chord for a few bars, and it can get a little…
Comping A Jazz Standard – This Is How To Get Started
Just learning the chords is not enough to really play something that sounds like real Jazz Comping, and you need to develop…
Make Your Minor Chord Progressions More Interesting
The minor key has a lot of interesting options, and also quite a few that you don't have in Major. This video…
Melodic Minor – How To Make Minor Blues Sound Amazing
The minor blues is a great place to explore Melodic minor, and you can get a lot of very different sounds with…
Two Intervals For Every Note – Why You Need To Know This
This is a video that discusses how to think about the notes that we play. Why I think in note names as…
Jazz Blues – 3 Easy Techniques That Make You Sound Better
Most guitar players, and it is probably the same for other instruments as well, know the sound of the blues and can…
5 Levels Of Maj7 Chords & How To Make Your Own Voicings
One of the most fun parts of learning and playing Jazz is exploring the Jazz chords and the beautiful colors you can…
Triplets Can Make Your Jazz Solo Sound Amazing
You are always working on playing better solos, making your lines more interesting and finding the right arpeggios or scales. But Jazz…
3 Jazz Phrasing Problems You Need To Fix In Your Playing
You probably already figured out that knowing scales, arpeggios, and Jazz chords is not really enough to be able to play a…
How To Make One Arpeggio Into 25 Great Jazz Licks
It is surprisingly difficult to get arpeggios to sound good, and often solos become boring and predictable with uninspired melodies, that's why…
The Most Effective Way To Improve Your Jazz Solos
A title like this is of course extreme, but I do really think that this way of working and improving your jazz…
Easy Way To Make Your Jazz Chords Sound More Interesting
Just playing Jazz chords isn't enough to make it sound great. You have to know how to make it interesting and keep…
Secondary Dominants – What You Want To Know
Understanding what a secondary dominant is and being able to recognize or find them for chords is a powerful tool you can…
Why This Is The Most Important Scale Exercise In Jazz
A little over a year ago, I made a video on the most Important Scale Exercise in Jazz(b-roll exercise maybe licks?), and…
How To Really Explore The Fretboard with Jazz Chords
The best way to learn the fretboard is to work on the things that you need when you play and get an…
5 Jazz Chords You Need To Use More
You probably already know some Jazz Chords, Drop2 or Drop3 voicings, or Shell-voicings, and those systems are really great to build a…
Beginner Mistakes To Avoid: How To Solo Over Chords
There is a difference between how you think about chord progressions if you are a beginner and if you are more experienced,…
Simple Things To Play On A C7 That Sound Great
Sometimes it is great to have some things to fall back on when you are soloing. Stuff that you can easily get…
Scale Exercises – Make Sure They Help You Play Better
Most of us practice scale exercises, but how much of that is just running up and down the scale or playing 3rds…
How To Make Your Comping Rhythms More Interesting
In this video, I am going to take a simple comping rhythm that you probably already know and show you some different…
Get This Right About Everything You Practice
It is difficult to find time to practice and keep learning, so it is very important to not waste time with the…
Practicing Scales – This Is Something Not To Miss
The way most of us were taught scales and practice scales is centered around positions. That is a good approach and you…
Autumn Leaves Reharmonization – How To Make It Sound Fresh
One of the most fun parts of playing a Jazz Standard is that you can make your own reharmonization and give it…
The Jazz Guitar Roadmap
It is here! I am very proud to present my new online course: The Jazz Guitar Roadmap ✅ An organized approach for…
II V I – You Need To Practice This For Solos
The II V I progression is probably the most common chord progression in Jazz. In this video, I am going to go…
Diminished Chords – Beautiful Progressions and How To Use Them
The Diminished Chords are often causing a lot of people trouble, and that is a shame because there are so many amazing…
Chord Solos – You Can Make It Easy Like This
Playing a chord solo seems if not impossible then very difficult but, actually, there are quite a few things you can do…
One Thing That Will Make Your Solos A Lot Better
There is a trap that you can fall into when it comes to practicing. Usually, we spend a lot of time learning…
Arpeggios – Things To Get Right From The Beginning
When you start learning arpeggios then usually it is in positions and that is great for having an overview of all the…
10 Chord Melody Intros You Need To Know
It doesn't really matter if you are playing chord melody arrangements by yourself or if you are in a band. Being able…
How To Make Your Own Bebop Licks
You already know that Jazz lines use arpeggios and chromatic phrases, but at the same time just knowing that doesn't mean your…
Pentatonic Scale vs Arpeggios – Focus on The Right Things
What to focus on when learning Jazz Guitar: The Pentatonic Scale, that you know or the arpeggios that everybody keeps talking about?…
Coltrane Patterns -Why They Are Amazing
What are Coltrane Patterns? Small 4 note fragments that you can use in your solos, and they are amazing because for each…
How To Learn Jazz Chord Melody – Study Guide
These videos will help you learn to play and create your own beautiful chord melody arrangements. The videos cover a lot of…
Make Your Chord Progressions More Interesting
There are many ways you can reharmonize chord progressions. In this video, I am going over a method that is simple and…
Bossa Nova Guitar Patterns – 5 Levels You Need To Know
Bossa Nova Songs and Bossa Nova Grooves are really great to check out, and a lot of fun to play. They are…
5 Things Every Beginning Jazz Guitarist Should Know
There are so many people who seem to be focusing on the wrong things and slow down their progress when they want…
Jazz Chords – Using Triads in Jazz Comping – Study Guide
You can use triads to play jazz chords, and it is a very powerful tool for this. Triads are very flexible and…
How To Use Arpeggios in Jazz – Study Guide
You can learn how to play Jazz lines and use arpeggios to nail the chords in your solos using the material in…
3 Simple Bebop Tricks You Can Make Great Jazz Licks With
In this video, I am going to show you how to take these 3 basic phrases: play 1-3 short and make some…
The Type Of Jazz Licks That Make You Play Better Solos
You probably know this feeling with Jazz Licks: You have transcribed a great lick that you want to use because it sounds…
Minor II V I – 3 Levels You Want To Know
When you learn chords, and especially jazz chords where there are so many variations and options, it is important that you check…
How To Practice And Use Music Theory in Jazz
Music theory can help you learn faster and have more options. Here's how you work on making that a part of your…
25 Arpeggios That Sound Amazing On A G7 And How To Use Them
Building a vocabulary of arpeggios that you can use when you solo is like having a set of very flexible licks that…
Things You Should Know In The Pentatonic Scale
A look at the hidden and overlooked arpeggios and structures in the Pentatonic scale
Simple And Easy Approach To A Minor 2 5 1
The minor 2 5 1 is difficult because you need more scales for it and the m7b5 and dom7(b9) chords are sounds…
Altered Scale – How To Make It Sound Amazing
The Altered scale is a very common sound in Jazz and also one that can be tricky to get into your playing.…
Autumn Leaves – How To Use Drop 2 For An Easy Chord Melody
One of the things that I learned the most from when it comes to harmony and comping was harmonizing melodies, so making…
Beautiful Chromatic Sounds And how to add them to Jazz Chords
There are many ways to use chromatic Jazz chords in your comping or chord melody and it is a great way to…
Triads And How To Make Great Lines With Them On a m7 Chord
Triads are an amazing resource to add to your solos and a great way to add some color to your lines and…
Skills You Need To Develop – Important Jazz Exercises
It takes more than just scales and arpeggios to play a great Jazz Solo
A Great New Sound In Your Jazz Solo
Arpeggios and scales are often reduced to the notes they contain against a chord, but by doing that you throw away other…
How To Create Beautiful Chord Progressions
Functional Harmony is almost a secret weapon when it comes to reharmonizing or creating great sounding chord progressions. In Jazz, we sometimes…
How To Make It Sound Like Jazz – Great Embellishments
In this lesson, I am going to show you some techniques and ways to play simple phrases that make them sound more…
Add Beautiful Colors And Fills To Your Comping
When you are comping Jazz songs then it is good to also change the textures you play, not always full chords but…
The Most Important Solo Tools For a Half Diminished Chord
I think many consider the half-diminished or m7b5 the most difficult chord to improvise over, but it is a very common sound…
This Is Why You Should Study Bebop
You have probably heard people say that you have to check out and learn Bebop in order to learn Jazz Guitar. That…
How To Make Music From Exercises And Practice Effectively
Getting from just practicing a scale or an arpeggio to the point where you can actually use it in music is quite…
7 Ways To Make Arpeggios Sound Great In A Solo
It is difficult to combine scales and arpeggios and most of us struggle with arpeggios into music and to make it something…
Chord Solos – How To Get Started The Easy Way
I am sure you have heard Wes, George Benson or Joe Pass play great chord solos, and it is a great sound…
Major Scales – This Is What You Should Practice
his question comes up again and again: "How do I practice the major scale" and it is important to get this right…
5 Pentatonic Scales That Are Great On A Maj7
Pentatonic scales are a great resource to get some solid melodies and colorful extensions to shine on a maj7 chord. In this…
Diminished Scale – How To Make Beautiful Lines
how to get away from predictable patterns when you use the diminished scale
How To Analyze Songs – Music Theory and Functional Harmony
Music Theory and Harmonic Analysis can be great tools when you want to learn jazz and figure out how to improvise over…
5 Basic Jazz Chord Exercises That You Want To Know
There is something special about how we play chords in Jazz. A part of that is the jazz chords themselves but another…
25 Arpeggios That Sound Amazing On A Dm7 Chord
You probably know that it is important to have a lot of options when you improvise, especially over a common chord like…
5 Exercises That Will Boost Your Technique And Practice
The exercises that really improve your playing are usually not only developing one thing. You can be a lot more efficient by…
The Two Things You Need To Practice More
In most Jazz practice routines there are two things that you probably don't focus on as much as you should. In this…
Jazz Blues Chords – How To Make It Sound Like Jazz
If you are trying to learn to play Jazz Guitar and especially comping songs then you have probably already found out that…
Simple Ideas That Make Your Solo Better
You know the feeling: You are practicing and in your jazz guitar solo you are using the right notes, the right scale,…
The Magic Arpeggio Solves A LOT Of Problems
Some of the ways you can use the Magic Arpeggio which is great as melodies. It will give you material for m7b5,…
5 Exercises That Will Help You Solo over Chord Changes
Learning how to solo over chord changes is pretty difficult, especially if you also want to be free to play melodies that…
Harmonic Minor Is Amazing On These 3 Chords
The Harmonic minor scale is a very distinct sound and it is one of the cornerstones in the songs we play. It…
The 3 Hidden Arpeggios in Melodic Minor
Melodic Minor has 3 great arpeggios that sound fantastic on Altered and Lydian Dominants
This Is A Great And Easy Recipe For Jazz Licks
You probably already know that a big part of what makes a solo sound like jazz is the are chromatic passage like…
How To Use Maj7 Chords As Amazing Substitutions
Maj7 chords have a great open yet resolved sound, but even if they sound very much at rest you can easily use…
The Most Important Solo Tools For A Maj7 Chord
Sometimes it is hard to come up with something that inspires you when you are improvising a jazz solo. There are a…
Something You Are Not Practicing But You Should Be
One thing that is not often part of most people's Jazz solo practice is really ignoring the way that people like Wes…
Rootless Jazz Chords – This Is What You Want To Know
If you are getting into some of the rich sounding Jazz chords on the guitar and want to use that in your…
This Is A Better Strategy For Jazz Guitar
Most jazz guitar lessons will tell you that you need to know your scales all over the neck, you need to know…
Tritone Substitution Is a Really Great Hack
Tritone substitution is a great way to create some surprising outside sounds in a Jazz solo or arrangement, and it is certainly…
This Is How To Play The Chords When You Want To Learn The Song
We have a huge advantage as guitarists: We can play the chords of a song and hear how the harmony sounds. When…
How To Make Jazz Blues Licks – The Best Ingredients
You know what a blues lick is and you are making your own jazz licks. But, there is also this great mix…
7 Pentatonic Tricks That Will Make You Play Better Jazz Solos
You might be getting Pentatonic scales wrong, and it is a really great and powerful Jazz sound even when you are using…
Jazz Phrasing Techniques – How To Get A Better Jazz Flow
Jazz is a musical language, we talk about learning vocabulary and learning phrasing all the time. But I do see a lot…
Jazz Chords – 5 Exercises You Need To Know About
A video on learning new Jazz chords and learning how to use them as well!
How To Make Jazz Licks From Easy Chord Shapes
When you use the chord shapes you play to make solo lines you can access a lot of very useful material. The…
50 Jazz Standards – The Songs You Need To Know
Jazz Standards are the songs you need to know to learn to play Jazz. I always say "Learn Jazz – Make Music"…
Passing Chords And How To Sound Amazing With Them
Passing chords are a great Jazz trick to add some surprising but also beautiful sounds to chords. In this video, I …
How To Listen To Your Solos And Really Learn Something
You are practice playing jazz guitar solos because you want to get better at it, and you probably also discovered that it…
Amazing Little Solo Exercise That You Don't Want To Miss
Working with limitations can be a really good way to help you explore and dig deep into how you solo over a…
Why Half Diminished Chords Are Amazing And How To Use Them
For many beginners, the half diminished chord or m7b5 chord is a weird mysterious chord, but it is actually a very flexible…
How To Learn Drop 2 Jazz Chords The Right Way
A practical approach to learning Drop 2 voicings, focusing on using them on a song.
5 Ingredients Of The Best Jazz Phrases
There is more to jazz lines and jazz melodies than just trying to put arpeggios and scales next to each other. This…
Jazz Chord Magic On Take The A Train – This Is How To Use Triads
Triads and triad based chords are fantastic jazz voicings! In this lesson, I am going to show you how you can get…
The Wrong Way To Practice Something New
When you practice Jazz Guitar, then the most fun part of practicing is to work on new things you can add to…
This Will Make Your Jazz Licks 10x Better
You already know how to find scales and arpeggios that go with the chords, and you can play Jazz licks on each…
5 Things That Will Boost Your Jazz Guitar Playing
When I look back at when I learned how to play jazz guitar then there are some things that I did which…
7 Great Jazz Licks And Why You Need To Know Basic Arpeggios
You need to know your basics and you need to know them extremely well. I am sure you have heard that before.…
Freedom on The Fretboard – Great Exercises
Of course, you want to play the guitar and be completely free to find whatever lick or melody wherever you are playing…
This is Why Melodic Minor Is Awesome
Melodic minor is an awesome sound! It is a really beautiful rich minor sound. But sometimes we immediately get lost in Altered…
The Worst Mistake When You Study Jazz
Don't forget what you are trying to learn and what your jazz practice should have as a final goal!
Great Chord Sequences And How To Use Them In A Solo
A solid way to add more movement and color to your solos by using chord sequences
Jazz Scales – What Do You Need To Know And Why
Just knowing what scale and maybe a single position of it is not really helping you come up with better things…
Fretboard Challenge! 12 Licks in a Single Position
Learning the Fretboard and having an overview of the keys is quite difficult on the guitar. This fretboard guitar lesson goes over…
The Most Important Ways To Study Jazz Licks
What do you learn from Jazz Licks, and why should you practice them? That is what this video is about
3-note Jazz Chords -This is Why and How To Use Them
When you think about Jazz Chords then you are probably thinking about rich chords with a lot of beautiful extensions, and of…
How To Sound Great On A Static Chord – Modal Comping
You need strategies for Jazz Comping in modal or static chord sections of songs. When you start learning Jazz comping on the…
You Need To Practice Developing Phrases in Your Solos
Play jazz phrases and connect it them, making their solo one long piece of music not a bunch of licks.
The 3 Most Important Things For Solid Jazz Comping
A look at comping and how to improve on it by thinking about how it works in the band (with a few…
Comping Rhythms – 10 Examples You Need To Know
Rhythm is everything in Jazz and especially comping. Building a solid vocabulary of great Jazz Comping Rhythms is difficult. In this video,…
57 Ways To Play a Cmaj7 with a G in the melody
Exploring the Fretboard and the options you have for chords is a great exercise. This video takes one melody note and one…
Triads – How To Use This Powerful Tool In Your Jazz Solos
Every arpeggio is a melody and Triads is a great very strong melodic building block you can use in your Jazz solos.…
How To Make Chord Progressions More Simple
How To Reduce Chord Progressions and make it easier to solo over them. The right way to apply rules and how to…
The Real Magic of Jazz Chords – Easy & Amazing
When Comping You Can improvise with the Jazz Chords. This lesson shows you some of the great options available
3 Ways To Play More Interesting Rhythms In Your Solos
Learning to play solos where the rhythm really sounds like Jazz is difficult and it is probably the most important part of…
How To Sound Like Jazz – It Is All Phrasing
The most difficult part is not the scales and arpeggios. It is how to get the Jazz Phrasing right! This video covers…
5 Scale Exercises That Are Great In Solos
Scale Exercises and setting up practice so you can use it in Solos. You want to practice efficently and work towards soloing…
Chord Fills and a Great Pentatonic Trick on the Guitar
In this lesson, I am going to show you how I make chord runs or chord fills like I was using in…
The 10 Types Of Difficult Chords In A Jazz Standard
If you are learning a Jazz Standard then the analysis is a great tool. It is very useful to know how the…
I Fall In Love Too Easily – Heeres Custom Guitars "Blue"
Here is a Chord Melody arrangement of I Fall In Love Too Easily. This is a beautiful ballad, and play it as…
Drop 2 Magic On Satin Doll – This Is How To Use Jazz Chords
This lesson will show you how to work with Drop 2 voicings to comp and create musical statements
How to write Jazz Licks – What You Want to Know
This video takes you through working on this in steps or levels and talks about important techniques you can use to write…
Bebop Soloing – The Licks You Need To Check Out
Bebop is a beautiful but difficult musical language to learn. Bebop is a beautiful but difficult musical language to learn. Sometimes it…
II V I – When you want to sound different (in 8 ways)
In this video, I am going over 8 ways to change the chords to get some new sounds, and I am only…
How To Use Arpeggios In Jazz – Important Skills
Like everybody else, you are trying to play jazz and improvise solos, but it is difficult not to sound mechanical or robotic…
When You Really Know The Chords
If you play Jazz then you need to know how to solo over jazz chords. In this video, I am going to…
Drop2 Voicings – How To Make Them Musical Building Blocks
Drop2 voicings are great to have in your vocabulary both for comping and chord melody. In this lesson, I am going to…
This is a Good 10-minute Practice Routine
It is difficult to find time to practice and we all want to spend hours every day. If you only have a…
Chord Solo – How To Make Melodies and find chords
This week's lesson is on a chord solo on Lady Bird with some suggestions for exercises and working on your own solos.
Learn The Modes is Horrible Advice – This is A Better Skill
How and why modes are not a great place to start if you want to get into jazz. Don't waste too much…
Dom7b5 arpeggios (CAGED)
5 Arpeggio shapes for the Dom7(b5) arpeggios in the CAGED system.
Dom7b5 arpeggios – 7 Positions/Berklee System
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 Positions/Berklee System You can also download the chart…
Dom7#5 arpeggios – 7 Positions/Berklee System
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 Positions/Berklee System You can also download the chart…
Maj7b5 arpeggios – 7 Positions/Berklee System
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 Positions/Berklee System You can also download the chart…
Dim arpeggios – 7 Positions/Berklee System
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 Positions/Berklee System You can also download the chart…
Maj7#5 arpeggios – 7 Positions/Berklee System
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 Positions/Berklee System You can also download the chart…
MinMaj7 arpeggios – 7 Positions/Berklee System
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 Positions/Berklee System You can also download the chart…
Min7b5 arpeggios – 7 Positions/Berklee System
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 Positions/Berklee System You can also download the chart…
Dom7 arpeggios – 7 Positions/Berklee System
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 Positions/Berklee System You can also download the chart…
Min7 arpeggios – 7 Positions/Berklee System
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 Positions/Berklee System You can also download the chart…
Maj7 arpeggios – 7 Positions/Berklee System
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 Positions/Berklee System You can also download the chart…
Major Scale – 7 Positions/Berklee System
Here is an overview of the Major scale in the key of C, using the 7 Positions/Berklee System. This is a variation…
Harmonic minor Scale – 7 Positions/Berklee System
Here is an overview of the Harmonic Minor scale in the key of C, using the 7 Positions/Berklee System. This is a…
Melodic minor Scale – 7 Positions/Berklee System
Here is an overview of the Melodic Minor scale in the key of C, using the 7 Positions/Berklee System. This is a…
Jazz Blues – How To Get The Phrasing Right
In this jazz blues guitar lesson, I am going to teach you how to convert jazz lines to Jazz Blues, by adding…
How To Solo Over Chord Changes – The 5 Level Challenge
5 different exercises ranging from easy to difficult, focused on developing your ability to improvise over changes and fretboard knowledge
Dom7#5 arpeggios (CAGED)
5 Arpeggio shapes for the Dom7(#5) arpeggios in the CAGED system.
Maj7b5 arpeggios (CAGED)
Maj7(b5) Arpeggio shapes in the CAGED system. The Maj7(b5) is often also called the "magic chord"
Dim arpeggios (CAGED)
CAGED system Diminished Arpeggio shapes in all positions
MinMaj7 arpeggios (CAGED)
Arpeggio patterns for minMaj7 chords in the CAGED system
Maj7#5 arpeggios (CAGED)
5 Arpeggio shapes for a Maj7#5 arpeggio, made using the CAGED system
Min7b5 arpeggios (CAGED)
Arpeggio fingerings for a m7b5 or half diminished arpeggio using the CAGED system
Dom7 arpeggios (CAGED)
These Dominant arpeggio fingering suggestions were made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 5 CAGED system scale fingerings.
Min7 arpeggios (CAGED)
These Cm7 arpeggio fingering suggestions were made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 5 CAGED system scale fingerings.
Maj7 arpeggios (CAGED)
These fingering suggestions were made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 5 CAGED system scale fingerings.
Major Scale – CAGED
Here is an overview of the Major scale in the key of C, using the CAGED system.
Harmonic minor Scale – CAGED
Here is an overview of the Harmonic minor scale in the key of C, using the CAGED system.
Melodic minor Scale – CAGED
Here is an overview of the Melodic Minor in the key of C, using the CAGED system.
Jazz Chords – Here Is Why You Want To Make Inversions
You can create beautiful Jazz Chords by using inversions of chords you already know. This lesson shows you some great examples and…
5 Quick Tips When You Are Stuck In A Jazz Solo
5 Jazz Guitar Tips to deal with a spot in a song that is difficult to get solo ideas for. Dealing with…
How To Make Jazz Licks More Exciting
In this video, I am going to give you a way to change things up a little and show you how to…
Avoid Long Practice Plans – This is what you should focus on
You can make a lot of mistakes and waste a lot of time by having inefficient and unrealistic practice plans tie you…
3 Easy Bebop Licks – How To Sound Like Jazz
What makes a phrase sound like Jazz? Even if you know the chords and can play the right notes there is more…
Do You Need To Have Your Own Style?
Discussing how to learn jazz guitar and A detailed look at style and how it influences jazz or music study. What is…
The Magic Chord – 10 ways to Use this Amazing Jazz Chord
The Magic Chord is a great name for this Maj7(b5) voicing. This is because it can work for a lot of different…
Did You Do This With Your Favourite Jazz Lick?
You probably have licks that you play all the time, I think most of us have and of course that is a…
Guitar Practice – How To Be Your Own Teacher
The best way to teach yourself and really have an idea about how you sound and what to work on: Record Yourself
10 Great Chromatic Ideas in Jazz Licks (Easy to Weird)
One of the things that really got me into Jazz was the sound of the chromatic jazz licks. This is such a…
You Need To Practice This If You Want To Play Jazz
In this lesson, I am going to show a way you need to practice if you want to learn how to improvise…
3 Things You Need to Improve in Your Jazz Solos
In this jazz solo lesson, I am going to discuss how you spot problems and realize that it needs work. I…
How To Learn Jazz Guitar – Suggestions To Begin Studying
How To Learn Jazz Guitar, here I will try to give you some places where you can look for the things you…
10 Easy Jazz Licks – How To Sound Like Jazz
This video is going to give you 10 examples of jazz licks and techniques so that you can get some basic material…
The Great Thing About Jazz And Arpeggios
You want to use the arpeggios you practice on more than one chord. Here are 6 chords you can use a Cmaj7…
How To Learn a Jazz Standard – Important Exercises
Learning Jazz Standards is essential to learning jazz, in fact learning the repertoire is everything with any genre of music. There are…
Rootless Jazz Chords – 15 Beautiful Examples You Need To Know
If you want to play really interesting comping then you need to work with rootless jazz guitar chords so that you have…
What Makes This Sound So Good and How To Play Like That
One thing that we all love is the sound of great jazz phrasing. In this video, I am going to take a…
The Scale is NOT That Important – This is!
A lot of teaching and a lot of online discussions are about what scales to use on what chords, and of course…
Jazz Tone on Any Amp
Getting a good sound and finding the right jazz tone amp settings can be quite difficult. But you can get most amps…
Altered Scale – The Most Important Things to Know
This video is presenting 15 different things you can use on an altered dominant so you will have a huge vocabulary of…
How To Solo Over Chord Changes The Right Way
How To Solo Over Chord Changes The Right Way. This is a method that helps you play better solos not just fragments…
How To Embellish Jazz Chords With Beautiful Chromaticism
A great way to add some surprising sounds to your Jazz Chords and comping is to add chromatic passing notes in the…
15 Minor II V I – Beautiful Jazz Chords You Need To Know
Having good Jazz Chords for a minor II V I can be difficult. This progression is a really beautiful progression with the…
#1 On Amazon Top 100 Guitar Books!
Super grateful that my new book after being out for a few days is already #1 on both the top 100 Guitar…
How To Make A Set Of Solid Jazz Chords on Autumn Leaves
You need to play the chords and you also need to improvise and play some great Riffs when you are comping. This…
New Book: Advanced Jazz Guitar Concepts!
• Jazz guitar virtuoso Jens Larsen provides more deep insights into the techniques and theory of contemporary jazz guitar. • Learn how to…
Drop Voicings – How to Understand The Construction
This video breaks down the construction of Drop2, Drop3 and other drop voicings with examples of how they sound
How To Add Bebop Embellishments To Your Licks
Bebop is famous for having solos of long 8th note lines and bebop licks are often a lot of notes. But an…
Do this Every Time you Learn a New Jazz Chord
In this lesson, I am going to show you some techniques that can really help you get more out of your voicings…
Why Reharmonization Is For You And How To Get Started
Reharmonization! I imagine the word itself sets off alarms for some people thinking: "Crazy Music Theory will follow" and there are going…
How to Improve your vocabulary of Jazz Rhythms
Some great examples of rhythms used in a jazz solo taken from Chet Baker, Kenny Burrel, and Jim Hall.
3 Things You Want To Know In All Keys And Positions
A basic way to practice and test and devleop your fretboard knowledge using improvisation
3 Scale exercises You Need To Know And Use
3 important scale exercises and how to Practice and use them in Jazz
How to Use the Blues in a Jazz Solo
There is something special about the Jazz Blues Guitar sound and that type of phrasing! The blues is a very important part…
25 Jazz Guitar Exercises – How To Improve Skills In A Musical Way
It is important that we practice and improve our technique, and often a good way to do this is to work on…
The Music Theory You Need to Focus on First
Most of the time the one thing that holds you back from really understanding Music Theory or using an idea on several…
3 Great Ways To Use Arpeggios In A Solo
Analysis of how Wes Montgomery and Pat Martino Use arpeggios in their solos
Great And Simple Way To Make New Jazz Licks
In this lesson I will show you some different approaches that you can use to make jazz licks that are note about…
Download Your Lesson PDF
Hope you have fun practicing! Use THIS Formula To Play Jazz Blues Like A Pro Use THIS Formula To Play Jazz Blues…
How To Understand The Style of Jazz Solos
Analysis of phrases from 4 jazz solos comparing the style and vocabulary of them. Solos from Lester Young, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane…
John Scofield – Some of the Greatest Double Time Lines I Know
John Scofield is one of my favorite jazz-guitarists. In fact, he gets away with using an effect I don't like and I…
This Is How You Should Use Scale Exercises
In this lesson, I am going to go over a few scale exercises that you probably already know or at least should…
Why You Want To Think in Functional Harmony
Functional Harmony is a great tool if you want to understand how chord progressions flow and use that information to help you…
How to Use Chromatic Ideas in Jazz Licks The Right Way
Chromaticism is a huge part of Jazz. In this video, I am going to take a look at some great examples of…
3 Things You Need To Know For Chord Melody
Chord Melody is Melody with Chords, so you take a melody and then you add chords to it. This is a way…
5 Common Mistakes When You Learn Jazz
Learning Jazz is difficult and you want to get it right the first time around so you don't waste any time.
Joe Pass – How to Keep Solos Interesting
Lesson analyzing phrases from a Joe Pass C-Blues with PDF and GuitarPro
Do This To Improve Your Fretboard Knowledge
Fretboard knowledge is about finding the things you want to play in a way that is playable for you. When we talk…
How To Practice Jazz – Advice From Bill Evans
A Discussion of how Bill Evans views studying, teaching and practicing
Sonny Rollins – Things You Need To Know About Jazz Blues
Analysis of Sonny Rollins solo on the Bb Blues Tenor Madness
Triads – How To Make Them Jazz Chords
In this video, I am going to show you how you can use the triads that you already know as a great…
The First 10 Jazz Standards You Need To Know
In this video, I am going to go over 10 jazz standards that you want in your repertoire and are great places…
Herbie Hancock – This is What Modal Jazz Really is
This Herbie Hancock Lesson breaks down a lot of great surprising rhythms and melodies, moving in and out of the tonality, and…
The 3 Things You Need To Add To A Lick To Make It Sound Like Jazz
What are the key ingredients of a Jazz Lick? What do you need to figure out to get something to sound more…
This Is The Exercise That Shows If You Are A Beginner
There is one exercise that you want to do to develop a lot of essential skills for playing jazz guitar. A way…
Joe Henderson – Why He Is One of the Big 3
Joe Henderson is one of the three most influential tenor players to help shape modern Jazz in the '60s. You probably know…
Jazz Chords – The 3 Levels You Need To Know
Jazz Chords can be sturdied in a logical way so that you can learn a few chords and immediately play songs with…
How To Get The Most Out Of Transcribing
The amount of improvement you can book by transcribing guitar solos or Jazz Solos and learning to play them is quite amazing.…
How To Stop Just Playing Scales In Your Jazz Solos
You don't want to only play scales in your solos. Melodies like that are by far too predictable and get boring very…
The Best Way To Use Lydian and 5 Musical Ideas
You should have the Lydian Mode or Lydian Scale in your vocabulary. It is a beautiful and great sound that you can…
Oscar Peterson – How To Play Piano Blues Licks on the Guitar
Analyzing some Oscar Peterson Jazz Blues licks and transferring them to the guitar. With PDF/Guitar Pro download.
The Most Important Scale Exercise In Jazz
You probably already practice arpeggios, but chances are you can do it as a better Scale exercise than what you are doing…
Block Chords – The Ultimate Jazz Guitar Challenge
In this lesson, I am showing you how to use Block Chords on the guitar by breaking down an arrangement of the…
How To Learn Great Concepts From Thelonious Monk
You can learn so much from Thelonious Monk. In this video I am demonstrating some of the concepts he uses.
Grant Green Amazing Bebop On The Guitar
Grant Green plays some fantastic bebop licks on this recording. The video gives some insight into the licks and phrasing techniques that…
Minor II V I – Getting The Most Out Of The Basics
This video is going over 5 Minor II V I licks demonstrating some of the scales, arpeggios and melodic ideas you can…
That is not a Musical Exercise, I don't like it!
You hear exercises being described as unmusical very often. But how much sense does it make to label a jazz guitar exercise…
Bill Evans – How To Get Your Rhythms To The Next Level
Bill Evans is an amazing part of Jazz History and also one of the people to really take rhythm and polyrhythms very…
Jazz Rhythm – The Most Important Aspect of Jazz
an exercise that you can apply to the songs that you play and help develop your ability to play much more interesting…
Jazz Comping – How To Keep It Interesting
Jazz Comping and especially good jazz comping is not about knowing a million voicings. It is more about how you play the…
Doug Raney – The Best Solo If You Want To Learn Bebop?
Doug Raney – The Best Solo If You Want To Learn Bebop
m7 Chords – How to use Quartal Harmony in a solo
This video is going over how you can use Quartal Arpeggios on m7 chords. I draw from examples of players like Kurt…
The Exercises You Don't Do, But You Really Need To
The Guitar Exercises we talk about when it comes to learning Jazz are about scales and hitting chord tones. This video is…
Barney Kessel – How To Make A Bebop Solo Catchy
Barney Kessel has a way of playing jazz guitar that often makes his solos very catchy. This is something that you can't…
Melodic Minor – How to Make Beautiful Lines
In this video, I am going to go over how you make some great Melodic Minor Licks. In the examples, I will…
Pentatonic Scale – How To Not Sound Like The Blues
The Pentatonic Scale can be great both as a way to get started playing jazz and also just some extra material that…
Kenny Burrell – You Want To Be Using Blues Like This
Kenny Burrell is famous for his use of Blues in his jazz solos. This solo is no exception, but the lines he…
Jazz Comping – Intervals is the (Beautiful) Simple solution
A great approach to Jazz Comping is to not only rely on chords but also use intervals as a way of conveying…
When Do You Know A Scale?
If you play Jazz Guitar then you will often be confronted with learning and practicing scales. The major scale, pentatonic scale or…
Jimmy Raney – This Is A Great Way To Make Beautiful Lines
Jimmy Raney is one of those guitarists who can start something like a blues lick and then turn it into a II…
Jazz Licks on a Maj7 chord – How To Sound Like Bebop
In this video, I am going to use some Jazz Licks to cover some of the techniques and how you use them…
Melodic Solo – What You Should Be Practicing!
We often talk about whether a solo is melodic or not, but what does that mean and how do you practice towards…
Jim Hall – Ingredients Of The Best Solos
Jim Hall is famous for his very melodic and musical solos. In this video I am going over some examples from his…
2 5 1 – How To Solo with Diatonic Arpeggios (the most important approach)
You Need to be able to improvise over a II V I or 2 5 1 in Jazz. In this video,…
3 Unusual Maj7 Chords And How To Use Them
A look at three less known Maj7 chord sounds that you can add to your soloing or compositions.
Pat Martino – How to Play Powerful Bop Lines
In this Pat Martino Lesson, I am going to analyze a few examples from his solo on the Benny Golson tune Along…
5 Charlie Parker Licks – This is How To Play Bebop Blues
In this video I am going to go over 5 Charlie Parker licks from him and this is fantastic material for playing…
How To Study Jazz Licks The Right Way
How to study jazz licks the right way. A 3-step process on how you can study a jazz lick and get it…
John McLaughlin – How To use Atonal Ideas on the Blues
John McLaughlin lesson on how he solos mixing Atonal shifting melodies, Jazz and, Blues
Beautiful Jazz Chords That You Never Played
In this lesson, I am going to talk about some of the guitar jazz chords that I like to use and find…
Jazz Practice – Why You Need To Keep It Practical
What if the way that you practice makes sure that you don't feel like you are practicing something that you never get…
Kurt Rosenwinkel – How To Make Interesting Lines
In this Kurt Rosenwinkel Lesson, I look at some lines from a live solo on the song I'll Remember April and talk…
Easy Jazz Licks – How To Use The Pentatonic Scale
Some easy II V I licks using the pentatonic scale, and some guidelines and exercises to make your own. Everything kept in…
Can You Do This On The Chord Progressions You Know?
How do you answer if you know a song or a chord progression? This lesson is on 4 important exercises to help…
John Scofield – How To Mix Bebop And Pentatonics
A look at how John Scofield interprest the Jazz Standard There Will Never Be Another You mixing Bebop and Pentatonics in great…
Learn A Jazz Blues Chord Melody – How to play Solo Guitar
Learn how to play a Jazz Blues chorus as a solo jazz guitar piece. Soloing in a solo jazz guitar setting is…
Learn Jazz Standards – Get The Most Out Of What You Already Know
How to Learn Jazz Standards in a more efficient way, using the songs and music theory you already know to understand and…
Chet Baker – How To Make Bebop Lyrical
Analysis of how Chet Baker Improvises on an F Blues.
5 Comping Exercises for Jazz Rhythm on the Blues
Comping rhythms – 5 exercises on Blues Choruses to expand your vocabulary when it comes to Jazz Comping. Play along with me…
Phrygian Chords – Some Of The Best Places To Use Them
A look at Phrygian Chords. What they are and how you can use them. Working through a chord melody arrangement.
Charlie Christian And The Unusually Modern Arpeggios
I'll bet you did not think Charlie Christian would be playing the type of arpeggios that he does in this solo. I…
5 Jazz Blues Licks – How to use Transcribed ideas
In this video, I go over 5 longer Jazz Blues Licks that incorporate different ideas that I took from transcriptions of great…
Triad Pairs – How To Use Them On a Minor Blues
Triad pairs are great for creating amazing modern sounding jazz lines! This lesson is on a 2 chorus solo on a Minor…
Wes Montgomery – How to make Simple sound Amazing
This Wes Montgomery Guitar Lesson discussing some of the simple things that make Wes Montgomery a great jazz guitarist & father of…
2 Arpeggios and How to make 15 Great Licks with them
A Challenge to 15 Great write licks with just 2 arpeggios. A Jazz Guitar Lesson in composition and improvisation!
How to Study The Bebop Language – 4 Great Approaches
In this video, I am going to talk about the Bebop Language, what that means, how to study Bebop Language. So I…
Allan Holdsworth – This Is How He Uses Arpeggios In A Solo
This Allan Holdsworth lesson takes a look at his solo on The Things You See and especially some of the arpeggio based…
Triads on a G7 – The Most Important Solo Tool
A lesson is a practical demonstration on how to use triads in a jazz solo. The main focus is on a G7,…
Don't Waste Your Practice Time On These 3 Things
It is important to know how to practice jazz guitar so you don't waste your time or focus on the wrong things.…
Mike Moreno – How To Think Ahead in a Solo
An anlaysis of some phrases from a great Mike Moreno solo on Out Of Nowhere, illustrating his approach to playing across the…
Chord Melody – The 2 Positions You Need to Know
A lesson on a 2 position system for Chord Melody Solo on Guitar. A simple but effective approach to improvise in a…
Jazz Tone – How To Make A Strat Jazz Sound
How to get a good Jazz Tone and how I get my tone in the videos are two of the questions I…
Kenny Burrell – How to Make the Blues Sound Outside
In this The Kenny Burrell Lesson I am going to discuss a solo that demonstrates his sophisticated way of creating, even outside,…
Jazz Guitar Licks With No Scales – This Is Why Its Great
The ingredients of most common approach to jazz guitar: Scales and Arpeggios. This way of thinking is quite different from the idea…
Merry Christmas – a look at some stuff from 2018 and what is coming up
Merry Christmas – a look at some stuff from 2018 and what is coming up next year. Also how I think about…
Joe Pass – How to Make Bebop Melodic
Joe Pass is in many ways the definition of solid hard bop and a great place to go if You want to…
How to Play Fast & Difficult Jazz Guitar Phrases
Playing fast jazz guitar is difficult, and with bebop phrases this is even more difficult because the music contains very complicated lines…
How to Practice Comping and Not Just Chords
Most of the time advice on Jazz Guitar Comping is about what chords to play and not how to play them. This…
George Benson – This is The Best Jazz Blues Solo I know
Guitar Lesson on the best Jazz Blues Guitar solo I know: George Benson on Billie's Bounce. Great melodic ideas and his favourite…
Jazz Blues Comping – Drop2 Chords You Need To Know
This lesson is one chorus of simple jazz blues comping and then talk about a skeleton voicing + a few variations and…
Charlie Parker This Is The 5 Way He Uses Arpeggios
Everybody can play a Cmaj7 arpeggio, but not everybody can do it like Charlie Parker. You want to learn this!
Peter Bernstein – How to be Musical in a Modal Context
Lesson on Peter Berntein analyzing his signature groovy and melodic ideas
Barry Harris Scale Exercise on an F Blues
A short lesson explaining a simple Barray Harris Scale Exercise on a Jazz Blues in F
Chord Melody – This is How To Play Solos
In this video I am going to show you how to use chords as a position to create a scale where you…
Fretboard Visualization – How To Develop A Complete Overview
Learn Fretboard Visualization by Focusing on one position when playing a song. A Practical approach to building a strong Fretboard overview
Ben Monder – This is How to Interpret a Standard
Playing Jazz Standards is really a part of learning to play jazz. Here Ben Monder is showing us how far you can…
Jazz Phrasing – This is what you want to know
Jazz Phrasing is a difficult topic to learn. You problably know the feeling of coming up with lines and even though you…
6 Types of Easy 3-Note Arpeggios That You Need To Know
You should always try to learn new melodies that you can use in your solos. And in Jazz, Arpeggios are a great…
Music Theory on Guitar Hour Podcast
I was a guest on the guitar hour podcast this week. 😎 We are having fun disucssing some heavy Jazz Harmony with Dan Smith,…
Emily Remler – How To Reinvent a Standard
Emily Remler is a great example of how you can mix modern and more traditional ideas.
Economy Picking Licks – This is my solution to the Problems
Economy Picking is a great strategy if you play the phrases that are the most difficult on the guitar: 1 note per…
How to Solve the "I Have no Practice Motivation" Problem
In this video I am going to go over 5 things that helps me keep motivated and inspired to practice Jazz Guitar.
Chord Exercises – Progressions to the II Chord
Hi Newsletter subscribers! Thank you for subscribing! Here’s the download for this month: Chapter 3 – Moving to the II Chord Download…
Gilad Hekselman – This is The Blues (and a lot more)
This video is taking a look at some phrases from his solo on the F Blues "When Will The Blues Leave" off…
Autumn Leaves – When You Only Use Pentatonic Scales
The Pentatonic Scale is one of the first things we learn on the guitar, and it makes a lot of sense to…
Donna Lee – Free Solo PDF
I was invited to participate in a jazz solo collaboration on the Jazz Duets channel by Nick Holmes. The idea was for…
Reharmonization – Are you getting it wrong?
Chord Substitution and Reharmonization are Jazz topics that are very often discussed together but are actually not really the same thing. This…
Rene Thomas – Is This an Overlooked Bebop Hero?
Rene Thomas is maybe not the first Jazz guitarist to come up in a conversation, but his very melodic and strong bebop…
NEW Jazz Guitar Insider FB Group
Join the new Jazz Guitar Insiders Facebook Group! Let's make it a great community for jazz guitar discussions and knowledge!
Triads – 5 Easy Exercises for Better Solos
You want to include Triads in your Jazz Guitar vocabulary. Triads are some of the stronges melodies we have available and in…
Jazz Practice Routine How To Find The Perfect Balance
If you have to make a 30 minute Jazz Practice Routine, what should you include? In this video I give some suggestions…
Pat Metheny – This is What Jazz Blues Should Be
The Solo in this Pat Metheny Lesson is on a medium swing 12 bar blues in Bb. The Freedom and the multitude…
Minor Blues – 5 Important Sounds To Know and How to Use Them
In this video I am going to show you some longer melodic ideas or licks with arpeggios and using different minor sounds…
Jazz Guitar Solo – This Is What I Think About
What do I think in a Guitar Solo? A Jazz Guitar Solo is not as much thinking as you may assume. In…
Adam Rogers – This is how to use Triplet Rhythms
In this Adam Rogers Lesson, I am going to take a look at some phrases demonstrating how he works with triplet rhythms…
5 Chromatic Licks – This Is The Way You Use Them In Your Playing
In Jazz Guitar, Chromatic Licks are really a huge part of what we consider the jazz sound. But you can use chromatic…
Jazz Guitar Comping 3 Things You Want To Think About
In short you want to work on your Jazz Guitar Comping. It is probably what you spend the most time doing when…
Tal Farlow – This Is Cutting Edge Bebop
Tal Farlow was one of the pioneers to further develop Bebop Jazz Guitar after Charlie Christian. He really has his own style…
Chord Exercises – Minor Turnarounds With Bass Notes
Hi Newsletter subscribers! Thank you for subscribing! Here's the download for this month: Chapter 2 – Minor Turnarounds Download Chapter 2 -…
8 Awesome Types Of 3-Note Chord Voicings And How To Use Them
In this video I am going to go over 8 types of 3-note voicings including different ways to use Shell-voicings, Upper-structure Triads,…
The 7 Questions You Need To Ask About A Solo You Love
In this video I am going to focus on what you can learn by listening to solos and focus on other things…
Ed Bickert – A Jazz Guitarist You Need To Know About!
Ed Bickert is the secret super hero of Jazz Guitar. He is somehow always under the surface, but you don't want to…
Lydian Dominant – 10 Licks – What is the Best Arpeggio?
This video is going over 10 Lydian Dominant Guitar Licks each one with a different arpeggio that you can add to your…
How To Practice In All 12 Keys – This Is What You Learn!
How to practice in all 12 keys and what will it teach you! In this video I am going to show you…
Mike Stern – What is The Best Mix of Bebop and Rock?
Mike Stern is known for a few things: He is a great bebop player, he knows his rock licks and he sounds…
Herbie Hancock Voicing = Awesome Huge Arpeggio on Guitar
The amount of notes and colors that you can add to chords on piano is always making guitar players jealous. But in…
Stella By Starlight – 6 ways to Harmonize a minor II V I
The Minor II V I is a difficult progression to have options for. In this video I am going to demonstrate 6…
Bill Frisell – How He Plays Surprising & Beautiful Things
This Video Analyzes three phrases from Bill Frisells solo on How Deep Is The Ocean, describing his beautiful and unique style.
Favorite Jazz Guitar Album Recommendations From YouTube
One of the most important ways to stay inspired and motivated to keep on playing and practicing is to check out new…
Finger Exercises – This is What You Should Be Doing
This is one of the Finger exercises for Guitar that I often give to my students and some of the things I…
New Book: Modern Jazz Guitar Concepts
It's here! Really proud of the New book: Modern Jazz Guitar Concepts. You can check it out on Amazon here: http://geni.us/Jens…
Is a Guitar Teacher Worth Your Money?
Is a Guitar Teacher worth your money? What is a good guitar teacher and do you need one? Those are some of…
John McLaughlin – This Is Not Like Other Approaches
This John McLaughlin lesson is an analysis of his solo on the F blues Take The Coltrane. What you will see is…
Diatonic Chords Exercises – The Most Useful & Important
Learning The Diatonic Jazz Chords for any scale is an important part of exploring what harmonies and melodies are contained in the…
3 ways to Solo over Chord Changes – Important Jazz Strategies
You want to Solo over chord changes and still play melodies that makes sense. This can be extremely difficult in the beginning.…
Kurt Rosenwinkel – This Is What Makes His Style Unique
This Kurt Rosenwinkel Lesson is taking a look at some phrases from his solo on Nefertiti off the Mark Turner "Ballad Session"…
Chord Exercises – Turnarounds With Bass Notes
Hi Newsletter subscribers! Thank you for subscribing! Here's the download for this month: Chapter 1 – Turnarounds Download Hope you find it…
Triads – How To Make Jazz Licks and what to Practice
Triads are one of the strongest melodies that we have and in this video I am going to show you some triad…
Why You Want To Write Your Own Jazz Licks
Playing Jazz is about learning a style and a language but it is also about finding your own voice.There are many reasons…
I Don't Like Jazz Standards – Q&A with Brent from Learn Jazz Standards
Here's a video Q&A with me and Brent Vaarstra from Learn Jazz Standards answering your questions! We cover quite a few questions…
John Scofield On A Blues This Is Why He Is Great
In this John Scofield I am going to take a look at some phrases from a solo off the "I Can See…
Voice Leading – Breaking a Few Rules
Voice leading is the method you use to create smooth transitions between chords. Often it is described with voice-leading rules that determine…
Jonathan Kreisberg – Strong and Creative Arpeggio Ideas
In this Jonathan Kreisberg Lesson I am going to discuss some of the techniques he uses especially when it comes to creating…
Minor Blues Comping – How To Use Drop2 Chords
The Minor Blues is a great vehicle for improvisation and a very common chord progression that you want to be able to…
All The Things You Are – Harmonic Analysis
All The Things You Are is a great standard that we all need to have in our repertoire. In this video I…
Joe Pass on Rhythm Changes – 3 Solid Bebop Strategies
I guess there are two things you need to study if you want to learn Jazz Guitar: Rhythm Changes & Joe Pass!…
10 II V I Chord Embellishments – The Ultimate Guide
The most important chord progression in Jazz is probably the II V I. It is every where and we play it all…
Music Theory – The 3 things you want to Know
A thing that is never mentioned when it comes to Music Theory is that there is a basic knowledge you want to…
Allan Holdsworth – What he plays in a solo
This Allan Holdsworth Solo Lesson takes a look at the scales and arpeggios he is using in a few phrases from the…
How To Make Mixolydian Mode Licks – 5 New Useful Ideas
The dominant chord is a very common chord both in jazz chord progressions and in more modal settings. It is important to…
How To Solo Over Fast Moving Chord Changes – Jazz Guitar
It is difficult to Solo Over Chord Changes, and especially if you are also playing a song with a lot of chord…
Lage Lund – Favourite Voicing and Solid licks!
In this Lage Lund Lesson I am taking a look at three licks from a live solo with the OWL Trio. The…
Satin Doll – Easy Jazz Chords (and a little beyond)
The Ellington/Strayhorn tune Satin Doll is a standard that you need to have in your repertoire. It is also a great standard…
F Jazz Blues – Study Guide
This study guide will give you a row of lessons to check out how to solo on an F Jazz Blues. The…
Pat Metheny Is Not About The Notes, Are You?
This is not only a Pat Metheny Lesson. It is also a short discussion and a practical example of how most things…
Very Early Guitar Solo – Fake Fake Fake B – Excerpt from a Jam
Here's a part of a jam session with two friends. We are playing Bill Evans' fantastic Jazz Waltz: Very Early – Guitar…
Top Dog Live Solo – Jens Larsen
Here's a short excerpt from my solo on Top Dog. The clip is from a concert during a Traeben tour two years…
How To Use The Augmented Triad In A Jazz Blues Solo
The augmented triad is a great and very distinct sound to add to your playing. In this video I am going show…
Every Arpeggio in the Known Universe
This video is an overview of different types of arpeggios and how they sound. The Arpeggios are demonstrated in 7 different licks…
3 Charlie Parker II V I Licks How To Play Them On Guitar
If you want to learn how to play jazz then it is probably a good idea to check out how Jazz Giants…
Guest on Guitar Hour Podcast
Check out my Guest appearance on the Guitar Hour Podcast! A lot of fun to do! We talk about Fretboard Visualization systems…
This Is How You Should Practice Every Scale Exercise
Most great Guitar Players mix a lot of different techniques when they are playing, and if that is the end goal then…
How to add extensions to a chord
In this video I am going to show you how to use chord extensions on guitar and add some great colors to…
Jim Hall on Autumn Leaves – Can it get any better?
To me Jim Hall is like the reluctant super hero of Jazz Guitar. In this video I am going to show you…
How To Play A Harmonized Bass Line On A Blues
A Harmonized Bass Line is a great way to create a groove moving comp that clearly reflects the harmony and has a…
3 Important Things To Learn From Other Styles
When You Practice different styles you learn skills that you can take use it to strengthen the way you play jazz. This…
This Is Not Bebop, But It Is A Great Coltrane Solo
It is not surprising that a Coltrane solo isn't bebop, but it is interesting to figure out why that is the case.…
How To Solo On bIII Diminished Chords – 3 Jazz Standards & 3 Licks
In this video I am going to show you 3 examples of how to solo over a bIII diminished chords. I am…
Scale Positions for Guitar – The 3 most Important Systems
Scale Positions are often a topic for heated discussion and are of course also an important system for understanding the guitar in…
Wes Montgomery – This is What Makes Him Amazing
One aspect of the playing of Wes Montgomery that we never talk about is in my opinion the real reason he is…
5 Easy Ways To Sound Like Bebop on a C7
The most important part of sounding like jazz, whether you play in that genre or in another, is probably to have some…
Favourite Chord in the key of C Major?
A chord that isn't in the key isn't always a modulation. There are many chords that you will come across in songs…
Barney Kessel – How to mix Swing and Bebop
This Barney Kessel Guitar Lesson breaks down three examples of the great mix of swing and bebop in his playing. Barney Kessel…
How can that be an altered dominant? (The Best Hack)
The altered dominant can be difficult to deal with, but there are some really good hacks or tricks you can use to…
How To Analyze Chords and Progressions
We Analyze Chords and Chord Progressions because it is very important to understand how the music flows and also to figure out…
This is How Joe Pass Plays Amazing Solos
Joe Pass is a giant of Jazz Guitar! In this Joe Pass Lesson I will go over how he turns Li'l Darlin…
Jazz Turnaround – How To Get Started
The Jazz Turnaround or I VI7 II V is a very common and useful progression to learn after you have checked out…
Beautiful Chord Ideas That Will Boost Your Comping
Most of the time when you think about comping you are concerned with the chords, voicings and rhythms you are using. Those…
Grant Green – How to Bridge Bebop and Blues
Grant Green is the master of mixing Bebop with Blues and playing Swinging rhythms. This video is taking three licks from a…
Amazing Bebop – How to play like Sonny Stitt
If you want to learn Bebop then there are few people better to check out than Sonny Stitt. In this video I…
Jazz Swing Feel – How To Get It Right (And You Want To)
How to Swing and how to work on your swing feel. Swing feel is the elusive part of Jazz Phrasing that we…
How to Play Killer Hard Bop like Pat Martino
One of the first jazz solos that really blew me away was the Pat Martino solo on Just Friends from his album…
How to Improve your Jazz Guitar Soloing – One Skill
If you want to improve your jazz guitar soloing skills then you need to go on the basic techniques and start thinking…
10 Commandments of Learning Jazz
Setting up an efficient Jazz Practice is both important and difficult. You have to take care to spend your time efficiently and…
The Quick Way To Learn Jazz Comping – Simple & Direct
One of the nicest things about playing jazz is Jazz comping where you play fills and small melodic statements behind the soloist.…
7 Minor Scales You Need To Know About
Having different Minor Scale will help you not always sounding the same in your solos. It is important to have a solid…
How To Play Walking Bass and Chords on Guitar – Study Guide
Walking bass and Chords is probably the coolest way to comp in a duo setting. There are several skills needed when it…
Rhythm Changes Chords – Hidden in the Easy Chords
Rhythm Changes Chords are essential to check out. If you want to explore jazz and bebob guitar then the rhythm changes progression…
3 Music Theory Mistakes You Want To Avoid (Jazz Rant)
Besides my rant on how people get things wrong with Music Theory this video is also on some of the things that…
The Missing Triad in your Jazz Blues Chords – Simple and Easy
Flexible voicings like triads are very practical to add to your jazz blues chords. We can do a lot with Triads and…
6 Most Important Dominant Scales And Hidden Tricks With Them
Dominant Scales! Using different Dominant scales on dom7th Chords is one way we can make variation and add new sounds to our…
Altered Scale – 3 Great Pentatonic Solutions (Easy And Powerful)
Finding good ideas for using The altered scale can be difficult and often we end up just running the scale and not…
Guest Lesson: Odd-Meter Lesson with Gregory Bolomey – 7/4 Funk Groove
Playing in Odd Meters can be difficult but also a lot of fun. In this Guest Odd-Meter Lesson Gregory Bolomey from Axe…
10 Awesome Ideas for Better Jazz Licks You Should Know
It's not all scales and arpeggios when it comes to guitar jazz licks. This video is showing 10 ways to come up…
Bird Blues – How to play and Understand the Chords
Bird Blues or Parker Blues is one of the most important Chord Progressions if you want to understand bebop. Charlie Parkers reharmonization…
How to play a Melodic Solo? Thoughts and Exercises
How to play a melodic solo? In this video I try to figure what melodic might mean and then use that that…
Diminished Chords On Guitar – Only One Useful Extension
On The Guitar Diminished Chords can be difficult to use and really get into your playing and it is tricky to add…
Modal Interchange – Chord Progressions with Beautiful IVm ideas
Modal Interchange is a great way to make your Chord Progressions more interesting and surprising. With Modal interchange chord progressions can borrow…
Autumn Leaves Chords – 5 Useful ways to unlock Extensions
How you add extensions and color to the Autumn Leaves Chords is a big part of the sound of Jazz Harmony. In…
How to Play and Use Coltrane Patterns – Easy and Useful
Coltrane Patterns are amazing melodic patterns to have in your vocabulary. They are probably mostly connected to the Giant Steps solos on…
Walking Bass Jazz Guitar Lesson on All The Things You Are
Playing Walking Bass Jazz Guitar Comping is really a great full way to comp in a duo setting. The walking bass really…
Maj7 Chords – 7 Great Solo ideas!
Maj7 Chords are one of the most important tonic chord types. This video will show you 7 different ideas that you can…
F Blues Guitar Survival Kit – What You Need To Know
F blues is something you can get started with quite easily. You only need a few different things:The Chords, the Scales and…
Jazz Chord Progression – Knowing the blocks that make up the Jazz songs
A Jazz Chord Progression is made up of smaller blocks of progressions. This video will go over the three most important types…
How to Learn to Play Jazz Chords – Study Guide
You want to learn how to play Jazz Chords. An important part of playing Jazz is to be able to interpret and…
Half Diminished Chords – This is how to use Quartal Arpeggios
Half Diminished chords are difficult to get used to and hard to improvise over. In this video I am going to go…
9 Surprising Pentatonic scale secrets on a Blues
Pentatonic Scales and Modern Jazz go hand in hand just like guitar and pentatonic scale do. In this video I am going…
Bebop Guitar Licks With Powerful Arpeggio Hack
One thing that is very typical for Bebop Guitar licks is how they use pivot techniques on arpeggios to get some beautiful…
Reharmonization Techniques – the best way to make them more musical
Why it can be tricky to get reharmonizations to sound musical in a solo Using reharmonizations in your solos can be tricky…
How to use Drop 2 Chords on a Jazz Blues – Bebop Skill
Drop 2 chords are one of the most important types of chord voicings in Jazz, and especially when it comes to the…
5 Ways You Need To Know And Practice Your Arpeggios
Arpeggios are huge part of improvising over changes in jazz guitar and especially in the more bop oriented styles. When we improvise…
Easy Autumn Leaves Chord Melody and Quick How-to-Play!
Autumn Leaves is a great song to get starting playing easy chord melody arrangements on guitar. This famous jazz standard is both…
Music Theory Is The Effective Way For You To Learn Faster
If you know you basic Music Theory well then you can easily start to add another level to how you analyze melodies…
3 Arpeggios from the Diminished Scale (No Triads)
The diminished scale can be hard to navigate and explore but also has some really great sounds that we can use. In…
Are You Wasting Valuable Time Practicing Jazz Licks Like This?
We all study jazz licks to add new ideas and techniques to our improvisations and our vocabulary. But I often get told…
Claus Levin Guest Lesson and collaboration
A few weeks ago I was talking to Claus Levin. We decided to work together on some guest lessons for each others…
Allan Holdsworth Modal chords – You can add new textures to your comping
This Allan Holdsworth lesson will look at three chord voicings and show how you can take them through a scale and use them…
Get the E-Book – Sign up for my newsletter
Receive an Ebook with 15 II Valt I licks via e-mail and you can stay up to date with new things happening,…
Synthetic Jazz Scales and How You Can Make New Personal Scales and Sounds for Your Solos!
In this video I am going to show you how you can take any chord and easily make a completely new scale…
Three Ways to Add Arpeggios to Your Jazz Guitar Licks
We spend a lot of time practicing and learning Arpeggios, so it makes a lot of sense to have several ways to…
The 7 Levels Of Cm7 Dorian – Triads to Complete Voicing Arpeggios
The search for more ideas and new things to play never ends! This video will go over 7 different types of arpeggios,…
Passing Chords – The 3 Types You Need for Comping and Chord Solos
Passing chords are a great way to expand the sounds you have available in your comping and chord solos. As you will…
Modern Jazz Reharmonization Techniques: Tritone sub, Coltrane Changes and Modal
Reharmonization techniques are useful in many ways in Jazz both in improvising and arranging. In this video I will go over 5…
Rhythm Changes – How You Use Chord Substitution for New Lines
It can be difficult to have a large vocabulary of lines when improvising over fast moving chord progressions like Rhythm Changes. One…
Don't Just Learn Music Theory! Connect it to the Songs You Know and Play!
Music Theory is like every other aspect of music, you need to work at it from the ground up and you will…
More Melodic Guitar Solos – Three Critical Techniques without Arpeggios and Scales
It is difficult to play truly melodic guitar solos in any genre. We spend a lot of our time talking about what…
Practice Major Scales like this and You will get more out of it!
You may think that this is a guitar technique video about major scales, but there is more to scale practice than moving…
5 Sus4 Triads and the Perfect Maj7 licks you can make with them
Sus4 triads are great for creating some beautiful super-imposed lines on maj7 chords, and the sus chords are often forgotten among the…
The Best Practice Tempo for Soloing and Improvising on the Guitar and why
Practice tempo is very important when it comes to how fast you will learn to play a difficult phrase or solo over…
You Don't Need That Many Chord Voicings, It's How You Use Them
In this lesson I will take a look at 4 very common chord voicings and expand on them in several ways to…
Learning Jazz Standards – What you need to Know and Be Able to Do With It
Playing Jazz Guitar should mostly be about playing songs. It is the goal and also the way we practice to get to…
What Jimi Hendrix can teach Jazz Guitarists
Jimi Hendrix is a one of the most influential guitarists in history. There is a lot to be gained from checking out…
Odd Meter Soloing: Getting started with 5/4 – Jazz Blues in F
Odd Meter guitar solos can be very difficult to get into if you are not used to them. In this lesson I…
Jazz Chord Voicings – The 9 Different types you should know
Once you start having a vocabulary of Jazz Chords it becomes clear that there are many different ways to play any jazz…
The Reason Your Jazz Guitar Licks Suck and How you fix it!
Your jazz licks have all the right arpeggios and chord tones, target notes etc. And they still don't sound like great bop…
Jazz Scales! The 3 You Need to practice and How You apply them to Jazz Chords
Jazz Scales can seem like a million options that you all need to learn in all positions and all chords, but there…
Blues With Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert
This is a duo with Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert a French/American Jazz guitarist living in San Francisco. I came across one of his videos…
Jazz Guitar Comping Rhythms – Exercise to make your own
"What are good comping rhythms?" and "can you make a video on standard comping rhythms?" are probably the two most common questions…
Best Exercise for Difficult Chord Progressions – Never ending Scale Exercise
We want to be free when we improvise over difficult chord progressions. This Flexible Scale exercise is a great way to start…
Advanced Pentatonic Ideas you Need for Fusion and Jazz Guitar
The sound of the Pentatonic scale is often associated with certain genres like rock, blues, country and western, but it certainly has…
Practice your Licks in ALL 7 keys!
Scale Practice actually goes way beyond having to work on exercises. Taking phrases or licks and moving them around is a great…
Better Rhythms in Your Guitar Solos
As Jazz guitar players we spend way too much time on worrying about scales, arpeggios and target notes! This means that we…
Fretboard Visualization That makes musical sense for Jazz Guitar
Fretboard Visualization is the way I organize and visualize the notes on the neck. Which also reflects how I think about the…
Allan Holdsworth Chords – Voicings and Inversions
Allan Holdsworth is famous for his very beautiful but also quite difficult and advanced jazz chords. In this video I am going…
Jazz Blues Analysis – The Variations you need to know
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It is difficult to find a guitar practice routine that is efficient and it is important to think about whether your practice…
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In the Lydian dominant sound you can access a lot of cool sounds and you can put it to use in modal…
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This weeks Q&A on Transcribing Chord progressions, Practice goals, Up tempo soloing and how to work towards it, and if Jazz skills…
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Vlog: Advanced ideas: Triads and Spread Triads on Out Of Nowhere
Triads and Spread Triads are invaluable as tools for making jazz lines, especially in the realm of more modern sounding melodies. The…
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Vlog: 30+ Chords in C major?
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Bluesette – Backing Track – Playalong – Jazz Waltz – 147 bpm
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Jazz Guitar Q&A #26 – Learning from Licks, Why Transcribe, Bad Habits This weeks Q&A on Learning from licks, why you should…
Night and Day – Backing Track – Playalong – Samba – 185 bpm
Here's the backing track for Night and Day! One of my favourite Cole Porter pieces jam on. The progression has it all:…
5 Chromatic licks – Chromatic Enclosures
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C minor Blues – Backing Track – Playalong – 225 Bbpm
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There Is No Greater Love – Backing Track – Slow Swing – 115 Bpm
There Is No Greater Love – Backing Track – Slow Swing – 115 Bpm Such a great song for working on dominant…
Great Dorian m7 licks – Secret ideas from Holdsworth, Metheny and more
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Vlog: Outside Reharmonization – The Solo skill you need to check out! 💥
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Rhythm Changes – Backing Track – Medium Up – 188 bpm
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Vlog: Memorizing Chord Progressions – There Will Never Be Another You
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Modal Soloing – What You Are Missing!
Soloing over a modal background can in many ways be more difficult than playing over a song with changes. The main reason…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #24 – Counterpoint – 80% practice time on standards? – Decisions while soloing
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Yesterdays – Backing Track – Medium Swing – 138 Bpm
Yesterdays – Medium Swing Backing track Yesterdays is a great song with some minor turnarounds and a long dominant chain! The 16…
Reharmonizing II V I – breaking all the rules!
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Vlog: What Do You Need To Play Jazz Guitar!
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Bb Blues – Backing Track – Play Along – Medium up – 200 bpm
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Are you using your Maj7 arpeggios on these chords?
It is very important to use the material that you practice in as many ways as possible! That way you spend more…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #23 – Outside Vocabulary, Bebop Legato, Comping practice
Jazz guitar Q&A #23! In this weeks Q&A I will go over some questions on Outside Vocabulary, Using legato for bebop themes, daily…
I'll Remember April – Backing Track – Latin – 175 BPM
I'll remember April Backing track! Great combination of modal and changes in this song. The form is ABA, the A parts have…
4 Dominants on one Chord! – You'll never need another arpeggio
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Jazz Guitar Q&A #22 – Allan Holdsworth – Sight Reading – Left Hand Speed
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Autumn Leaves – Backing Track – Medium Swing – 132 bpm
Autumn Leaves Backing track! Autumn Leaves is such a great study in diatonic chord movement. The form is an unusal AAB where…
Best exercise for jazz guitar chord solos!
Chord solos have been a part of the Jazz Guitar skill set since the 50's and 60's when players like Joe Pass…
Top 5 Jazz Books that I have learned a lot from!
"What books or methods do you recommend for learning jazz" is one of the questions that I get all the time on…
Download a free E-book with 15 II Valt I licks!
Sign up to my newsletter and download a free E-book with 15 II Valt I licks! If you want to download a free…
I Remember You – Backing Track – Medium Swing – 140 Bpm
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Don't spend too much time on this exercise!
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Vlog: How To Practice Jazz Guitar
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Summertime – Backing Track – PlayAlong – Medium Swing 122 bpm
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You Stepped Out Of A Dream – Backing track – Slow Bossa Nova – 129 Bpm
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Don't sound the same all the time – Minor chords
It's important to not get stuck in one sound on a chord. If you can play something with a different sound each time…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #21- Metronome on 2&4, Career in Jazz, One voicing as several chords
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How High The Moon – Backing Track – Medium Up Swing -196 BPM
Here's the backing track for how high the moon! I play the song in G major, which is probably the most common…
Refreshing and Easy II V I reharmonization
Rethinking the chords and just adding small details here and there can give you some really beautiful melodic ideas. In this lesson…
New WebHosting – Test Period
I finally managed to switch from WebReus to Siteground with my website. Since the change only took effect yesterday there may be…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #20 – Dynamics and tone, Arpeggio fingerings in 3NPS, Relative Pitch
This weeks Q&A – Jazz guitar Q&A #20! In this weeks Q&A I will discuss Dynamics and tone on jazz guitar and…
3 Altered Scale Arpeggios that you forgot to learn!
If you want to play great altered dominant lines then you have to also look beyond the diatonic arpeggios. In this video…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #19 – Exploring Exotic scales, Syncopation practice, Daily Routines
Jazz Guitar Q&A #19 In this episode I talk about Exploring Exotic scales and how to use them in a musical way,…
Here's that Rainy Day Backing Track – Slow Samba – 162 bpm
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Modern jazz arpeggio ideas – Melodic Interval Structures
It is very difficult to find a melodic way to use larger intervals. At the same time if you just stay with…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #18- Starwars & Modes, Chromatic Chord Progressions, Practice time, Learning songs
First Jazz Guitar Q&A of 2017! In this episode I talk about which mode fits with which Star wars movie, How much…
Analyzing a Standard – Stella By Starlight – Functional Harmony in Jazz
Understanding the chords Since I was not around last week I didn't have time to make a Q&A video. Instead here's a…
Chromatic passing notes – Instant Bebop guitar lesson!
In this guitar lesson I am going to demonstrate and explain three ways you can use to add chromatic passing notes in…
The Minor Chord You Never Use
You probably think that with m7, m6 and mMaj7 you have all your minor sounds covered, but there is probably one type of…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #17 – Passing chords, Before Jazz, Dominant Scales, Melody in solos
Jazz Guitar Q&A #17 – Passing chords, Before Jazz, Dominant Scales, Melody in solos I hope you are all having a…
3 Pentatonic Scale Exercises You Never Played
It is incredible how wide the range of sounds you can pull from a minor pentatonic scale is! This video is on 3…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #16 – Understanding Harmony, Songwriting, Extended Arps, Getting nervous
This weeks Q&A on Understanding the harmony of standards, How I write songs how to deal with extensions and arpeggios and dealing…
Sweep Picking Cascading Arpeggios – Upper-structure Chords
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Jazz Guitar Q&A #15 – Auxiliary Dominants, Hand problems, Duo comping, Dim chords
Q&A time! This week I am covering questions on Auxiliary dominants, hand problems, accompanying in a guitar voice situation and some secondary…
Walking Bass and Chords – Solar
One of the nicest ways to comp in a duo setting is to play walking bass and chords at the same time.…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #14 – Artifical Harmonics, Solid Body guitar, Overdrive Pedals, Standard intros
This weeks Q&A! Questions on Keeping the form, Artificial Harmonics, Solid Body Guitars, Overdrive pedals, Intro's to standards and Learning from and…
Scary Vibrato! – Using Neck Vibrato
I have a lot of people ask if I am ruining my guitar when I play live because of this technique. For…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #13 – Fast tempos, Comping, Harmonizing outside material
Question time! This weeks Q&A has a few questions on comping, some general philosophy and also how to comp alongside a piano…
Take the A train Medium Swing 144 BPM Backing track
Here is the backing track from the Take the A train video. Maybe post a video of you soloing on the track?…
1 Pentatonic Scale over 8 Chords
In this lesson I will take one pentatonic scale and show you how it you can improvise over 8 different chords with…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #12 – Bebop Scales, My Amp, Thin Picks
This week Q&A! The questions this week are on Clashing chords, Bebop Scales, My amp setup and modellers in general and also…
Solar and Just Friends
Backing track experiment I published two backing tracks the last few weeks and since I make these for some of my own…
Solar – Backing Track Medium Swing 141 BPM
Here's a backing track for Solar! Maybe post a video of you soloing on the track? This is my solo on it:…
Bossa Nova Guitar patterns 2 – Partido Alto
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Jazz Guitar Q&A #11 – Positions, Jazz Licks, Left Hand Fatigue, Practice without Amp
The weekly Q&A! With everybody in my house having the flu last week it was a tight fit to get this finished.…
5 Jazz Blues Licks in F
Mixing Blues phrasing and melodies with Jazz chromaticism and harmony can give you some really great dom7th lines. In this lesson I…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #10 – Jazz Chords in Metal, Tetrachords, Relative Modes
My 10th Q&A video already! I am quite proud to have managed to make 10 weekly Q&A videos! Besides having a discussion…
How You Really Use an Am7 arpeggio
Everybody practice scales and arpeggios and are doing exercises with them. But most of the time they can play the exercises but…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #9 – Sight Reading, Studying Jazz Standards, State of mind when playing
Here's this weeks Q&A! Some of the topics I am covering are: How long to work on a standard(and bit how..), What…
Bossa Nova Guitar patterns 1 – Blue Bossa
Bossa Nova is, like Rock and Blues, a music that was invented on guitar. It has also become an essential part of…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #8 – Right hand technique, Walking Bass, What note to start on
I filmed this Q&A before I left for the tour so I could have it up in time when I came back.…
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Jazz Guitar Q&A #7 – Alternate vs Sweeping & Economy – 1000 Euro Archtop – Finger independence
This week I am on a small tour in Denmark and Germany with Træben so drop by if you are near any…
Triads – Easy 3 note Jazz Chords
Using triads to play jazz chords a very powerful tool. We can play a wide range of chords and they are very…
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Standard with Pentatonics – Satin Doll
All guitarists learn the pentatonic scale, and it is a more versatile tool than most realise. In this lesson I am going…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #6 – Improvise Jazz melodies, 8th note swing feel, what do you learn from bebop
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Whole-tone scale for outside playing
The whole tone scale is a nice tool to get some shifting outside ideas on a minor chord and has been used…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #5 – Slash chord inversions, Long 8th note lines, Transcribing
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20K subscribers and 1 Million views!!!
This weekend I reached 20K subscribers and crossed 1 Million views which is unbelievable! I am so grateful to all the people…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #4 – Reharmonizing Standards, Solos to transcribe, Playing outside
Here's the 4th Jazz Guitar Q&A! Some of the stuff I answer questions on: Reharmonizing Standards, Good solos to transcribe, Playing outside…
5 Quartal Harmony licks
An important part of more modern sounding jazz solos is often the use of quartal harmony. In this lesson I am going…
30K followers on Instagram!
This weekend I reached 30K(!!!!) followers on instagram! Thank you so much to everybody who is taking an interest and checking out…
Jazz guitar Q&A #3 – Learning Melodies, Voice Leading, Modulating
Here’s the third Q&A video, hope you like it! If you have a question (or another answer!) then leave a comment on this…
Jazz Guitar Q&A #2 – What do you think about when you play, efficient practice time
Here's the second Q&A video, hope you like it! If you have a question (or another answer!) then leave a comment on…
Interview for the Guitar Channel
Thank you to the Guitar Channel for doing this interview. Some of the stuff we talk about is the types of work…
3 Great Alternate picking exercises to help you play fast
Alternate picking is a huge part of all players right hand technique and at the same time something that is very difficult…
How would it sound if Jimi Hendrix played a jazz standard?
So I got the idea to check out how it sounds if I played a standard with the approach to chords that…
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New Q&A series! Check out my first Q&A video! It's a bit long, but I do get around a lot of topics. Some of the questions I answer are "When/how did you start playing guitar?", CAGED system, Barry Harris, Modes, Singable solo lines and more! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z–4FD0bUOM I hope you like it! If you have any questions the leave a comment on the video or send me a PM on whatever social media you prefer!
Jazz Chords 10 variations of a I VI II V turnaround
The I VI II V is one of the most common progessions in jazz. In this lesson I am going to go…
C Jazz Blues with triad voicings
Playing chords on a jazz progression can be quite complicated, and the voice leading, the extensions and alterations makes us forget about…
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Sometimes we bury ourselves in exercises and details and forget to play music with what we work on. In this lesson I am…
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I had a great time yesterday playing all my new tunes with the trio! We even managed to get in the newspaper…
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When you first learn scales you start with positions, but once you play in positions you need to work on being free…
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As a true ex-patriate I of course long for my country and play it's sad songs :D In a tribute to the…
Bb Jazz Blues – The Basics
When playing over a progression like the Bb jazz blues you need to be aware of certain things and be able to…
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You're probably thinking I am going to talk about rhythm, which would make sense for this title too. But I am actually…
Triads of the Diminished scale – part 1
One of the best approaches to make melodic lines with a synthetic scale like the diminished scale is to use the triads…
10 Arpeggios over a Maj7 chord
It is often difficult to keep coming up with fresh ideas for solos and not play the same lines all the time.…
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Triads are great for playing chords with extensions. They are compact and flexible which make them easy to play and also easy…
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Guitar Player Magazine decided to feature my lesson on Arpeggios on the front page of their website last Tuesday. You can read…
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The minor 6th pentatonic scale is a great sound on dominant chords, altered or unaltered. In this lesson I will go over…
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I did another rambling video on playing and learning guitar. The topic is something that I come across with myself but also…
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Arpeggios are often difficult to play because they are a mix of 1 and 2 notes per string and it can also…
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Making your jazz comp sound more blues can be a great way to vary how you interpret songs. There are several jazz…
3 scale exercises you should know
There are so many ways to practice your scales, but some of them will really help you get some new tools to…
Bimhus w/Konrad Koselleck and concert with Anka Koziel
The coming week I'll be playing two concerts: 23rd of June I'll be perfoming with Anka Koziel Quartet in Savannah in The Hague…
Live performance@Dutch AxeFest 2016
Here's a short video that Carl Bergman made during the Dutch AxeFest 2016. It's a part of a solo rendition of Days…
Triad pairs in the altered scale
Making good melodies on altered dominants is often a tricky business. One strong approach is to use triad pairs to make some…
Analyzing a Standard: All Of Me
I am trying my hand at vlogging again, this is somewhere in between a lesson and a vlog. I have had quite…
Using the pentatonic scale as chords
In this lesson I am going to construct some 3 note chord voicings with the pentatonic scale and use those chords to…
5 Bb Jazz Blues licks
Blues and Jazz are two genres that share the same roots and have a lot of things in common. You can make…
Top 5 classic jazz guitar albums
This list is based on the stuff I not only listened to but also studied in terms of transcribing and learning to…
Target notes on a II V I
One of the best ways to approach soloing over changing harmony and to have melody lines that flow naturally from one chord…
Catatraffic – The Lullaby Tapes
This is an early scratch recording (made on my phone in July 2011) of what would later become the song Catatraffic. It…
2 Years anniversary and ehm.. "highlights video"
I thought I'd just acknowledge the fact that I have now been working on these lessons for 2 years and have 100+…
The Wrong Tritone Scale
The tritone scale is in itself all a fun symmetrical scale to play around with for some outside sounds, but it turns out…
20K followers on Instagram!
20K followers on instagram!!!!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I am extremely grateful for all the support, questions, comments and support!…
Drop2&4 voicings – Part 1
We are all looking for ways to lay down chords so that the harmony is presented in a rich and exciting way.…
Playing Outside – Side-slipping
Playing outside is a mysterious skill that many improvisers go looking for to add surprise (or shock) to their solos. One fairly…
7 year old strings – What is the difference in sound?
I was asked to do a recording session where I needed to use my old ES-175 which I hadn't changed strings on…
Jam video with Chris Zoupa
I am really proud to get to play with Chris Zoupa on this jam! He is a killer guitarist and a super…
Bb Jazz Blues Chord Solo
Chord solos are a great way to have some other material to use in solos to vary the sound of the single…
My pentatonics lesson posted on GuitarPlayer.com
I am really proud that while I was in Bremen for JazzAhead guitar player posted one of my lessons on their website.…
Legato technique for speed and phrasing
Most good players will mix up different techniques and use a combination of all the things they know to play lines efficiently…
Rhythm exercise on a Jazz Blues
Most students learning jazz are working on the harmony and the scales and trying to hit the right notes. This is of…
Live and Recording Setup – AxeFX patches
After numerous requests I have made a long nerdy video of my set up and how I approach making patches on my…
Find New Jazz Chords with inversions
Taking chord voicings that you already know and invert them is a very great way to look for new chords. You can…
Do you really know the pentatonic scale?
Most guitarists learn the Pentatonic Scale as one of the first things they ever learn on the guitar, and most of the time…
Play a standard with 2 types of Drop2 chords
Re-using chords to play other chords is an incredibly powerful tool when comping or harmonizing. Approaching it can reduce the amount of…
Tabs for Instagram lick 19/3/16
Here is the transcription of the lick I posted on instagram yesterday. You can download them here: Instagram lick #65 You can…
How to improvise over a minor II V I with arpeggios
The minor II V I is often a troubling cadence for begining Jazz guitarists. That is probably because the II is a…
New Live Træben video – Fredericia(DK) 2016
Here's a live video from our tour in Feburary! We are playing an uplifting little song that I wrote called "No" that…
10 arpeggios over a Dom7th chord
When you improvise over a chord arpegggios are one of the buiding blocks you use to make the lines. One good source…
How to practice your scales and why – Positions
I get a lot of questions on technique building and what to work on to become a better improvisor. This lesson is…
Making Jazz lines sound bluesy
For most people diving into jazz improvisation the focus is first on harmony and note choices, and much less on how you…
5 ways to use motifs in your II V I lines
In this lesson I am going to demonstrate 5 ways that you can use motifs when making II V I lines that…
New lesson on Jazz Guitar Online!
Jazz Guitar Online just published a lesson I made on chord soloing! You can check it out here: Chord Soloing for Guitar…
Check out a demo of my new Træben song
Here’s a demo of one of my new songs that we will probably play in the coming Træben concerts in Germany, Denmark…
Soloing over a II V I with Pentatonic scales
The II V I is one of the most common and important progressions in jazz. So playing over a II V I…
How to Improvise with an Arpeggio
Making good lines with a set of notes like an arpeggio is an important skill to master when improvising. In this lesson…
Free Transcription of Days Of Wine And Roses Solo Guitar
My video demo of the Panucci "Golden" Prototype has been very popular, and has already been seen 2000+ times. I now have a…
Building chord voicings from 3rd and 7th
Constructing you own voicings from 3rd and 7th of the chord is a good way to take the core of the sound…
Instagram Licks Archive
I have been making instagram licks on a weekly basis since April 2015 so by now there are quite a lot of…
Improvising and using Maj7#5 chords
The Maj7#5 chord is a great substitute for Maj7 chords if you want a more spicy or surprising sound. In this lesson…
Triplet Rhythms – Part 2
Using triplets is a good way to start improvising with poly rhythms in jazz. In this lesson I will talk about how…
Testing a new Panucci Semi-hollow guitar
Angelo let me borrow this semi hollow which is a model he is developing at the moment. Here are 2 videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZa0CVLZ7kE…
10 arpeggios over a m7 chord
I already have a lot of lessons about different types of arpeggios and structures, but I though it would be useful to…
5 years with my AxeFX Ultra
Maybe a bit out of proportion to make a post out of this, but when I started to think about it the…
Tritone Scale
The tritone scale is a great symmetric scale that you can use as a tool for making some interested dominant 7 th…
Slash Chords – All major triads over bass notes
Slash chords are often considered mysterious and hard to work with by because it is not always clear what sort of chord…
Minor 6th Pentatonic scale
The pentatonic scale is a very powerful tool on guitar. In this lesson I am going to demonstrate how you can make…
Min6th Pentatonic scales in positions
Here are the 5 standard 2 notes per string positions for the Am6 pentatonic scale. The Am6 pentatonic scale consists of the…
Rhythm Changes – Part 2
This rhythm changes lesson is going to focus on making lines that clearly follow all the chords so that you can make…
Rootless Voicings – Part 1 – Triads
Starting to use chords that doesn't have the root as a bass note can be tricky in the beginning. In this lesson…
Jazz Guitar Addiction II V I lesson
Here’s my contribution to the video lesson collaboration in the FB Group: Jazz Guitar Addiction FB group! I actually made two examples…
Tour in Spain with Marcos Pin 4 on 6
Hi everybody, I am just back from a tour and album recording in Spain. We had a lot of fun exploring the…
Blue Bossa – Soloing with Arppeggios
Jazz Guitar Lesson on how to solo over Blue Bossa Focus on the Arpeggios
Soloing with Chords – Part 2 Minor II V I
The minor cadence is often considered difficult in the beginning when learning jazz. In this lesson I want to go over the…
Triad Pairs – Part 2
In my first lesson on Triad pairs I suggested a few ways to practice triads and showed how you can get started…
Triplet Rhythms – Part 1
One of the first things you should start checking out with rhythm is how to play triplets and what rhythms you can…
Jazz Guitar Addiction Whole Tone Lesson
Here's my contribution to the video lesson collaboration in the FB Group: Jazz Guitar Addiction FB group! The entire video is under…
Drop2 Voicings as Arpeggios
Drop2 voicings can be a great way to add some melodic structures that already by themselves have a huge range and since…
Riffwars Hall Of Fame Best Jazz 2015!
Really happy and grateful to be entered in the Riff Wars Hall Of Fame 2015 for best Jazz Male! http://www.riffwarsmusic.com/hof#/bestjazzmale/ Apparently my…
10 Altered dominant lines
Since I have already made a few video lessons on the altered scale I thought it could be useful to make one…
First II V I chord voicing sets
You don't really have to learn a thousand chords to play through some of the simpler standards. In this lesson I want…
Sign up for my newsletter – Get the II V I Ebook
You can get the Free Ebook with 15 II Valt I licks via e-mail and stay up to date with new things…
The Altered Scale: Three Approaches
It's often difficult to get started with playing the altered scale over dominat 7th chords, mostly because we are not used to…
Adding Chords to Single Note Lines – Part 2
In the first lesson I covered some ideas and advice on adding chords to a solo line. When you try to do…
Developing Basic Comping Rhythms
Most people are struggeling to find good way to develop their comping, and especially coming up with good rhythms to support a…
Jazz Guitar Addiction Colab Video
Here's a video collaboration I contributed to for the Jazz Guitar Addiction FB group! Check it out if you are in need…
Triad Pairs – Part 1
In this lesson I am going to go over what triad pairs are and how you can use them in improvisation and…
Nominated for RiffWars Hall of Fame 2015
I've been nominated for the RiffWars Hall of Fame for Jazz. The clip that was nominated is here: Here's Riffwars Hall of…
Rhythm Changes – Part 1
In this series I am going to start working on some approaches for improvising over Rhythm Changes. In this first lesson we…
Jazz Chord Essentials – Drop 2 voicings part 3
In this 3rd lesson on Drop2 voicings I am going to go over altered dominants and show some more versions of how…
F Jazz Blues Soloing
It's always tricky to move from playing pentatonic over the whole blues form to really get into the chords and play something…
New Strat demo video for Coffee Break Grooves + Lesson and PDF
I was asked to do a demo solo on one of the new backing tracks from Coffee Break Grooves. I took the…
Turnarounds part 3 – I bIII7 II Valt
The 3rd lesson in my series on turnaround is about how you deal with tritone substitution and altered dominants. I'll try to give…
Endless new ways to play the same II V I voicings
I made this lesson to bring an aspect of playing chords to your attention that there is a big chance you don't…
Jazz Chord Essentials – Drop2 voicings – Part 2
In this lesson I want to continue with exploring the Drop2 voicings that I introduced in the 1st part: Jazz Chord Essentials…
How to make lines on a III bIIIdim II V progression
This lesson comes from a short discussion with a friend of mine who mentioned that he was tired of what he played…
How to make 10 II V I licks with a Gm7 arpeggio
This lesson came about from a conversation I had on twitter. I wanted to try to demonstrate how it is more important…
4th mode Harmonic Minor
It can be useful to have more than on scale sound that you can throw after common chords like minor 7th chords,…
Drop 2 voicings – Part 1 – Jazz Chord Essentials
In this lesson on Drop2 chords I want to demonstrate a set of voicings that are fairly easy to play on the…
How to start soloing over a II V I with arpeggios
I thought it was time to look at one of the basic core skills that you need to play jazz: Improvising over…
Adding Chords to Single Note Lines – Part 1
In this lesson I'll discuss a few strategies for adding chords to your solo lines and give you some exercises and ideas to…
Jazz Chord Essentials: 4 part Quartal Harmony
In this lesson I want to demonstrate how you play 4 note quartal voicings and use them in some II V I…
Turnarounds part 2 – I bIIIdim II V
In this 2nd lesson on turnarounds I am going to go over the I bIIIdim II V progression and how you deal…
Motif Exercises – F Jazz Blues
Creating melodies that connect and make sense across several chords and scales is a skill that you need to master if you…
Improvising in 3/4
Playing in 3/4 time can be a bit tricky to get used to when there are also lots of chord changes involved.…
Turnarounds part 1 – I VI II V
In this lesson I want to talk about the I VI II V turnaround and what you can play over it and…
Jazz Blues Chord Solo
This weeks lesson is a short etude, a chord solo on an F blues. You should be able to use it as…
Making II V I lines with Odd Note Groupings
When you are improvising in 4/4 odd note groupings are a very useful way to vary the rhythmic flow of your improvised…
Pentatonics part 3 – Arpeggios and Melodic ideas
In this lesson I am going to take another approach to using pentatonic scales so that we can get some other…
Træben albums available on my site
The Træben albums Push and Looking at the Storm are now available directly via my site. You can download them on iTunes…
Sus4 Triads as Upper Structures
Sus4 chords are very handy structures to use as a variation from third based structures like triads and 7th chords. In this…
Lydian Mode
I've had a lot of requests for a lesson on the lydian mode, so I thought I'd finally try to honour that.…
Tritone Substitution
Tritone substitution is a good way to add some new ideas to your II V I lines. It is very closely related…
Across the Fretboard
This lesson will try to give you a strategy and a way to make exercises that should give you more freedom to…
Chromatic Chords – part 1
Chromaticism has been an important part of the jazz language since the 40's. In this lesson I want to show how you…
Playing a Jazz Standard with Pentatonic Scales
In this lesson I want to show you how you might apply the material I made in previous lessons on pentatonic scales…
How to use triads in solos
This week I'll try to give some perspective on how you can use triads in your improvisations, which includes a few scale…
Chord Melody: It Could Happen To You
This week I don't have too much time to do a complete lesson so instead I recorded and wrote down this Chord…
Soloing with Chords Part 1
In this lesson I want to first demonstrate 4 exercises that you can use to gain the necessary vocabulary to solo over…
Better Than The Other One – Polycorn Remix
http://youtu.be/V3O_hMqCmTI Check out this great version of one of the songs from "Storm", and incidently also my first music video. We are…
The Augmented Scale
This lesson will shortly describe the augmented scale, how it is constructed and some of the arpeggios it contains. I'll also give…
Phrygian Chords
The Phrygian chord is an interesting inbetween sort of sound being an altered and suspended dominant at the same time. In this…
Jazz Chord Essentials – 3 note 7th chords part 2
This lesson will continue with the two other sorts of voicings you can find by playing 7th chords and leaving out one…
Minor Blues Comping
In this lesson I will go through what a minor blues is in Jazz and show some chords so that you can…
Fusion lesson for Coffee Break Grooves
Coffee Break Grooves asked me to make a short lesson explaining some of the lines I use in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyLV_Ic2qwM#t=14 And…
Pentatonics part 2 – II V progressions
In this lesson I want to demonstrate how you can use different pentatonic scales on a major II V, what kind of…
Shell voicings – chord on D and G strings
Here’s an overview of the diatonic chords of C major as shell voicings. This set has the chord (3rd and 7th) on…
Shell Voicings as Arpeggios
In this lesson I want to demonstrate how you can use the Shell Voicings as arpeggios to get some nice more open…
Jazz Chord Essentials – 3 note 7th chords part 1
In this lesson I want to introduce a type of chords that I use a lot which are a versatile and practical…
Cdim Drop2 Voicings
Here's an overview of the Cdim as drop 2 voicings on all sets of strings. I have made 2 lessons on how…
CMaj7#5 Drop2 Voicings
Here's an overview of the CMaj7#5 as drop 2 voicings on all sets of strings. I have made 2 lessons on how to…
CmMaj7 Drop2 Voicings
Here's an overview of the CmMaj7 as drop 2 voicings on all sets of strings. I have made 2 lessons on how…
Chords and Walking Bass – part 2
In my previous lesson on playing this sort of accompaniment: Chords and Walking Bass – part 1 I mostly talked about how…
Harmonic Minor Dominant Lines
In this lesson I want to show how I might use harmonic minor on the dominant in a II V I resolving…
Chris Zoupa EP release
I am proud to announce that the Chris Zoupa EP which I play a solo on is released. The solo I recorded…
IV minor chords in a major key
In this lesson, I want to explain what I see(or in fact hear) as the IV minor group of chords. I also…
#IVdim suspension of the I chord
In this lesson I am going to explain how I use the #IV dim chord to delay the resolution to the I…
Diminished Scale on Dom7th Chords
In my lesson on scale choices for dominant chords: Dom7th chords One of the examples was using the diminished scale. In this…
Get more out of the licks you already know
In this lesson I want to describe how you can make new lines or variations on the licks you already know by…
Jazz Blues Soloing
In this lesson I will try to go through how you make lines on a Bb jazz blues using the arpeggios of…
Drop 2 voicing charts, 1st batch
I have added 4 reference charts of Drop2 voicings in the PDF download section of my website: PDF downloads and charts Each…
Triplets in groups of 4 – part 1
In this lesson I am going to introduce a way to phrase triplets so that you can create another feel on top…
Cm7b5 Drop2 Voicings
Here's an overview of the Cm7b5 as drop 2 voicings on all sets of strings. I have made 2 lessons on how…
Cm7 Drop2 Voicings
Here's an overview of the Cm7 as drop 2 voicings on all sets of strings. I have made 2 lessons on how…
C7 Drop2 Voicings
Here's an overview of the C7 as drop 2 voicings on all sets of strings. I have made 2 lessons on how…
Cmaj7 Drop2 Voicings
Here's an overview of the Cmaj7 as drop 2 voicings on all sets of strings. I have made 2 lessons on how…
Open Triads in Solos
In this lesson I want to give you a few exercises and show how I use open voiced triads in my solos.…
Turnarounds – Comping
This lesson will give you some material to develop how you play the chords of a I VI II V progression, and…
Testing some layouts for Drop2 Voicings
Here are two examples of how a compact drop2 layout could be. Is it better with a separate diagram for each voicing…
Minor II V I Cadences
In this lesson I want to give some insight into how I approach soloing over minor cadences. The lesson is built around…
Minor Pentatonic scales in positions
Here are the 5 standard 2 notes per string positions for the A minor pentatonic scale. You can also download the chart…
Arpeggios in positions derived from 3 notes per string scales
Here's a list of the pdf's and pictures with arpeggio fingerings in positions. This is made in 3 note per string scale…
Melodic minor Scale – 3 notes per string
Here is an overview of the Melodic minor scale in the key of C, using the 3 notes per string system. It…
Major Scale – 3 notes per string
Here is an overview of the Major scale in the key of C, using the 3 notes per string system. It can…
Harmonic minor Scale – 3 notes per string
Here is an overview of the Harmonic minor scale in the key of C, using the 3 notes per string system. It…
Dom7b5 arpeggios (3nps)
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 3-note-per-string scale fingerings. You can also download the…
Dom7#5 arpeggios (3nps)
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 3-note-per-string scale fingerings. You can also download the…
Dim arpeggios (3nps)
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 3-note-per-string scale fingerings. You can also download the…
Maj7b5 arpeggios (3nps)
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 3-note-per-string scale fingerings. You can also download the…
MinMaj7 arpeggios (3nps)
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 3-note-per-string scale fingerings. You can also download the…
Maj7#5 arpeggios (3nps)
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 3-note-per-string scale fingerings. You can also download the…
Min7b5 arpeggios (3nps)
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 3-note-per-string scale fingerings. You can also download the…
Min7 arpeggios (3nps)
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 3-note-per-string scale fingerings. You can also download the…
Dom7 arpeggios (3nps)
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 3-note-per-string scale fingerings. You can also download the…
Maj7 arpeggios (3nps)
These fingering suggestions was made by finding the arpeggio in each of the 7 3-note-per-string scale fingerings. You can also download the…
Quartal Harmony in Solos
As I promised in earlier lessons, here is my take on putting the chords I talked about in the 3 part quartal…
Pentatonics part 1 – Maj7 Chords
We all know and use pentatonic scale a lot, they are practical and easy on guitar, and it is one of the…
Melodic Minor – Altered Scale
So after many requests it is finally here: A lesson on the altered scale. The 7th mode of the melodic minor scale.…
Storm gets 4 stars in Jazzism!
Review by Coen De Jonge: "..Melodies as clear as a sunrise and a playfulness that floats through all the pieces.." 4 stars!…
Diatonic chords in the pentatonic scale
This week I am a bit busy with the cd-release but here's a lesson which might offer a new way to look…
Storm reviewed in JazzFlits
We just got this great review by Frank Huser in the Dutch Jazz Magazine JazzFlits "A typical Træben disc, as it is…
Jazz Chord Essentials – 3 part Quartal Harmony
In this lesson I want to demonstrate how I use quartal harmony when I am playing in both modal and moving harmony.…
Chord Melody for Guitar – Part 1
In this lesson I am trying to give you a few approaches to come up with your own chord melody arrangement for…
Chords and Walking Bass – part 1
In this lesson I'll demonstrate how I approach playing walking bass lines and chords at the same time. This is a a…
Jazz Chord Survival Kit
In this lesson I want to give you a few exercises that should make it possible for you to go through a…
Melodic Minor – Lydian Dominants
In my last lesson on melodic minor I was only talking about how to use it on tonic chords which is a…
Dominant 7th Chord Scales – part 1
I've had a few questions about what options there were for scales and sounds on dominant 7th chords so I decided to…
Jazz Blues Comping
Here's a short lesson I made to give you the tools to play the chords for a Jazz Blues in Bb and…
Jazz Chord Essentials: Open Triads
After making the triad lesson I thought I might as well make a lesson on open triads because I use them sometimes…
Maj7b5 – chords and arpeggios
I wanted to try and do a lesson on a type of chord that serves very well as a sort of swiss-army…
Jazz Chord Essentials: Triads
In this lesson I'd like to demonstrate how you can play jazz harmony only using triad voicings. It's a very practical and…
Crowdfunding for 3rd Træben album
We off! First day of crowdfunding and we already have 15% I am thrilled that it people are supporting our album! Here's…
Target Notes
A target note is a note that you play in your improvisation when the chord is changing so that the change in…
Melodic Minor – An Introduction
I've had quite a few requests for a lesson on melodic minor so here's a lesson giving you, what I consider, a…
Practicing Scales Through Chord Changes
This lesson is about a very simple exercise that should make you better at improvising freely over changing chords. http://youtu.be/bDsrOPy_xyM If you…
Demo video for Coffee Break Grooves
Chris from Coffee Break Grooves was so kind to ask me to make a demonstration video for one of their backing tracks.…
Træben Cd Release: Lantaren Venster 19 september
I am very proud to announce that we will be releasing our 3rd cd "Looking at the Storm" at a concert on…
Diatonic Arpeggios – Superimposing and altered chords
In this lesson I'll discuss a standard approach to get more arpeggios you can use over a chord, using the diatonic 7th…
Diatonic Arpeggios – how to use and practice them
Arpeggios are one of the most important tools in improvising over harmony, since harmony consists of chords and arpeggios are the melodic…
Jazz Chord Essentials – Shell voicings
I thought I'd make this 3rd lesson on Jazz voicings about a simple reduced way of playing chords that then also lends…
"Top Dog" receives honourable mention at ISC!
I am very proud to announce that my song Top Dog has received honorable mentions at the international songwriting contest 2013! Quite…
Jazz Chord Essentials – Drop 2 voicings – Part 2
So now you have an overview of the basic drop2 voicings from the previous lesson: Jazz Chord Essential Part 1 . Here's…
Jazz Chord Essentials – Drop 2 voicings – Part 1
In this lesson series I want to demonstrate a set of voicings that are fairly easy to play on the guitar, but…
Drop 2 Voicings for guitar
Since I am talking about drop2 voicings and how to use them in another lesson I thought it might be handy to…
Lesson Featured on Ultimate Guitar
I am proud to see that today 26/3/2014 the website Ultimate Guitar decided to feature my lesson about using arpeggios in improvising…
NGD: 1977 Yamaha SG1000
I started looking for a solid body guitar with humbuckers and was first searching for an Ibanez Artist. During my search I…
Review of my Performance at Dutch AxeFest 2013
I came across this review of my presentation and performance at the Dutch AxeFest 2013 on the G66 website. "No more questions,…
Traeben live video from Haarlemse Jazz Club
I came across this video yesterday from over concert in November. It's a pretty good version of my song Catatraffic from Push.…
Using chords in solos
I was recently asked on the jazzguitar.be forum how I approach putting harmony into my solos as I do in this song…
"Top Dog" in Finals at ISC!!!
I am really proud to announce that my composition "Top Dog" from the Træben album "Push" is in the Finals at the…
Pictures from Pin/Larsen tour in Spain 2014
Here are some pictures from the studio and from the concerts in Santiago de Compestela and A Coruña the concerts: I had…
"Top Dog" in Semi-finals
I am really proud to announce that my composition "Top Dog" is in the semi-finals at The International songwriting Contest! Top Dog…
Playing over changes with arpeggios
This is a subject that is often a struggle to master for beginning jazz players so I figured I'd write one approach…
How to convert theory and technique exercises to solo lines
This post comes from a conversation I had with Træben drummer Haye Jellema after a concert. We were talking how a lot…
Tour and album recording with Marcos Pin!
I am really thrilled to be going to Spain in February and play some duo concerts with Marcos. There might be…
Inverting chords to get new voicings
Obviously this is not a new subject in anyway, but if you find yourself looking for new voicings this might be a…
The 3rd Messiaen mode
The Messiaen modes are a set of 7 scales that all have the property that they are symmetric, so that if you…
Review of Trio Concert at Twee Spieghels 4/1/2014
Here's a review of the trio concert I played in Leiden with Luciano Poli on bass and Mark van Kersbergen on drums.…
Video from solo performance at Dutch AxeFest 2013
Here's a video made by Robin van Rijswijk who was in the audience at AxeFest when I was playing. I am playing…
Axe Fest NL 2013 – Presentation
I am proud to announce that I will be doing a presentation at the Dutch Axe Fest on the 30th of November…
Træben – Canada Tour – Video Compilation
Here's a video compilation from the Træben tour in Canada this summer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ROzRLggJkg And a bit of live music from our concert…
Jazz comping video from Lewis Nash
Jazz comping explained in 5 minutes! This is a great video explaining how drums and chord instruments communicate in jazz I learned…
Triads and Triad pairs in improvisation Part 3
In the 3rd part I'll have a look at some of the possibilities you have when making your lines from a pair…
Triads and Triad pairs in improvisation Part 2
This second blog on triads I'll try to suggest a few ways to use triads in your lines. This very much a…
New Ibanez Endorsement – I have become part of the Ibanez Artist Roster
I am really proud to announce that I have become part of the ibanez artist roster. Ibanez Artists.…
Triads and Triad pairs in improvisation Part 1
I decided to write a few articles on how I view and use triads when I am improvising. I'll try to cover…
Recording the next træben CD – We are recording the 3rd Træben cd in October
Træben is in the process of preparing our 3rd cd! We will go to Fattoria Musica to record in October with a…
Interview at Dutchbopper.nl – new interview with me on this Jazz Guitar Blog
You can read an interview with me on Dutch the jazz guitar blog Dutchbopper: Interview with Jens Larsen @ Dutchbopper.nl We were…
Træben Canada Tour 29th-7th of July! – 7 Concerts in Ontario and Quebec
I am proud to announce that we are on tour in Ontario and Quebec with Træben this summer. 7 concerts including: Ottawa…
My song "Try To Remember" in the semi-finals at international Songwriting contest:
I am very proud to announce that my song my song "Try To Remember" in the semi-finals at international Songwriting contest the…